Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Conjugated Quantum Dots Inhibit The Amyloid Β (1–42) Fibrillation Process, Garima Thakur, Miodrag Micic, Yuehai Yang, Wenzhi Li, Dania Movia, Silvia Giordani, Hongzhou Zhou, Roger M. Levlanc Dec 2010

Conjugated Quantum Dots Inhibit The Amyloid Β (1–42) Fibrillation Process, Garima Thakur, Miodrag Micic, Yuehai Yang, Wenzhi Li, Dania Movia, Silvia Giordani, Hongzhou Zhou, Roger M. Levlanc

Department of Physics

Nanoparticles have enormous potential in diagnostic and therapeutic studies. We have demonstrated that the amyloid beta mixed with and conjugated to dihydrolipoic acid- (DHLA) capped CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) of size approximately 2.5 nm can be used to reduce the fibrillation process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used as tools for analysis of fibrillation. There is a significant change in morphology of fibrils when amyloid β (1–42) (Aβ (1–42)) is mixed or conjugated to the QDs. The length and the width of the fibrils vary under modified conditions. Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence supports the decrease …


Information-Preserving Structures: A General Framework For Quantum Zero-Error Information, Robin Blume-Kohout, Hui Khoon Ng, David Poulin, Lorenza Viola Dec 2010

Information-Preserving Structures: A General Framework For Quantum Zero-Error Information, Robin Blume-Kohout, Hui Khoon Ng, David Poulin, Lorenza Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

Quantum systems carry information. Quantum theory supports at least two distinct kinds of information (classical and quantum), and a variety of different ways to encode and preserve information in physical systems. A system’s ability to carry information is constrained and defined by the noise in its dynamics. This paper introduces an operational framework, using information-preserving structures, to classify all the kinds of information that can be perfectly (i.e., with zero error) preserved by quantum dynamics. We prove that every perfectly preserved code has the same structure as a matrix algebra, and that preserved information can always be corrected. We …


The Trilinear Hamiltonian: A Zero-Dimensional Model Of Hawking Radiation From A Quantized Source, Paul D. Nation, Miles P. Blencowe Sep 2010

The Trilinear Hamiltonian: A Zero-Dimensional Model Of Hawking Radiation From A Quantized Source, Paul D. Nation, Miles P. Blencowe

Dartmouth Scholarship

We investigate a quantum parametric amplifier with dynamical pump mode, viewed as a zero-dimensional model of Hawking radiation from an evaporating black hole. We derive the conditions under which the spectrum of particles generated from vacuum fluctuations deviates from the thermal spectrum predicted for the conventional parametric amplifier. We find that significant deviations arise when the pump mode (black hole) has emitted nearly half of its initial energy into the signal (Hawking radiation) and idler (in-falling particle) modes. As a model of black hole dynamics, this finding lends support to the view that late-time Hawking radiation contains information about the …


Exotic Smoothness In Four Dimensions And Euclidean Quantum Gravity, Christopher L. Duston May 2010

Exotic Smoothness In Four Dimensions And Euclidean Quantum Gravity, Christopher L. Duston

Physics Faculty Publications

In this paper we calculate the effect of the inclusion of exotic smooth structures on typical observables in Euclidean quantum gravity. We do this in the semiclassical regime for several gravitational free-field actions and find that the results are similar, independent of the particular action that is chosen. These are the first results of their kind in dimension four, which we extend to include one-loop contributions as well. We find these topological features can have physically significant results without the need for additional exotic physics.


Intermode Dephasing In A Superconducting Stripline Resonator, Oren Suchoi, Baleegh Abdo, Eran Segev, Oleg Shtempluck, M. P. Blencowe, Eyal Buks May 2010

Intermode Dephasing In A Superconducting Stripline Resonator, Oren Suchoi, Baleegh Abdo, Eran Segev, Oleg Shtempluck, M. P. Blencowe, Eyal Buks

Dartmouth Scholarship

We study a superconducting stripline resonator (SSR) made of niobium, which is integrated with a superconducting interference device (SQUID). The large nonlinear inductance of the SQUID gives rise to a strong Kerr nonlinearity in the response of the SSR, which in turn results in strong coupling between different modes of the SSR. We experimentally demonstrate that such intermode coupling gives rise to dephasing of microwave photons. The dephasing rate depends periodically on the external magnetic flux applied to the SQUID, where the largest rate is obtained at half integer values (in units of the flux quantum). To account for our …


Results From Electrostatic Calibrations For Measuring The Casimir Force In The Cylinder-Plane Geometry, Q. Wei, D. A. R. Dalvit, F. C. Lombardo, F. D. Mazzitelli, R. Onofrio May 2010

Results From Electrostatic Calibrations For Measuring The Casimir Force In The Cylinder-Plane Geometry, Q. Wei, D. A. R. Dalvit, F. C. Lombardo, F. D. Mazzitelli, R. Onofrio

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report on measurements performed on an apparatus aimed to study the Casimir force in the cylinder-plane configuration. The electrostatic calibrations evidence anomalous behaviors in the dependence of the electrostatic force and the minimizing potential upon distance. We discuss analogies and differences of these anomalies with respect to those already observed in the sphere-plane configuration. At the smallest explored distances we observe frequency shifts of non-Coulombian nature preventing the measurement of the Casimir force in the same range. We also report on measurements performed in the parallel-plane configuration, showing that the dependence on distance of the minimizing potential, if present …


Equilibrium States Of A Test Particle Coupled To Finite-Size Heat Baths, Qun Wei, S. Taylor Smith, Roberto Onofrio Mar 2010

Equilibrium States Of A Test Particle Coupled To Finite-Size Heat Baths, Qun Wei, S. Taylor Smith, Roberto Onofrio

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report on numerical simulations of the dynamics of a test particle coupled to competing Boltzmann heat baths of finite size. After discussing some features of the single bath case, we show that the presence of two heat baths further constrains the conditions necessary for the test particle to thermalize with the heat baths. We find that thermalization is a spectral property in which the oscillators of the bath with frequencies in the range of the test particle characteristic frequency determine its degree of thermalization. We also find an unexpected frequency shift of the test particle response with respect to …


Interferometric Weak Value Deflections: Quantum And Classical Treatments, John C. Howell, David J. Starling, P. Ben Dixon, Praveen K. Vudyasetu, Andrew N. Jordan Mar 2010

Interferometric Weak Value Deflections: Quantum And Classical Treatments, John C. Howell, David J. Starling, P. Ben Dixon, Praveen K. Vudyasetu, Andrew N. Jordan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We derive the weak value deflection given in an article by Dixon et al. [P. B. Dixon et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 173601 (2009)] both quantum mechanically and classically, including diffraction effects. This article is meant to cover some of the mathematical details omitted in that article owing to space constraints.


Arbitrarily Accurate Dynamical Control In Open Quantum Systems, Kaveh Khodjasteh, Daniel A. Lidar, Lorenza Viola Mar 2010

Arbitrarily Accurate Dynamical Control In Open Quantum Systems, Kaveh Khodjasteh, Daniel A. Lidar, Lorenza Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

We show that open-loop dynamical control techniques may be used to synthesize unitary transformations in open quantum systems in such a way that decoherence is perturbatively compensated for to a desired (in principle arbitrarily high) level of accuracy, which depends only on the strength of the relevant errors and the achievable rate of control modulation. Our constructive and fully analytical solution employs concatenated dynamically corrected gates, and is applicable independently of detailed knowledge of the system-environment interactions and environment dynamics. Explicit implications for boosting quantum gate fidelities in realistic scenarios are addressed.


Efficient Modeling Techniques For Time-Dependent Quantum System With Applications To Carbon Nanotubes, Zuojing Chen Jan 2010

Efficient Modeling Techniques For Time-Dependent Quantum System With Applications To Carbon Nanotubes, Zuojing Chen

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The famous Moore's law states: Since the invention of the integrated circuit, the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. As a result of the downscaling of the size of the transistor, quantum effects have become increasingly important while affecting significantly the device performances. Nowadays, at the nanometer scale, inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties need to be studied extensively. Device and material simulations are important to achieve these goals because they are flexible and less expensive than experiments. They are also important for designing and characterizing new …


A Time-Symmetric Formulation Of Quantum Mechanics, Yakir Aharonov, Sandu Popescu, Jeff Tollaksen Jan 2010

A Time-Symmetric Formulation Of Quantum Mechanics, Yakir Aharonov, Sandu Popescu, Jeff Tollaksen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Quantum mechanics allows one to independently select both the initial and final states of a single system. Such pre- and postselection reveals novel effects that challenge our ideas about what time is and how it flows.


Upper Limits On A Possible Gluon Mass, Shmuel Nussinov, Robert Shrock Jan 2010

Upper Limits On A Possible Gluon Mass, Shmuel Nussinov, Robert Shrock

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We analyze upper limits on a possible gluon mass, mg. We first discuss various ways to modify quantum chromodynamics to include m(g) not equal 0, including a bare mass, a Higgs mechanism, and dynamical breaking of color SU(3)(c). From an examination of experimental data, we infer an upper limit m(g) < O(1) MeV. As part of our analysis, we show that a claim, hitherto unrefuted in the literature, of a much stronger upper limit on m(g), is invalid. We discuss subtleties in interpreting gluon mass limits in view of the fact that at scales below Lambda(QCD), quantum chromodynamics is strongly coupled, perturbation theory is not reliable, and the physics is not accurately described in terms of the Lagrangian degrees of freedom, including gluons. We also point out a fundamental difference in the behavior of quantum chromodynamics with a nonzero gluon mass and a weakly coupled gauge theory with a gauge boson mass.


Entropy And Information Causality In General Probabilistic Theories, Howard Barnum, Jonathan Barrett, Lisa Orloff Clark, Matthew S. Leifer, Robert Spekkens, Nicholas Stepanik, Alex Wilce, Robin Wilke Jan 2010

Entropy And Information Causality In General Probabilistic Theories, Howard Barnum, Jonathan Barrett, Lisa Orloff Clark, Matthew S. Leifer, Robert Spekkens, Nicholas Stepanik, Alex Wilce, Robin Wilke

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We investigate the concept of entropy in probabilistic theories more general than quantum mechanics, with particular reference to the notion of information causality (IC) recently proposed by Pawlowski et al (2009 arXiv:0905.2292). We consider two entropic quantities, which we term measurement and mixing entropy. In the context of classical and quantum theory, these coincide, being given by the Shannon and von Neumann entropies, respectively; in general, however, they are very different. In particular, while measurement entropy is easily seen to be concave, mixing entropy need not be. In fact, as we show, mixing entropy is not concave whenever the state …


Quantum Interference Experiments, Modular Variables And Weak Measurements, Jeff Tollaksen, Yakir Aharonov, Aharon Casher, Tirzah Kaufherr, Shmuel Nussinov Jan 2010

Quantum Interference Experiments, Modular Variables And Weak Measurements, Jeff Tollaksen, Yakir Aharonov, Aharon Casher, Tirzah Kaufherr, Shmuel Nussinov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We address the problem of interference using the Heisenberg picture and highlight some new aspects through the use of pre-selection, post-selection, weak measurements and modular variables. We present a physical explanation for the different behaviors of a single particle when the distant slit is open or closed; instead of having a quantum wave that passes through all slits, we have a localized particle with non-local interactions with the other slit(s). We introduce a Gedanken experiment to measure this non-local exchange. While the Heisenberg and Schrodinger pictures are equivalent formulations of quantum mechanics, nevertheless, the results discussed here support a new …