Designing potentials by sculpturing wires

Magnetic trapping potentials for atoms on atom chips are determined by the current flow in the chip wires. By modifying the shape of the conductor we can realize specialized current flow patterns and therefore micro-design the trapping potentials. We have demonstrated this by nano-machining an atom chip using the focused ion beam technique. We built a trap, a barrier and using a BEC as a probe we showed that by polishing the conductor edge the potential roughness on the selected wire can be reduced. Furthermore we give different other designs and discuss the creation of a 1D magnetic lattice on an atom chip.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Making Sigma-Protocols Non-interactive Without Random Oracles

Damg˚ard, Fazio and Nicolosi (TCC 2006) gave a transformation of Sigma-protocols, 3-move honest verifier zero-knowledge proofs, into efficient non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments for a designated verifier. Their transformation uses additively homomorphic encryption to encrypt the verifier’s challenge, which the prover uses to compute an encrypted answer. The transformation does not rely on the random oracle model but proving soundness requires a complexity leveraging assumption. We propose an alternative instantiation of their transformation and show that it achieves culpable soundness without complexity leveraging. This improves upon an earlier result by Ventre and Visconti (Africacrypt 2009), who used a different construction which achieved weak culpable soundness. We demonstrate how our construction can be used to prove validity of encrypted votes in a referendum. This yields a voting system with homomorphic tallying that does not rely on the Fiat-Shamir heuristic

Theory of the topological Anderson insulator

We present an effective medium theory that explains the disorder-induced transition into a phase of quantized conductance, discovered in computer simulations of HgTe quantum wells. It is the combination of a random potential and quadratic corrections proportional to p^2 sigma_z to the Dirac Hamiltonian that can drive an ordinary band insulator into a topological insulator (having an inverted band gap). We calculate the location of the phase boundary at weak disorder and show that it corresponds to the crossing of a band edge rather than a mobility edge. Our mechanism for the formation of a topological Anderson insulator is generic, and would apply as well to three-dimensional semiconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (updated figures, calculated DOS

Switching of electrical current by spin precession in the first Landau level of an inverted-gap semiconductor

We show how the quantum Hall effect in an inverted-gap semiconductor (with electron- and hole-like states at the conduction- and valence-band edges interchanged) can be used to inject, precess, and detect the electron spin along a one-dimensional pathway. The restriction of the electron motion to a single spatial dimension ensures that all electrons experience the same amount of precession in a parallel magnetic field, so that the full electrical current can be switched on and off. As an example, we calculate the magnetoconductance of a p-n interface in a HgTe quantum well and show how it can be used to measure the spin precession due to bulk inversion asymmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, extended versio

Atom Chips: Fabrication and Thermal Properties

Neutral atoms can be trapped and manipulated with surface mounted microscopic current carrying and charged structures. We present a lithographic fabrication process for such atom chips based on evaporated metal films. The size limit of this process is below 1$\mu$m. At room temperature, thin wires can carry more than 10$^7$A/cm$^2$ current density and voltages of more than 500V. Extensive test measurements for different substrates and metal thicknesses (up to 5 $\mu$m) are compared to models for the heating characteristics of the microscopic wires. Among the materials tested, we find that Si is the best suited substrate for atom chips

Analysis of Oct4-dependent transcriptional networks regulating self-renewal and pluripotency in human embryonic stem cells

The POU domain transcription factor OCT4 is a key regulator of pluripotency in the early mammalian embryo and is highly expressed in the inner cell mass of the blastocyst. Consistent with its essential role in maintaining pluripotency, Oct4 expression is rapidly downregulated during formation of the trophoblast lineage. To enhance our understanding of the molecular basis of this differentiation event in humans, we used a functional genomics approach involving RNA interference-mediated suppression of OCT4 function in a human ESC line and analysis of the resulting transcriptional profiles to identify OCT4-dependent genes in human cells. We detected altered expression of >1,000 genes, including targets regulated directly by OCT4 either positively (NANOG, SOX2, REX1, LEFTB, LEFTA/EBAF DPPA4, THY1, and TDGF1) or negatively (CDX2, EOMES, BMP4, TBX18, Brachyury [T], DKK1, HLX1, GATA6, ID2, and DLX5), as well as targets for the OCT4-associated stem cell regulators SOX2 and NANOG. Our data set includes regulators of ACTIVIN, BMP, fibroblast growth factor, and WNT signaling. These pathways are implicated in regulating human ESC differentiation and therefore further validate the results of our analysis. In addition, we identified a number of differentially expressed genes that are involved in epigenetics, chromatin remodeling, apoptosis, and metabolism that may point to underlying molecular mechanisms that regulate pluripotency and trophoblast differentiation in humans. Significant concordance between this data set and previous comparisons between inner cell mass and trophectoderm in human embryos indicates that the study of human ESC differentiation in vitro represents a useful model of early embryonic differentiation in humans

The Chemical Composition of Cernis 52 (BD+31 640)

We present an abundance analysis of the star Cernis 52 in whose spectrum we recently reported the napthalene cation in absorption at 6707.4 {\AA}. This star is on a line of sight to the Perseus molecular complex. The analysis of high-resolution spectra using a chi^2-minimization procedure and a grid of synthetic spectra provides the stellar parameters and the abundances of O, Mg, Si, S, Ca, and Fe. The stellar parameters of this star are found to be T_{eff} = 8350 +- 200 K, logg= 4.2 +- 0.4 dex. We derived a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -0.01 +- 0.15. These stellar parameters are consistent with a star of $\sim 2$ \Msun in a pre-main-sequence evolutionary stage. The stellar spectrum is significantly veiled in the spectral range 5150-6730 {\AA} up to almost 55 per cent of the total flux at 5150 {\AA} and decreasing towards longer wavelengths. Using Johnson-Cousins and 2MASS photometric data, we determine a distance to Cernis 52 of 231$^{+135}_{-85}$ pc considering the error bars of the stellar parameters. This determination places the star at a similar distance to the young cluster IC 348. This together with its radial velocity, v_r=13.7+-1 km/s, its proper motion and probable young age support Cernis 52 as a likely member of IC 348. We determine a rotational velocity of v\sin i=65 +- 5 km/s for this star. We confirm that the stellar resonance line of \ion{Li}{1} at 6707.8 {\AA} is unable to fit the broad feature at 6707.4 {\AA}. This feature should have a interstellar origin and could possibly form in the dark cloud L1470 surrounding all the cluster IC 348 at about the same distance.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

An atom fiber for guiding cold neutral atoms

We present an omnidirectional matter wave guide on an atom chip. The rotational symmetry of the guide is maintained by a combination of two current carrying wires and a bias field pointing perpendicular to the chip surface. We demonstrate guiding of thermal atoms around more than two complete turns along a spiral shaped 25mm long curved path (curve radii down to 200$\mu$m) at various atom--surface distances (35-450$\mu$m). An extension of the scheme for the guiding of Bose-Einstein condensates is outlined