Self Replication and Signalling

It is known that if one could clone an arbitrary quantum state one could send signal faster than the speed of light. However it remains interesting to see that if one can perfectly self replicate an arbitrary quantum state, does it violate the no signaling principle? Here we see that perfect self replication would also lead to superluminal signaling.     

Fast relaxation of carbon nanotubes in polymer composite actuators

Silicone elastomer composites containing multiwalled carbon nanotubes have been irradiated with near-infrared light to study their mechanical actuation response. We show that the speed of the stimulated response is faster than Debye relaxation, instead following a compressed-exponential law. However, the relaxation after switching off the light source follows the simple-exponential relaxation, as does the stimulated response at very low nanotube concentration. We discuss possible models and explanations to account for the fast photomechanical response.     

A linear relativistic model of processes with causal faster-than-light effects

To get a synthesis of causal faster-than-light effects and signals that do not propagate faster than light by using local, covariant, linear equations of motion, we propose the following hypothesis. Free fields that propagate signals according to the Klein-Gordon, Dirac, Proca or Maxwell equations, are actually describing only smoothed-out, average properties of underlying causal transport processes of point like entities with arbitrary four-momenta, the states of which are described by a scalar, spinor or four-vector field that satisfies a local, covariant, linear transport equation. An example of such a linear, causal, covariant transport process is shown to display causal faster-than-light effects, to propagate signals not faster than light, and to contain the Klein-Gordon equation as a limiting case. An analogous transport model displays causal, four-vector, faster-than-light effects, and also distinctive four-vector, long-range and short-range effects that do not propagate faster than light.     

Comparative analysis of the effects of internal lasing oscillation and external light injection on semiconductor optical amplifier performance

One of the key differences of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with internal lasing oscillation (ILO) from a SOA with external light injection (ELI) lies in a carrier-sharing mechanism. Since the internal lasing mode shares the same pool of carriers with the signals, the carriers (or photons) withdrawn from the circulating laser mode speed up the gain recovery. On the other hand, the external light injected into the SOA shortens the carrier recovery time through optical pumping without any carrier sharing involved. To find out a better scheme, we have made a comparative investigation on the effects of the ILO and ELI on the SOA performance. It turns out by way of simulation that the ELI scheme provides faster gain recovery, shorter carrier lifetime, and higher saturation power when the external injection power is higher than the internal lasing power. The performance enhancement is not so pronounced with the carrier-sharing mechanism, as the internal lasing mode itself gives rise to severe longitudinal spatial hole burning (LSHB). Nevertheless, the ILO scheme is preferable for linear-amplification applications. We also examine the use of the ELI for low-crosstalk optical amplifiers. It is found that the ELI scheme does not bring in a very strong resonance peak in the crosstalk, which appears in a SOA with ILO due to relaxation oscillations of the lasing mode. In comparison to the ILO in SOAs, the ELI into SOAs is likely to leave more optical gain for multi-channel amplification without any sacrifice on the crosstalk.     

Polarization properties of Rayleigh backscattering with a high degree of coherence in single-mode fibers

The state and degree of polarization (SOP, DOP) of Rayleigh backscattering (RB) are analyzed by using Jones calculus for the case the source coherent length is larger than the fiber length. It shows that the SOP of RB is the same as the SOP of input light, and the fiber disturbance does not influence the SOP of RB. The DOP of RB is also the same as that of input light. The corresponding experiments have been carried out, and the results agree well with all the predictions.     

On the Traversal Time of Barriers

Fifty years ago Hartman studied the barrier transmission time of wave packets (J Appl Phys 33:3427–3433, 1962). He was inspired by the tunneling experiments across thin insulating layers at that time. For opaque barriers he calculated faster than light propagation and a transmission time independent of barrier length, which is called the Hartman effect. A faster than light (FTL or superluminal) wave packet velocity was deduced in analog tunneling experiments with microwaves and with infrared light thirty years later. Recently, the conjectured zero time of electron tunneling was claimed to have been observed in ionizing helium inside the barrier. The calculated and measured short tunneling time arises at the barrier front. This tunneling time was found to be universal for elastic fields as well as for electromagnetic fields. Remarkable is that the delay time is the same for the reflected and the transmitted waves in the case of symmetric barriers. Several theoretical physicists predicted this strange nature of the tunneling process. However, even with this background many members of the physics community do not accept a FTL signal velocity interpretation of the experimental tunneling results. Instead a luminal front velocity was calculated to explain the FTL experimental results frequently. However, Brillouin stated in his book on wave propagation and group velocity that the front velocity is given by the group velocity of wave packets in the case of physical signals, which have only finite frequency bandwidths. Some studies assumed barriers to be cavities and the observed tunneling time does represent the cavity lifetime. We are going to discus these continuing misleading interpretations, which are found in journals and in textbooks till today.     

Pressure based finite volume method for calculation of compressible viscous gas flows

A pressure based, iterative finite volume method is developed for calculation of compressible, viscous, heat conductive gas flows at all speeds. The method does not need the use of under-relaxation coefficient in order to ensure a convergence of the iterative process. The method is derived from a general form of system of equations describing the motion of compressible, viscous gas. An emphasis is done on the calculation of gaseous microfluidic problems. A fast transient process of gas wave propagation in a two-dimensional microchannel is used as a benchmark problem. The results obtained by using the new method are compared with the numerical solution obtained by using SIMPLE (iterative) and PISO (non-iterative) methods. It is shown that the new iterative method is faster than SIMPLE. For the considered problem the new method is slightly faster than PISO as well. Calculated are also some typical microfluidic subsonic and supersonic flows, and the Rayleigh–Bénard convection of a rarefied gas in continuum limit. The numerical results are compared with other analytical and numerical solutions.     

Noncausal time response in frustrated total internal reflection?

Tunneling of photons in frustrated total internal reflection has been studied in the time domain with single-cycle femtosecond pulses. It is seen that both the phase and energy of the pulse travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. Theoretical analysis of the experiments shows that the time-response function for electromagnetic waves propagating in the air gap is noncausal. However, it is found that superluminal signal propagation is not possible in this case because of the inevitable diffractive spreading of the signal beam.     

Visibility interference fringes optimization on a single beam in the case of partially polarized and partially coherent light

We analyze the optimal visibility one can obtain in interference experiments with partially polarized light when one acts on only one of the two interfering beams. This is a practical situation that can appear when one does not want to modify or attenuate one of the beams, such as in homodyne detection. It is shown that the optimal configuration usually does not correspond to light with the same degrees of polarization for the two interfering beams. We also demonstrate that a simple interpretation can be obtained with the recently introduced normalized mutual coherence matrix.     

Accelerated non-linear finite volume method for diffusion

A non-linear finite volume method with monotone matrix for the diffusion equation is presented. It does not extrapolate the primary variable to Neumann boundaries, as this was previously done in similar methods. This change results in faster convergence. Computation time is significantly shortened further using the reduced rank extrapolation method (RRE), and imposing an upper limit on the number of linear iterations per non-linear step. Second-order accuracy and performance improvement are demonstrated by numerical examples.     

Fast and precise algorithm based on maximum radial symmetry for single molecule localization

We present an algorithm to estimate the location of single fluorescent molecule with both high speed and high precision. This algorithm is based on finding the subpixel position with maximum radial symmetry in a pixelated single molecule fluorescence image. Compared with conventional algorithms, this algorithm does not rely on point-spread-function or noise model. Through numerical simulation and experimental analysis, we found that this algorithm exhibits localization precision very close to the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), while executes ～1000 times faster than the MLE and ～6 times faster than the fluoroBancroft algorithm.     

Problems with vector confinement in 4d QCD

It is shown that vector confinement does not support bound state spectrum in the 4d Dirac equation. The same property is confirmed in the heavy–light and light–light QCD systems. This situation is compared with the confinement in the 2d system, which is generated by the gluon exchange. Considering the existing theories of confinement, it is shown that both the field correlator approach and the dual superconductor model ensure the scalar confinement in contrast to the Gribov–Zwanziger model, where the confining Coulomb potential does not support bound states in the Dirac equation.     

原子在单色辐射作用下长时间内的行为研究

建立了原子在单色辐射作用下的模型,用微扰理论方法求解出原子处于两能级的几率.讨论了原子在单色辐射作用下长时间内的行为,得到了原子因辐射场的影响而变化的速率比能级的衰减速率大的情况下,原子在两能级间振荡,原子和辐射场相互作用越强,辐射场能够与原子发生作用的频率区间越宽,而且原子在单色光长时间辐射作用下高、低能级跃迁的速率不随时间而改变的结论.     

ON SOME IMPORTANT PROBLEMS OF THE PHASE ADJUSTED FOCUSING LASER ACCELERATOR

In this paper, it is pointed out that in the phase adjusted focusing laser accelerator,particles are accelerated by "slow wave" (synchronizing with the accelerated particles)but not "fast wave". (waves whose phase velocity is faster than the speed of light).Some measures should be taken so as to get stability in both longitudinal and transversemotion.     

一种提高双CCD图像拼接精度的方法

利用一对光楔间距变化时,通过它的成像光束的像点会产生微小偏移这一特性,在双CCD图像拼接探测器中增加了光楔调整机构,该光楔调整机构包含两对光楔,一对光楔用于CCD水平方向的图像调整;另一对用于垂直方向的图像调整。通过设计、制作,光楔调整机构最终应用于双CCD图像拼接探测器的装调。装调过程显示:加装光楔调整机构对原有光学系统没有任何影响,可以实现精度高于0.001 mm的图像移动量,有效降低了双CCD图像拼接探测器的装调难度,提高了拼接图像质量,降低了生产成本。     

Hyperfine coherence in the presence of spontaneous photon scattering

The coherence of a hyperfine-state superposition of a trapped 9Be+ ion in the presence of off-resonant light is studied experimentally. It is shown that Rayleigh elastic scattering of photons that does not change state populations also does not affect coherence. We observe coherence times that exceed the average scattering time of 19 photons which is determined from measured Stark shifts. This result implies that, with sufficient control over its parameters, laser light can be used to manipulate hyperfine-state superpositions with very little decoherence.     

On aperture averaging of speckle patterns

Statistical parameters of the power of a nonuniform (speckled) light field measured by a photodetector with a finite receiving aperture were investigated. Such a field was created by passing coherent laser radiation through a multimode optical fiber and then scanned across the aperture. It was demonstrated that the mean square deviation of the received power is defined by a parameter equal to the ratio of the aperture diameter to the characteristic dimension of the spatial variations of the light field. If this ratio is more than 2, the above deviation does not exceed values permissible for devices using spatially coherent light (e.g., for free-space optical communication systems).     

Relativity and impossibility of superluminal motion

I prove that not only particle motion but also wave propagation cannot be faster than light according to relativity.     

Polarization effects in non-linear scattering

The problem of non-linear scattering of unpolarized light is discussed. New relationships between the scattering intensities for unpolarized and polarized incident light are given. It is shown that the usual equation connecting the depolarization ratios for plane and unpolarized light does not hold for non-linear scattering processes such as hyper-Rayleigh and hyper-Raman scattering. A new relation between the two is given in terms of two additional intensity ratios. An expression for the depolarization ratio for unpolarized light is also given in terms of the hyperpolarizability tensor.     

Exorcising w < −1

We show that the combined dimming of Type Ia supernovae induced by both a cosmological constant and the conversion of photons into axions in extra-galactic magnetic fields can impersonate dark energy with an equation of state w < −1. An observer unaware of the presence of photon-axion conversion would interpret the additional dimming as cosmic acceleration faster than that induced by a cosmological constant alone. We find that this mechanism can mimic equations of state as negative as w ? −1.5. Our model does not have any ghosts, phantoms, and the like. It is fully consistent with the conventional effective field theory in curved space, and all existing observational constraints on the axions are obeyed.