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R. Y. Chiao

Publications and source records attributed to R. Y. Chiao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

Dynamical Casimir effect and the possibility of laser-like generation of gravitational radiation

In this paper, we address the question as to whether or not measurable sources for gravitational waves could possibly be made in the laboratory. Based on an analogy of the dynamical Casimir effect with the stimulated emission of radiation in the laser, our answer to this question is in the affirmative, provided that superconducting radio-frequency cavities in fact possess high quality factors for both electromagnetic and gravitational microwave radiation, as one would expect due to a quantum-mechanical gravitational Meissner-like effect. In order to characterize the response of matter to tensor gravitational fields, we introduce a prefactor to the source term of the gravitational wave equation, which we call the "relative gravitational permeativity" analogous to the "relative electric permittivity" and "relative magnetic permeability" that characterize the vector response of matter to applied fields in electromagnetism. This allows for a possibly large quantum mechanical enhancement of the response of a superconductor to an incident tensor gravitational wave field. Finally, we describe our experimental work with high-Q superconducting radio-frequency cavities, and propose a design for a coupled-cavity system with a flexible superconducting membrane in its middle as its amplifying element. This will then allow us to test for a Meissner-like expulsion, and therefore reflection, of incident tensor gravitational wave fields, and, above a certain threshold, to generate coherent gravitational radiation via the dynamical Casimir effect.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2014

Observability of the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect inside a 3D Faraday cage with time-varying exterior charges and masses

In this paper we investigate the scalar Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect in two of its forms, i.e., its electric form and its gravitational form. The standard form of the electric AB effect involves having particles (such as electrons) move in regions with zero electric field but different electric potentials. When a particle is recombined with itself, it will have a different phase, which can show up as a change in the way the single particle interferes with itself when it is recombined with itself. In the case where one has quasi-static fields and potentials, the particle will invariably encounter fringing fields, which makes the theoretical and experimental status of the electric AB effect much less clear than that of the magnetic (or vector) AB effect. Here we propose using time varying fields outside of a spherical shell, and potentials inside a spherical shell to experimentally test the scalar AB effect. In our proposal a quantum system will always be in a field-free region but subjected to a non-zero time-varying potentials. Furthermore, our system will not be spatially split and brought back together as in the magnetic AB experiment. Therefore there is no spatial interference and hence no shift in a spatial interference pattern to observe. Rather, there arises purely temporal interference phenomena. As in the magnetic AB experiments, these effects are non-classical. We present two versions of this idea: (i) a Josephson temporal interferometry experiment inside a superconducting spherical shell with a time-varying surface charge; (ii) a two-level atom experiment in which the atomic spectrum acquires FM sidebands when it is placed inside a spherical shell whose exterior mass is sinusoidally varying with time. The former leads to a time-varying internal magnetic field, and the latter leads to a time-varying gravitational redshift.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2012

Novel Aharonov-Bohm-like effect: Detectability of the vector potential in a solenoidal configuration with a ferromagnetic core covered by superconducting lead, and surrounded by a thin cylindrical shell of aluminum

The flux as measured by the Josephson effect in a SQUID-like configuration with a ferromagnetic core inserted into its center, is shown to be sensitive to the vector potential arising from the central ferromagnetic core, even when the core is covered with a superconducting material that prevents any magnetic field lines from ever reaching the perimeter of the SQUID-like configuration. This leads to a macroscopic, Aharonov-Bohm-like effect that is observable in an asymmetric hysteresis loop in the response of the SQUID-like configuration to an externally applied magnetic field.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2011

Some remarks on black hole thermodynamics

Two thermodynamic "paradoxes" of black hole physics are re-examined. The first is that there is a thermal instability involving two coupled blackbody cavities containing two black holes, and second is that a classical black hole can swallow up entropy in the form of ambient blackbody photons without increasing its mass. The resolution of the second paradox by Bekenstein and by Hawking is re-visited. The link between Hawking radiation and Wigner's superluminal tunneling time is discussed using two equivalent Feynman diagrams, and Feynman's re-interpretation principle.

physics.gen-ph↗
arXiv2010

"Instantaneous superluminality" in a bimetallic wire consisting of a superconducting aluminum wire plated with a thick copper covering

Maxwell's equations applied to a superconducting wire (aluminum) covered with a thick nonsuperconducting sheath (copper), in combination with the superfluid velocity equation for Cooper pairs which obeys DeWitt's minimal coupling rule, implies an instantaneous streamline flow that leads to the phenomenon of "instantaneous superluminality," in which a Cooper pair can disappear from the left end of the wire and instantaneously reappear at the right end of the wire. Relativistic causality is not violated by this superluminal phenomenon, which involves analytic, finite bandwidth waveforms whose spectrum lies below the BCS gap frequency. Experiments are proposed to test these ideas.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2010

Quantum Incompressibility of a Freely Falling Hydrogen Atom in a Circular Rydberg State, and a Gravitationally-Induced Charge Separation Effect in Superconducting Systems

Freely falling point-like objects converge toward the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum mechanical object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number state, i.e. a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly than a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height above the Earth's surface. This indicates that, apart from transitions between quantum states, the atom exhibits a kind of quantum mechanical incompressibility during free fall in inhomogeneous, tidal gravitational fields like those of the Earth. A superconducting ring-like system with a persistent current circulating around it behaves like the circular Rydberg atom during free fall. Like the electronic wavefunction of the freely falling atom, the Cooper-pair wavefunction is quantum mechanically incompressible. The ions in the lattice of the superconductor, however, are not incompressible, since they do not possess a globally coherent quantum phase. The resulting difference during free fall in the response of the nonlocalizable Cooper pairs of electrons and the localizable ions to inhomogeneous gravitational fields is predicted to lead to a charge separation effect, which in turn leads to a large Coulomb force that opposes the convergence caused by the tidal gravitational force on the superconducting system. A "Cavendish-like" experiment is proposed for observing the charge separation effect induced by inhomogeneous gravitational fields in a superconducting circuit. The charge separation effect is determined to be limited by a pair-breaking process that occurs when low frequency gravitational perturbations are present.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2006

Proposed observations of gravity waves from the early Universe via "Millikan oil drops"

Pairs of Planck-mass drops of superfluid helium coated by electrons (i.e., ``Millikan oil drops''), when levitated in a superconducting magnetic trap, can be efficient quantum transducers between electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational (GR) radiation. This leads to the possibility of a Hertz-like experiment, in which EM waves are converted at the source into GR waves, and then back-converted at the receiver from GR waves back into EM waves. Detection of the gravity-wave analog of the cosmic microwave background using these drops can discriminate between various theories of the early Universe.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2004

Canonical and kinetic forms of the electromagnetic momentum in an ad hoc quantization scheme for a dispersive dielectric

An ad hoc quantization scheme for the electromagnetic field in a weakly dispersive, transparent dielectric leads to the definition of canonical and kinetic forms for the momentum of the electromagnetic field in a dispersive medium. The canonical momentum is uniquely defined as the operator that generates spatial translations in a uniform medium, but the quantization scheme suggests two possible choices for the kinetic momentum operator, corresponding to the Abraham or the Minkowski momentum in classical electrodynamics. Another implication of this procedure is that a wave packet containing a single dressed photon travels at the group velocity through the medium. The physical significance of the canonical momentum has already been established by considerations of energy and momentum conservation in the atomic recoil due to spontaneous emission, the Cerenkov effect, the Doppler effect, and phase matching in nonlinear optical processes. In addition, the data of the Jones and Leslie radiation pressure experiment is consistent with the assignment of one ?k unit of canonical momentum to each dressed photon. By contrast, experiments in which the dielectric is rigidly accelerated by unbalanced electromagnetic forces require the use of the Abraham momentum.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2004

Differing Calculations of the Response of Matter-wave Interferometers to Gravitational Waves

There now exists in the literature two different expressions for the phase shift of a matter-wave interferometer caused by the passage of a gravitation wave. The first, a commonly accepted expression that was first derived in the 1970s, is based on the traditional geodesic equation of motion (EOM) for a test particle. The second, a more recently derived expression, is based on the geodesic deviation EOM. The power-law dependence on the frequency of the gravitational wave for both expressions for the phase shift is different, which indicates fundamental differences in the physics on which these calculations are based. Here we compare the two approaches by presenting a series of side-by-side calculations of the phase shift for one specific matter-wave-interferometer configuration that uses atoms as the interfering particle. By looking at the low-frequency limit of the different expressions for the phase shift obtained, we find that the phase shift calculated via the geodesic deviation EOM is correct, and the ones calculated via the geodesic EOM are not.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2003

Fast light, slow light, and phase singularities: a connection to generalized weak values

We demonstrate that Aharonov-Albert-Vaidman (AAV) weak values have a direct relationship with the response function of a system, and have a much wider range of applicability in both the classical and quantum domains than previously thought. Using this idea, we have built an optical system, based on a birefringent photonic crystal, with an infinite number of weak values. In this system, the propagation speed of a polarized light pulse displays both superluminal and slow light behavior with a sharp transition between the two regimes. We show that this system's response possesses two-dimensional, vortex-antivortex phase singularities. Important consequences for optical signal processing are discussed.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2003

Effective photon-photon interaction in a two-dimensional "photon fluid"

We formulate an effective theory for the atom-mediated photon-photon interactions in a two-dimensional ``photon fluid'' confined in a Fabry-Perot resonator. With the atoms modelled by a collection of anharmonic Lorentz oscillators, the effective interaction is evaluated to second order in the coupling constant (the anharmonicity parameter). The interaction has the form of a renormalized two-dimensional delta-function potential, with the renormalization scale determined by the physical parameters of the system, such as density of atoms and the detuning of the photons relative to the resonance frequency of the atoms. For realistic values of the parameters, the perturbation series has to be resummed, and the effective interaction becomes independent of the ``bare'' strength of the anharmonic term. The resulting expression for the non-linear Kerr susceptibility, is parametrically equal to the one found earlier for a dilute gas of two-level atoms. Using our result for the effective interaction parameter, we derive conditions for the formation of a photon fluid, both for Rydberg atoms in a microwave cavity and for alkali atoms in an optical cavity.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2003

Weak-wave advancement in nearly collinear four-wave mixing

We identify a new four-wave mixing process in which two nearly collinear pump beams produce phase-dependent gain into a weak bisector signal beam in a self-defocusing Kerr medium. Phase matching is achieved by weak-wave advancement caused by cross-phase modulation between the pump and signal beams. We relate this process to the inverse of spatial modulational instability and suggest a time-domain analog.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2003

Experimental demonstration of photonic crystal waveplates

We have constructed and experimentally tested a microwave half waveplate using the dispersive birefringent properties of a bulk two-dimensional photonic crystal away from its band gap. Our waveplate device exhibited a 200:1 polarization contrast, limited by our experimental resolution. We anticipate that photonic crystal waveplates will have important practical applications in several areas, including integrated photonic circuits.

cond-mat↗