Information and Distinguishability of Ensembles of Identical Quantum States

We consider a fixed quantum measurement performed over n identical copies of quantum states. Using a rigorous notion of distinguishability based on Shannon’s 12th theorem, we show that in the case of a single qubit, the number of distinguishable states is , where (α₁,α₂) is the angle interval from which the states are chosen. In the general case of an N-dimensional Hilbert space and an area Ω of the domain on the unit sphere from which the states are chosen, the number of distinguishable states is . The optimal distribution is uniform over the domain in Cartesian coordinates.     

Relationship between refined Griffith criterion and power laws for cracking

Rice [J. Mech. Phys. Solids 26 (1978) 61] proposes a refined Griffith criterion, at any local crack front, where G is the Irwin's energy release rate, γ is the surface free energy and is the rate of crack advance. The refined version implies that the entropy production inequality should holds locally rather than globally from the thermodynamic point of view. Within the irreversible thermodynamic framework developed by Rice [J. Mech. Phys. Solids 19 (1971) 433; Constitutive Equations in Plasticity, 1975, p. 23], it is revealed in this paper that the entropy production inequality holds for each internal variable if its rate is a homogeneous function in its conjugate force. It is further shown that widely-used power laws for crack growth are just certain homogeneous kinetic rate laws, so it is concluded that the power laws directly lead to the refined Griffith criterion.     

Optimality criterion for a class of nonlinear integer programs

Graver's optimality conditions based on Hilbert bases apply to an integer program with linear equations and a linear objective function. We generalize this result to include a fairly large class of nonlinear objective functions. Our extension provides in particular a link between the superadditivity of the difference-objective function and the Hilbert bases of conic subpartitions of .     

On the efficiency of selection criteria in spline regression

This paper concerns the cubic smoothing spline approach to nonparametric regression. After first deriving sharp asymptotic formulas for the eigenvalues of the smoothing matrix, the paper uses these formulas to investigate the efficiency of different selection criteria for choosing the smoothing parameter. Special attention is paid to the generalized maximum likelihood (GML), C _p and extended exponential (EE) criteria and their marginal Bayesian interpretation. It is shown that (a) when the Bayesian model that motivates GML is true, using C _p to estimate the smoothing parameter would result in a loss of efficiency with a factor of 10/3, proving and strengthening a conjecture proposed in Stein (1990); (b) when the data indeed come from the C _p density, using GML would result in a loss of efficiency of ; (c) the loss of efficiency of the EE criterion is at most 1.543 when the data are sampled from its consistent density family. The paper not only studies equally spaced observations (the setting of Stein, 1990), but also investigates general sampling scheme of the design points, and shows that the efficiency results remain the same in both cases.This work is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0204674 and Harvard University Clark-Cooke Fund. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):Primary: 62G08; Secondary: 62G20     

Continuous-Time Controlled Markov Chains with Discounted Rewards

This paper studies denumerable state continuous-time controlled Markov chains with the discounted reward criterion and a Borel action space. The reward and transition rates are unbounded, and the reward rates are allowed to take positive or negative values. First, we present new conditions for a nonhomogeneous Q(t)-process to be regular. Then, using these conditions, we give a new set of mild hypotheses that ensure the existence of -optimal (0) stationary policies. We also present a martingale characterization of an optimal stationary policy. Our results are illustrated with controlled birth and death processes.     

An abstract Nyquist criterion containing old and new results

We prove an abstract Nyquist criterion in a general set up. As applications, we recover various versions of the Nyquist criterion, some of which are new.     

Linear interval equations with symmetric solution sets

Criteria for symmetry and boundedness are found for the combined solution set of a system of linear algebraic equations with interval coefficients. It is shown that the problem of the best inner interval estimation of a symmetric solution set can be exactly solved by linear programming methods.     

A new L-curve for ill-posed problems

The truncated singular value decomposition is a popular method for the solution of linear ill-posed problems. The method requires the choice of a truncation index, which affects the quality of the computed approximate solution. This paper proposes that an L-curve, which is determined by how well the given data (right-hand side) can be approximated by a linear combination of the first (few) left singular vectors (or functions), be used as an aid for determining the truncation index.