arXiv subjects

Franco Nori

Publications and source records attributed to Franco Nori.

At least 775 records · Page 43Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Forster mechanism of electron-driven proton pump

We examine a simple model of proton pumping through the inner membrane of mitochondria in the living cell. We demonstrate that the pumping process can be described using approaches of condensed matter physics. In the framework of this model, we show that the resonant Förster-type energy exchange due to electron-proton Coulomb interaction can provide an unidirectional flow of protons against an electrochemical proton gradient, thereby accomplishing proton pumping. The dependence of this effect on temperature as well as electron and proton voltage build-ups are obtained taking into account electrostatic forces and noise in the environment. We find that the proton pump works with maximum efficiency in the range of temperatures and transmembrane electrochemical potentials which correspond to the parameters of living cells.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Switchable coupling for superconducting qubits using double resonance in the presence of crosstalk

Several methods have been proposed recently to achieve switchable coupling between superconducting qubits. We discuss some of the main considerations regarding the feasibility of implementing one of those proposals: the double-resonance method. We analyze mainly issues related to the achievable effective coupling strength and the effects of crosstalk on this coupling approach. We also find a new, crosstalk-assisted coupling channel that can be an attractive alternative when implementing the double-resonance coupling proposal.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Cooling a Micromechanical Beam by Coupling it to a Transmission Line

We study a method to cool down the vibration mode of a micro-mechanical beam using a capacitively-coupled superconducting transmission line. The Coulomb force between the transmission line and the beam is determined by the driving microwave on the transmission line and the displacement of the beam. When the frequency of the driving microwave is smaller than that of the transmission line resonator, the Coulomb force can oppose the velocity of the beam. Thus, the beam can be cooled. This mechanism, which may enable to prepare the beam in its quantum ground state of vibration, is feasible under current experimental conditions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2007

Broad distribution of stick-slip events in Slowly Sheared Granular Media: Table-top production of a Gutenberg-Richter-like distribution

We monitor the stick-slip displacements of a very slowly driven moveable perforated top plate which interacts via shearing with a packing of identical glass beads confined in a tray. When driven at a constant stress rate, the distributions of large event displacements and energies triggered by the stick-slip instabilities exhibit power law responses reminiscent of the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes. Small events are quasi-size independent, signaling crossover from single-bead transport to collective behavior.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Two-Mode Squeezed States and Entangled States of Two Mechanical Resonators

We study a device consisting of a dc-SQUID with two sections of its loop acting as two mechanical resonators. An analog of the parametric down-conversion process in quantum optics can be realized with this device. We show that a two-mode squeezed state can be generated for two overdamped mechanical resonators, where the damping constants of the two mechanical resonators are larger than the coupling strengths between the dc-SQUID and the two mechanical resonators. Thus we show that entangled states of these two mechanical resonators can be generated.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

A mechanism for phase separation in copper oxide superconductors

A two-band Hubbard model is used to describe the band structure and phase separation (PS) in multiband superconductors, especially in cuprates. We predict a large peak in the density of states at the Fermi level in the case of optimum doping, corresponding to the minimum energy difference between the centers of two hole bands. For strong interband hybridization, a metal-insulator transition occurs near this optimum doping level. We suggest a mechanism of PS related to the redistribution of holes between two Hubbard bands rather than to the usual antiferromagnetic correlations. We show that the critical superconducting temperature $T_c$ can be about its maximum value within a wide range of doping levels due to PS.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Pseudo-Rabi oscillations in superconducting flux qubits in the classical regime

Nonlinear effects in mesoscopic devices can have both quantum and classical origins. We show that a three-Josephson-junction (3JJ) flux qubit in the _classical_ regime can produce low-frequency oscillations in the presence of an external field in resonance with the (high-frequency) harmonic mode of the system, $ω$. Like in the case of_quantum_ Rabi oscillations, the frequency of these pseudo-Rabi oscillations is much smaller than $ω$ and scales approximately linearly with the amplitude of the external field. This classical effect can be reliably distinguished from its quantum counterpart because it can be produced by the external perturbation not only at the resonance frequency $ω$ and its subharmonics ($ω/n$), but also at its overtones, $nω$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Low-decoherence flux qubit

A flux qubit can have a relatively long decoherence time at the degeneracy point, but away from this point the decoherence time is greatly reduced by dephasing. This limits the practical applications of flux qubits. Here we propose a new qubit design modified from the commonly used flux qubit by introducing an additional capacitor shunted in parallel to the smaller Josephson junction (JJ) in the loop. Our results show that the effects of noise can be considerably suppressed, particularly away from the degeneracy point, by both reducing the coupling energy of the JJ and increasing the shunt capacitance. This shunt capacitance provides a novel way to improve the qubit.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Switchable coupling between charge and flux qubits

We propose a hybrid quantum circuit with both charge and flux qubits connected to a large Josephson junction that gives rise to an effective inter-qubit coupling controlled by the external magnetic flux. This switchable inter-qubit coupling can be used to transfer back and forth an arbitrary superposition state between the charge qubit and the flux qubit working at the optimal point. The proposed hybrid circuit provides a promising quantum memory because the flux qubit at the optimal point can store the tranferred quantum state for a relatively long time.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and quantum heat engines

In order to describe quantum heat engines, here we systematically study isothermal and isochoric processes for quantum thermodynamic cycles. Based on these results the quantum versions of both the Carnot heat engine and the Otto heat engine are defined without ambiguities. We also study the properties of quantum Carnot and Otto heat engines in comparison with their classical counterparts. Relations and mappings between these two quantum heat engines are also investigated by considering their respective quantum thermodynamic processes. In addition, we discuss the role of Maxwell's demon in quantum thermodynamic cycles. We find that there is no violation of the second law, even in the existence of such a demon, when the demon is included correctly as part of the working substance of the heat engine.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Variable-frequency-controlled coupling in charge qubit circuits: Effects of microwave field on qubit-state readout

To implement quantum information processing, microwave fields are often used to manipulate superconuducting qubits. We study how the coupling between superconducting charge qubits can be controlled by variable-frequency magnetic fields. We also study the effects of the microwave fields on the readout of the charge-qubit states. The measurement of the charge-qubit states can be used to demonstrate the statistical properties of photons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quantum information processing using frequency control of impurity spins in diamond

Spin degrees of freedom of charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV$^-$) centers in diamond have large decoherence times even at room temperature, can be initialized and read out using optical fields, and are therefore a promising candidate for solid state qubits. Recently, quantum manipulations of NV$^-$- centers using RF fields were experimentally realized. In this paper we show; first, that such operations can be controlled by varying the frequency of the signal, instead of its amplitude, and NV$^-$- centers can be selectively addressed even with spacially uniform RF signals; second, that when several \NV - centers are placed in an off-resonance optical cavity, a similar application of classical optical fields provides a controlled coupling and enables a universal two-qubit gate (CPHASE). RF and optical control together promise a scalable quantum computing architecture.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Observing quantum non-locality in the entanglement between modes of massive particles

We consider the question of whether it is possible to use the entanglement between spatially separated modes of massive particles to observe nonlocal quantum correlations. Mode entanglement can be obtained using a single particle, indicating that it requires careful consideration before concluding whether experimental observation, e.g. violation of Bell inequalities, is possible or not. In the simplest setups analogous to optics experiments, that observation is prohibited by fundamental conservation laws. However, we show that using auxiliary particles, mode entanglement can be converted into forms that allow the observation of quantum non-locality. The probability of successful conversion depends on the nature and number of auxiliary particles used. In particular, we find that an auxiliary Bose-Einstein condensate allows the conversion arbitrarily many times with a small error that depends only on the initial state of the condensate.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Modeling an adiabatic quantum computer

We map adiabatic quantum evolution on the classical Hamiltonian dynamics of a 1D gas (Pechukas gas) and simulate the latter numerically. This approach turns out to be both insightful and numerically efficient, as seen from our example of a CNOT gate simulation. For a general class of Hamiltonians we show that the escape probability from the initial state scales no faster than |\dotλ|^γ, where |\dotλ| is the adiabaticity parameter. The scaling exponent for the escape probability is γ= 1/2 for all levels, except the edge (bottom and top) ones, where γ<~1/3. In principle, our method can solve arbitrarily large adiabatic quantum Hamiltonians.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Persistent single-photon production by tunable on-chip micromaser with a superconducting quantum circuit

We propose a tunable on-chip micromaser using a superconducting quantum circuit (SQC). By taking advantage of externally controllable state transitions, a state population inversion can be achieved and preserved for the two working levels of the SQC and, when needed, the SQC can generate a single photon. We can regularly repeat these processes in each cycle when the previously generated photon in the cavity is decaying, so that a periodic sequence of single photons can be produced persistently. This provides a controllable way for implementing a persistent single-photon source on a microelectronic chip.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Efficient one-step generation of large cluster states with solid-state circuits

Highly entangled states called cluster states are a universal resource for measurement-based quantum computing (QC). Here we propose an efficient method for producing large cluster states using superconducting quantum circuits. We show that a large cluster state can be efficiently generated in just one step by turning on the inter-qubit coupling for a short time. Because the inter-qubit coupling is only switched on during the time interval for generating the cluster state, our approach is also convenient for preparing the initial state for each qubit and for implementing one-way QC via single-qubit measurements. Moreover, the cluster state is robust against parameter variations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Switchable resonant coupling of flux qubits

We propose a coupling scheme, where two or more flux qubits with different eigenfrequencies share Josephson junctions with a coupler loop devoid of its own quantum dynamics. Switchable two-qubit coupling is realized by tuning the frequency of the AC magnetic flux through the coupler to a combination frequency of two of the qubits. The coupling allows any or all of the qubits to be simultaneously at the degeneracy point and can change sign.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2006

Decoherence in a scalable adiabatic quantum computer

We consider the effects of decoherence on Landau-Zener crossings encountered in a large-scale adiabatic-quantum-computing setup. We analyze the dependence of the success probability, i.e. the probability for the system to end up in its new ground state, on the noise amplitude and correlation time. We determine the optimal sweep rate that is required to maximize the success probability. We then discuss the scaling of decoherence effects with increasing system size. We find that those effects can be important for large systems, even if they are small for each of the small building blocks.

quant-ph↗