Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

O. Kenneth

Publications and source records attributed to O. Kenneth.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

Anomalous Decay and Decoherence in Atomic Gases

Pair collisions in atomic gases lead to decoherence and decay. Assuming that all the atoms in the gas are equally likely to collide one is led to consider Lindbladian of mean field type where the evolution in the limit of many atoms reduces to a single qudit Lindbladian with quadratic non-linearity. We describe three smoking guns for non-linear evolutions: Power law decay and dephasing rates; Dephasing rates that take a continuous range of values depending on the initial data and finally, anomalous flow of the Bloch ball towards a hemisphere.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2014

Lindbladians for controlled stochastic Hamiltonians

We construct Lindbladians associated with controlled stochastic Hamiltonians in weak coupling. This allows to determine the power spectrum of the noise from measurements of dephasing rates; to optimize the control and to test numerical algorithms that solve controlled stochastic Schrodinger equations. A few examples are worked out in detail.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2014

Braiding fluxes in Pauli Hamiltonian

Aharonov and Casher showed that Pauli Hamiltonians in two dimensions have gapless zero modes. We study the adiabatic evolution of these modes under the slow motion of $N$ fluxons with fluxes $\Phi_a\in\mathbb{R}$. The positions, $\mathbf{r}_a\in\mathbb{R}^2$, of the fluxons are viewed as controls. We are interested in the holonomies associated with closed paths in the space of controls. The holonomies can sometimes be abelian, but in general are not. They can sometimes be topological, but in general are not. We analyze some of the special cases and some of the general ones. Our most interesting results concern the cases where holonomy turns out to be topological which is the case when all the fluxons are subcritical, $\Phi_a<1$, and the number of zero modes is $D=N-1$. If $N\ge3$ it is also non-abelian. In the special case that the fluxons carry identical fluxes the resulting anyons satisfy the Burau representations of the braid group.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2013

A numerical study of the window condition for Chern numbers of Hofstadter Butterflies

The Chern numbers for Hofstadter models with rational flux 2*pi*p/q are partially determined by a Diophantine equation. A Mod q ambiguity remains. The resolution of this ambiguity is only known for the rectangular lattice with nearest neighbors hopping where it has the form of a "window condition". We study a Hofstadter butterfly on the triangular lattice for which the resolution of ambiguity is open. In the model many pairs (p,q) satisfy a window condition which is shifted relative to the window of the square model. However, we also find pairs (p,q) where the Chern numbers do not belong to any contiguous window. This shows that the rectangular model and the one we study on the triangular lattice are not adiabatically connected: Many gaps must close. Our results suggest the conjecture that the mod q ambiguity in the Diophantine equation generically reduces to a sign ambiguity.

math-ph↗
arXiv2013

Undulatory locomotion of finite filaments: lessons from C. elegans

Undulatory swimming is a widespread propulsion strategy adopted by many small-scale organisms including various single-cell eukaryotes and nematodes. In this work, we report a comprehensive study of undulatory locomotion of a finite filament using (i) approximate resistive force theory (RFT) assuming a local nature of hydrodynamic interaction between the filament and the surrounding viscous liquid, and (ii) particle-based numerical computations taking into account the intra-filament hydrodynamic interaction. Using the ubiquitous model of a propagating sinusoidal waveform, we identify the limit of applicability of the RFT and determine the optimal propulsion gait in terms of (i) swimming distance per period of undulation and (ii) hydrodynamic propulsion efficiency. The occurrence of the optimal swimming gait maximizing hydrodynamic efficiency at finite wavelength in particle-based computations diverges from the prediction of the RFT. To compare the model swimmer powered by sine wave undulations to biological undulatory swimmers, we apply the particle-based approach to study locomotion of the model organism nematode Caenorhabditis elegans using the swimming gait extracted from experiments. The analysis reveals that even though the amplitude and the wavenumber of undulations are similar to those determined for the best performing sinusoidal swimmer, C. elegans overperforms the latter in terms of both displacement and hydrodynamic efficiency. Further comparison with other undulatory microorganisms reveals that many adopt waveforms with characteristics similar to the optimal model swimmer, yet real swimmers still manage to beat the best performing sine-wave swimmer in terms of distance covered per period. Overall our results underline the importance of further waveform optimization, as periodic undulations adopted by C. elegans and other organisms deviate considerably from a simple sine wave.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2011

Optically induced rotation of a quantum dot exciton spin

We demonstrate control over the spin state of a semiconductor quantum dot exciton using a polarized picosecond laser pulse slightly detuned from a biexciton resonance. The control pulse follows an earlier pulse, which generates an exciton and initializes its spin state as a coherent superposition of its two non-degenerate eigenstates. The control pulse preferentially couples one component of the exciton state to the biexciton state, thereby rotating the exciton's spin direction. We detect the rotation by measuring the polarization of the exciton spectral line as a function of the time-difference between the two pulses. We show experimentally and theoretically how the angle of rotation depends on the detuning of the second pulse from the biexciton resonance.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2010

Quantum response of dephasing open systems

We develop a theory of adiabatic response for open systems governed by Lindblad evolutions. The theory determines the dependence of the response coefficients on the dephasing rates and allows for residual dissipation even when the ground state is protected by a spectral gap. We give quantum response a geometric interpretation in terms of Hilbert space projections: For a two level system and, more generally, for systems with suitable functional form of the dephasing, the dissipative and non-dissipative parts of the response are linked to a metric and to a symplectic form. The metric is the Fubini-Study metric and the symplectic form is the adiabatic curvature. When the metric and symplectic structures are compatible the non-dissipative part of the inverse matrix of response coefficients turns out to be immune to dephasing. We give three examples of physical systems whose quantum states induce compatible metric and symplectic structures on control space: The qubit, coherent states and a model of the integer quantum Hall effect.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2009

Lyapunov exponent for the laser speckle potential: a weak disorder expansion

Anderson localization of matter waves was recently observed with cold atoms in a weak 1D disorder realized with laser speckle potential [J. Billy et al., Nature 453, 891 (2008)]. The latter is special in that it does not have spatial frequency components above certain cutoff $q_{c}$. As a result, the Lyapunov exponent (LE), or inverse localization length, vanishes in Born approximation for particle wavevector $k>{1/2}q_{c}$, and higher orders become essential. These terms, up to the order four, are calculated analytically and compared with numerical simulations. For very weak disorder, LE exhibits a sharp drop at $k$ $={1/2}q_{c}$. For moderate disorder (a) the drop is less dramatic than expected from the fourth order approximation and (b) LE becomes very sensitive to the sign of the disorder skewness (which can be controlled in cold atom experiments). Both observations are related to the strongly non-Gaussian character of the speckle intensity.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv2008

Entanglement and the geometry of two qubits

Two qubits is the simplest system where the notions of separable and entangled states and entanglement witnesses first appear. We give a three dimensional geometric description of these notions. This description however carries no quantitative information on the measure of entanglement. A four dimensional description captures also the entanglement measure. We give a neat formula for the Bell states which leads to a slick proof of the fundamental teleportation identity. We describe optimal distillation of two qubits geometrically and present a simple geometric proof of the Peres-Horodecki separability criterion.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

Visualizing Two Qubits

The notions of entanglement witnesses, separable and entangled states for two qubits system can be visualized in three dimensions using the SLOCC equivalence classes. This visualization preserves the duality relations between the various sets and allows us to give ``proof by inspection'' of a non-elementary result of the Horodeckies that for two qubits, Peres separability test is iff. We then show that the CHSH Bell inequalities can be visualized as circles and cylinders in the same diagram. This allows us to give a geometric proof of yet another result of the Horodeckies, which optimizes the violation of the CHSH Bell inequality. Finally, we give numerical evidence that, remarkably, allowing Alice and Bob to use three rather than two measurements each, does not help them to distinguish any new entangled SLOCC equivalence class beyond the CHSH class.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2006

Swimming in curved space or The Baron and the cat

We study the swimming of non-relativistic deformable bodies in (empty) static curved spaces. We focus on the case where the ambient geometry allows for rigid body motions. In this case the swimming equations turn out to be geometric. For a small swimmer, the swimming distance in one stroke is determined by the Riemann curvature times certain moments of the swimmer.

math-ph↗
arXiv2005

Pushmepullyou: An efficient micro-swimmer

The swimming of a pair of spherical bladders that change their volumes and mutual distance is efficient at low Reynolds numbers and is superior to other models of artificial swimmers. The change of shape resembles the wriggling motion known as {\it metaboly} of certain protozoa.

math-ph↗
arXiv2004

Optimal Swimming at low Reynolds numbers

Efficient swimming at low Reynolds numbers is a major concern of microbots. To compare the efficiencies of different swimmers we introduce the notion of ``swimming drag coefficient'' which allows for the ranking of swimmers. We find the optimal swimmer within a certain class of two dimensional swimmers using conformal mappings techniques.

math-ph↗
arXiv2003

Optimal rotations of deformable bodies and orbits in magnetic fields

Deformations can induce rotation with zero angular momentum where dissipation is a natural ``cost function''. This gives rise to an optimization problem of finding the most effective rotation with zero angular momentum. For certain plastic and viscous media in two dimensions the optimal path is the orbit of a charged particle on a surface of constant negative curvature with magnetic field whose total flux is half a quantum unit.

physics.class-ph↗
arXiv2002

Repulsive Casimir forces

We discuss repulsive Casimir forces between dielectric materials with non trivial magnetic susceptibility. It is shown that considerations based on naive pair-wise summation of Van der Waals and Casimir Polder forces may not only give an incorrect estimate of the magnitude of the total Casimir force, but even the wrong sign of the force when materials with high dielectric and magnetic response are involved. Indeed repulsive Casimir forces may be found in a large range of parameters, and we suggest that the effect may be realized in known materials. The phenomenon of repulsive Casimir forces may be of importance both for experimental study and for nanomachinery applications.

quant-ph↗