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

Quantum Physics Commons™

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

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 931 - 960 of 1477

Full-Text Articles in Quantum Physics

Quantum Violation Of The Pigeonhole Principle And The Nature Of Quantum Correlations, Yakir Aharonov, Fabrizio Colombo, S. Popescu, Irene Sabadini, Daniele C. Struppa, Jeff Tollaksen Jan 2016

Quantum Violation Of The Pigeonhole Principle And The Nature Of Quantum Correlations, Yakir Aharonov, Fabrizio Colombo, S. Popescu, Irene Sabadini, Daniele C. Struppa, Jeff Tollaksen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The pigeonhole principle: "If you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes at least two of the pigeons end up in the same hole" is an obvious yet fundamental principle of Nature as it captures the very essence of counting. Here however we show that in quantum mechanics this is not true! We find instances when three quantum particles are put in two boxes, yet no two particles are in the same box. Furthermore, we show that the above "quantum pigeonhole principle" is only one of a host of related quantum effects, and points to a very interesting structure of quantum …


Accommodating Retrocausality With Free Will, Yakir Aharonov, Eliahu Cohen, Tomer Shushi Jan 2016

Accommodating Retrocausality With Free Will, Yakir Aharonov, Eliahu Cohen, Tomer Shushi

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Retrocausal models of quantum mechanics add further weight to the conflict between causality and the possible existence of free will. We analyze a simple closed causal loop ensuing from the interaction between two systems with opposing thermodynamic time arrows, such that each system can forecast future events for the other. The loop is avoided by the fact that the choice to abort an event thus forecasted leads to the destruction of the forecaster's past. Physical law therefore enables prophecy of future events only as long as this prophecy is not revealed to a free agent who can otherwise render it …


Review Of Douglas Stone, Einstein And The Quantum: The Quest Of The Valiant Swabian, Matthew S. Leifer Jan 2016

Review Of Douglas Stone, Einstein And The Quantum: The Quest Of The Valiant Swabian, Matthew S. Leifer

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A book review of A. Douglas Stone's Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian.


Concerted Hydrogen-Bond Breaking By Quantum Tunneling In The Water Hexamer Prism, Jeremy O. Richardson, Cristobal Perez, Simon Lobsiger, Adam A. Reid, Berhane Temelso, George C. Shields, Zbigniew Kisiel, David J. Wales, Brooks H. Pate, Stuart C. Althorpe Jan 2016

Concerted Hydrogen-Bond Breaking By Quantum Tunneling In The Water Hexamer Prism, Jeremy O. Richardson, Cristobal Perez, Simon Lobsiger, Adam A. Reid, Berhane Temelso, George C. Shields, Zbigniew Kisiel, David J. Wales, Brooks H. Pate, Stuart C. Althorpe

Faculty Journal Articles

The nature of the intermolecular forces between water molecules is the same in small hydrogen-bonded clusters as in the bulk. The rotational spectra of the clusters therefore give insight into the intermolecular forces present in liquid water and ice. The water hexamer is the smallest water cluster to support low-energy structures with branched three-dimensional

hydrogen-bond networks, rather than cyclic two-dimensional topologies. Here we report measurements of splitting patterns in rotational transitions of the water hexamer prism, and we used quantum simulations to show that they result from geared and antigeared rotations of a pair of water molecules. Unlike previously reported …


Scalability Improvements To Nrlmol For Dft Calculations Of Large Molecules, Carlos Manuel Diaz Jan 2016

Scalability Improvements To Nrlmol For Dft Calculations Of Large Molecules, Carlos Manuel Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Advances in high performance computing (HPC) have provided a way to treat large, computationally demanding tasks using thousands of processors. With the development of more powerful HPC architectures, the need to create efficient and scalable code has grown more important. Electronic structure calculations are valuable in understanding experimental observations and are routinely used for new materials predictions. For the electronic structure calculations, the memory and computation time are proportional to the number of atoms. Memory requirements for these calculations scale as N2, where N is the number of atoms. While the recent advances in HPC offer platforms with large numbers …


Rapidity Evolution Of Gluon Tmd From Low To Moderate X, Ian Balitsky Jan 2016

Rapidity Evolution Of Gluon Tmd From Low To Moderate X, Ian Balitsky

Physics Faculty Publications

I discuss how the rapidity evolution of gluon transverse momentum dependent distribution changes from nonlinear evolution at small x ≪ 1 to linear evolution at moderate x ~ 1.


Structure Constant Of Twist-2 Light Ray Operators In The Regge Limit, Ian Balitsky, Vladimir Kazakov, Evgeny Sobko Jan 2016

Structure Constant Of Twist-2 Light Ray Operators In The Regge Limit, Ian Balitsky, Vladimir Kazakov, Evgeny Sobko

Physics Faculty Publications

We compute the normalized structure constant of three twist-2 operators in N =4 SYM in the leading Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) approximation at any Nc . The result is applicable to other gauge theories including QCD.


First Results Of Magnetic Field Penetration Measurements Of Multilayer Sis Structures, O. B. Malyshev, L. Gurran, R. Valizadeh, S. Pattalwar, N. Pattalwar, K. D. Dumbell, A. Gurevich Jan 2016

First Results Of Magnetic Field Penetration Measurements Of Multilayer Sis Structures, O. B. Malyshev, L. Gurran, R. Valizadeh, S. Pattalwar, N. Pattalwar, K. D. Dumbell, A. Gurevich

Physics Faculty Publications

The performance of superconducting RF cavities made of bulk Nb is limited by a breakdown field of Bp ≈200 mT, close to the superheating field for Nb. A potentially promising solution to enhance the breakdown field of the SRF cavities beyond the intrinsic limits of Nb is a multilayer coating suggested in [1]. In the simplest case, such a multilayer may be a superconductor-insulator-superconductor (S-I-S) coating, for example, bulk niobium (S) coated with a thin film of insulator (I) followed by a thin layer of another superconductor (S) which could be e.g. dirty niobium [2]. Here we report the …


Rapidity Factorization And Evolution Of Gluon Tmds, Ian Balitsky Jan 2016

Rapidity Factorization And Evolution Of Gluon Tmds, Ian Balitsky

Physics Faculty Publications

I discuss how the rapidity evolution of gluon transverse momentum dependent distribution changes from nonlinear evolution at small x « 1 to linear evolution at moderate x ∼ 1.


From Qcd To Physical Resonances, Daniel R. Bolton, Raúl A. Briceño, David J. Wilson Jan 2016

From Qcd To Physical Resonances, Daniel R. Bolton, Raúl A. Briceño, David J. Wilson

Physics Faculty Publications

In this talk, we present the first chiral extrapolation of a resonant scattering amplitude obtained from lattice QCD. Finite-volume spectra, determined by the Hadron Spectrum Collaboration at mπ = 236 MeV [1], for the isotriplet ππ channel are analyzed using the Lüscher method to determine the infinite-volume scattering amplitude. Unitarized Chiral Perturbation Theory is then used to extrapolate the scattering amplitude to the physical light quark masses. The viability of this procedure is demonstrated by its agreement with the experimentally determined scattering phase shift up to center-of-mass energies of 1.2 GeV. Finally, we analytically continue the amplitude to …


𝜋𝜋 → 𝜋𝛾* Amplitude And The Resonant 𝜌 → 𝜋𝛾* Transition From Lattice Qcd, Raúl A. Briceño, Jozef J. Dudek, Robert G. Edwards, Christian J. Shultz, Christopher E. Thomas, David J. Wilson Jan 2016

𝜋𝜋 → 𝜋𝛾* Amplitude And The Resonant 𝜌 → 𝜋𝛾* Transition From Lattice Qcd, Raúl A. Briceño, Jozef J. Dudek, Robert G. Edwards, Christian J. Shultz, Christopher E. Thomas, David J. Wilson

Physics Faculty Publications

We present a determination of the P-wave 𝜋𝜋 → 𝜋𝛾⋆ transition amplitude from lattice quantum chromodynamics. Matrix elements of the vector current in a finite volume are extracted from three-point correlation functions, and from these we determine the infinite-volume amplitude using a generalization of the Lellouch-Lüscher formalism. We determine the amplitude for a range of discrete values of the 𝜋𝜋 energy and virtuality of the photon and observe the expected dynamical enhancement due to the ρ resonance. Describing the energy dependence of the amplitude, we are able to analytically continue into the complex energy plane and from the residue …


Relativistic, Model-Independent, Multichannel 2 → 2 Transition Amplitudes In A Finite Volume, Raúl A. Briceño, Maxwell T. Hansen Jan 2016

Relativistic, Model-Independent, Multichannel 2 → 2 Transition Amplitudes In A Finite Volume, Raúl A. Briceño, Maxwell T. Hansen

Physics Faculty Publications

We derive formalism for determining 2+𝓙 → 2 infinite-volume transition amplitudes from finite-volume matrix elements. Specifically, we present a relativistic, model-independent relation between finite-volume matrix elements of external currents and the physically observable infinite-volume matrix elements involving two-particle asymptotic states. The result presented holds for states composed of two scalar bosons. These can be identical or nonidentical and, in the latter case, can be either degenerate or nondegenerate. We further accommodate any number of strongly coupled two-scalar channels. This formalism will, for example, allow future lattice QCD calculations of the ρ-meson form factor, in which the unstable nature of …


Relating Transverse-Momentum-Dependent And Collinear Factorization Theorems In A Generalized Formalism, J. Collins, L. Gamberg, A. Prokudin, T. C. Rogers, N. Sato, B. Wang Jan 2016

Relating Transverse-Momentum-Dependent And Collinear Factorization Theorems In A Generalized Formalism, J. Collins, L. Gamberg, A. Prokudin, T. C. Rogers, N. Sato, B. Wang

Physics Faculty Publications

We construct an improved implementation for combining transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) factorization and collinear factorization. TMD factorization is suitable for low transverse momentum physics, while collinear factorization is suitable for high transverse momenta and for a cross section integrated over transverse momentum. The result is a modified version of the standard 𝑊 + 𝑌 prescription traditionally used in the Collins-Soper-Sterman (CSS) formalism and related approaches. We further argue that questions regarding the shape and 𝑄 dependence of the cross sections at lower 𝑄 are largely governed by the matching to the 𝑌 term.


Measurement Of The Differential Cross Section And Charge Asymmetry For Inclusive Pp → W± + X Production At √S = 8 Tev, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Rachel Bartek, Kenneth A. Bloom, Suvadeep Bose, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Caleb Fangmeier, Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, Rami Kamalieddin, Daniel Knowlton, Ilya Kravchenko, Jose Monroy, F. Meier, F. Ratnikov, J. E. Siado, Gregory Snow, B. Stieger, Cms Collaboration Jan 2016

Measurement Of The Differential Cross Section And Charge Asymmetry For Inclusive Pp → W± + X Production At √S = 8 Tev, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Rachel Bartek, Kenneth A. Bloom, Suvadeep Bose, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Caleb Fangmeier, Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, Rami Kamalieddin, Daniel Knowlton, Ilya Kravchenko, Jose Monroy, F. Meier, F. Ratnikov, J. E. Siado, Gregory Snow, B. Stieger, Cms Collaboration

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The differential cross section and charge asymmetry for inclusive pp → W± + X → μ±ν + X production at √s = 8 TeV are measured as a function of muon pseudorapidity. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 18.8 fb−1 recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. These results provide important constraints on the parton distribution functions of the proton in the range of the Bjorken scaling variable x from 10−3 to 10−1.


Interference Energy Spectrum Of The Infinite Square Well, Mordecai Waegell, Yakir Aharonov, Taylor Lee Patti Jan 2016

Interference Energy Spectrum Of The Infinite Square Well, Mordecai Waegell, Yakir Aharonov, Taylor Lee Patti

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Certain superposition states of the 1-D infinite square well have transient zeros at locations other than the nodes of the eigenstates that comprise them. It is shown that if an infinite potential barrier is suddenly raised at some or all of these zeros, the well can be split into multiple adjacent infinite square wells without affecting the wavefunction. This effects a change of the energy eigenbasis of the state to a basis that does not commute with the original, and a subsequent measurement of the energy now reveals a completely different spectrum, which we call the interference energy spectrum of …


No Return To Classical Reality, David Jennings, Matthew S. Leifer Jan 2016

No Return To Classical Reality, David Jennings, Matthew S. Leifer

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

At a fundamental level, the classical picture of the world is dead, and has been dead now for almost a century. Pinning down exactly which quantum phenomena are responsible for this has proved to be a tricky and controversial question, but a lot of progress has been made in the past few decades. We now have a range of precise statements showing that whatever the ultimate laws of Nature are, they cannot be classical. In this article, we review results on the fundamental phenomena of quantum theory that cannot be understood in classical terms. We proceed by rst granting quite …


Multicharged Carbon Ion Generation From Laser Plasma, Oguzhan Balki, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali Jan 2016

Multicharged Carbon Ion Generation From Laser Plasma, Oguzhan Balki, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Carbon ions generated by ablation of a carbon target using an Nd:YAG laser pulse (wavelength λ = 1064 nm, pulse width τ = 7 ns, and laser fluence of 10-110 J cm-2) are characterized. Time-of-flight analyzer, a three-mesh retarding field analyzer, and an electrostatic ion energy analyzer are used to study the charge and energy of carbon ions generated by laser ablation. The dependencies of the ion signal on the laser fluence, laser focal point position relative to target surface, and the acceleration voltage are described. Up to C4+ ions are observed. When no acceleration voltage is applied between the …


Beyond Conventional C-Plane Gan-Based Light Emitting Diodes: A Systematic Exploration Of Leds On Semi-Polar Orientations, Morteza Monavarian Jan 2016

Beyond Conventional C-Plane Gan-Based Light Emitting Diodes: A Systematic Exploration Of Leds On Semi-Polar Orientations, Morteza Monavarian

Theses and Dissertations

Despite enormous efforts and investments, the efficiency of InGaN-based green and yellow-green light emitters remains relatively low, and that limits progress in developing full color display, laser diodes, and bright light sources for general lighting. The low efficiency of light emitting devices in the green-to-yellow spectral range, also known as the “Green Gap”, is considered a global concern in the LED industry. The polar c-plane orientation of GaN, which is the mainstay in the LED industry, suffers from polarization-induced separation of electrons and hole wavefunctions (also known as the “quantum confined Stark effect”) and low indium incorporation efficiency that …


Epr Paradox, Nonlocality, And Entanglement In Multi-Qubit Systems, Raja Emlik Jan 2016

Epr Paradox, Nonlocality, And Entanglement In Multi-Qubit Systems, Raja Emlik

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Bell inequalities were formulated by John Bell to test the possible violation of local realistic theories by quantum mechanical systems. It was shown that entangled quantu-m states of multiple particles violate various Bell’s inequalities. This proved that quan-tum mechanics allows correlations between spatially separated systems that have no classical analogue. The main focus of this work is to investigate genuine multiqubit non-locality in families of entangled 3 and 4-qubit pure states by studying a Bell-type inequality that is violated only if all qubits are non-locally correlated. We numerically study the relationship between entanglement and violation of the Svetlichny Bell-type inequality. …


A Method For Achieving Analytic Formulas For Three Body Integrals Consisting Of Powers And Exponentials In All Three Interparticle Hyllerass Coordinates, Chris M. Keating Dec 2015

A Method For Achieving Analytic Formulas For Three Body Integrals Consisting Of Powers And Exponentials In All Three Interparticle Hyllerass Coordinates, Chris M. Keating

Dissertations and Theses

After an introduction to the variational principle of three body systems via the Helium atom, we present general analytical formulas for the radial parts of integrals that occur when three body systems are described using wave functions that consist of powers and exponentials in all three interparticle Hylleraas coordinates [Hylleraas1929]. This work is an extension of integrals given by Harris, Frolov and Smith, Jr. [Harris2004]. Specifically included are radial integrals encountered in calculations involving the dipole moment matrix element in Hylleraas coordinates that contain a function f(kr1) (such as a spherical Bessel function) in addition to …


Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution With Generalized Two-Mode Schrödinger Cat States, Curtis J. Broadbent, Kevin Marshall, Christian Weedbrook, John C. Howell Nov 2015

Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution With Generalized Two-Mode Schrödinger Cat States, Curtis J. Broadbent, Kevin Marshall, Christian Weedbrook, John C. Howell

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We show how weak nonlinearities can be used in a device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol using generalized two-mode Schrödinger cat states. The QKD protocol is therefore shown to be secure against collective attacks and for some coherent attacks. We derive analytical formulas for the optimal values of the Bell parameter, the quantum bit error rate, and the device-independent secret key rate in the noiseless lossy bosonic channel. Additionally, we give the filters and measurements which achieve these optimal values. We find that, over any distance in this channel, the quantum bit error rate is identically zero, in principle, and …


Qubit Measurement Error From Coupling With A Detuned Neighbor In Circuit Qed, Mostafa Khezri, Justin Dressel, Alexander N. Korotkov Nov 2015

Qubit Measurement Error From Coupling With A Detuned Neighbor In Circuit Qed, Mostafa Khezri, Justin Dressel, Alexander N. Korotkov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In modern circuit QED architectures, superconducting transmon qubits are measured via the state-dependent phase and amplitude shift of a microwave field leaking from a coupled resonator. Determining this shift requires integrating the field quadratures for a nonzero duration, which can permit unwanted concurrent evolution. Here we investigate such dynamical degradation of the measurement fidelity caused by a detuned neighboring qubit. We find that in realistic parameter regimes, where the qubit ensemble-dephasing rate is slower than the qubit-qubit detuning, the joint qubit-qubit eigenstates are better discriminated by measurement than the bare states. Furthermore, we show that when the resonator leaks much …


Hohenberg-Kohn Theorems In Electrostatic And Uniform Magnetostatic Fields, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni Nov 2015

Hohenberg-Kohn Theorems In Electrostatic And Uniform Magnetostatic Fields, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

The Hohenberg-Kohn (HK) theorems of bijectivity between the external scalar potential and the gauge invariant nondegenerate ground state density, and the consequent Euler variational principle for the density, are proved for arbitrary electrostatic field and the constraint of fixed electron number. The HK theorems are generalized for spinless electrons to the added presence of an external uniform magnetostatic field by introducing the new constraint of fixed canonical orbital angular momentum. Thereby, a bijective relationship between the external scalar and vector potentials, and the gauge invariant nondegenerate ground state density and physical current density, is proved. A corresponding Euler variational principle …


Hohenberg-Kohn Theorems In Electrostatic And Uniform Magnetostatic Fields, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni Oct 2015

Hohenberg-Kohn Theorems In Electrostatic And Uniform Magnetostatic Fields, Xiao-Yin Pan, Viraht Sahni

Publications and Research

The Hohenberg-Kohn (HK) theorems of bijectivity between the external scalar potential and the gauge invariant nondegenerate ground state density, and the consequent Euler variational principle for the density, are proved for arbitrary electrostatic field and the constraint of fixed electron number. The HK theorems are generalized for spinless electrons to the added presence of an external uniform magnetostatic field by introducing the new constraint of fixed canonical orbital angular momentum. Thereby a bijective relationship between the external scalar and vector potentials, and the gauge invariant nondegenerate ground state density and physical current density, is proved. A corresponding Euler variational principle …


Can The Wave Function In Configuration Space Be Replaced By Single-Particle Wave Functions In Physical Space?, Travis Norsen, Damiano Marian, Xavier Oriols Oct 2015

Can The Wave Function In Configuration Space Be Replaced By Single-Particle Wave Functions In Physical Space?, Travis Norsen, Damiano Marian, Xavier Oriols

Physics: Faculty Publications

The ontology of Bohmian mechanics includes both the universal wave function (living in 3N-dimensional configuration space) and particles (living in ordinary 3-dimensional physical space). Proposals for understanding the physical significance of the wave function in this theory have included the idea of regarding it as a physically-real field in its 3N-dimensional space, as well as the idea of regarding it as a law of nature. Here we introduce and explore a third possibility in which the configuration space wave function is simply eliminated – replaced by a set of single-particle pilot-wave fields living in ordinary physical space. Such a re-formulation …


Optimal Measurements Tasks And Their Physical Realizations, Vadim Yerokhin Sep 2015

Optimal Measurements Tasks And Their Physical Realizations, Vadim Yerokhin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis reflects works previously published by the author and materials hitherto unpublished on the subject of quantum information theory. Particularly, results in optimal discrimination, cloning, and separation of quantum states, and their relationships, are discussed.

Our interest lies in the scenario where we are given one of two quantum states prepared with a known a-priori probability. We are given full information about the states and are assigned the task of performing an optimal measurement on the incoming state. Given that none of these tasks is in general possible to perform perfectly we must choose a figure of merit to …


Effective Microscopic Models For Sympathetic Cooling Of Atomic Gases, Roberto Onofrio, Bala Sundaram Sep 2015

Effective Microscopic Models For Sympathetic Cooling Of Atomic Gases, Roberto Onofrio, Bala Sundaram

Dartmouth Scholarship

Thermalization of a system in the presence of a heat bath has been the subject of many theoretical investigations especially in the framework of solid-state physics. In this setting, the presence of a large bandwidth for the frequency distribution of the harmonic oscillators schematizing the heat bath is crucial, as emphasized in the Caldeira-Leggett model. By contrast, ultracold gases in atomic traps oscillate at well-defined frequencies and therefore seem to lie outside the Caldeira-Leggett paradigm. We introduce interaction Hamiltonians which allow us to adapt the model to an atomic physics framework. The intrinsic nonlinearity of these models differentiates them from …


Bulk Equations Of Motion From Cft Correlators, Daniel N. Kabat, Gilad Lifschytz Sep 2015

Bulk Equations Of Motion From Cft Correlators, Daniel N. Kabat, Gilad Lifschytz

Publications and Research

ToO (1/N) we derive, purely from CFT data, the bulk equations of motion for interacting scalar fields and for scalars coupled to gauge fields and gravity. We first uplift CFT operators to mimic local AdS fields by imposing bulk microcausality. This requires adding an infinite tower of smeared higher-dimension double-trace operators to the CFT definition of a bulk field, with coefficients that we explicitly compute. By summing the contribution of the higher-dimension operators we derive the equations of motion satisfied by these uplifted CFT operators and show that we precisely recover the expected bulk equations of motion. We exhibit the …


Thermodynamic Effects Of A Local Bell State Projection Interaction In A One-Dimensional Dynamic Spin System, Nickolas H. Pilgram Sep 2015

Thermodynamic Effects Of A Local Bell State Projection Interaction In A One-Dimensional Dynamic Spin System, Nickolas H. Pilgram

Physics

No abstract provided.


Analyzing Major Challenges Of Wind And Solar Variability In Power Systems, Falko Ueckerdt, Robert Brecha, Gunnar Luderer Sep 2015

Analyzing Major Challenges Of Wind And Solar Variability In Power Systems, Falko Ueckerdt, Robert Brecha, Gunnar Luderer

Physics Faculty Publications

Ambitious policy targets together with current and projected high growth rates indicate that future power systems will likely show substantially increased generation from renewable energy sources. A large share will come from the variable renewable energy (VRE) sources wind and solar photovoltaics (PV); however, integrating wind and solar causes challenges for existing power systems. In this paper we analyze three major integration challenges related to the structural matching of demand with the supply of wind and solar power: low capacity credit, reduced utilization of dispatchable plants, and over-produced generation. Based on residual load duration curves we define corresponding challenge variables …