Mosaics of combinatorial designs for information-theoretic security

Designs, Codes and Cryptography - We study security functions which can serve to establish semantic security for the two central problems of information-theoretic security: the wiretap channel, and...     

Laser spectroscopy of the 1s HFS of H-like ions at a bunched beam in the storage ring ESR

The investigation of the 1s HFS provides a good possibility for testing QED effects in a combination of a strong electric and magnetic field. Here, we report about the laserspectroscopic measurements of the ground state hyperfine splitting in ²⁰⁷Pb⁸¹⁺. To handle this M1-transition in the infrared optical regime with its long lifetime, we developed a new detection technique using a bunched ion beam. For the observation of fluorescence light, a new mirror system is adapted to the emission characteristics from an ion beam at relativistic velocities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

N7-DNA: Synthesis and Base Pairing of Oligonucleotides containing 7-(2-Deoxy-β -D-erythro-pentofuranosyl)adenine (N7Ad)

The synthesis of oligonucleotides containing 7-(2-deoxy-β -D -erythro-pentofuranosyl)adenine (N⁷A_d; 1 ) is described. Compound 1 was obtained from the precursor 4-amino-1H -imidazole-5-carbonitrile 2-deoxyribonucleoside 6 and was found to be much more labile than A_d. The N⁶-benzoyl protecting group (see 8 ) destabilized the N-glycosylic bond further and was difficult to remove by NH₃-catalyzed hydrolysis. Therefore, a (dimethyl-amino)methylidene residue was introduced (→ 9 ). Amidine 9 was blocked at OH? C(5′) with the dimethoxytrityl residue ((MeO)₂Tr), and phosphonate 4 as well as phosphoramidite 5 were prepared under standard conditions. Phosphonate 4 was employed in solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis. Homooligonucleotides as well as self-complementary oligonucleotides were prepared. The oligomer d[(N⁷A)₁₁-A] ( 11 ) formed a duplex with d(T₁₂) ( 13 ). Antiparallel chain polarity and reverse Watson-Crick base pairing was deduced from duplex formation of the self-complementary d[(N⁷A)₈-T₈] ( 14 ).     

Aspects of Generic Entanglement

We study entanglement and other correlation properties of random states in high-dimensional bipartite systems. These correlations are quantified by parameters that are subject to the ``concentration of measure' phenomenon, meaning that on a large-probability set these parameters are close to their expectation. For the entropy of entanglement, this has the counterintuitive consequence that there exist large subspaces in which all pure states are close to maximally entangled. This, in turn, implies the existence of mixed states with entanglement of formation near that of a maximally entangled state, but with negligible quantum mutual information and, therefore, negligible distillable entanglement, secret key, and common randomness. It also implies a very strong locking effect for the entanglement of formation: its value can jump from maximal to near zero by tracing over a number of qubits negligible compared to the size of the total system. Furthermore, such properties are generic. Similar phenomena are observed for random multiparty states, leading us to speculate on the possibility that the theory of entanglement is much simplified when restricted to asymptotically generic states. Further consequences of our results include a complete derandomization of the protocol for universal superdense coding of quantum states.     

From monomeric to polymeric ferroelectric liquid crystals A comparative study of ferroelectric properties

Two new ferroelectric oligosiloxanes, a cyclic tetramer and a twin, have been synthesized. By a comparative study with their corresponding monomer and side chain polysiloxanes, the influence of oligo- and polymerization on the liquid crystalline and ferroelectric properties have been investigated. Polymerization leads to a stabilization of LC phases through increase of the clearing temperatures and suppression of crystallization. Oligomerization also leads to mesophase broadening, but, due to the low degree of polymerization, the effect is inferior to the linear polysiloxanes. The low viscosity of the oligosiloxanes ensures response times in the microsecond region, thus being comparable with their monomer and conventional LMWFLCs. It is found that polymerization increases the spontaneous polarization P_s. This is attributed to the density increase after polymerization, enhancing the inter-mesogenic interactions. The collective and local dynamics of the OFLCs are influenced differently with respect to their molecular structures. Each oligomer is already a good model for its corresponding polymer concerning the soft mode dynamics. For the local β-relaxation a similar temperature dependence of the relaxation times τ for the cyclic tetramer and for the side chain polysiloxanes is observed. The long axial rotation of the twin, having a very efficient decoupling, is significantly faster, thus resembling the monomer.     

Quantitative electron probe microanalysis for the characterization of thin carbon-boron layers in fusion devices

Summary The first wall of the fusion device TEXTOR at the Forschungszentrum Jülich has been coated in situ with an amorphous hydrogen rich carbon/boron film (a-C/B:H) which reduces plasma impurities caused by the plasma surface interaction. The results of the coating process of the 35 m² large inner wall surface have been controlled by a recently developed modification of the quantitative electron probe microanalysis, which has been applied to 12 samples from specified positions inside the tokamak. The quantification itself is based on a Monte Carlo simulation of electron trajectories providing very accurate results for X-ray intensities emitted by elements present in the electron bombarded sample. The Monte Carlo results are used in the present work to calibrate the measured X-ray intensities emitted by boron and carbon from the a-C/B:H layers deposited on pure silicon substrates. As a result the total deposited mass of the layer per area unit as well as the composition of the layers (except hydrogen) could be determined very accurately. The relative errors were less than 7%. The limit of detectability were found to be in the range of one monolayer for boron as well as for carbon.     

High-precision sub-pixel interpolation in particle image velocimetry image processing

The task of image interpolation and re-sampling for particle image velocimetry (PIV) is investigated, which is used for window shifting with sub-pixel accuracy and image or window deformation. A new interpolation scheme based on a Gaussian filter is introduced and compared with commonly used and widely accepted interpolation techniques in terms of the achievable root mean square deviation of the displacement estimates.