Optimized Trigger for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray and Neutrino Observations with the Low Frequency Radio Array

When an ultra-high energy neutrino or cosmic ray strikes the Lunar surface a radio-frequency pulse is emitted. We plan to use the LOFAR radio telescope to detect these pulses. In this work we propose an efficient trigger implementation for LOFAR optimized for the observation of short radio pulses.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section

Daily Life in Syria

Security and Global Affair

Bestemming Syrië: een exploratieve studie naar de leefsituatie van Nederlandse ‘uitreizigers’ in Syrië

Security and Global Affair

Tunable critical field in Rashba superconductor thin-films

The upper critical field in type II superconductors is limited by the Pauli paramagnetic limit. In superconductors with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling this limit can be overcome by forming a helical state. Here we quantitatively study the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram of finite-size superconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We discuss the effect of finite size and shape anisotropy. We demonstrate that the critical field is controllable by intrinsic parameters such as spin-orbit coupling strength and tunable parameters such as sample geometry and applied field direction. Our study opens new avenues for the design of superconducting spin-valves.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, supplemental material

Solving correlation clustering with QAOA and a Rydberg qudit system: a full-stack approach

We study the correlation clustering problem using the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and qudits, which constitute a natural platform for such non-binary problems. Specifically, we consider a neutral atom quantum computer and propose a full stack approach for correlation clustering, including Hamiltonian formulation of the algorithm, analysis of its performance, identification of a suitable level structure for ${}^{87}{\rm Sr}$ and specific gate design. We show the qudit implementation is superior to the qubit encoding as quantified by the gate count. For single layer QAOA, we also prove (conjecture) a lower bound of $0.6367$ ($0.6699$) for the approximation ratio on 3-regular graphs. Our numerical studies evaluate the algorithm's performance by considering complete and Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graphs of up to 7 vertices and clusters. We find that in all cases the QAOA surpasses the Swamy bound $0.7666$ for the approximation ratio for QAOA depths $p \geq 2$. Finally, by analysing the effect of errors when solving complete graphs we find that their inclusion severely limits the algorithm's performance.Comment: 22 + 11 page

Solving correlation clustering with QAOA and a Rydberg qudit system: a full-stack approach

We study the correlation clustering problem using the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and qudits, which constitute a natural platform for such non-binary problems. Specifically, we consider a neutral atom quantum computer and propose a full stack approach for correlation clustering, including Hamiltonian formulation of the algorithm, analysis of its performance, identification of a suitable level structure for 87Sr and specific gate design. We show the qudit implementation is superior to the qubit encoding as quantified by the gate count. For single layer QAOA, we also prove (conjecture) a lower bound of 0.6367 (0.6699) for the approximation ratio on 3-regular graphs. Our numerical studies evaluate the algorithm's performance by considering complete and Erdős-Rényi graphs of up to 7 vertices and clusters. We find that in all cases the QAOA surpasses the Swamy bound 0.7666 for the approximation ratio for QAOA depths p≥2. Finally, by analysing the effect of errors when solving complete graphs we find that their inclusion severely limits the algorithm's performance

Reproducibility of the serum lipid response to coffee oil in healthy volunteers

BACKGROUND: Humans and animals show a certain consistency in the response of their serum lipids to fat-modified diets. This may indicate a genetic basis underlying this response. Coffee oil might be used as a model substance to investigate which genes determine differences in the serum lipid response. Before carrying out such studies our objective was to investigate to what extent the effect of coffee oil on serum lipid concentrations is reproducible within subjects. METHODS: The serum lipid response of 32 healthy volunteers was measured twice in separate five-week periods in which coffee oil was administered (69 mg cafestol / day). RESULTS: Total cholesterol levels increased by 24% in period 1 (range:0;52%) and 18% in period 2 (1;48%), LDL cholesterol by 29 % (-9;71%) and 20% (-12;57%), triglycerides by 66% (16;175%) and 58% (-13;202%), and HDL cholesterol did not change significantly: The range of the HDL response was -19;25% in period 1 and -20;33% in period 2. The correlation between the two responses was 0.20 (95%CI -0.16, 0.51) for total cholesterol, 0.16 (95%CI -0.20, 0.48) for LDL, 0.67 (95%CI 0.42, 0.83) for HDL, and 0.77 (95%CI 0.56, 0.88) for triglycerides. CONCLUSIONS: The responses of total and LDL cholesterol to coffee oil were poorly reproducible within subjects. The responses of HDL and triglycerides, however, appeared to be highly reproducible. Therefore, investigating the genetic sources of the variation in the serum-lipid response to coffee oil is more promising for HDL and triglycerides

Improved hardness results for the guided local Hamiltonian problem

Estimating the ground state energy of a local Hamiltonian is a central problem in quantum chemistry. In order to further investigate its complexity and the potential of quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry, Gharibian and Le Gall (STOC 2022) recently introduced the guided local Hamiltonian problem (GLH), which is a variant of the local Hamiltonian problem where an approximation of a ground state (which is called a guiding state) is given as an additional input. Gharibian and Le Gall showed quantum advantage (more precisely, BQP-completeness) for GLH with 6-local Hamiltonians when the guiding state has fidelity (inverse-polynomially) close to 1/2 with a ground state. In this paper, we optimally improve both the locality and the fidelity parameter: we show that the BQP-completeness persists even with 2-local Hamiltonians, and even when the guiding state has fidelity (inverse-polynomially) close to 1 with a ground state. Moreover, we show that the BQP-completeness also holds for 2-local physically motivated Hamiltonians on a 2D square lattice or a 2D triangular lattice. Beyond the hardness of estimating the ground state energy, we also show BQP-hardness persists when considering estimating energies of excited states of these Hamiltonians instead. Those make further steps towards establishing practical quantum advantage in quantum chemistry