Effect of Environment on the Scattering of Electrons by a Junction of Different Topological Materials

The studies of electron transport through a junction of topological materials in the literature so far ignore the coupling of a topological material to its surrounding environment. Here, the dynamics of an open system through a stochastic Hamiltonian are simulated to investigate the influence of the environment on the scattering of electrons by a junction of different topological materials, such as a Dirac–Weyl magnetic junction and a topological insulator. It is found that, although the detrimental effect of the environment is inevitable, the Landauer conductance can be enhanced via adjusting the system–environment coupling strength. This result supplies the possibilty of changing the transport feature of topological materials by modulating the surrounded environment. It is also demonstrated that a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian can be used to replace the stochastic Hamiltonian for this study, when the system and the environment coupling are weak.     

Spectrum of Single-Photon Scattering in a Strong-Coupling Hybrid Optomechanical System

The single-photon excitation and transmission spectra of strong-coupling hybrid optomechanics are theoretically analyzed, where a two-level system (TLS) is coupled to a mechanical resonator (MR), generating Jaynes–Cummings-type polariton doublets. In this model, both the optomechanical coupling and the TLS-MR coupling are strong. In this parameter region, polaron-assisted excitation reemission processes can strongly affect the single-photon excitation and output spectra of the cavity. It is found that the fine structure around each sideband can be used to characterize the TLS-MR and the effective TLS-photon couplings, even at the single-quantum level. Thus, the spectrum structures may make it possible to sensitively probe the quantum nature of a macroscopic mechanical element. A possible approach for tomographic reconstruction of the state of a TLS, utilizing the single-photon transmission spectra, is further provided.     

Evolution of Classical and Quantum States in the Groupoid Picture of Quantum Mechanics

The evolution of states of the composition of classical and quantum systems in the groupoid formalism for physical theories introduced recently is discussed. It is shown that the notion of a classical system, in the sense of Birkhoff and von Neumann, is equivalent, in the case of systems with a countable number of outputs, to a totally disconnected groupoid with Abelian von Neumann algebra. The impossibility of evolving a separable state of a composite system made up of a classical and a quantum one into an entangled state by means of a unitary evolution is proven in accordance with Raggio’s theorem, which is extended to include a new family of separable states corresponding to the composition of a system with a totally disconnected space of outcomes and a quantum one.     

Convolutional Neural Network Approach for Multispectral Facial Presentation Attack Detection in Automated Border Control Systems

Automated border control systems are the first critical infrastructure point when crossing a border country. Crossing border lines for unauthorized passengers is a high security risk to any country. This paper presents a multispectral analysis of presentation attack detection for facial biometrics using the learned features from a convolutional neural network. Three sensors are considered to design and develop a new database that is composed of visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), and thermal images. Most studies are based on laboratory or ideal conditions-controlled environments. However, in a real scenario, a subject’s situation is completely modified due to diverse physiological conditions, such as stress, temperature changes, sweating, and increased blood pressure. For this reason, the added value of this study is that this database was acquired in situ. The attacks considered were printed, masked, and displayed images. In addition, five classifiers were used to detect the presentation attack. Note that thermal sensors provide better performance than other solutions. The results present better outputs when all sensors are used together, regardless of whether classifier or feature-level fusion is considered. Finally, classifiers such as KNN or SVM show high performance and low computational level.     

Numerical approach for the evolution of spin-boson systems and its application to the Buck–Sukumar model

We study the evolution properties of spin-boson systems by a systematic numerical iteration approach, which performs well in the whole coupling regime. This approach evaluates a set of coefficients in the formal expression of the time-dependent Schr?dinger equation by expanding the initial state in Fock space. This set of coefficients is unique for the spin-boson Hamiltonian studied, allowing one to calculate the time evolution from different initial states. To complement our numerical calculations, we apply the method to the Buck–Sukumar model. We find that when the ground-state energy of the model is unbounded and no ground state exists in a certain parameter space, the time evolution of the physical quantities is naturally unstable.     

Study of nucleon-nucleon and alphanucleon elastic scattering by the Manning-Rosen potential

Although often used in molecular dynamics, in this work the Manning–Rosen potential is parameterized to compute the scattering phase shifts for the nucleon–nucleon and the alpha-nucleon systems by exploiting the standard phase function method. We obtain excellent agreement in phase shifts with the more sophisticated calculations up to partial waves ${\ell }=2.$     

Fourier acceleration of iterative processes in disordered systems

Technical details are given on how to use Fourier acceleration with iterative processes such as relaxation and conjugate gradient methods. These methods are often used to solve large linear systems of equations, but become hopelessly slow very rapidly as the size of the set of equations to be solved increases. Fourier acceleration is a method designed to alleviate these problems and result in a very fast algorithm. The method is explained for the Jacobi relaxation and conjugate gradient methods and is applied to two models: the random resistor network and the random central-force network. In the first model, acceleration works very well; in the second, little is gained. We discuss reasons for this. We also include a discussion of stopping criteria.     

Solitons in Josephson junctions: An overview

The dynamics of the Josephson tunnel junction is approximately described by a perturbed sine-Gordon equation. The Josephson tunnel junction is thus a convenient experimental solid state device for the study of solitons and solitonlike phenomena. The physical manifestation of the soliton is a propagating magnetic flux quantum ( ₀=h/2e=2.064×10^–15 V sec). Basic properties of the soliton and its relation to observable experimental quantities (zero field steps, microwave radiation, etc.) are reviewed. Recent direct measurements of the actual soliton profile are also mentioned.     

新概念高能激光武器与强激光光学计量检测技术

新概念高能激光武器的研究与发展已有四十多年的历史。第一代高能激光武器主要采用连续波化学激光器，其输出功率可达百万瓦。第二代高能激光武器主要采用了波长更短的节能固体激光器件，其输出功率为100kW。与第一代高能化学激光武器采用超高能量直接烧毁杀伤目标不同，第二代高能固体激光武器寻求节能型杀伤方式，即以最小程度的破坏来实现致命杀伤的效果。随着高能激光武器的发展和实战部署，作为高能激光武器核心的高能激光系统总体性能参数(能量/功率、激光波形、光束质量、近场和远场的强度分布、光束指向稳定性、光谱和偏振特性等)的计量和测试显得尤为重要。文中围绕新概念高能激光武器的历史、研究现状和未来发展展开论述。高能激光武器系统的研制对强激光光学计量检测技术提出的新要求和挑战有助于推进强激光光学计量检测技术的发展。     

Statistical mechanics of a dynamical system based on Conway's game of Life

We study a discrete dynamical system whose evolution is governed by rules similar to those of Conway's game of Life but also include a stochastic element (parametrized by a temperature). Statistical properties that are examined are density as a function of temperature and entropy (suitably defined). A phase transition and a certain thermodynamic constant of the motion are observed.Lady Davis Visiting Scientist at the Technion 1974–75.