Experimental realization of linear-optical partial swap gates

We present a linear-optical implementation of a class of two-qubit partial SWAP gates for polarization states of photons. Different gate operations, including the SWAP and entangling sqrt[SWAP], can be obtained by changing a classical control parameter, namely, the path difference in the interferometer. Reconstruction of output states, full quantum process tomography, and an evaluation of entanglement of formation prove very good performance of the gates.     

Water Transport in Bio-based Porous Materials: A Model of Local Kinetics of Sorption—Application to Three Hemp Concretes

Transport in Porous Media - The classic models describing the hygric mass transfers inside porous materials seem unsuitable in the case of bio-based materials. They are based on the assumption of...     

Hydrodynamic Limit of the Symmetric Exclusion Process on a Compact Riemannian Manifold

Journal of Statistical Physics - We consider the symmetric exclusion process on suitable random grids that approximate a compact Riemannian manifold. We prove that a class of random walks on these...     

A two-class discrete-time queueing model with two dedicated servers and global FCFS service discipline

This paper considers a simple discrete-time queueing model with two types (classes) of customers (types 1 and 2) each having their own dedicated server (servers A and B resp.). New customers enter the system according to a general independent arrival process, i.e., the total numbers of arrivals during consecutive time slots are i.i.d. random variables with arbitrary distribution. Service times are deterministically equal to 1 slot each. The system uses a “global FCFS” service discipline, i.e., all arriving customers are accommodated in one single FCFS queue, regardless of their types. As a consequence of the “global FCFS” rule, customers of one type may be blocked by customers of the other type, in that they may be unable to reach their dedicated server even at times when this server is idle, i.e., the system is basically non-workconserving. One major aim of the paper is to estimate the negative impact of this phenomenon on the queueing performance of the system, in terms of the achievable throughput, the system occupancy, the idle probability of each server and the delay. As it is clear that customers of different types hinder each other more as they tend to arrive in the system more clustered according to class, the degree of “class clustering” in the arrival process is explicitly modeled in the paper and its very direct impact on the performance measures is revealed. The motivation of our work are systems where this kind of blocking is encountered, such as input-queueing network switches or road splits.     

Gaining insight into student satisfaction using comprehensible data mining techniques

As a consequence of the heightened competition on the education market, the management of educational institutions often attempts to collect information on what drives student satisfaction by e.g. organizing large scale surveys amongst the student population. Until now, this source of potentially very valuable information remains largely untapped. In this study, we address this issue by investigating the applicability of different data mining techniques to identify the main drivers of student satisfaction in two business education institutions. In the end, the resulting models are to be used by the management to support the strategic decision making process. Hence, the aspect of model comprehensibility is considered to be at least equally important as model performance. It is found that data mining techniques are able to select a surprisingly small number of constructs that require attention in order to manage student satisfaction.     

Influence of Ga/(Ga + In) grading on deep‐defect states of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

The benefits of gallium (Ga) grading on Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell performance are demonstrated by comparing with ungraded CIGS cells. Using drive‐level capacitance profiling (DLCP) and admittance spectroscopy (AS) analyses, we show the influence of Ga grading on the spatial variation of deep defects, free‐carrier densities in the CIGS absorber, and their impact on the cell's open‐circuit voltage V_oc. The parameter most constraining the cell's V_oc is found to be the deep‐defect density close to the space charge region (SCR). In ungraded devices, high deep‐defect concentrations (4.2 × 10¹⁶cm^–3) were observed near the SCR, offering a source for Shockley–Read–Hall recombination, reducing the cell's V_oc. In graded devices, the deep‐defect densities near the SCR decreased by one order of magnitude (2.5 × 10¹⁵ cm^–3) for back surface graded devices, and almost two orders of magnitude (8.6 × 10¹⁴ cm^–3) for double surface graded devices, enhancing the cell's V_oc. In compositionally graded devices, the free‐carrier density in the absorber's bulk decreased in tandem with the ratio of gallium to gallium plus indium ratio GGI = Ga/(Ga + In), increasing the activation energy, hindering the ionization of the defect states at room temperature and enhancing their role as recombination centers within the energy band. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The valuations of the near hexagons related to the Witt designs S(5,6,12) and S(5,8,24)

Valuations of dense near polygons were introduced in 16 . In the present paper, we classify all valuations of the near hexagons ??₁ and ??₂, which are related to the respective Witt designs S(5,6,12) and S(5,8,24). Using these classifications, we prove that if a dense near polygon S contains a hex H isomorphic to ??₁ or ??₂, then H is classical in S. We will use this result to determine all dense near octagons that contain a hex isomorphic to ??₁ or ??₂. As a by‐product, we obtain a purely geometrical proof for the nonexistence of regular near 2d‐gons, d ≥ 4, whose parameters s, t, t_i (0 ≤ i ≤ d) satisfy (s, t₂, t₃) = (2, 1, 11) or (2, 2, 14). The nonexistence of these regular near polygons can also be shown with the aid of eigenvalue techniques. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 214–228, 2006     

Polycapillary‐optics‐based micro‐XANES and micro‐EXAFS at a third‐generation bending‐magnet beamline

A focusing system based on a polycapillary half‐lens optic has been successfully tested for transmission and fluorescence µ‐X‐ray absorption spectroscopy at a third‐generation bending‐magnet beamline equipped with a non‐fixed‐exit Si(111) monochromator. The vertical positional variations of the X‐ray beam owing to the use of a non‐fixed‐exit monochromator were shown to pose only a limited problem by using the polycapillary optic. The expected height variation for an EXAFS scan around the Fe K‐edge is approximately 200 µm on the lens input side and this was reduced to ～1 µm for the focused beam. Beam sizes (FWHM) of 12–16 µm, transmission efficiencies of 25–45% and intensity gain factors, compared with the non‐focused beam, of about 2000 were obtained in the 7–14 keV energy range for an incoming beam of 0.5 × 2 mm (vertical × horizontal). As a practical application, an As K‐edge µ‐XANES study of cucumber root and hypocotyl was performed to determine the As oxidation state in the different plant parts and to identify a possible metabolic conversion by the plant.     

Cost estimation algorithm and decision-making model for curriculum modification in educational organization

The decision about curriculum modification usually takes place at the knowledge level, mainly with consideration of individual academic staff competences and qualifications. However, traditional approaches to cost estimation of curriculum modification are focused on material resources only. In this paper we present a cost estimation method and decision model for curriculum modification in educational organizations. The proposed method works at the knowledge level and employs competence sets as knowledge representation models in educational organizations. Authors used the theory of hierarchical, multilevel systems in order to define the model of the decision-making process of curriculum modification and its dimension. Basing on this and also using a fuzzy competence model the cost estimation algorithm in the form of a group competences expansion algorithm is proposed. The algorithm focuses on the cost of staff competence expansion caused by the knowledge development process.     

Characterizations of the Suzuki tower near polygons

In recent work, we constructed a new near octagon \(\mathcal {G}\) from certain involutions of the finite simple group \(G_2(4)\) and showed a correspondence between the Suzuki tower of finite simple groups, \(L_3(2)< U_3(3)< J_2< G_2(4) < Suz\), and the tower of near polygons, \(\mathrm {H}(2,1) \subset \mathrm {H}(2)^D \subset \mathsf {HJ} \subset \mathcal {G}\). Here we characterize each of these near polygons (except for the first one) as the unique near polygon of the given order and diameter containing an isometrically embedded copy of the previous near polygon of the tower. In particular, our characterization of the Hall–Janko near octagon \(\mathsf {HJ}\) is similar to an earlier characterization due to Cohen and Tits who proved that it is the unique regular near octagon with parameters (2, 4; 0, 3), but instead of regularity we assume existence of an isometrically embedded dual split Cayley hexagon, \(\mathrm {H}(2)^D\). We also give a complete classification of near hexagons of order (2, 2) and use it to prove the uniqueness result for \(\mathrm {H}(2)^D\).