arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Denis Bernard.
I describe a five-dimensional, polarised, Bethe-Heitler event generator of $γ$-ray conversions to $μ^+μ^-$, based on a generator for conversion to $e^+e^-$ developed in the past. Verifications are performed from close-to-threshold to high energies.
For a quantum system in a macroscopically large volume $V$, prepared in a pure state and subject to maximally noisy or ergodic unitary dynamics, the reduced density matrix of any sub-system $v\ll V$ is almost surely totally mixed. We show that the fluctuations around this limiting value, evaluated according to the invariant measure of these unitary flows, are captured by the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) of random matrix theory. An extension of this statement, applicable when the unitary transformations conserve the energy but are maximally noisy or ergodic on any energy shell, allows to decipher the fluctuations around canonical typicality. According to typicality, if the large system is prepared in a generic pure state in a given energy shell, the reduced density matrix of the sub-system is almost surely the canonical Gibbs state of that sub-system. We show that the fluctuations around the Gibbs state are encoded in a deformation of the GUE whose covariance is specified by the Gibbs state. Contact with the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis (ETH) is discussed.
We introduce and solve a model of fermions hopping between neighbouring sites on a line with random Brownian amplitudes and open boundary conditions driving the system out of equilibrium. The average dynamics reduces to that of the symmetric simple exclusion process. However, the full distribution encodes for a richer behaviour entailing fluctuating quantum coherences which survive in the steady limit. We determine exactly the system state steady distribution. We show that these out of equilibrium quantum fluctuations fulfil a large deviation principle and we present a method to recursively compute exactly the large deviation function. On the way, our approach gives a solution of the classical symmetric simple exclusion process using fermion technology. Our results open the route towards the extension of the macroscopic fluctuation theory to many body quantum systems.
A number of techniques are being developed to solve the monstrous sensitivity gap that exists between the energy ranges of good sensitivity of the Compton and of the pair telescopes and to extend polarimetry to the MeV gamma-ray world. I characterize the properties of an active target, detailing the various contributions to the angular resolution, using a full five-dimensional event generator of the Bethe-Heitler differential cross section. With the same tool I also examine the dilution of the polarization asymmetry induced by multiple scattering in the conversion wafer.
We extend beyond the Euler scales the hydrodynamic theory for quantum and classical integrable models developed in recent years, accounting for diffusive dynamics and local entropy production. We review how the diffusive scale can be reached via a gradient expansion of the expectation values of the conserved fields and how the coefficients of the expansion can be computed via integrated steady-state two-point correlation functions, emphasising that PT-symmetry can fully fix the inherent ambiguity in the definition of conserved fields at the diffusive scale. We develop a form factor expansion to compute such correlation functions and we show that, while the dynamics at the Euler scale is completely determined by the density of single quasiparticle excitations on top of the local steady state, diffusion is due to scattering processes among quasiparticles, which are only present in truly interacting systems. We then show that only two-quasiparticle scattering processes contribute to the diffusive dynamics. Finally we employ the theory to compute the exact spin diffusion constant of a gapped XXZ spin-1/2 chain at finite temperature and half-filling, where we show that spin transport is purely diffusive.
Enabled by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we now know young and recycled pulsars fill the gamma-ray sky, and we are beginning to understand their emission mechanism and their distribution throughout the Galaxy. However, key questions remain: Is there a large population of pulsars near the Galactic center? Why do the most energetic pulsars shine so brightly in MeV gamma rays but not always at GeV energies? What is the source and nature of the pair plasma in pulsar magnetospheres, and what role does the polar cap accelerator play? Addressing these questions calls for a sensitive, wide-field MeV telescope, which can detect the population of MeV-peaked pulsars hinted at by Fermi and hard X-ray telescopes and characterize their spectral shape and polarization.
No $γ$-ray polarimeter sensitive above 1 MeV has ever flown space. $γ$-ray polarimetry would be a new window on the radiative processes at work in cosmic sources, processes that produce linearly polarised emission, each of which with different polarisation fractions. The HARPO Collaboration has designed, built and characterised on beam a gas-TPC active target with which we have demonstrated for the first time the polarimetry of a linearly polarised MeV $γ$-ray beam, from the analysis of the conversions to $e^+ e^-$ pairs.
We show that hydrodynamic diffusion is generically present in many-body interacting integrable models. We extend the recently developed generalised hydrodynamic (GHD) to include terms of Navier-Stokes type which lead to positive entropy production and diffusive relaxation mechanisms. These terms provide the subleading diffusive corrections to Euler-scale GHD for the large-scale non-equilibrium dynamics of integrable systems, and arise due to two-body scatterings among quasiparticles. We give exact expressions for the diffusion coefficients. Our results apply to a large class of integrable models, including quantum and classical, Galilean and relativistic field theories, chains and gases in one dimension, such as the Lieb-Liniger model describing cold atom gases and the Heisenberg quantum spin chain. We provide numerical evaluations in the Heisenberg spin chain, both for the spin diffusion constant, and for the diffusive effects during the melting of a small domain wall of spins, finding excellent agreement with tDMRG numerical simulations.
We describe a new version of the 5D, exact, polarised, Bethe-Heitler event generator of $γ$-ray conversions to $e^+e^-$, developed in the context of the HARPO project, that is able to simulate successive events with different photon energies and on different atomic targets without any substantial CPU overhead. The strong correlation between kinematic variables in the divergence of the five-dimensional differential cross section are mitigated by performing each step of the conversion in the appropriate Lorentz frame. We extend the verification range down to 1 keV above threshold and up to 1 EeV. This work could pave the way to the precise simulation of the high-performance $γ$-ray telescopes and polarimeters of the post-Fermi-LAT area.
We present here the results of the analysis of the $γ$-ray blazar, 1ES 1215+303, over a 10-year period, from 2008 to 2017, measured at high energies (HE; 200 MeV $< E <$ 100 GeV) by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and at very high energies (VHE; $E >$ 100 GeV) by Fermi-LAT and VERITAS. This is the longest temporal study of this high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object (HBL) at $γ$-ray energies to date. The spectrum follows a log parabola over this time period, and its HE and VHE spectra are well-connected. Its flux is sufficiently strong at HE to allow us to bin the Fermi-LAT data in 3-day intervals, enabling us to investigate the temporal evolution of the flux in unprecedented detail. Several flaring episodes were detected and evidence for an overall trend of increasing flux over the span of the 10 years was observed. These light curves, in addition to the spectra, are presented. This unique data set will help us to advance our understanding of the underlying physical processes in blazar jets.
$γ$ rays are emitted by cosmic sources by non-thermal processes that yield either non-polarized photons, such as those from $π^0$ decay in hadronic interactions, or linearly polarized photons from synchrotron radiation and the inverse-Compton up-shifting of these on high-energy charged particles. Polarimetry in the MeV energy range would provide a powerful tool to discriminate among "leptonic" and "hadronic" emission models of blazars, for example, but no polarimeter sensitive above 1\,MeV has ever been flown into space. Low-$Z$ converter telescopes such as silicon detectors are developed to improve the angular resolution and the point-like sensitivity below 100 MeV. We have shown that in the case of a homogeneous, low-density active target such as a gas time-projection chamber (TPC), the single-track angular resolution is even better and is so good that in addition the linear polarimetry of the incoming radiation can be performed. We actually characterized the performance of a prototype of such a telescope on beam. Track momentum measurement in the tracker would enable calorimeter-free, large effective area telescopes on low-mass space missions. An optimal unbiased momentum estimate can be obtained, in the tracker alone, based on the momentum dependence of multiple scattering, from a Bayesian analysis of the innovations of Kalman filters applied to the tracks.
Novel gamma-ray telescope schemes (silicon wafer stacks, emulsions, gas detectors) are being developed so as to bridge the sensitivity gap between Compton and pair-creation telescopes. The lower average density with respect to the tungsten/silicon active target of the Fermi-LAT makes large effective-area telescopes voluminous objects, for which the photon energy measurement by conventional means (calorimeter, magnetic spectrometer, transition radiation detector) is a challenge for the mass budget of the space mission. We present an optimal measurement of track momentum by the multiple measurement of the angular deflections induced by multiple scattering in the active target itself, using a Bayesian analysis of the filtering innovations of a series of Kalman filters applied to the track. For a silicon-wafer-stack telescope, the method yields meaningful results up to a couple of GeV/c.
Motivated by the search for a quantum analogue of the macroscopic fluctuation theory, we study quantum spin chains dissipatively coupled to quantum noise. The dynamical processes are encoded in quantum stochastic differential equations. They induce dissipative friction on the spin chain currents. We show that, as the friction becomes stronger, the noise induced dissipative effects localize the spin chain states on a slow mode manifold, and we determine the effective stochastic quantum dynamics of these slow modes. We illustrate this approach by studying the quantum stochastic Heisenberg spin chain.
We define a simple model of conformal field theory in random space-time environments, which we refer to as stochastic conformal field theory. This model accounts for the effects of dilute random impurities in strongly interacting critical many-body systems. On one hand, surprisingly, although impurities are separated by macroscopic distances, we find that the infinite-time steady state is factorized on microscopic lengths, a signature of the emergence of localization. The stationary state also displays vanishing energy current and strong uncorrelated spatial fluctuations of local observables. On the other hand, at finite times, the transient shows a crossover from ballistic to diffusive energy propagation. In this regime and a Markovian limit, concentrating on current-generating initial states with a temperature imbalance, we show that the energy current and density satisfy simple dissipative hydrodynamic equations. We describe the space-time scales at which non-equilibrium currents exist. We show that a light-cone effect subsists in the presence of impurities although a momentum burst propagates transiently on a diffusive scale only.
We revisit the precision of the measurement of track parameters (position, angle) with optimal methods in the presence of detector resolution, multiple scattering and zero magnetic field. We then obtain an optimal estimator of the track momentum by a Bayesian analysis of the filtering innovations of a series of Kalman filters applied to the track. This work could pave the way to the development of autonomous high-performance gas time-projection chambers (TPC) or silicon wafer gamma-ray space telescopes and be a powerful guide in the optimisation of the design of the multi-kilo-ton liquid argon TPCs that are under development for neutrino studies.
e-ASTROGAM (`enhanced ASTROGAM') is a breakthrough Observatory mission dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from 0.3 MeV to 3 GeV. The mission is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, with unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, combined with polarimetric capability. In the largely unexplored MeV-GeV domain, e-ASTROGAM will open a new window on the non-thermal Universe, making pioneering observations of the most powerful Galactic and extragalactic sources, elucidating the nature of their relativistic outflows and their effects on Galactic ecosystems. With a line sensitivity in the MeV energy range one to two orders of magnitude better than previous generation instruments, will determine the origin of key isotopes fundamental for the understanding of supernova explosion and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The mission will provide unique data of significant interest to a broad astronomical community, complementary to powerful observatories such as LIGO-Virgo-GEO600-KAGRA, SKA, ALMA, E-ELT, TMT, LSST, JWST, Athena, CTA, IceCube, KM3NeT, and the promise of eLISA. Keywords: High-energy gamma-ray astronomy, High-energy astrophysics, Nuclear Astrophysics, Compton and Pair creation telescope, Gamma-ray bursts, Active Galactic Nuclei, Jets, Outflows, Multiwavelength observations of the Universe, Counterparts of gravitational waves, Fermi, Dark Matter, Nucleosynthesis, Early Universe, Supernovae, Cosmic Rays, Cosmic antimatter.
We consider the problem of constructing a "universal set" of Markovian processes, such that any Markovian open quantum system, described by a one-parameter semigroup of quantum channels, can be simulated through sequential simulations of processes from the universal set. In particular, for quantum systems of dimension $d$, we explicitly construct a universal set of semigroup generators, parametrized by $d^2-3$ continuous parameters, and prove that a necessary and sufficient condition for the dynamical simulation of a $d$ dimensional Markovian quantum system is the ability to implement a) quantum channels from the semigroups generated by elements of the universal set of generators, and b) unitary operations on the system. Furthermore, we provide an explicit algorithm for simulating the dynamics of a Markovian open quantum system using this universal set of generators, and show that it is efficient, with respect to this universal set, when the number of distinct Lindblad operators (representing physical dissipation processes) scales polynomially with respect to the number of subsystems.
Motivated by studies of indirect measurements in quantum mechanics, we investigate stochastic differential equations with a fixed point subject to an additional infinitesimal repulsive perturbation. We conjecture, and prove for an important class, that the solutions exhibit a universal behavior when time is rescaled appropriately: by fine-tuning of the time scale with the infinitesimal repulsive perturbation, the trajectories converge in a precise sense to spiky trajectories that can be reconstructed from an auxiliary time-homogeneous Poisson process. Our results are based on two main tools. The first is a time change followed by an application of Skorokhod's lemma. We prove an effective approximate version of this lemma of independent interest. The second is an analysis of first passage times, which shows a deep interplay between scale functions and invariant measures. We conclude with some speculations of possible applications of the same techniques in other areas.