Stability of a straight bar of variable rigidity

We consider the longitudinal compression of a straight bar whose rigidity is a periodic integrable function of the longitudinal coordinate. For a hinged bar with one clamped end, we obtain approximate analytic formulas that permit obtaining the critical compressing loads under which an adjacent, curved form of equilibrium is possible. In the case of a bar of stepwise varying rigidity that consists of a single period (the limit case), we compare the results obtained by our formulas with the already known exact solutions of the stability equation. A good agreement between the approximate and exact results is shown.     

Feedback in the problem of distinguishing between two nonorthogonal coherent states

Feedback is proposed for distinguishing between two weak coherent states with phases differing by ∼π. The mutual nonorthogonality of such states gives rise to a discrimination error, which can be reduced by using feedback. An optical quantum channel is discussed where the input is classical information encoded in two weak coherent states. For a channel with feedback, the discrimination error probability is calculated, and the mutual entropy that quantifies the fidelity between input and output is evaluated. We find that the use of a feedback loop in a quantum communication channel can increase the mutual entropy when canonical position or photon number is measured.