Fast path and polarization manipulation of telecom wavelength single photons in lithium niobate waveguide devices

We demonstrate fast polarization and path control of photons at 1550?nm in lithium niobate waveguide devices using the electro-optic effect. We show heralded single photon state engineering, quantum interference, fast state preparation of two entangled photons, and feedback control of quantum interference. These results point the way to a single platform that will enable the integration of nonlinear single photon sources and fast reconfigurable circuits for future photonic quantum information science and technology.     

A feasibility study of X‐ray phase‐contrast mammographic tomography at the Imaging and Medical beamline of the Australian Synchrotron

Results are presented of a recent experiment at the Imaging and Medical beamline of the Australian Synchrotron intended to contribute to the implementation of low‐dose high‐sensitivity three‐dimensional mammographic phase‐contrast imaging, initially at synchrotrons and subsequently in hospitals and medical imaging clinics. The effect of such imaging parameters as X‐ray energy, source size, detector resolution, sample‐to‐detector distance, scanning and data processing strategies in the case of propagation‐based phase‐contrast computed tomography (CT) have been tested, quantified, evaluated and optimized using a plastic phantom simulating relevant breast‐tissue characteristics. Analysis of the data collected using a Hamamatsu CMOS Flat Panel Sensor, with a pixel size of 100 µm, revealed the presence of propagation‐based phase contrast and demonstrated significant improvement of the quality of phase‐contrast CT imaging compared with conventional (absorption‐based) CT, at medically acceptable radiation doses.     

Increase of both order and disorder in the first hydration shell with increasing solute polarity

Monte?Carlo simulations of a small model solute in an aqueous solution are used to examine the effects of solute polarity on hydration structure. A judicious definition of the orientational order parameter leads to reinterpretation of the conventional picture of hydration. As the solute varies from hydrophobic to hydrophilic the ordered first shell water simultaneously fractionates into a more highly ordered and a more disordered component. The hydrogen-bond network rearranges such that the more ordered component relaxes to configurations of optimal intermolecular angles, the other fraction being released from the network.     

Transcranial direct current stimulation of the prefrontal cortex modulates working memory performance: combined behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

Background  

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique that can systematically modify behaviour by inducing changes in the underlying brain function. In order to better understand the neuromodulatory effect of tDCS, the present study examined the impact of tDCS on performance in a working memory (WM) task and its underlying neural activity. In two experimental sessions, participants performed a letter two-back WM task after sham and either anodal or cathodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).     

Probability of inflation in loop quantum cosmology

Inflationary models of the early universe provide a natural mechanism for the formation of large scale structure. This success brings to forefront the question of naturalness: Does a sufficiently long slow roll inflation occur generically or does it require a careful fine tuning of initial parameters? In recent years there has been considerable controversy on this issue (Hollands and Wald in Gen Relativ Gravit, 34:2043, 2002; Kofman et al. in J High Energy Phys 10:057, 2002); (Gibbons and Turok in Phys Rev D 77:063516, 2008). In particular, for a quadratic potential, Kofman et al. (J High Energy Phys 10:057, 2002) have argued that the probability of inflation with at least 65 e-foldings is close to one, while Gibbons and Turok (Phys Rev D 77:063516, 2008) have argued that this probability is suppressed by a factor of ~10⁻⁸⁵. We first clarify that such dramatically different predictions can arise because the required measure on the space of solutions is intrinsically ambiguous in general relativity. We then show that this ambiguity can be naturally resolved in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) because the big bang is replaced by a big bounce and the bounce surface can be used to introduce the structure necessary to specify a satisfactory measure. The second goal of the paper is to present a detailed analysis of the inflationary dynamics of LQC using analytical and numerical methods. By combining this information with the measure on the space of solutions, we address a sharper question than those investigated in Kofman et al. (J High Energy Phys 10:057, 2002), Gibbons and Turok (Phys Rev D 77:063516, 2008), Ashtekar and Sloan (Phys Lett B 694:108, 2010): What is the probability of a sufficiently long slow roll inflation which is compatible with the seven year WMAP data? We show that the probability is very close to 1. The material is so organized that cosmologists who may be more interested in the inflationary dynamics in LQC than in the subtleties associated with measures can skip that material without loss of continuity.     

Vacuum decay constraints on a cosmological scalar field

If the potential of a scalar field phi which currently provides the "dark energy" of the Universe has a minimum at phi = -M(0)(4)<0, then quantum-mechanical fluctuations could nucleate a bubble of phi at a negative value of the potential. This bubble would then expand at the speed of light. Given that no such bubble enveloped us in the past, we find that any minimum in V(phi) must be separated from the current phi value by more than min[1.5M(0),0.21M(Pl)], where M(Pl) is the Planck mass. We also show that vacuum decay renders a cyclic or ekpyrotic universe with M(0)(4) > or approximately 10(-10)M(4)(Pl) untenable.     

John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: an Unlikely Collaboration

I discuss the origin of the idea of making a fusion (hydrogen) bomb and the physics involved in it, and then turn to the design proposed for one by the unlikely collaborators John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs in a patent application they filed at Los Alamos in May 1946, which Fuchs passed on to the Russians in March 1948, and which with substantial modifications was tested on the island of Eberiru on the Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific on May 8, 1951. This test showed that the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei could be ignited, but that the ignition would not propagate because the heat produced was rapidly radiated away. Meanwhile, Stanislaw Ulam and C.J. Everett had shown that Edward Teller’s Classical Super could not work, and at the end of December 1950, Ulam had conceived the idea of super compression, using the energy of a fission bomb to compress the fusion fuel to such a high density that it would be opaque to the radiation produced. Once Teller understood this, he invented a greatly improved, new method of compression using radiation, which then became the heart of the Ulam–Teller bomb design, which was tested, also in the South Pacific, on November 1, 1952. The Russians have freely acknowledged that Fuchs gave them the fission bomb, but they have insisted that no one gave them the fusion bomb, which grew out of design involving a fission bomb surrounded by alternating layers of fusion and fission fuels, and which they tested on November 22, 1955. Part of the irony of this story is that neither the American nor the Russian hydrogen-bomb programs made any use of the brilliant design that von Neumann and Fuchs had conceived as early as 1946, which could have changed the entire course of development of both programs.     

xF_3^{\gamma Z} in charged lepton scattering

Measurements of the structure function are now becoming available in charged lepton deep inelastic scattering at HERA. The correction factors which are necessary to compare these with measurements of in neutrino-nucleon scattering are deduced and a comparison is made between the H1 and the CCFR data. A sum rule is derived for the structure function measured in charged lepton scattering which is the analogue of the Gross Llewellyn-Smith sum rule for neutrino-nucleon scattering.     

A Combined Immunofluorescence and Fluorescent Viability Cocktail Staining Procedure for Rapid Microscopic Detection and Enumeration of Live Legionella pneumophila

Journal of Fluorescence - This report describes a combined immunofluorescence and fluorescence viability stain applied as one staining solution for rapid detection of&nbsp;live Legionella...