arXiv subjects

James Moran

Publications and source records attributed to James Moran.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Local Gaussian bounds on the non-destructive discrimination of two-mode squeezed states

Typical measurement setups in quantum systems are destructive, meaning that states are irretrievably altered after measurement. In this work, we analyse non-destructive discrimination of two two-mode squeezed vacuum states using local Gaussian measurements. We investigate a tradeoff relation between the success probability of discrimination and the fidelity of the resulting state with the initial state, and construct a protocol given by local Gaussian measurements, which is optimal within our numerically explored class. We also extend to the case where we allow for additional pre-shared entanglement, and show that this regime allows us to exceed the standard local Gaussian bound for the fidelity-success probability tradeoff. Our work provides a natural extension of the tradeoff between information gain and disturbance in entangled-state discrimination, previously established for finite-dimensional quantum systems, to infinite-dimensional continuous-variable systems.

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arXiv2025

Probabilistic Channel Distillation via Indefinite Causal Order

The quantum switch has been widely studied as a prototypical example of indefinite causal order in quantum information processing. However, the potential advantages of utilising more general forms of indefinite causal orders remain largely unexplored. We study higher-order switches, which involve concatenated applications of the quantum switch, and we demonstrate that they provide a strict advantage over the conventional quantum switch in the task of quantum channel distillation. Specifically, we show that higher-order quantum switches enable the probabilistic distillation of any qubit Pauli channel into the identity channel with nonzero probability. This capability contrasts with the conventional quantum switch, which allows only a limited set of Pauli channels to be distilled with nonzero probability. We observe that, counterintuitively, the distillation rate generally increases the noisier the channel is. We fully characterise the asymptotic distillation rates of higher-order superswitches for qubit Pauli channels. Finally, we prove a no-go result for multi-qubit generalisations.

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arXiv2024

Near-optimal coherent state discrimination via continuously labelled non-Gaussian measurements

Quantum state discrimination plays a central role in quantum information and communication. For the discrimination of optical quantum states, the two most widely adopted measurement techniques are photon detection, which produces discrete outcomes, and homodyne detection, which produces continuous outcomes. While various protocols using photon detection have been proposed for optimal and near-optimal discrimination between two coherent states, homodyne detection is known to have higher error rates, with its minimum achievable error rate often referred to as the Gaussian limit. In this work, we demonstrate that, despite the fundamental differences between discretely labelled and continuously labelled measurements, continuously labelled non-Gaussian measurements can also achieve near-optimal coherent state discrimination. We design two discrimination protocols that surpass the Gaussian limit: one using non-Gaussian unitary operations with homodyne detection, and another based on orthogonal polynomials. Our results show that photon detection is not required for near-optimal coherent state discrimination and that we can achieve error rates close to the Helstrom bound at low energies with continuously labelled measurements. We also find that our schemes maintain an advantage over the photon detection-based Kennedy receiver for a moderate range of coherent state amplitudes.

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arXiv2024

Imaging the jet of MWC 349A with resolved Radio Recombination Line emission from ALMA

Jets and disk winds arise from materials with excess angular momentum ejected from the accretion disks in forming stars. How these structures are launched and how they impact the gas within the innermost regions of these objects remains poorly understood. MWC349A is a massive star that has a circumstellar disk which rotates in accord with Kepler's Law, with an ionized wind and a high-velocity jet launched from the disk surface. The strongly maser-amplified emission of hydrogen radio recombination lines (RRLs) observed toward this system provides a comprehensive picture of its ionized environment with exquisite detail. In this Letter, we present ALMA observations of the H26$\alpha$ RRL and continuum emission obtained with the highest angular resolution ever used toward this source (beam of $\sim$0.02"). The maser RRL emission is resolved for the first time and clearly delineates the ionized disk, wind and jet. We analyzed the RRL data cubes with the 3D non-LTE radiative transfer model MORELI, confirming that the jet is poorly collimated. We found that the jet orientation is closer to the rotation axis of the system than derived from spatially unresolved data. This study confirms that hydrogen RRL masers are powerful probes of the physical structure and kinematics of the innermost ionized material around massive stars.

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arXiv2024

Enhancing Quantum State Discrimination with Indefinite Causal Order

The standard quantum state discrimination problem can be understood as a communication scenario involving a sender and a receiver following these three steps: (i) the sender encodes information in pre-agreed quantum states, (ii) sends them over a noiseless channel, and (iii) the receiver decodes the information by performing appropriate measurements on the received states. In a practical setting, however, the channel is not only noisy but often also unknown, thus altering the states and making optimal decoding generally not possible. In this work, we study this noisy discrimination scenario using a protocol based on indefinite causal order. To this end, we consider the quantum switch and define its higher-order generalisations, which we call superswitches. We find that, for certain channels and ensembles, the guessing probability can be significantly improved compared to both single- and multi-copy state discrimination.

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arXiv2023

Modeling of the high-velocity jet powered by the massive star MWC 349A

MWC 349A is a massive star with a well-known circumstellar disk rotating following a Keplerian law, and an ionized wind launched from the disk surface. Recent ALMA observations carried out toward this system have however revealed an additional high-velocity component in the strong, maser emission of hydrogen radio recombination lines (RRLs), suggesting the presence of a high-velocity ionized jet. In this work, we present 3D non-LTE radiative transfer modeling of the emission of the H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ maser lines, and of their associated radio continuum emission, toward the MWC 349A massive star. By using the MORELI code, we reproduce the spatial distribution and kinematics of the high-velocity emission of the H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ maser lines with a high-velocity ionized jet expanding at a velocity of $\sim$ 250 km s$^{-1}$, surrounded by MWC 349A's wide-angle ionized wind. The bipolar jet, which is launched from MWC 349A's disk, is poorly collimated and slightly miss-aligned with respect to the disk rotation axis. Thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity and spatial accuracy provided by ALMA, we also find that the already known, wide-angle ionized wind decelerates as it expands radially from the ionized disk. We briefly discuss the implications of our findings in understanding the formation and evolution of massive stars. Our results show the huge potential of RRL masers as powerful probes of the innermost ionized regions around massive stars and of their high-velocity jets.

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arXiv2023

Detection of a High-velocity Jet from MWC 349A Traced by Hydrogen Recombination Line Emission

MWC 349A is one of the rare stars known to have hydrogen radio recombination line (RRL) masers. The bright maser emission makes it possible to study the dynamics of the system at milli-arcsecond (mas) precision. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the 1.4 mm and 0.8 mm continuum emission of MWC 349A, as well as the H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ RRLs. Using the most extended array configuration of C43-10 with a maximum baseline of 16.2km, we spatially resolved the H30$\alpha$ line and 1.4mm continuum emission for the first time. In addition to the known H30$\alpha$ and H26$\alpha$ maser emission from a Keplerian disk at LSR velocities from -12 to 28 km s$^{-1}$ and from an ionized wind for velocities between -12 to -40 km s$^{-1}$ and 28 to 60 km s$^{-1}$, we found evidence of a jet along the polar axis at $V_{\mathrm{LSR}}$ from -85 to -40 km s$^{-1}$ and +60 to +100 km s$^{-1}$. These masers are found in a linear structure nearly aligned with the polar axis of the disk. If these masers lie close to the polar axis, their velocities could be as high as 575 km s$^{-1}$, which cannot be explained solely by a single expanding wind as proposed in B\'aez Rubio et al (2013). We suggest that they originate from a high-velocity jet, likely launched by a magnetohydrodynamic wind. The jet appears to rotate in the same direction as the rotation of the disk. A detailed radiative transfer modeling of these emissions will further elucidate the origin of these masers in the wind.

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arXiv2022

Two-mode squeezed state quantisation and semiclassical portraits

Quantisation with Gaussian type states offers certain advantages over other quantisation schemes, in particular, they can serve to regularise formally discontinuous classical functions leading to well defined quantum operators. In this work we define a squeezed state quantisation in two dimensions using several families of squeezed states for one- and two-mode configurations. The completeness relations of the squeezed states are exploited in order to tackle the quantisation and semiclassical analysis of a constrained position dependent mass model with harmonic potential. The effects of the squeezing parameters on the resulting operators and phase space functions are studied, and configuration space trajectories are compared between the classical and semiclassical models.

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arXiv2021

Coherent states of the two-dimensional non-separable supersymmetric Morse potential

Supersymmetry is a technique that allows us to extract information about the states and spectra of quantum mechanical systems which may otherwise be unsolvable. In this paper we reconstruct Ioffe's set of states for the singular non-separable two-dimensional Morse potential using supersymmetry from a non-degenerate set of states constructed for the initial separable Morse Hamiltonian. We define generalised coherent states, compute their uncertainty relations, and we find that the singularity in the partner Hamiltonian significantly affects the localisation of the coherent state wavefunction.

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arXiv2021

Degeneracy and coherent states of the two-dimensional Morse potential

In this paper we construct coherent states for the two-dimensional Morse potential. We find the dependence of the spectrum on the physical parameters and use this to understand the emergence of accidental degeneracies. It is observed that, under certain conditions pertaining to the irrationality of the parameters, accidental degeneracies do not appear and as such energy levels are at most two-fold degenerate. After defining a non-degenerate spectrum and set of states for the 2D Morse potential, we construct generalised coherent states and discuss the spatial distribution of their probability densities and their uncertainty relations.

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arXiv2020

Generalized Susskind-Glogower coherent states

Susskind-Glogower coherent states, whose Fock expansion coefficients include Bessel functions, have recently attracted considerable attention for their optical properties. Nevertheless, identity resolution is still an open question, which is an essential mathematical property that defines an overcomplete basis in the Fock space and allows a coherent state quantization map. In this regard, the modified Susskind-Glogower coherent states have been introduced as an alternative family of states that resolve the identity resolution. In the present manuscript, the quantization map related to the modified Susskind-Glogower coherent states is exploited, which naturally leads to a particular representation of the $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$ Lie algebra in its discrete series. The latter provides evidence about further generalizations of coherent states, built from the Susskind-Glogower ones by extending the indexes of the Bessel functions of the first kind and, alternatively, by employing the modified Bessel functions of the second kind. In this form, the new families of Susskind-Glogower-I and Susskind-Glogower-II coherent states are introduced. The corresponding quantization maps are constructed so that they lead to general representations of elements of the $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$ and $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ Lie algebras as generators of the SU$(1,1)$ and SU$(2)$ unitary irreducible representations respectively. For completeness, the optical properties related to the new families of coherent states are explored and compared with respect to some well-known optical states.

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arXiv2020

Non-linear ladder operators and coherent states for the 2:1 oscillator

The 2:1 two-dimensional anisotropic quantum harmonic oscillator is considered and new sets of states are defined by means of normal-ordering non-linear operators through the use of non-commutative binomial theorems as well as solving recurrence relations. The states generated are good candidates for the natural generalisation of the $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ coherent states of the two-dimensional isotropic oscillator. The two-dimensional non-linear generalised ladder operators lead to several chains of states which are connected in a non trivial way. The uncertainty relations of the defining chain of states are calculated and it is found that they admit a resolution of the identity and the spatial distribution of the wavefunction produces Lissajous figures in correspondence with the classical 2:1 oscillator.

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arXiv2020

Quantum and semi-classical aspects of confined systems with variable mass

We explore the quantization of classical models with position-dependent mass (PDM) terms constrained to a bounded interval in the canonical position. This is achieved through the Weyl-Heisenberg covariant integral quantization by properly choosing a regularizing function $\Pi(q,p)$ on the phase space that smooths the discontinuities present in the classical model. We thus obtain well-defined operators without requiring the construction of self-adjoint extensions. Simultaneously, the quantization mechanism leads naturally to a semi-classical system, that is, a classical-like model with a well-defined Hamiltonian structure in which the effects of the Planck's constant are not negligible. Interestingly, for a non-separable function $\Pi(q,p)$, a purely quantum minimal-coupling term arises in the form of a vector potential for both the quantum and semi-classical models.

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arXiv2020

A new method for constructing squeezed states for the isotropic 2D harmonic oscillator

We introduce a new method for constructing squeezed states for the 2D isotropic harmonic oscillator. Based on the construction of coherent states in [1], we define a new set of ladder operators for the 2D system as a linear combination of the x and y ladder operators and construct the SU(2) coherent states. The new ladder operators are used for generalizing the squeezing operator to 2D and the SU(2) coherent states play the role of the Fock states in the expansion of the 2D squeezed states. We discuss some properties of the 2D squeezed states.

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arXiv2019

Coherent States for the Isotropic and Anisotropic 2D Harmonic Oscillators

In this paper we introduce a new method for constructing coherent states for 2D harmonic oscillators. In particular, we focus on both the isotropic and commensurate anisotropic instances of the 2D harmonic oscillator. We define a new set of ladder operators for the 2D system as a linear combination of the x and y ladder operators and construct the $SU(2)$ coherent states, where these are then used as the basis of expansion for Schrödinger-type coherent states of the 2D oscillators. We discuss the uncertainty relations for the new states and study the behaviour of their probability density functions in configuration space.

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arXiv2018

H2O MegaMasers: a RadioAstron success story

The RadioAstron space-VLBI mission has successfully detected extragalactic H2O MegaMaser emission regions at very long Earth to space baselines ranging between 1.4 and 26.7 Earth Diameters (ED). The preliminary results for two galaxies, NGC3079 and NGC4258, at baselines longer than one ED indicate masering environments and excitation conditions in these galaxies that are distinctly different. Further observations of NGC4258 at longer baselines will reveal more of the physics of individual emission regions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Angular Momentum in Disk Wind Revealed in the Young Star MWC349A

Disk winds are thought to play a critical role in star birth. As winds extract excess angular momentum from accretion disks, matter in the disk can be transported inward to the star to fuel mass growth. However, the observational evidence of wind carrying angular momentum has been very limited. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of the young star MWC349A in the H26$α$ and H30$α$ recombination lines. The high signal-to-noise ratios made possible by the maser emission process allow us to constrain the relative astrometry of the maser spots to a milli-arcsecond precision. Previous observations of the H30$α$ line with the SMA and the Plateau de Bure interferometer (PdBI) showed that masers are distributed in the disk and wind. Our new high resolution observations of the H26$α$ line reveal differences in spatial distribution from that of the H30$α$ line. H26$α$ line masers in the disk are excited in a thin annulus with a radius of about 25 AU, while the H30$α$ line masers are formed in a slightly larger annulus with a radius of 30 AU. This is consistent with expectations for maser excitation in the presence of an electron density variation of approximately $R^{-4}$. In addition, the H30$α$ and H26$α$ line masers arise from different parts in the wind. This difference is also expected from the maser theory. The wind component of both masers exhibits line-of-sight velocities that closely follow a Keplerian law. This result provides strong evidence that the disk wind extracts significant angular momentum and thereby facilitating mass accretion in the young star.

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arXiv2014

Slow ionized wind and rotating disklike system associated with the high-mass young stellar object G345.4938+01.4677

We report the detection, made using ALMA, of the 92 GHz continuum and hydrogen recombination lines (HRLs) H40$α$, H42$α$, and H50$β$ emission toward the ionized wind associated with the high-mass young stellar object G345.4938+01.4677. This is the luminous central dominating source located in the massive and dense molecular clump associated with IRAS 16562$-$3959. The HRLs exhibit Voigt profiles, a strong signature of Stark broadening. We successfully reproduce the observed continuum and HRLs simultaneously using a simple model of a slow ionized wind in local thermodynamic equilibrium, with no need a high-velocity component. The Lorentzian line wings imply electron densities of $5\times10^7$ cm$^{-3}$ on average. In addition, we detect SO and SO$_2$ emission arising from a compact ($\sim3000$ AU) molecular core associated with the central young star. The molecular core exhibits a velocity gradient perpendicular to the jet-axis, which we interpret as evidence of rotation. The set of observations toward G345.4938+01.4677 are consistent with it being a young high-mass star associated with a slow photo-ionized wind.

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