Quantum Physics Commons^™

Nonlocal Polarization Interferometry And Entanglement Detection, Brian P. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

At present, quantum entanglement is a resource, distributed to enable a variety of quantum information applications such as quantum key distribution, superdense coding, and teleportation. Necessarily, the distribution and characterization of entanglement is fundamental to its application. This dissertation details three research efforts to enable nonlocal entanglement detection, distribution, and characterization. Foremost of these efforts, we present the theory and demonstration of a nonlocal polarization interferometer capable of detecting entanglement and identifying Bell states statistically. This is possible due to the interferometer’s unique correlation dependence on the anti-diagonal elements of the density matrix, which have distinct bounds for separable states …

High Speed Control Of Atom Transfer Sequence From Magneto-Optical To Dipole Trap For Quantum Computing, Jason Garvey Schray

Physics

Two circuits were designed, built, and tested for the purpose of aiding in the transfer of 87Rb atoms from a MOT to dipole traps and for characterizing the final dipole traps. The first circuit was a current switch designed to quickly turn the magnetic fields of the MOT off. The magnetic coil switch was able to reduce the magnetic field intensity to 5 % of its initial value after 81 μs. The second circuit was an analog signal switch designed to turn the modulation signal of an AOM off. The analog switch was able to reduce the modulation signal intensity …

The Role Of Quantum Dot Size On The Performance Of Intermediate Band Solar Cells, Najla Alnami

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to understand possible mechanisms for the reported decrease of the open circuit voltage and solar cell efficiency in quantum dot (QD) intermediate band solar cells (IBSCs). More specifically, the effect of indium arsenide (InAs) QD height on the open circuit voltage and solar cell efficiency was studied in a systematic way. To explore this effect in QD solar cells, several solar cells (SCs) were grown with varying InAs QD heights. All experimental characteristics of the QD solar cells were compared to a reference structure without QDs. All samples were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy …

Chemical Potential In The First Law For Holographic Entanglement Entropy, David Kastor, Sourya Ray, Jennie Traschen

David Kastor

Entanglement entropy in conformal field theories is known to satisfy a first law. For spherical entangling surfaces, this has been shown to follow via the AdS/CFT correspondence and the holographic prescription for entanglement entropy from the bulk first law for Killing horizons. The bulk first law can be extended to include variations in the cosmological constant Λ, which we established in earlier work. Here we show that this implies an extension of the boundary first law to include varying the number of degrees of freedom of the boundary CFT. The thermodynamic potential conjugate to Λ in the bulk is called …

Centered-Difference Applications For Schrödinger's Equation, Matthew Thomas Murachver

Physics

This project enumerates methods utilizing discretized centered-difference approximations on the second order differential equation for quantum particles known as Schrodinger’s Equation. An eigenvalue-eigenfunction scheme is developed to sieve for valid solutions to The Time Independent Schrodinger Equation. Additionally the Crank-Nicolson method is applied to the Time Dependent Schrodinger Equation to describe wavefunction (eigenfunction) time evolution. The validity of these methods is discussed with applications to several fundamental pedagogical introductory quantum mechanic systems.

Weak Measurement And Bohmian Conditional Wave Functions, Travis Norsen

Physics: Faculty Publications

It was recently pointed out (and demonstrated experimentally) by Lundeen et al. that the wave function of a particle (more precisely, the wave function possessed by each member of an ensemble of identically-prepared particles) can be "directly measured" using weak measurement. Here it is shown that if this same technique is applied, with appropriate post-selection, to one particle from a (perhaps entangled) multi-particle system, the result is precisely the so-called "conditional wave function" of Bohmian mechanics. Thus, a plausibly operationalist method for defining the wave function of a quantum mechanical sub-system corresponds to the natural definition of a sub-system wave …

Physics: Rethinking The Foundations, Kevin H. Knuth

Physics Faculty Scholarship

Physics is traditionally conceived of as a set of laws that universally governs the behavior of physical systems. These laws, however they are decreed, are believed to govern the behavior of not only everything in the universe, but the form of the universe itself. However, this traditional concept of physics as a universal governance is at odds with our modern theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, which place the observer and information in a central role. In this talk, I aim to rethink the foundations and attempt to build physics from the bottom up based on a very simple foundational …

Sustainability Research Through The Lens Of Environmental Ethics, Daniel Clifford Fouke, Sukh Sidhu, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Two core courses in the curriculum of the University of Dayton’s Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment minor, Sustainability Research I and II, were developed out of the frustration one author, Daniel Fouke, experienced while teaching a traditional course on environmental ethics for the Department of Philosophy. The often-overwhelming nature of environmental problems tended to demoralize both the instructor and the students. Seeking a way to integrate ethical analysis of complex problems with the search for solutions, two courses were proposed that would be team-taught by a philosopher and a scientist or an engineer.

Development of the courses was initially funded …

Advanced Iii-V / Si Nano-Scale Transistors And Contacts: Modeling And Analysis, Seung Hyun Park

Open Access Dissertations

The exponential miniaturization of Si CMOS technology has been a key to the electronics revolution. However, the continuous downscaling of the gate length becomes the biggest challenge to maintain higher speed, lower power, and better electrostatic integrity for each following generation. Hence, novel devices and better channel materials than Si are considered to improve the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) device performance. III-V compound semiconductors and multi-gate structures are being considered as promising candidates in the next CMOS technology. III-V and Si nano-scale transistors in different architectures are investigated (1) to compare the performance between InGaAs of III-V compound semiconductors and …

Observation Of Upsilon Suppression, Search For Long-Lived Particles, And Observation Of B0s → Micro + Micro-- At The Lhc With The Cms Experiment, Zhen Hu

Open Access Dissertations

The LHC centre-of-mass energy allows abundant ϒ production in lead-lead (PbPb) collisions. A detailed measurement of the bottomonium production will help to characterize the dense matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. The full spectroscopy of quarkonium states has been proposed as a possible thermometer for the QGP. The measurement reported in Chapter 3 is performed with data recorded by CMS during the first PbPb run at 2010 and the proton-proton (pp) run at 2011, both at sqrt s_NN = 2.76 TeV. The integrated luminosity corresponds to 7.28/µb for PbPb and 225/nb for ppcollisions. Using muons of transverse momentum ( …

Conservation Of The Spin And Orbital Angular Momenta In Electromagnetism, Konstantin Y. Bliokh, Justin Dressel, Franco Nori

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We review and re-examine the description and separation of the spin and orbital angular momenta (AM) of an electromagnetic field in free space. While the spin and orbital AM of light are not separately meaningful physical quantities in orthodox quantum mechanics or classical field theory, these quantities are routinely measured and used for applications in optics. A meaningful quantum description of the spin and orbital AM of light was recently provided by several authors, which describes separately conserved and measurable integral values of these quantities. However, the electromagnetic field theory still lacks corresponding locally conserved spin and orbital AM currents. …

Finite N And The Failure Of Bulk Locality: Black Holes In Ads/Cft, Daniel N. Kabat, Gilad Lifschytz

Publications and Research

We consider bulk quantum fields in AdS/CFT in the background of an eter- nal black hole. We show that for black holes with finite entropy, correlation functions of semiclassical bulk operators close to the horizon deviate from their semiclassical value and are ill-defined inside the horizon. This is due to the large-time behavior of correlators in a unitary CFT, and means the region near and inside the horizon receives corrections. We give a prescription for modifying the definition of a bulk field in a black hole background, such that one can still define operators that mimic the inside of the …

Implementing Generalized Measurements With Superconducting Qubits, Justin Dressel, Todd A. Brun, Alexander N. Korotkov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We describe a method to perform any generalized purity-preserving measurement of a qubit with techniques tailored to superconducting systems. First, we consider two methods for realizing a two-outcome partial projection: using a thresholded continuous measurement in the circuit QED setup and using an indirect ancilla qubit measurement. Second, we decompose an arbitrary purity-preserving two-outcome measurement into single-qubit unitary rotations and a partial projection. Third, we systematically reduce any multiple-outcome measurement to a sequence of such two-outcome measurements and unitary operations. Finally, we consider how to define suitable fidelity measures for multiple-outcome generalized measurements.

General Transfer-Function Approach To Noise Filtering In Open-Loop Quantum Control, Gerardo A. Paz-Silva, Lorenza Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a general transfer-function approach to noise filtering in open-loop Hamiltonian engineering protocols for open quantum systems. We show how to identify a computationally tractable set of fundamental filter functions, out of which arbitrary transfer filter functions may be assembled up to arbitrary high order in principle. Besides avoiding the infinite recursive hierarchy of filter functions that arises in general control scenarios, this fundamental filter-functions set suffices to characterize the error suppression capabilities of the control protocol in both the time and frequency domain. We prove that the resulting notion of filtering order reveals conceptually distinct, albeit complementary, …

Wigner High-Electron-Correlation Regime Of Nonuniform Density Systems: A Quantal-Density-Functional-Theory Study, Douglas Achan, Lou Massa, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

The Wigner regime of a system of electrons in an external field is characterized by a low electron density and a high electron-interaction energy relative to the kinetic energy. The low-correlation regime is in turn described by a high electron density and an electron-interaction energy smaller than the kinetic energy. The Wigner regime of a nonuniform-electron-density system is investigated via quantal density functional theory (QDFT). Within QDFT, the contributions of electron correlations due to the Pauli exclusion principle, Coulomb repulsion, and correlation-kinetic effects are separately delineated and explicitly defined. The nonuniform-electron-density system studied is that of the Hooke's atom in …

Building Predictive Chemistry Models, Christopher Browne, Nicolas Onofrio, Alejandro Strachan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations allow for sophisticated modeling of chemical interactions, but the extreme computational cost makes it inviable for large scale applications. Molecular dynamics models, specifically ReaxFF, can model much larger simulations with greater speed, but with lesser accuracy. The accuracy of ReaxFF can be improved by comparing predictions of both methods and tuning ReaxFF’s parameters. Molecular capabilities of ReaxFF were gauged by simulating copper complexes in water over a 200 ps range, and comparing energy predictions against ReaxFF. To gauge solid state capabilities, volumetric strain was applied to simulated copper bulk and the strain response functions used …

Environmental Testing Of Lasers For Jpl's Cold Atom Laboratory, Carey L. Baxter

STAR Program Research Presentations

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL) is a multi-user facility designed to study ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). One of the main goals of CAL is to explore the unknown territory of extremely low temperatures—possibly as low as the picokelvin range!—where new and fascinating quantum phenomena can be observed. At such temperatures matter stops behaving as particles and instead becomes macroscopic matter waves. CAL will be remotely controlled to perform a multitude of experiments and is scheduled to launch in 2016. In order to anticipate problems that might occur during and post-launch, including …

Quantum Tuning Of Plasmons In Ultrathin Metal Films, Ao Teng

Doctoral Dissertations

The surface plasmon is a coherent charge density oscillation localized at a metal surface. It can couple with light and the resulting plasmon-polariton hybrid mode is confined to volumes that are much smaller than the classical diffraction limit of light. Nano-plasmonics is a rapidly evolving field where light manipulation at the nanoscale may lead to novel applications. However, as the size of plasmonic devices approaches the quantum-size regime, the macroscopic picture of plasmon may no longer be valid. To elucidate the influence of the discretization of the single particle spectrum on the collective plasmon response, we performed a systematic study …

From Graphite To Graphene Via Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Dejun Qi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this dissertation is to study both graphene on graphite and pristine freestanding grapheme using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) simulation technique. In the experiment part, good quality tungsten metalic tips for experiment were fabricated using our newly developed tip making setup. Then a series of measurements using a technique called electrostatic-manipulation scanning tunneling microscopy (EM-STM) of our own development were performed on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface. The electrostatic interaction between the STM tip and the sample can be tuned to produce both reversible and irreversible large-scale movement of the …

Isotropic Oscillator Under A Magnetic And Spatially Varying Electric Field, David L. Frost Mr., Frank Hagelberg

Undergraduate Honors Theses

We investigate the energy levels of a particle confined in the isotropic oscillator potential with a magnetic and spatially varying electric field. Here we are able to exactly solve the Schrodinger equation, using matrix methods, for the first excited states. To this end we find that the spatial gradient of the electric field acts as a magnetic field in certain circumstances. Here we present the changes in the energy levels as functions of the electric field, and other parameters.

Mapping The Optimal Route Between Two Quantum States, S. J. Weber, A. Chantasri, Justin Dressel, Andrew N. Jordan, K. W. Murch, I. Siddiqi

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A central feature of quantum mechanics is that a measurement result is intrinsically probabilistic. Consequently, continuously monitoring a quantum system will randomly perturb its natural unitary evolution. The ability to control a quantum system in the presence of these fluctuations is of increasing importance in quantum information processing and finds application in fields ranging from nuclear magnetic resonance¹ to chemical synthesis². A detailed understanding of this stochastic evolution is essential for the development of optimized control methods. Here we reconstruct the individual quantum trajectories^{3, 4, 5} of a superconducting circuit that evolves under the …

Entanglement-Assisted Weak Value Amplification, Shengshi Pang, Justin Dressel, Todd A. Brun

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Large weak values have been used to amplify the sensitivity of a linear response signal for detecting changes in a small parameter, which has also enabled a simple method for precise parameter estimation. However, producing a large weak value requires a low postselection probability for an ancilla degree of freedom, which limits the utility of the technique. We propose an improvement to this method that uses entanglement to increase the efficiency. We show that by entangling and postselecting n ancillas, the postselection probability can be increased by a factor of n while keeping the weak value fixed (compared to n …

Robustness Of Composite Pulses To Time-Dependent Control Noise, Chingiz Kabytayev, Todd J. Green, Kaveh Khodjasteh, Michael J. Biercuk, Lorenza Viola, Kenneth R. Brown

Dartmouth Scholarship

We study the performance of composite pulses in the presence of time-varying control noise on a single qubit. These protocols, originally devised only to correct for static, systematic errors, are shown to be robust to time-dependent non-Markovian noise in the control field up to frequencies as high as ∼10% of the Rabi frequency. Our study combines a generalized filter-function approach with asymptotic dc-limit calculations to give a simple analytic framework for error analysis applied to a number of composite-pulse sequences relevant to nuclear magnetic resonance as well as quantum information experiments. Results include examination of recently introduced concatenated composite pulses …

Fundamental Bounds In Measurements For Estimating Quantum States, Hyang-Tag Lim, Young-Sik Ra, Kang-Hee Hong, Seung-Woo Lee, Yoon-Ho Kim

Dartmouth Scholarship

Quantum measurement unavoidably disturbs the state of a quantum system if any information about the system is extracted. Recently, the concept of reversing quantum measurement has been introduced and has attracted much attention. Numerous efforts have thus been devoted to understanding the fundamental relation of the amount of information obtained by measurement to either state disturbance or reversibility. Here, we experimentally prove the trade-off relations in quantum measurement with respect to both state disturbance and reversibility. By demonstrating the quantitative bound of the trade-off relations, we realize an optimal measurement for estimating quantum systems with minimum disturbance and maximum reversibility. …

Signatures Of The Valley Kondo Effect In Si/Sige Quantum Dots, Mingyun Yuan, R. Joynt, Zhen Yang, Chunyang Tang, D. E. Savage, M. G. Lagally, M. A. Eriksson, A. J. Rimberg

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report measurements consistent with the valley Kondo effect in Si/SiGe quantum dots, evidenced by peaks in the conductance versus source-drain voltage that show strong temperature dependence. The Kondo peaks show unusual behavior in a magnetic field that we interpret as arising from the valley degree of freedom. The interplay of valley and Zeeman splittings is suggested by the presence of side peaks, revealing a zero-field valley splitting between 0.28 to 0.34 meV. A zero-bias conductance peak for nonzero magnetic field, a phenomenon consistent with valley nonconservation in tunneling, is observed in two samples.

On Electromagnetic And Quantum Invisibility, Pattabhiraju Chowdary Mundru

Doctoral Dissertations

The principle objective of this dissertation is to investigate the fundamental properties of electromagnetic wave interactions with artificially fabricated materials i.e., metamaterials for application in advanced stealth technology called electromagnetic cloaking. The main goal is to theoretically design a metamaterial shell around an object that completely eliminates the dipolar and higher order multipolar scattering, thus making the object invisible.

In this context, we developed a quasi-effective medium theory that determines the optical properties of multi-layered-composites beyond the quasi-static limit. The proposed theory exactly reproduces the far-field scattering/extinction cross sections through an iterative process in which mode-dependent quasi-effective impedances of the …

Analytic Evolution Of Singular Distribution Amplitudes In Qcd, Asli Tandogan

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Distribution amplitudes (DAs) are the basic functions that contain information about the quark momentum. DAs are necessary to describe hard exclusive processes in quantum chromodynamics. We describe a method of analytic evolution of DAs that have singularities such as nonzero values at the end points of the support region, jumps at some points inside the support region and cusps. We illustrate the method by applying it to the evolution of a flat (constant) DA, antisymmetric flat DA, and then use the method for evolution of the two-photon generalized distribution amplitude. Our approach to DA evolution has advantages over the standard …

Insights Into The Epitaxial Relationships Between One-Dimensional Nanomaterials And Metal Catalyst Surfaces Using Density Functional Theory Calculations, Debosruti Dutta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involves the study of epitaxial behavior of one-dimensional nanomaterials like single-walled carbon nanotubes and Indium Arsenide nanowires grown on metallic catalyst surfaces. It has been previously observed in our novel microplasma based CVD growth of SWCNTs on Ni-Fe bimetallic nanoparticles that changes in the metal catalyst composition was accompanied by variations in the average metal-metal bond lengths of the nanoparticle and that in turn, affected nanotube chirality distributions. In this dissertation, we have developed a very simplistic model of the metal catalyst in order to explain the nanotube growth of specific nanotube chiralities on various Ni-Fe catalyst surfaces. …

Quantum Resources For Purification And Cooling: Fundamental Limits And Opportunities, Francesco Ticozzi, Lorenza Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

Preparing a quantum system in a pure state is ultimately limited by the nature of the system's evolution in the presence of its environment and by the initial state of the environment itself. We show that, when the system and environment are initially uncorrelated and arbitrary joint unitary dynamics is allowed, the system may be purified up to a certain (possibly arbitrarily small) threshold if and only if its environment, either natural or engineered, contains a “virtual subsystem” which has the same dimension and is in a state with the desired purity. Beside providing a unified understanding of quantum purification …

Ultrasonic Bonding For The Cuore Collaboration, John J. Sekerak Ii

Physics

This paper will give the reader a brief introduction to the Standard Model, Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, and the CUORE experiment under construction at Gran Sasso National Lab in Assergi, Italy. The remainder of the paper will describe the bonding process used to connect the heater pads and NTDs to the copper housings of the tower structure. Extensive details of the troubleshooting and calibration period are presented as a way for the reader to better understand the concepts involved during the bonding stage of the assembly process.