Agenda chasing and contests among news providers

This article studies competition in contests with a focus on the news industry that is increasingly influenced by social media. The model assumes publishers to pick a single topic from a large pool based on the topics' prior “success” probabilities, thereby “chasing” potentially successful topics. Firms that publish topics that become successful divide a “reward” which can change with the number of competing firms and the number of successful topics. The results show that share structures can be categorized into three types that, in turn, lead to qualitatively different outcomes for the contest

Quantum process tomography via completely positive and trace-preserving projection

We present an algorithm for projecting superoperators onto the set of completely positive, trace-preserving maps. When combined with gradient descent of a cost function, the procedure results in an algorithm for quantum process tomography: finding the quantum process that best fits a set of sufficient observations. We compare the performance of our algorithm to the diluted iterative algorithm as well as second-order solvers interfaced with the popular CVX package for MATLAB, and find it to be significantly faster and more accurate while guaranteeing a physical estimate.Comment: 13pp, 8 fig

Coarse-graining in retrodictive quantum state tomography

Quantum state tomography often operates in the highly idealised scenario of assuming perfect measurements. The errors implied by such an approach are entwined with other imperfections relating to the information processing protocol or application of interest. We consider the problem of retrodicting the quantum state of a system, existing prior to the application of random but known phase errors, allowing those errors to be separated and removed. The continuously random nature of the errors implies that there is only one click per measurement outcome -- a feature having a drastically adverse effect on data-processing times. We provide a thorough analysis of coarse-graining under various reconstruction algorithms, finding dramatic increases in speed for only modest sacrifices in fidelity

Quantum sensors based on weak-value amplification cannot overcome decoherence

Sensors that harness exclusively quantum phenomena (such as entanglement) can achieve superior performance compared to those employing only classical principles. Recently, a technique based on postselected, weakly performed measurements has emerged as a method of overcoming technical noise in the detection and estimation of small interaction parameters, particularly in optical systems. The question of which other types of noise may be combated remains open. We here analyze whether the effect can overcome decoherence in a typical field-sensing scenario. Benchmarking a weak, postselected measurement strategy against a strong, direct strategy, we conclude that no advantage is achievable, and that even a small amount of decoherence proves catastrophic to the weak-value amplification technique. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.012115</p

Observations of Global and Local Infall in NGC 1333

We report ``infall asymmetry'' in the HCO$^+$ (1--0) and (3--2) lines toward NGC 1333, extended over $\sim 0.39 {\rm pc}^2$, a larger extent than has been reported be fore, for any star-forming region. The infall asymmetry extends over a major portion of the star-forming complex, and is not limited to a single protostar, or to a single dense core, or to a single spectral line. It seems likely that the infall asymmetry represents inward motions, and that these motions are physically associated with the complex. Both blue-asymmetric and red-asymmetric lines are seen, but in both the (3--2) and (1--0) lines of HCO$^+$ the vast majority of the asymmetric lines are blue, indicating inward motions. The (3--2) line, tracing denser gas, has the spectra with the strongest asymmetry and these spectra are associated with the protostars IRAS 4A and 4B, which most likely indicates a warm central source is affecting the line profiles. The (3--2) and (1--0) lines usually have the same sense of asymmetry in common positions, but their profiles differ significantly, and the (1--0) line appears to trace motions on much larger spatial scales than does the (3--2) line. Line profile models fit the spectra well, but do not strongly constrain their parameters. The mass accretion rate of the inward motions is of order 10$^{-4}$ M$_\odot$/yr, similar to the ratio of stellar mass to cluster age.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, 1 colour figur

Can Protostellar Jets Drive Supersonic Turbulence in Molecular Clouds?

Jets and outflows from young stellar objects are proposed candidates to drive supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds. Here, we present the results from multi-dimensional jet simulations where we investigate in detail the energy and momentum deposition from jets into their surrounding environment and quantify the character of the excited turbulence with velocity probability density functions. Our study include jet--clump interaction, transient jets, and magnetised jets. We find that collimated supersonic jets do not excite supersonic motions far from the vicinity of the jet. Supersonic fluctuations are damped quickly and do not spread into the parent cloud. Instead subsonic, non-compressional modes occupy most of the excited volume. This is a generic feature which can not be fully circumvented by overdense jets or magnetic fields. Nevertheless, jets are able to leave strong imprints in their cloud structure and can disrupt dense clumps. Our results question the ability of collimated jets to sustain supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds.Comment: 33 pages, 18 figures, accepted by ApJ, version with high resolution figures at: http://www.ita.uni-heidelberg.de/~banerjee/publications/jet_paper.pd

The origin of short-lived radionuclides and the astrophysical environment of solar system formation

Based on early solar system abundances of short-lived radionuclides (SRs), such as $^{26}$Al (T$_{1/2} = 0.74$ Myr) and $^{60}$Fe (T$_{1/2} = 1.5$ Myr), it is often asserted that the Sun was born in a large stellar cluster, where a massive star contaminated the protoplanetary disk with freshly nucleosynthesized isotopes from its supernova (SN) explosion. To account for the inferred initial solar system abundances of short-lived radionuclides, this supernova had to be close ($\sim$ 0.3 pc) to the young ($\leqslant$ 1 Myr) protoplanetary disk. Here we show that massive star evolution timescales are too long, compared to typical timescales of star formation in embedded clusters, for them to explode as supernovae within the lifetimes of nearby disks. This is especially true in an Orion Nebular Cluster (ONC)-type of setting, where the most massive star will explode as a supernova $\sim$ 5 Myr after the onset of star formation, when nearby disks will have already suffered substantial photoevaporation and/or formed large planetesimals. We quantify the probability for {\it any} protoplanetary disk to receive SRs from a nearby supernova at the level observed in the early solar system. Key constraints on our estimate are: (1) SRs have to be injected into a newly formed ($\leqslant$ 1 Myr) disk, (2) the disk has to survive UV photoevaporation, and (3) the protoplanetary disk must be situated in an enrichment zone permitting SR injection at the solar system level without disk disruption. The probability of protoplanetary disk contamination by a supernova ejecta is, in the most favorable case, 3 $\times$ 10$^{-3}$