Quantum information-holding single-photon router based on spontaneous emission

In this paper, we propose a single-photon router via the use of a four-level atom system coupled with two one-dimensional coupled-resonator waveguides. A single photon can be directed from one quantum channel into another by atomic spontaneous emission. The coherent resonance and the photonic bound states lead to the perfect reflection appearing in the incident channel. The fidelity of the atom is related to the magnitude of the coupling strength and can reach unit when the coupling strength matches g _a = g _b . This shows that the transfer of a single photon into another quantum channel has no influence on the fidelity at special points.     

Fermion superfluid with hybridized <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>- and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-wave pairings

Ever since the pioneering work of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer in the 1950s, exploring novel pairing mechanisms for fermion superfluids has become one of the central tasks in modern physics. Here, we investigate a new type of fermion superfluid with hybridized s- and p-wave pairings in an ultracold spin-1/2 Fermi gas. Its occurrence is facilitated by the co-existence of comparable s- and p-wave interactions, which is realizable in a two-component ⁴⁰K Fermi gas with close-by s- and p-wave Feshbach resonances. The hybridized superfluid state is stable over a considerable parameter region on the phase diagram, and can lead to intriguing patterns of spin densities and pairing fields in momentum space. In particular, it can induce a phase-locked p-wave pairing in the fermion species that has no p-wave interactions. The hybridized nature of this novel superfluid can also be confirmed by measuring the s- and p-wave contacts, which can be extracted from the high-momentum tail of the momentum distribution of each spin component. These results enrich our knowledge of pairing superfluidity in Fermi systems, and open the avenue for achieving novel fermion superfluids with multiple partial-wave scatterings in cold atomic gases.     

Double-temperature ratchet model and current reversal of coupled Brownian motors

On the basis of the transport features and experimental phenomena observed in studies of molecular motors, we propose a double-temperature ratchet model of coupled motors to reveal the dynamical mechanism of cooperative transport of motors with two heads, where the interactions and asynchrony between two motor heads are taken into account. We investigate the collective unidirectional transport of coupled system and find that the direction of motion can be reversed under certain conditions. Reverse motion can be achieved by modulating the coupling strength, coupling free length, and asymmetric coefficient of the periodic potential, which is understood in terms of the effective potential theory. The dependence of the directed current on various parameters is studied systematically. Directed transport of coupled Brownian motors can be manipulated and optimized by adjusting the pulsation period or the phase shift of the pulsation temperature.     

Fractal character of effective Hall properties of a three-dimensional disordered composite

The dependencies of the effective Hall properties on a scale, obtained by means of an iterative averaging method, manifest their fractal character. The influence of an intensity of the Hall effect on the fractal character of the Hall properties was considered. Scale ranges and dimensional characteristics of the effective Hall properties behavior were calculated and discussed.     

Dilatancy Transition in a Granular Model

We introduce a model of granular matter and use a volume/strain ensemble to analyze infinitesimal shearing. Monte Carlo simulation suggests the model exhibits a second order phase transition associated with the onset of dilatancy.     

Factorization and Dilation Problems for Completely Positive Maps on von Neumann Algebras

We study factorization and dilation properties of Markov maps between von Neumann algebras equipped with normal faithful states, i.e., completely positive unital maps which preserve the given states and also intertwine their automorphism groups. The starting point for our investigation has been the question of existence of non-factorizable Markov maps, as formulated by C. Anantharaman-Delaroche. We provide simple examples of non-factorizable Markov maps on M_n(\mathbbC){M_n(\mathbb{C})} for all n ≥ 3, as well as an example of a one-parameter semigroup (T(t)) _t≥0 of Markov maps on M₄(\mathbbC){M_4(\mathbb{C})} such that T(t) fails to be factorizable for all small values of t > 0. As applications, we solve in the negative an open problem in quantum information theory concerning an asymptotic version of the quantum Birkhoff conjecture, as well as we sharpen the existing lower bound estimate for the best constant in the noncommutative little Grothendieck inequality.     

Splitting Quantum Information with Five-Atom Cluster State in Cavity QED

A realizable scheme is proposed for implementing quantum information splitting with five-atom cluster state in cavity QED, where we explicitly illustrate the procedure. The scheme does not involve Bell-state measurement and is insensitive to the cavity and the thermal field.     

The More the Merrier?

The trade-off between traits in life-history strategies has been widely studied for sexual and parthenogenetic organisms, but relatively little is known about the reproduction strategies of asexual animals. Here, we investigate clonal reproduction in the freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, an important model organism for regeneration and stem cell research. We find that these flatworms adopt a randomized reproduction strategy that comprises both asymmetric binary fission and fragmentation (generation of multiple offspring during a reproduction cycle). Fragmentation in planarians has primarily been regarded as an abnormal behavior in the past; using a large-scale experimental approach, we now show that about one third of the reproduction events in S. mediterranea are fragmentations, implying that fragmentation is part of their normal reproductive behavior. Our analysis further suggests that certain characteristic aspects of the reproduction statistics can be explained in terms of a maximum relative entropy principle.     

Slicing and Dicing the Genome: A Statistical Physics Approach to Population Genetics

The inference of past demographic parameters from current genetic polymorphism is a fundamental problem in population genetics. The standard techniques utilize a reconstruction of the gene-genealogy, a cumbersome process that may be applied only to small numbers of sequences. We present a method that compares the total number of haplotypes (distinct sequences) with the model prediction. By chopping the DNA sequence into pieces we condense the immense information hidden in sequence space into a function for the number of haplotypes versus subsequence size. The details of this curve are robust to statistical fluctuations and are seen to reflect the process parameters. This procedure allows for a clear visualization of the quality of the fit and, crucially, the numerical complexity grows only linearly with the number of sequences. Our procedure is tested against both simulated data as well as empirical mtDNA data from China and provides excellent fits in both cases.