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Biomedical subjects

Franco Nori

Publications and source records attributed to Franco Nori.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Maxwell's demon assisted thermodynamic cycle in superconducting quantum circuits.

We study a new quantum heat engine (QHE), which is assisted by a Maxwell's demon. The QHE requires three steps: thermalization, quantum measurement, and quantum feedback controlled by the Maxwell demon. We derive the positive-work condition and operation efficiency of this composite QHE. Using controllable superconducting quantum circuits as an example, we show how to construct our QHE. The essential role of the demon is explicitly demonstrated in this macroscopic QHE.

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PubMed2006

Diffusion of interacting Brownian particles: Jamming and anomalous diffusion.

The free self-diffusion of an assembly of interacting particles confined on a quasi-one-dimensional ring is investigated both numerically and analytically. The interparticle pairwise interaction can be either attractive or repulsive and the energy barrier opposing thermal hopping of two particles one past the other is finite. Thus, for sufficiently long times, self-diffusion becomes normal or conventional diffusion. However, depending on the particle density, subdiffusive transients with exponent 12 and suppression of normal diffusion are observed. Above a certain density threshold, a sudden drop to zero of the diffusion coefficient for attractive particles signals the transition to a jammed phase. Furthermore, a Gaussian cluster of attractive particles condenses, by shrinking in size, for densities larger than such density threshold; lower density clusters spread out, regardless of the interaction sign, through a diffusion mechanism that is anomalous at short times, and normal for sufficiently long times. These effects could be observed in systems with colloidal particles, vortices, electrons, among other interacting particle systems.

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PubMed2006

Quantum two-level systems in Josephson junctions as naturally formed qubits.

The two-level systems (TLSs) naturally occurring in Josephson junctions constitute a major obstacle for the operation of superconducting phase qubits. Since these TLSs can possess remarkably long decoherence times, we show that such TLSs can themselves be used as qubits, allowing for a well controlled initialization, universal sets of quantum gates, and readout. Thus, a single current-biased Josephson junction can be considered as a multiqubit register. It can be coupled to other junctions to allow the application of quantum gates to an arbitrary pair of qubits in the system. Our results indicate an alternative way to realize superconducting quantum information processing.

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PubMed2006

Generation and control of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement in superconducting circuits.

Going beyond the entanglement of microscopic objects (such as photons, spins, and ions), here we propose an efficient approach to produce and control the quantum entanglement of three macroscopic coupled superconducting qubits. By conditionally rotating, one by one, selected Josephson-charge qubits, we show that their Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled states can be deterministically generated. The existence of GHZ correlations between these qubits could be experimentally demonstrated by effective single-qubit operations followed by high-fidelity single-shot readouts. The possibility of using the prepared GHZ correlations to test the macroscopic conflict between the noncommutativity of quantum mechanics and the commutativity of classical physics is also discussed.

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PubMed2006

Nonuniform self-organized dynamical states in superconductors with periodic pinning.

We consider magnetic flux moving in superconductors with periodic pinning arrays. We show that sample heating by moving vortices produces negative differential resistivity (NDR) of both N and S type (i.e., N- and S-shaped) in the voltage-current characteristic (VI curve). The uniform flux flow state is unstable in the NDR region of the VI curve. Domain structures appear during the NDR part of the VI curve of an N type, while a filamentary instability is observed for the NDR of an S type. The simultaneous existence of the NDR of both types gives rise to the appearance of striking self-organized (both stationary and nonstationary) two-dimensional dynamical structures.

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PubMed2006

Ratchet without spatial asymmetry for controlling the motion of magnetic flux quanta using time-asymmetric drives.

Initially inspired by biological motors, new types of nanodevice have been proposed for controlling the motion of nanoparticles. Structures incorporating spatially asymmetric potential profiles (ratchet substrates) have been realized experimentally to manipulate vortices in superconductors, particles in asymmetric silicon pores, as well as charged particles through artificial pores and arrays of optical tweezers. Using theoretical ideas, we demonstrate experimentally how to guide flux quanta in layered superconductors using a drive that is asymmetric in time instead of being asymmetric in space. By varying the time-asymmetry of the drive, we are able experimentally to increase or decrease the density of magnetic flux at the centre of superconducting samples that have no spatial ratchet substrate. This is the first ratchet without a ratchet potential. The experimental results can be well described by numerical simulations considering the dragging effect of two types of vortices penetrating layered superconductors in tilted magnetic fields.

Biophysics↗
PubMed2006

Controllable coupling between flux qubits.

We propose an experimentally realizable method to control the coupling between two flux qubits. In our proposal, the bias fluxes are always fixed for these two inductively coupled qubits. The detuning of these two qubits can be initially chosen to be sufficiently large, so that their initial interbit coupling is almost negligible. When a variable frequency or time-dependent magnetic flux (TDMF) is applied to one of the qubits, a well-chosen frequency of the TDMF can be used to compensate the initial detuning and to couple two qubits. This proposed method avoids fast changes of either qubit frequencies or the amplitudes of the bias magnetic fluxes through the qubit loops, and also offers a remarkable way to implement any logic gate, as well as tomographically measure flux qubit states.

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PubMed2006

Achieving optimal rectification using underdamped rocked ratchets.

An underdamped rocked ratchet operated at very low temperatures and damping is shown: (i) to be capable of rectifying the ac input signal more efficiently than in the overdamped regime; (ii) to be insensitive to the initial conditions, at variance with noiseless, or deterministic, ratchets; and (iii) to be characterized by a wide damping "window," where its efficiency is appreciable also for weak input amplitudes. All these properties are rather robust, irrespective of the wave form of the drive and the ratchet potential. Our results relate to recent experiments on current-biased annular Josephson junctions and also on rectifiers of magnetic flux quanta in superconductors.

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PubMed2005

Nonlinear amplifier and frequency shifter using a tunable periodic drive.

We consider the superposition of a weak and a strong force acting on an overdamped particle moving on either an asymmetric-periodic or a double-well potential. The velocity of the particle has only harmonics of the strong force, when the particle either oscillates near a minimum or runs away from it. Near a threshold drive (bistable point) separating these two dynamical regimes, the weak force drastically changes the velocity spectrum, greatly amplifying the mixing harmonics. This effect can be used either to amplify or to shift the frequency of a weak signal and can be observed in a wide variety of systems, including domain walls in a ferromagnet, SQUIDs, and tiny particles in a ratchet potential.

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PubMed2005

Surface Josephson plasma waves in layered superconductors.

We predict the existence of surface waves in layered superconductors in the THz frequency range, below the Josephson plasma frequency omega J. This wave propagates along the vacuum-superconductor interface and dampens in both transverse directions out of the surface (i.e., towards the superconductor and towards the vacuum). This is the first prediction of propagating surface waves in any superconductor. These predicted surface Josephson plasma waves are important for different phenomena, including the complete suppression of the specular reflection from a sample (Wood's anomalies) and a huge enhancement of the wave absorption (which can be used as a THz detector).

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PubMed2005

Critical currents in quasiperiodic pinning arrays: chains and Penrose lattices.

We study the critical depinning current Jc versus the applied magnetic flux Phi, for quasiperiodic (QP) chains and 2D arrays of pinning centers placed on the nodes of a fivefold Penrose lattice. In QP chains, the peaks in Jc(Phi) are determined by a sequence of harmonics of the long and short segments of the chain. The critical current Jc(Phi) has a remarkable self-similarity. In 2D QP pinning arrays, we predict analytically and numerically the main features of Jc(Phi), and demonstrate that the Penrose lattice of pinning sites provides an enormous enhancement of Jc(Phi), even compared to triangular and random pinning site arrays. This huge increase in Jc(Phi) could be useful for applications.

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PubMed2005

Optical selection rules and phase-dependent adiabatic state control in a superconducting quantum circuit.

We analyze the optical selection rules of the microwave-assisted transitions in a flux qubit superconducting quantum circuit (SQC). We show that the parities of the states relevant to the superconducting phase in the SQC are well defined when the external magnetic flux phi(e) = phi(0)/2; then the selection rules are the same as the ones for the electric-dipole transitions in usual atoms. When phi(e) does not = phi(0)/2, the symmetry of the potential of the artificial "atom" is broken, a so-called delta-type "cyclic" three-level atom is formed, where one- and two-photon processes can coexist. We study how the population of these three states can be selectively transferred by adiabatically controlling the electromagnetic field pulses. Different from lambda-type atoms, the adiabatic population transfer in our three-level delta atom can be controlled not only by the amplitudes but also by the phases of the pluses.

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PubMed2005

Direct observation of rectified motion of vortices in a niobium superconductor.

Using Lorentz microscopy to directly image vortices, we investigate vortex motion control and rectification in a niobium superconductor. We directly observe a net motion of vortices along microfabricated channels with a spatially asymmetric potential, even though the vortices were driven by an oscillatory field. By observing the individual motion of vortices, we clarify elementary processes involved in this rectification. To further demonstrate the ability to control the motion of vortices, we created a tiny vortex "racetrack" to monitor the motion of vortices in a closed circuit channel.

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PubMed2005

Using Josephson vortex lattices to control terahertz radiation: tunable transparency and terahertz photonic crystals.

The Josephson vortex (JV) lattice is a periodic array that scatters electromagnetic waves in the THz-frequency range. We show that JV lattices can produce a photonic band-gap structure (THz photonic crystal) with easily tunable forbidden zones controlled by the in-plane magnetic field. The scattering of electromagnetic waves by JVs results in a strong magnetic-field dependence of the reflection and transparency. Fully transparent or fully reflected frequency windows can be conveniently tuned by the in-plane magnetic field. These proposals are potentially useful for controllable THz filters.

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PubMed2005

Nanoscale friction: kinetic friction of magnetic flux quanta and charge density waves.

In analogy with the standard macroscopic friction, here we present a comparative study of the friction force felt by moving vortices in superconductors and charge density waves. Using experiments and a model for this data, our observations (1) provide a link between friction at the micro- and macroscopic scales, (2) explain the roundness of the static-kinetic friction transition in terms of thermal fluctuations, particle interactions, and system size (critical-phenomena view), and (3) explain the crossing of the kinetic friction F(k) versus velocity V for our pristine (high density of very weak defects) and our irradiated samples (with lower density of deeper pinning defects).

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PubMed2005

Interacting particles on a rocked ratchet: rectification by condensation.

The transport of interacting particles subject to an external low-frequency ac force on a ratchetlike asymmetric substrate is studied via a nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation as well as via numerical simulations. With increasing the particle density, the ratchet current can either increase or decrease depending on the temperature, the drive amplitude, and the nature of the interparticle interaction. At low temperatures, attracting particles can condense randomly at some potential minima, thus breaking the discrete translational symmetry of the substrate. Depending on the drive amplitude, condensation results either in a drop to zero or in the saturation of the net particle velocity at densities above the condensation density-the latter case producing a very efficient rectification mechanism.

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PubMed2005

Controlling the motion of interacting particles: homogeneous systems and binary mixtures.

We elaborate on recent results on the transport of interacting particles for both single-species and binary mixtures subject to an external driving on a ratchetlike asymmetric substrate. Moreover, we also briefly review motion control without any spatial asymmetric potential (i.e., no ratchet). Our results are obtained using an analytical approach based on a nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation as well as via numerical simulations. By increasing the particle density, the net dc ratchet current in our alternating (ac)-driven systems can either increase or decrease depending on the temperature, the drive amplitude, and the nature of the inter-particle interactions. This provides an effective control of particle motion by just changing the particle density. At low temperatures, attracting particles can condense at some potential minima, thus breaking the discrete translational symmetry of the substrate. Depending on the drive amplitude, an agglomeration or condensation results either in a drop to zero or in a saturation of the net particle velocity at densities above the condensation density-the latter case producing a very efficient rectification mechanism. For binary mixtures we find three ways of controlling the particle motion of one (passive) B species by means of another (active) A species: (i) Dragging the target particles B by driving the auxiliary particles A, (ii) rectifying the motion of the B particles on the asymmetric potential created by the A-B interactions, and (iii) dynamically modifying (pulsating) this potential by controlling the motion of the A particles. This allows to easily control the magnitude and direction of the velocity of the target particles by changing either the frequency, phase and/or amplitude of the applied ac drive(s).

Biophysics↗