Dynamics of entanglement in quantum computers with imperfections

The dynamics of the pairwise entanglement in a qubit lattice in the presence of static imperfections exhibits different regimes. We show that there is a transition from a perturbative region, where the entanglement is stable against imperfections, to the ergodic regime, in which a pair of qubits becomes entangled with the rest of the lattice and the pairwise entanglement drops to zero. The transition is almost independent of the size of the quantum computer. We consider both the case of an initial maximally entangled and separable state. In this last case there is a broad crossover region in which the computer imperfections can be used to create a significant amount of pairwise entanglement.     

Facile determination of the protecting group location of Nim-protected histidine derivatives by 1H-15N heteronuclear correlation NMR

The positioning of the imidazole protecting group of several histidine derivatives was determined by means of (1)H-(15)N heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation NMR experiments. The cross-peak originated from the three-bond correlation between the histidine side-chain H(beta) and the imidazole N(pi) was used for the identification of the N(pi) signal in the (15)N spectrum. Therefore, based on the fact that the signal of the substituted imidazole nitrogen appears always at lower chemical shift (delta) than the unsubstituted one, the position of the blocking group could easily be inferred. The obtained data confirmed previous findings that were accomplished with other less generally applicable spectroscopic or crystallographic techniques.     

Removal and sensing of emerging pollutants released from (micro)plastic degradation: Strategies based on boron-doped diamond electrodes

The negative impacts of microplastics on the environment and human health cannot be unnoticed. Several classes of emerging pollutants with endocrine-disrupting properties such as bisphenol A and its analogs, phthalates, among others, have been reported to migrate out of plastics entering the aquatic environment. Thus, this review aims to draw attention to the significant potential of the boron-doped diamond electrode to contribute to the implementation of mitigation actions for microplastic pollutants. The latest studies in the two main fields of the use of the boron-doped diamond electrode, that is, treatment of wastewater by electrochemical oxidation and a as sensor for pollutants monitoring, are herein reviewed and their main findings highlighted.     

Large deviations for generalized Polya urns with arbitrary urn function

We consider a generalized two-color Polya urn (black and white balls) first introduced by Hill et al. (1980), where the urn composition evolves as follows: let $\pi :\left[0,1\right]\to \left[0,1\right]$, and denote by $x_n$ the fraction of black balls after step $n$, then at step $n+1$ a black ball is added with probability $\pi \left(x_n\right)$ and a white ball is added with probability $1?\pi \left(x_n\right)$. Originally introduced to mimic attachment under imperfect information, this model has found applications in many fields, ranging from Market Share modeling to polymer physics and biology.In this work we discuss large deviations for a wide class of continuous urn functions $\pi$. In particular, we prove that this process satisfies a Sample-Path Large Deviations principle, also providing a variational representation for the rate function. Then, we derive a variational representation for the limit

$?\left(s\right)=\underset{n\to \infty }{lim}\frac{1}{n}log\mathbb{P}\left(n{x}_n=?sn?\right),s\in \left[0,1\right],$

where $n{x}_n$ is the number of black balls at time $n$, and use it to give some insight on the shape of $?\left(s\right)$. Under suitable assumptions on $\pi$ we are able to identify the optimal trajectory. We also find a non-linear Cauchy problem for the Cumulant Generating Function and provide an explicit analysis for some selected examples. In particular we discuss the linear case, which embeds the Bagchi–Pal Model [6], giving the exact implicit expression for $?$ in terms of the Cumulant Generating Function.     

Robust optimal quantum gates for Josephson charge qubits

Quantum optimal control theory allows us to design accurate quantum gates. We employ it to design high-fidelity two-bit gates for Josephson charge qubits in the presence of both leakage and noise. Our protocol considerably increases the fidelity of the gate and, more important, it is quite robust in the disruptive presence of 1/f noise. The improvement in the gate performances discussed in this work (errors approximately 10(-3)-10(-4) in realistic cases) allows us to cross the fault tolerance threshold.     

Singing proficiency in the general population

Most believe that the ability to carry a tune is unevenly distributed in the general population. To test this claim, we asked occasional singers (n=62) to sing a well-known song in both the laboratory and in a natural setting (experiment 1). Sung performances were judged by peers for proficiency, analyzed for pitch and time accuracy with an acoustic-based method, and compared to professional singing. The peer ratings for the proficiency of occasional singers were normally distributed. Only a minority of the occasional singers made numerous pitch errors. The variance in singing proficiency was largely due to tempo differences. Occasional singers tended to sing at a faster tempo and with more pitch and time errors relative to professional singers. In experiment 2 15 nonmusicians from experiment 1 sang the same song at a slow tempo. In this condition, most of the occasional singers sang as accurately as the professional singers. Thus, singing appears to be a universal human trait. However, two of the occasional singers maintained a high rate of pitch errors at the slower tempo. This poor performance was not due to impaired pitch perception, thus suggesting the existence of a purely vocal form of tone deafness.     

Efficient particle labeling in atomistic simulations

The authors develop an efficient particle labeling procedure based on a linked cell algorithm which is shown to reduce the computing time for a molecular dynamics simulation by a factor of 3. They prove that the improvement of performance is due to the efficient fulfillment of both spatial and temporal locality principles, as implemented by the contiguity of labels corresponding to interacting atoms. Finally, they show that the present label reordering procedure can be used to devise an efficient parallel one-dimensional domain decomposition molecular dynamics scheme.