Micromechanics of base pair unzipping in the DNA duplex

All-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of DNA duplex unzipping in a water environment were performed. The investigated DNA double helix consists of a Drew-Dickerson dodecamer sequence and a hairpin (AAG) attached to the end of the double-helix chain. The considered system is used to examine the process of DNA strand separation under the action of an external force. This process occurs in vivo and now is being intensively investigated in experiments with single molecules. The DNA dodecamer duplex is consequently unzipped pair by pair by means of the steered MD. The unzipping trajectories turn out to be similar for the duplex parts with G·C content and rather distinct for the parts with A·T content. It is shown that during the unzipping each pair experiences two types of motion: relatively quick rotation together with all the duplex and slower motion in the frame of the unzipping fork. In the course of opening, the complementary pair passes through several distinct states: (i) the closed state in the double helix, (ii) the metastable preopened state in the unzipping fork and (iii) the unbound state. The performed simulations show that water molecules participate in the stabilization of the metastable states of the preopened base pairs in the DNA unzipping fork.     

Base pair dynamic assisted charge transport in DNA

A one-dimensional model with time-dependent random hopping is proposed to describe charge transport in DNA. It permits the investigation of both diffusion of electrons and their tunneling between different sites in DNA. The tunneling appears to be strongly temperature-dependent. Observations of a strong (exponential) as well as a weak distance dependence of the charge transfer in DNA can be explained in the framework of our model.     

碱基序列对DNA分子电子结构的影响

将DNA分子看成一维二元随机序列，利用负本征值理论计算其态密度，针对碱基对分布和相对含量等参量，讨论了DNA分子的电子结构.结果表明碱基对分布和相对含量都对电子能态结构影响较大，说明碱基序列对DNA分子的电子结构影响很大. 关键词： DNA分子 电子态密度 碱基对     

Spin-resolved transport properties of DNA base multi-functional electronic devices

By using density functional theory in combination with non-equilibrium Green's function method, we have investigated the spin-polarized electronic transport properties of four DNA base devices, namely, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). The results show the spin-polarized transport properties can be effectively regulated by adopting different bases, and thymine based device can exhibit high-efficiency spin-filtering, negative differential resistance, spin rectifying behaviors and switching effect by tuning the external magnetic field. We find that the variation in the degree of localization of the frontier molecular orbitals at different biases is responsible for these interesting phenomena. These effects can be explained by the spin-resolved transmission spectrum and the spatial distribution of molecular orbitals around the Fermi level. Our results suggest that thymine base holds great potential application in designing multi-functional spin molecular device.     

Robust quantum communication using a polarization-entangled photon pair

Noise and imperfection of realistic devices are major obstacles for implementing quantum cryptography. In particular, birefringence in optical fibers leads to decoherence of qubits encoded in photon polarization. We show how to overcome this problem by doing single qubit quantum communication without a shared spatial reference frame and precise timing. Quantum information will be encoded in pairs of photons using tag operations, which corresponds to the time delay of one of the polarization modes. This method is robust against the phase instability of the interferometers despite the use of time bins. Moreover synchronized clocks are not required in the ideal no photon loss case as they are necessary only to label the different encoded qubits.     

The creation of the universe as a quantum phenomenon

Quantum creation of massy particles can occur in the cosmological context without cost of energy. This fact is seized upon to construct a causal open homogeneous isotropic cosmology. The universe is conceived as the response of matter and the gravitational field to a spontaneous pointlike disturbance. Its history unfolds in two stages, creation and free expansion. The first stage gives rise to a “fireball.” The free expansion is extrapolated back to the “fireball.” The latter thus replaces the “big-bang,” thereby avoiding an initial singularity. Though not intrinsic to the theory it does suggest the interpretation of the cosmological part of the gravitational field as the scalar dilaton that is encountered in the dynamical generation of mass in conformally invariant theory.     

Surface-acoustic-wave-induced transport in a double quantum dot

We report on nonadiabatic transport through a double quantum dot under irradiation of surface acoustic waves generated on chip. At low excitation powers, absorption and emission of single and multiple phonons are observed. At higher power, sequential phonon assisted tunneling processes excite the double dot in a highly nonequilibrium state. The present system is attractive for studying electron-phonon interaction with piezoelectric coupling.     

Heat transport in a four-perpendicularity-bend quantum waveguide

Using the scattering matrix method, we investigate acoustic phonon transmission and thermal conductance in a four-perpendicularity-bend quantum waveguide at low temperatures. The transmission spectrum of the quantum waveguide displays a series of resonant peaks and dips; and when one of the bend heights is larger than or equal to the minimum of the dimensions of the phonon channel in the quantum waveguide, a stop-frequency gap will appear; and some single four-perpendicularity-bend quantum waveguides with larger bend heights exhibit narrower width or smaller number of the stop-frequency gaps than that with smaller bend heights. The thermal conductivity is much sensitive to the change of the smaller heights and longitudinal lengths of the bend section; and the thermal conductivity decreases with the increasing of the temperature first, then increases after it reaches a minimum. The investigations of multiple four-perpendicularity-bend waveguides connected in series indicate that the first additional waveguide suppresses the transmission coefficient and forms the stop-frequency gap; and two additional resonance peaks will be formed when each four-perpendicularity-bend waveguide is added in the series. The results could be useful for controlling thermal conductance artificially and the design of phonon devices.     

Preparing projected entangled pair states on a quantum computer

We present a quantum algorithm to prepare injective projected entangled pair states (PEPS) on a quantum computer, a class of open tensor networks representing quantum states. The run time of our algorithm scales polynomially with the inverse of the minimum condition number of the PEPS projectors and, essentially, with the inverse of the spectral gap of the PEPS's parent Hamiltonian.     

Cloning the entanglement of a pair of d-dimensional quantum systems

We derive a quantum cloning machine that maximizes the entanglement of formation of the two copies of any maximally entangled input state, while preserving the separability of all unentangled input states. In addition, it is proven to optimally duplicate the entanglement of formation of all isotropic input states. For large d, the cloning machine behaves classically and outperforms a local entanglement cloner, studied for comparison. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Electron transport through a quantum cavity

Electron transport through a quantum cavity coupled with two one-dimensional waveguides is studied using a generalized scattering matrix method. In a symmetric N-channel cavity model, we are able to obtain an exact solution that predicts the electron energies at which the transmission of electron waves become zero. We found that the zero of transmission is closely related to the longitudinal resonance through inter-channel scattering, in particular, to the resonance of the highest propagating mode inside the cavity. This model provides a simple way to calculate the electron transmission through a cavity which could be useful in quantum waveguide engineering.     

耗散腔中两二能级原子态的量子信息保真度

在能量耗散腔中,原子用泡利算符描述,光场用相干态描述,运用密度矩阵理论,得到了两二能级原子密度矩阵元的演化规律,针对不同的初态,分析与单模辐射场作用过程中原子态的量子信息保真度.结果表明:当两原子初始处于不同的量子态时,量子信息在传输过程中可能不失真或部分失真,也可能出现周期性演化;在输出态和输入态具有相同的纠缠度时,量子信息可能不失真,也可能完全失真.     

Dispersionless quantum transport in a nonsymmetric tight-binding chain

Summary In the thight-binding approximation, we study a linear periodic chain with complex transfer integrals between first neighbours. When their real part vanishes, a dispersionless quantum transport is shown to occur for certain quasistationary solutions. The resulting effect of a self-sustaining current is discussed. This work was partially supported by Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione.     

Isotope effects in underdoped cuprate superconductors: a quantum critical phenomenon

We show that the unusual doping dependence of the isotope effects on transition temperature and zero temperature in-plane penetration depth naturally follows from the doping driven 3D-2D crossover and the 2D quantum superconductor to insulator transition in the underdoped limit. Since lattice distortions are the primary consequence of isotope substitution, our analysis clearly reveals the strong involvement of lattice degrees of freedom in mediating superconductivity.     

Emission of polarization-entangled microwave photons from a pair of quantum dots

We describe a mechanism for the production of polarization-entangled microwaves using intraband transitions in a pair of quantum dots. This proposal relies neither on spin-orbit coupling nor on control over electron-electron interactions. The quantum correlation of microwave polarizations is obtained from orbital degrees of freedom in an external magnetic field. We calculate the concurrence of emitted microwave photon pairs and show that a maximally entangled Bell pair is obtained in the limit of weak interdot coupling.     

Energy transport in boundary driven quantum spin systems: One-way street phenomenon in models with long range interactions

We address the investigation of non trivial properties of the energy current in boundary driven XXZ quantum spin models. In specific, we focus on the occurrence of the one-way street phenomenon in asymmetrical chains, a phenomenon stronger than rectification, which establishes the existence of a unique way for the energy current in the absence of external magnetic field, that is, the magnitude and direction of the energy flow does not change as we invert the baths at the boundaries. For general target polarizations at the boundaries, we show that such a phenomenon holds in the presence of long range interactions, ingredient which increases the flow and the rectification in chains of classical oscillators, and so, of interest in the study of manipulation and control of the energy flow.     

Electrostatic pair creation and recombination in quantum plasmas

The production of electron-positron pairs by electrostatic waves in quantum plasmas is investigated. In particular, a semiclassical governing set of equations for a self-consistent treatment of pair creation by the Schwinger mechanism in a quantum plasma is derived. This article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Neutron diffraction at a moving grating as a nonstationary quantum phenomenon

The observation of the discrete energy spectrum in a new experiment on the diffraction of ultracold neutrons at a moving phase grating is reported. The results are in quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions and can be treated as additional evidence of the validity of the plane-wave representation of the initial neutron state.     

Evidence of quantum interference in transport properties of a triple quantum dot T-shape system

We consider the transport and the noise characteristic in the case of a triple quantum dots T-shape system where two of the dots form a two-level system and the other works in a detector-like setup. Our theoretical results are obtained using the equation of motion method for the case of zero and finite on-site Coulomb interaction in the detector dot. We present analytic results for the electronic Green’s functions in the system’s component quantum dots, and we used numerical calculations to evaluate the system’s transport properties. The transport trough the T-shaped system can be controlled by varying the coupling between the two-level system dots or the coupling between the detector dot and the exterior electrodes. The system’s conductance presents Fano dips for both strong (fast detector) and weak coupling (slow detector) between the detector dot and the external electrodes. Due to stronger electronic correlations the noise characteristics in the case of a slow detector are much higher. This setup may be of interest for the practical realization of qubit states in quantum dots systems.