Squeezing and robustness of frictionless cooling strategies

Quantum control strategies that provide shortcuts to adiabaticity are increasingly considered in various contexts including atomic cooling. Recent studies have emphasized practical issues in order to reduce the gap between the idealized models and actual ongoing implementations. We rephrase here the cooling features in terms of a peculiar squeezing effect, and use it to parametrize the robustness of frictionless cooling techniques with respect to noise-induced deviations from the ideal time-dependent trajectory for the trapping frequency. We finally discuss qualitative issues for the experimental implementation of this scheme using bichromatic optical traps and lattices, which seem especially suitable for cooling Fermi-Bose mixtures and for investigating equilibration of negative temperature states, respectively.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; To appear in Physical Review

Conformal Symmetry and Pion Form Factor: Soft and Hard Contributions

We discuss a constraint of conformal symmetry in the analysis of the pion form factor. The usual power-law behavior of the form factor obtained in the perturbative QCD analysis can also be attained by taking negligible quark masses in the nonperturbative quark model analysis, confirming the recent AdS/CFT correspondence. We analyze the transition from soft to hard contributions in the pion form factor considering a momentum-dependent dynamical quark mass from a nonnegligible constituent quark mass at low momentum region to a negligible current quark mass at high momentum region. We find a correlation between the shape of nonperturbative quark distribution amplitude and the amount of soft and hard contributions to the pion form factor.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, extensively revised, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Consistency and heterogeneity of individual behavior under uncertainty

By using graphical representations of simple portfolio choice problems, we generate a very rich data set to study behavior under uncertainty at the level of the individual subject. We test the data for consistency with the maximization hypothesis, and we estimate preferences using a two-parameter utility function based on Faruk Gul (1991). This specification provides a good interpretation of the data at the individual level and can account for the highly heterogeneous behaviors observed in the laboratory. The parameter estimates jointly describe attitudes toward risk and allow us to characterize the distribution of risk preferences in the population

Effects of Single Metal-Ion Doping on the Visible-Light Photoreactivity of TiO_2

Titanium dioxide (M-TiO_2), which was doped with 13 different metal ions (i.e., silver (Ag^+), rubidium (Rb^+), nickel (Ni^(2+)), cobalt (Co^(2+)), copper (Cu^(2+)), vanadium (V^(3+)), ruthenium (Ru^(3+)), iron (Fe^(3+)), osmium (Os^(3+)), yttrium (Y^(3+)), lanthanum (La^(3+)), platinum (Pt^(4+), Pt^(2+)), and chromium (Cr3+, Cr6+)) at doping levels ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 at. %, was synthesized by standard sol−gel methods and characterized by X-ray diffraction, BET surface area measurement, SEM, and UV−vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Doping with Pt(IV/II), Cr(III), V(III), and Fe(III) resulted in a lower anatase to rutile phase transformation (A−R phase transformation) temperature for the resultant TiO_2 particles, while doping with Ru(III) inhibited the A−R phase transformation. Metal-ion doping also resulted in a red shift of the photophysical response of TiO_2 that was reflected in an extended absorption in the visible region between 400 and 700 nm. In contrast, doping with Ag(I), Rb(I), Y(III), and La(III) did not result in a red shift of the absorption spectrum of TiO_2. As confirmed by elemental composition analysis by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, the latter group of ions was unable to be substituted for Ti(IV) in the crystalline matrix due to their incompatible ionic radii. The photocatalytic activities of doped TiO_2 samples were quantified in terms of the photobleaching of methylene blue, the oxidation of iodide (I^(−)), and the oxidative degradation of phenol in aqueous solution both under visible-light irradiation (λ > 400 nm) and under broader-band UV−vis irradiation (λ > 320 nm). Pt- and Cr-doped TiO_2, which had relatively high percentages of rutile in the particle phase, showed significantly enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for all three reaction classes

Scalable Task-Based Algorithm for Multiplication of Block-Rank-Sparse Matrices

A task-based formulation of Scalable Universal Matrix Multiplication Algorithm (SUMMA), a popular algorithm for matrix multiplication (MM), is applied to the multiplication of hierarchy-free, rank-structured matrices that appear in the domain of quantum chemistry (QC). The novel features of our formulation are: (1) concurrent scheduling of multiple SUMMA iterations, and (2) fine-grained task-based composition. These features make it tolerant of the load imbalance due to the irregular matrix structure and eliminate all artifactual sources of global synchronization.Scalability of iterative computation of square-root inverse of block-rank-sparse QC matrices is demonstrated; for full-rank (dense) matrices the performance of our SUMMA formulation usually exceeds that of the state-of-the-art dense MM implementations (ScaLAPACK and Cyclops Tensor Framework).Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted to IA3 2015. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1504.0504

The effect of silicon on the glass forming ability of the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 bulk metallic glass forming alloy during processing of composites

Composites of the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 bulk metallic glass, reinforced with up to 30 vol % SiC particles are synthesized and characterized. Results based on x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning Auger microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are presented. During processing of the composites, a TiC layer forms around the SiC particles and Si diffuses into the Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8 matrix stabilizing the supercooled liquid against crystallization. The small Si addition between 0.5 and 1 at. % increases the attainable maximum thickness of glassy ingots from 4 mm for Cu–Ti–Zr–Ni alloys to 7 mm for Cu–Ti–Zr–Ni–Si alloys. DSC analyses show that neither the thermodynamics nor the kinetics of the alloy are affected significantly by the Si addition. This suggests that Si enhances the glass forming ability by chemically passivating impurities such as oxygen and carbon that cause heterogeneous nucleation in the melt

Anti-correlated time lags in the Z source GX 5-1: Possible evidence for a truncated accretion disk

We investigate the nature of the inner accretion disk in the neutron star source GX 5-1 by making a detailed study of time lags between X-rays of different energies. Using the cross-correlation analysis, we found anti-correlated hard and soft time lags of the order of a few tens to a few hundred seconds and the corresponding intensity states were mostly the horizontal branch (HB) and upper normal branch (NB). The model independent and dependent spectral analysis showed that during these time lags the structure of accretion disk significantly varied. Both eastern and western approaches were used to unfold the X-ray continuum and systematic changes were observed in soft and hard spectral components. These changes along with a systematic shift in the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) made it substantially evident that the geometry of the accretion disk is truncated. Simultaneous energy spectral and power density spectral study shows that the production of the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) are closely related to the Comptonizing region rather than the disk component in the accretion disk. We found that as the HBO frequency decreases from the hard apex to upper HB, the disk temperature increases along with an increase in the coronal temperature which is in sharp contrast with the changes found in black hole binaries where the decrease in QPO frequency is accompanied by a decrease in the disk temperature and a simultaneous increase in the coronal temperature. We discuss the results in the context of re-condensation of coronal material in the inner region of the disk.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement (ApJS

Quantum Key Distribution Using Quantum Faraday Rotators

We propose a new quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol based on the fully quantum mechanical states of the Faraday rotators. The protocol is unconditionally secure against collective attacks for multi-photon source up to two photons on a noisy environment. It is also robust against impersonation attacks. The protocol may be implemented experimentally with the current spintronics technology on semiconductors.Comment: 7 pages, 7 EPS figure