Sustained photon pulse revivals from inhomogeneously broadened spin ensembles

A very promising recent trend in applied quantum physics is to combine the advantageous features of different quantum systems into what is called “hybrid quantum technology”. One of the key elements in this new field will have to be a quantum memory enabling to store quanta over extended periods of time. Systems that may fulfill the demands of such applications are comb‐shaped spin ensembles coupled to a cavity. Due to the decoherence induced by the inhomogeneous ensemble broadening, the storage time of these quantum memories is, however, still rather limited. Here we demonstrate how to overcome this problem by burning well‐placed holes into the spectral spin density leading to spectacular performance in the multimode regime. Specifically, we show how an initial excitation of the ensemble leads to the emission of more than a hundred well‐separated photon pulses with a decay rate significantly below the fundamental limit of the recently proposed “cavity protection effect”.

     

What Hinders Electron Transfer Dissociation (ETD) of DNA Cations?

Radical activation methods, such as electron transfer dissociation (ETD), produce structural information complementary to collision-induced dissociation. Herein, electron transfer dissociation of 3-fold protonated DNA hexamers was studied to gain insight into the fragmentation mechanism. The fragmentation patterns of a large set of DNA hexamers confirm cytosine as the primary target of electron transfer. The reported data reveal backbone cleavage by internal electron transfer from the nucleobase to the phosphate linker leading either to a?/w or d/z? ion pairs. This reaction pathway contrasts with previous findings on the dissociation processes after electron capture by DNA cations, suggesting multiple, parallel dissociation channels. However, all these channels merely result in partial fragmentation of the precursor ion because the charge-reduced DNA radical cations are quite stable. Two hypotheses are put forward to explain the low dissociation yield of DNA radical cations: it is either attributed to non-covalent interactions between complementary fragments or to the stabilization of the unpaired electron in stacked nucleobases. MS³ experiments suggest that the charge-reduced species is the intact oligonucleotide. Moreover, introducing abasic sites significantly increases the dissociation yield of DNA cations. Consequently, the stabilization of the unpaired electron by π–π-stacking provides an appropriate rationale for the high intensity of DNA radical cations after electron transfer.

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Solving the robust two-stage capacitated facility location problem with uncertain transportation costs

In this study, we start from a multi-source variant of the two-stage capacitated facility location problem (TSCFLP) and propose a robust optimization model of the problem that involves the uncertainty of transportation costs. Since large dimensions of the robust TSCFLP could not be solved to optimality, we design a memetic algorithm (MA), which represents a combination of an evolutionary algorithm (EA) and a modified simulated annealing heuristic (SA) that uses a short-term memory of undesirable moves from previous iterations. A set of computational experiments is conducted to examine the impact of different protection levels on the deviation of the objective function value. We also investigate the impact of variations of transportation costs that may occur on both transhipment stages on the total cost for a fixed protection level. The obtained results may help in identifying a sustainable and efficient strategy for designing a two stage capacitated transportation network with uncertain transportation costs, and may be applicable in the design and management of similar transportation networks.     

Dijkstra meets Steiner: a fast exact goal-oriented Steiner tree algorithm

We present a new exact algorithm for the Steiner tree problem in edge-weighted graphs. Our algorithm improves the classical dynamic programming approach by Dreyfus and Wagner. We achieve a significantly better practical performance via pruning and future costs, a generalization of a well-known concept to speed up shortest path computations. Our algorithm matches the best known worst-case run time and has a fast, often superior, practical performance: on some large instances originating from VLSI design, previous best run times are improved upon by orders of magnitudes. We are also able to solve larger instances of the d-dimensional rectilinear Steiner tree problem for \(d \in \{3, 4, 5\}\), whose Hanan grids contain up to several millions of edges.     

A heuristic approach for dividing graphs into bi-connected components with a size constraint

In this paper we propose a new problem of finding the maximal bi-connected partitioning of a graph with a size constraint (MBCPG-SC). With the goal of finding approximate solutions for the MBCPG-SC, a heuristic method is developed based on the open ear decomposition of graphs. Its essential part is an adaptation of the breadth first search which makes it possible to grow bi-connected subgraphs. The proposed randomized algorithm consists of growing several subgraphs in parallel. The quality of solutions generated in this way is further improved using a local search which exploits neighboring relations between the subgraphs. In order to evaluate the performance of the method, an algorithm for generating pseudo-random unit disc graphs with known optimal solutions is created. Computational experiments have also been conducted on graphs representing electrical distribution systems for the real-world problem of dividing them into a system of fault tolerant interconnected microgrids. The experiments show that the proposed method frequently manages to find optimal solutions and has an average error of only a few percent to known optimal solutions. Further, it manages to find high quality approximate solutions for graphs having up to 10,000 nodes in reasonable time.     

An optimal reinsurance problem in the Cramér–Lundberg model

In this article we consider the surplus process of an insurance company within the Cramér–Lundberg framework with the intention of controlling its performance by means of dynamic reinsurance. Our aim is to find a general dynamic reinsurance strategy that maximizes the expected discounted surplus level integrated over time. Using analytical methods we identify the value function as a particular solution to the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation. This approach leads to an implementable numerical method for approximating the value function and optimal reinsurance strategy. Furthermore we give some examples illustrating the applicability of this method for proportional and XL-reinsurance treaties.     

Semi-Markov Modelling for Multi-State Systems

In this work we focus on multi state systems that we model by means of semi-Markov processes. The sojourn times are seen to be independent not identically distributed random variables and assumed to belong to a general class of distributions that includes several popular reliability distributions like the exponential, Weibull, and Pareto. We obtain maximum likelihood estimators of the parameters of interest and investigate their asymptotic properties. Plug-in type estimators are furnished for various quantities related to the system under study.     

Investigation of discrete stress distribution for dry powder compaction using Discrete Element Method and weighted Voronoi tesselation

Powder compaction of granular material plays a substantial role in the manufacturing process of ceramics industry and powder metallurgy industry. The compaction behaviour is ruled by granular flow and densification of deformable particles. Discrete element method (DEM) allows to investigate the powder compaction process numerically on the microscale by modeling the forces on the particle level and simulating the particle motion. Three-dimensional data about particle size distribution and spatial structure of the particle packing can be extracted from micro-computed tomography (µCT). An average stress tensor can be computed from DEM results, evaluating the contact forces and the distances from the particle center to the contact point with respect to an average cell volume. A weighted Voronoi tesselation of the polydisperse particle assembly is proposed for mapping a cell volume to each individual particle. With this approach all structural information of the particle system can be transferred from a discrete particle model to a heterogeneous volume model of micro-structure. Discrete stress distributions for uniaxial powder compaction are presented. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Hybrid computational aeroacoustics based on compressible flow data at low Mach numbers

In some practical applications (e.g. cavity with a lip), even at low Mach numbers, acoustic feedback mechanisms excite flow structures. The compressible flow simulation cannot distinguish between a pure fluid dynamic part and acoustic phenomena. With this in mind, we propose a workflow based on Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition, to extract pure source terms of the compressible flow simulation, to model the sound radiation. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)