Climbing Mount Scalable: Physical Resource Requirements for a Scalable Quantum Computer

The primary resource for quantum computation is Hilbert-space dimension. Whereas Hilbert space itself is an abstract construction, the number of dimensions available to a system is a physical quantity that requires physical resources. Avoiding a demand for an exponential amount of these resources places a fundamental constraint on the systems that are suitable for scalable quantum computation. To be scalable, the effective number of degrees of freedom in the computer must grow nearly linearly with the number of qubits in an equivalent qubit-based quantum computer.     

UV curing of a novel resin derived from poly(ethylene terephthalate)

The synthesis and characterization of photopolymerizable unsaturated polyester resins based on PET waste are described. The resins came from a depolymerization process based on the glycolysis of PET by diethylene glycol (DEG). Different molecular weights of glycolysates were synthesized. Then, the latter was functionalized by a methyl hemiester of maleic acid to obtain unsatured α,ω‐bismaleate PET oligomers. In the presence of an electron donor monomer, such as triethylene glycol divinyl ether, these electron acceptor oligomers were copolymerized by way of charge‐transfer complexes under UV irradiation. The reaction was monitored in situ by real‐time IR spectroscopy to study the kinetics of photopolymerization. This one was studied in relation with the physical and chemical characteristics of oligoesters and the composition of mixtures containing divinyl ethers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1324–1335, 2007     

Tunnelling in periodically driven systems

Tunnelling in periodically driven bistable symmetric potential wells is investigated in an analytical approximation in a domain where the driving frequency is large compared to the tunnelling frequency and only the four lowest lying levels contribute significantly. The influence of finite level widths is taken into account, and a smooth variation of the amplitude of the driving field is allowed for.     

A Diepoxide Belonging to the Rare C1 Point Group

2,6- and 2,7-Dimethylanthracenes were reduced seriatim with lithium in liquid ammonia and lithium in methylamine to their 1,4,5,8,9,10-hexahydro derivatives. Two-fold epoxidation of these tetraenes provided the cis and trans diepoxides resulting from electrophilic attack at the inner double bonds. Trans diepoxide 1 has the very unusual characteristic of lacking a σ plane of symmetry but possessing an inversion center. As a consequence, the ¹H NMR spectrum of C₁-symmetric 1 is simplified relative to those of its isomers 5, 9, and 10.     

An iterative procedure for differential analysis of gene expression

Microarrays are a popular technology to study genes that are differentially expressed between two conditions. In this Note, we propose an iterative procedure to determine the biggest subset of non-differentially expressed genes. We prove a pseudo Markov relationship that allows practical computations. We obtain explicit expressions for FDR and the level of the proposed test at each step. To cite this article: A. Bar-Hen, S. Robin, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

Role of the microstructure on the transport properties of Y-doped zirconia and Gd-doped ceria

Transmission electron microscopy characterizations and XPS analyses have allowed us to show the influence of the microstructure and nanochemistry on the transport properties of Y₂O₃-(9 mol%)-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and Gd₂O₃ (10 mol%)-doped ceria (GDC). The grain boundary electrical conductivity (σ_gb) and oxygen diffusion coefficient (D_o) of conventional YSZ ceramics increase with the grain size, while an opposite behavior was found for GDC samples. This difference was attributed to glassy precipitates present at YSZ grain boundaries. Furthermore, it was shown that kinetic demixing processes take place during cooling, at the end of sintering. This causes important changes in the cationic species distribution at interfaces and plays an important role on the transport properties of these two materials. Paper presented at the 9th EuroConference on Ionics, Ixia, Rhodes, Greece, Sept. 15 – 21, 2002.     

Generalized Rotation numbers

A rooted graph is a pair (G,x), where G is a simple undirected graph and x ∈ V(G). If G is rooted at x, its kth rotation number h_k (G,x) is the minimum number of edges in a graph F of order |G| + k such that for every v ∈ V(F) we can find a copy of G in F with the root vertex x at v. When k = 0, this definition reduces to that of the rotation number h(G,x), which was introduced in [“On Rotation Numbers for Complete Bipartite Graphs,” University of Victoria, Department of Mathematics Report No. DM-186-IR (1979)] by E.J. Cockayne and P.J. Lorimer and subsequently calculated for complete multipartite graphs. In this paper, we estimate the kth rotation number for complete bipartite graphs G with root x in the larger vertex class, thereby generalizing results of B. Bollobás and E.J. Cockayne [“More Rotation Numbers for Complete Bipartite Graphs,” Journal of Graph Theory, Vol. 6 (1982), pp. 403–411], J. Haviland [“Cliques and Independent Sets,” Ph. D. thesis, University of Cambridge (1989)], and J. Haviland and A. Thomason [“Rotation Numbers for Complete Bipartite Graphs,” Journal of Graph Theory, Vol. 16 (1992), pp. 61–71]. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.