Stochastic surrogate Hamiltonian

The surrogate Hamiltonian is a general scheme to simulate the many body quantum dynamics composed of a primary system coupled to a bath. The method has been based on a representative bath Hamiltonian composed of two-level systems that is able to mimic the true system-bath dynamics up to a prespecified time. The original surrogate Hamiltonian method is limited to short time dynamics since the size of the Hilbert space required to obtain convergence grows exponentially with time. By randomly swapping bath modes with a secondary thermal reservoir, the method can simulate quantum dynamics of the primary system from short times to thermal equilibrium. By averaging a small number of realizations converged values of the system observables are obtained avoiding the exponential increase in resources. The method is demonstrated for the equilibration of a molecular oscillator with a thermal bath.     

Field‐Effect Nanoparticle‐Based Glucose Sensor on a Chip: Amplification Effect of Coimmobilized Redox Species

A capacitive EIS (electrolyte‐insulator‐semiconductor) structure was modified with gold nanoparticles together with glucose oxidase and used as field‐effect‐based glucose biosensor using the constant capacitance mode. Co‐immobilization of ferrocene redox species resulted in a two‐fold increase of the biosensor sensitivity. The effect was explained by the hydrogen peroxide‐mediated oxidation of ferrocene resulting in a pool of charged species at the interface increasing the sensor response towards glucose. The studied approach was suggested as a general means to amplify signals from Si chip‐based field‐effect enzyme biosensors.     

Estimates for Mixed Character Sums

We give sharp estimates for certain families of exponential sums in several variables over finite fields. Received: May 2007, Accepted: September 2007     

High-fidelity gates in a single josephson qubit

We demonstrate new experimental procedures for measuring small errors in a superconducting quantum bit (qubit). By carefully separating out gate and measurement errors, we construct a complete error budget and demonstrate single qubit gate fidelities of 0.98, limited by energy relaxation. We also introduce a new metrology tool-- Ramsey interference error filter-that can measure the occupation probability of the state |2> which is outside the computational basis, down to 10{-4}, thereby confirming that our quantum system stays within the qubit manifold during single qubit logic operations.     

Experiments on the propagation of plasma filaments

We investigate experimentally the motion and structure of isolated plasma filaments propagating through neutral gas. Plasma filaments, or "blobs," arise from turbulent fluctuations in a range of plasmas. Our experimental geometry is toroidally symmetric, and the blobs expand to a larger major radius under the influence of a vertical electric field. The electric field, which is caused by nabla B and curvature drifts in a 1/R magnetic field, is limited by collisional damping on the neutral gas. The blob's electrostatic potential structure and the resulting E x B flow field give rise to a vortex pair and a mushroom shape, which are consistent with nonlinear plasma simulations. We observe experimentally this characteristic mushroom shape for the first time. We also find that the blob propagation velocity is inversely proportional to the neutral density and decreases with time as the blob cools.     

Excess Molar Volumes and Excess Viscosities of the Propan-2-ol + Tetrahydrofuran + 1-Chlorobutane Ternary System at 25°C

Excess molar volumes and excess viscosities of the propan-2-ol + tetrahydrofuran+ 1-chlorobutane system have been determined at 25°C from measurements ofdensities and viscosities. Various expressions are proposed in the literature tocalculate these excess properties from binary data. The empirical correlation ofCibulka is shown to be the best in this system for excess volume, viscosity, andenergy of activation for viscous flow. An application to excess molar volumeshas been made by using Flory's theory. For viscosities, we applied the equations ofGrunberg and Nissan, Katti and Chaudhri, Bloomfield and Dewan, and Wu—andfinally the GC-UNIMOD model.     

Nonconventional Stereochemical Issues in the Design of the Synthesis of the Vancomycin Antibiotics: Challenges Imposed by Axial and Nonplanar Chiral Elements in the Heptapeptide Aglycons

Controlling the elements of planar and axial chirality are the principal challenges in the synthesis of the aglycon of vancomycin. Vancomycin is the prototypical member of the glycopeptide family of antibiotics which are effective for the treatment of infections by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The first total syntheses of the vancomycin and eremomycin aglycons provide insight into the influence of structure on kinetic and thermodynamic control of atropselective macrocyclizations.