Performance comparison between classical and quantum control for a simple quantum system

Brańczyk et al. pointed out that the quantum control scheme is superior to the classical control scheme for a simple quantum system using simulation [A.M. Brańczyk, P.E.M.F. Mendonca, A. Gilchrist, A.C. Doherty, S.D. Barlett, Quantum control theory of a single qubit, Physical Review A 75 (2007) 012329 or arXiv e-print quant-ph/0608037]. Here we rigorously prove the result. Furthermore we will show that any quantum operation does not universally “correct” the dephasing noise.     

Room evacuation in the presence of an obstacle

The investigation of human behaviour while trying to escape from a room under panic is an important issue in complex systems research. Several authors have called attention to the fact that placing an obstacle near the exit improves the evacuation time of the room (Helbing et al. (2000, 2005) [2] and [8], Hughes (2003) [6], Johansson and Helbing (2005) [16], Piccoli and Tosin (2009) [5]). We studied this effect in the context of the “social force model” (Helbing et al. (2000) [2]). We show that placing an obstacle does not guarantee, by itself, better chances of survival for all pedestrians. The way they choose to avoid the obstacle is critical for their own performance. We found not only that the faster they try to escape, the slower they get out (“faster is slower” effect), but also, the short cut they might take in order to get to the exit will probably do no better (“clever is not always better” effect).     

Pinkness of the North Atlantic Oscillation signal revisited

The long episode of negative values in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index during the winter season 2009-2010 has attracted more attention to its predictability. Previous analyses (Fernández et al. (2003) [16] and Caldeira et al. (2007) [25]) by this same author group have established that the NAO signal behaves as a slightly red noise and therefore the prediction of the phenomenon must rely upon a deeper understanding of the underlying Physics. In this paper the authors address a predictability study of the NAO index by applying the “detrended fluctuation analysis” (DFA) to a composite series, completed with a bootstrap spectral analysis. The DFA provides a quantitative measure of predictability by computing several piecewise fits, either linear or higher degree polynomial ones, to a cumulative series of fluctuations associated to the original series. These newer measurements agree with the previous results.     

Stationary two-black-hole configurations: A non-existence proof

Based on the solution of a boundary problem for disconnected (Killing) horizons and the resulting violation of characteristic black hole properties, we present a non-existence proof for equilibrium configurations consisting of two aligned rotating black holes. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing the ideas of the proof and summarizing the results of two preceding papers (Neugebauer and Hennig, 2009 [2], Hennig and Neugebauer, 2011 [3]). From a mathematical point of view, this paper is a further example (Meinel et al., (2008) [29]) for the application of the inverse (“scattering”) method to a non-linear elliptic differential equation.     

In situ Video-STM study of the potential-induced (1 × 1) → “hex” transition on Au(1 0 0) electrode surfaces in Cl containing solution

The potential-induced (1 × 1) → “hex” transition on Au(1 0 0) electrodes in 0.01 M Na₂SO₄ + 1 mM HCl was studied by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy at high time resolution (Video-STM). According to these observations the elementary units of the “hex” surface reconstruction, hexagonally-ordered strings in the Au surface layer, are highly dynamic nanoscale objects. Isolated “hex” strings exhibit dynamic fluctuations in structure and position on the millisecond timescale. These fluctuations exceed the mobility of multistring “hex” domains by several orders of magnitude and can be explained by collective dynamic processes within the strings. Furthermore, the observations reveal a novel 1D mass transport mechanism along the strings, details on the nucleation and growth of “hex” strings and complex string restructuring processes, facilitating “hex” domain ripening.     

On “Decisions and Revisions Which a Minute Will Reverse”: Consciousness,The Unconscious and Mathematical Modeling of Thinking

This article considers a partly philosophical question: What are the ontological and epistemological reasons for using quantum-like models or theories (models and theories based on the mathematical formalism of quantum theory) vs. classical-like ones (based on the mathematics of classical physics), in considering human thinking and decision making? This question is only partly philosophical because it also concerns the scientific understanding of the phenomena considered by the theories that use mathematical models of either type, just as in physics itself, where this question also arises as a physical question. This is because this question is in effect: What are the physical reasons for using, even if not requiring, these types of theories in considering quantum phenomena, which these theories predict fully in accord with the experiment? This is clearly also a physical, rather than only philosophical, question and so is, accordingly, the question of whether one needs classical-like or quantum-like theories or both (just as in physics we use both classical and quantum theories) in considering human thinking in psychology and related fields, such as decision science. It comes as no surprise that many of these reasons are parallel to those that are responsible for the use of QM and QFT in the case of quantum phenomena. Still, the corresponding situations should be understood and justified in terms of the phenomena considered, phenomena defined by human thinking, because there are important differences between these phenomena and quantum phenomena, which this article aims to address. In order to do so, this article will first consider quantum phenomena and quantum theory, before turning to human thinking and decision making, in addressing which it will also discuss two recent quantum-like approaches to human thinking, that by M. G. D’Ariano and F. Faggin and that by A. Khrennikov. Both approaches are ontological in the sense of offering representations, different in character in each approach, of human thinking by the formalism of quantum theory. Whether such a representation, as opposed to only predicting the outcomes of relevant experiments, is possible either in quantum theory or in quantum-like theories of human thinking is one of the questions addressed in this article. The philosophical position adopted in it is that it may not be possible to make this assumption, which, however, is not the same as saying that it is impossible. I designate this view as the reality-without-realism, RWR, view and in considering strictly mental processes as the ideality-without-idealism, IWI, view, in the second case in part following, but also moving beyond, I. Kant’s philosophy.     

Comment on ‘An optimal algorithm for counting networks motifs’ [Physica A 381 (2007) 482-490]

Network motifs in a given network are small connected subnetworks that occur at significantly higher frequencies than would be expected for a random network. In their 2007 article “An optimal algorithm for counting network motifs”, Itzhack, Mogilevski, and Louzoun present an algorithm for detecting network motifs. Based on an experimental comparison with a motif detection software called FANMOD, they claim that their algorithm is “more than a thousand times faster” than any previous motif detection algorithm. We show that this claim is not correct and based on a significant flaw in the experimental setup. Once the experimental data of Itzhack et al. is corrected for this flaw, the implementation of their algorithm actually turns out to be a little slower than FANMOD for random Erd?s-Rényi graphs. For random scale-free networks, the implementation of Itzhack et al. is faster only by a factor of ∼1.5, not the orders of magnitude claimed by Itzhack et al.     

A transparent macroscopic sphere is cross-sectionally equivalent to a superposition of two quantum-like radial potentials

We consider two frameworks (i) the electromagnetic generalized Lorenz-Mie theory describing the interaction between an electromagnetic arbitrary shaped beam and a homogeneous, non-magnetic sphere, with an isotropic, linear, material and (ii) a quantum generalized Lorenz-Mie theory describing the interaction between a quantum eigen-arbitrary shaped beam and a quantum radial potential. For the time being, we restrict ourselves in this paper to elastic scattering cross-sections. We then demonstrate that a transparent macroscopic sphere in the first framework is equivalent to a superposition of two quantum-like radial potentials in the second framework. The restrictive meaning of “quantum-like” will be discussed when appropriate.     

On the motif distribution in random block-hierarchical networks

The distribution of motifs in random hierarchical topological networks defined by nonsymmetric random block-hierarchical adjacency matrices, is constructed for the first time. According to the classification of U. Alon et al. of network superfamilies (Milo et al., 2004 [11]) by their motifs distributions, our artificial directed random hierarchical networks fall into the superfamily of natural networks to which the neuron networks belong. This is the first example of a class of “handmade” topological networks with the motifs distribution as in a special class of natural networks of essential biological importance.     

Studies on controllability of directed networks with extremal optimization

Almost all natural, social and man-made-engineered systems can be represented by a complex network to describe their dynamic behaviors. To make a real-world complex network controllable with its desired topology, the study on network controllability has been one of the most critical and attractive subjects for both network and control communities. In this paper, based on a given directed–weighted network with both state and control nodes, a novel optimization tool with extremal dynamics to generate an optimal network topology with minimum control nodes and complete controllability under Kalman’s rank condition has been developed. The experimental results on a number of popular benchmark networks show the proposed tool is effective to identify the minimum control nodes which are sufficient to guide the whole network’s dynamics and provide the evolution of network topology during the optimization process. We also find the conclusion: “the sparse networks need more control nodes than the dense, and the homogeneous networks need fewer control nodes compared to the heterogeneous” (Liu et al., 2011  [18]), is also applicable to network complete controllability. These findings help us to understand the network dynamics and make a real-world network under the desired control. Moreover, compared with the relevant research results on structural controllability with minimum driver nodes, the proposed solution methodology may also be applied to other constrained network optimization problems beyond complete controllability with minimum control nodes.     

Modeling quantum mechanical double slit interference via anomalous diffusion: Independently variable slit widths

Based on a re-formulation of the classical explanation of quantum mechanical Gaussian dispersion (Grössing et al. (2010) [1]) as well as interference of two Gaussians (Grössing et al. (2012) [6]), we present a new and more practical way of their simulation. The quantum mechanical “decay of the wave packet” can be described by anomalous sub-quantum diffusion with a specific diffusivity varying in time due to a particle’s changing thermal environment. In a simulation of the double-slit experiment with different slit widths, the phase with this new approach can be implemented as a local quantity. We describe the conditions of the diffusivity and, by connecting to wave mechanics, we compute the exact quantum mechanical intensity distributions, as well as the corresponding trajectory distributions according to the velocity field of two Gaussian wave packets emerging from a double-slit. We also calculate probability density current distributions, including situations where phase shifters affect a single slit’s current, and provide computer simulations thereof.     

Classical systems can be contextual too: Analogue of the Mermin–Peres square

Contextuality lays at the heart of quantum mechanics. In the prevailing opinion it is considered as a signature of “quantumness” that classical theories lack. However, this assertion is only partially justified. Although contextuality is certainly true of quantum mechanics, it cannot be taken by itself as discriminating against classical theories. Here we consider a representative example of contextual behaviour, the so-called Mermin–Peres square, and present a discrete toy model of a bipartite system which reproduces the pattern of quantum predictions that leads to contradiction with the assumption of non-contextuality. This illustrates that quantum-like contextual effects have their analogues within classical models with epistemic constraints such as limited information gain and measurement disturbance.     

Weak measurement and Bohmian conditional wave functions

It was recently pointed out and demonstrated experimentally by Lundeen et al. that the wave function of a particle (more precisely, the wave function possessed by each member of an ensemble of identically-prepared particles) can be “directly measured” using weak measurement. Here it is shown that if this same technique is applied, with appropriate post-selection, to one particle from a perhaps entangled multi-particle system, the result is precisely the so-called “conditional wave function” of Bohmian mechanics. Thus, a plausibly operationalist method for defining the wave function of a quantum mechanical sub-system corresponds to the natural definition of a sub-system wave function which Bohmian mechanics uniquely makes possible. Similarly, a weak-measurement-based procedure for directly measuring a sub-system’s density matrix should yield, under appropriate circumstances, the Bohmian “conditional density matrix” as opposed to the standard reduced density matrix. Experimental arrangements to demonstrate this behavior–and also thereby reveal the non-local dependence of sub-system state functions on distant interventions–are suggested and discussed.     

Nonlocality in many-body quantum systems detected with two-body correlators

Contemporary understanding of correlations in quantum many-body systems and in quantum phase transitions is based to a large extent on the recent intensive studies of entanglement in many-body systems. In contrast, much less is known about the role of quantum nonlocality in these systems, mostly because the available multipartite Bell inequalities involve high-order correlations among many particles, which are hard to access theoretically, and even harder experimentally. Standard, “theorist- and experimentalist-friendly” many-body observables involve correlations among only few (one, two, rarely three...) particles. Typically, there is no multipartite Bell inequality for this scenario based on such low-order correlations. Recently, however, we have succeeded in constructing multipartite Bell inequalities that involve two- and one-body correlations only, and showed how they revealed the nonlocality in many-body systems relevant for nuclear and atomic physics [Tura et al., Science 344 (2014) 1256]. With the present contribution we continue our work on this problem. On the one hand, we present a detailed derivation of the above Bell inequalities, pertaining to permutation symmetry among the involved parties. On the other hand, we present a couple of new results concerning such Bell inequalities. First, we characterize their tightness. We then discuss maximal quantum violations of these inequalities in the general case, and their scaling with the number of parties. Moreover, we provide new classes of two-body Bell inequalities which reveal nonlocality of the Dicke states—ground states of physically relevant and experimentally realizable Hamiltonians. Finally, we shortly discuss various scenarios for nonlocality detection in mesoscopic systems of trapped ions or atoms, and by atoms trapped in the vicinity of designed nanostructures.     

QED confronts the radius of the proton

Recent results on muonic hydrogen (Pohl et al., 2010) [1] and the ones compiled by CODATA on ordinary hydrogen and ep-scattering (Mohr et al., 2008) [2] are 5σ away from each other. Two reasons justify a further look at this subject: (1) One of the approximations used in Pohl et al. (2010) [1] is not valid for muonic hydrogen. This amounts to a shift of the proton's radius by ∼3 of the standard deviations of Pohl et al. (2010) [1], in the “right” direction of data-reconciliation. In field-theory terms, the error is a mismatch of renormalization scales. Once corrected, the proton radius “runs”, much as the QCD coupling “constant” does. (2) The result of Pohl et al. (2010) [1] requires a choice of the “third Zemach moment”. Its published independent determination is based on an analysis with a p  -value – the probability of obtaining data with equal or lesser agreement with the adopted (fit form-factor) hypothesis – of 3.92×¹⁰⁻¹²$3.92\times {10}^{-12}$. In this sense, this quantity is not empirically known. Its value would regulate the level of “tension” between muonic- and ordinary-hydrogen results, currently at most  ∼4σ$\sim 4\sigma$. There is no tension between the results of Pohl et al. (2010) [1] and the proton radius determined with help of the analyticity of its form-factors.     

Quantum structures due to fluctuations of the measurement situation

We analyze the meaning of the nonclassical aspects of quantum structures. We proceed by introducing a simple mechanistic macroscopic experimental situation that gives rise to quantum-like structures. We use this situation as a guiding example for our attempts to explain the origin of the nonclassical aspects of quantum structures. We see that the quantum probabilities can be introduced as a consequence of the presence of fluctuations on the experimental apparatuses, and show that the full quantum structure can be obtained in this way. We define the classical limit as the physical situation that arises when the fluctuations on the experiment apparatuses disappear. In the limit case we come to a classical structure, but in between we find structures that are neither quantum nor classical. In this sense, our approach not only gives an explanation for the nonclassical structure of quantum theory, but also makes it possible to define and study the structure describing the intermediate new situations. By investigating how the nonlocal quantum behavior disappears during the limiting process, we can explain theapparentlocality of the classical macroscopic world. We come to the conclusion that quantum structures are the ordinary structures of reality, and that our difficulties of becoming aware of this fact are due to prescientific prejudices, some of which we point out.     

Induced fractional zero-point angular momentum for charged particles of the Bohm–Aharonov system by means of a “spectator” magnetic field

An induced fractional zero-point angular momentum of charged particles by the Bohm–Aharonov (BA) vector potential is realized via a modified combined trap. It explores a “spectator” mechanism in this type of quantum effects: In the limit of the kinetic energy approaching one of its eigenvalues the BA vector potential alone cannot induce a fractional zero-point angular momentum at quantum mechanical level in the BA magnetic field-free region; But when there is a “spectator” magnetic field the BA vector potential induces a fractional zero-point angular momentum. The “spectator” does not contribute to such a fractional angular momentum, but plays essential role in guaranteeing non-trivial dynamics at quantum mechanical level in the required limit. This “spectator” mechanism is significant in investigating the BA effects and related topics in both aspects of theory and experiment.     

Observing quantum trajectories: From Mott’s problem to quantum Zeno effect and back

The experimental results of Kocsis et al., Mahler et al. and the proposed experiments of Morley et al. show that it is possible to construct “trajectories” in interference regions in a two-slit interferometer. These results call for a theoretical re-appraisal of the notion of a “quantum trajectory” first introduced by Dirac and in the present paper we re-examine this notion from the Bohm perspective based on Hamiltonian flows. In particular, we examine the short-time propagator and the role that the quantum potential plays in determining the form of these trajectories. These trajectories differ from those produced in a typical particle tracker and the key to this difference lies in the active suppression of the quantum potential necessary to produce Mott-type trajectories. We show, using a rigorous mathematical argument, how the active suppression of this potential arises. Finally we discuss in detail how this suppression also accounts for the quantum Zeno effect.     

Integrating the original face images and “symmetrical faces” to perform face recognition

Using the original and ‘symmetrical face’ training samples to perform representation based face recognition was first proposed in [1]. It simultaneously used the original and ‘symmetrical face’ training samples to perform a two-step classification and achieved an outstanding classification result. However, in [1] the “symmetrical face” is devised only for one method. In this paper, we do some improvements on the basis of [1] and combine this “symmetrical faces” transformation with several representation based methods. We exploit all original training samples, left “symmetrical face” training samples and right “symmetrical face” training samples for classification and use the score fusion for ultimate face recognition. The symmetry of the face is first used to generate new samples, which is different from original face image but can really reflect some possible appearance of the face. It effectively overcomes the problem of non-sufficient training samples. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can be used to improve a number of traditional representation based methods including those that are not presented in the paper.