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This article presents an advanced power generation system that integrates a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) module with a recuperated supercritical CO2 (s-CO2) cycle. The waste heat generated by the exhaust of the SOFC module is utilised to drive the s-CO2 cycle, resulting in enhanced energy efficiency. The performance of the system was investigated through thermodynamic and economic analyses and optimised using response surface methodology. The optimisation process focused on two objectives: maximising the energy efficiency of the integrated system and minimising the levelised cost of electricity. The study meticulously analysed the effects of important variables such as current density, fuel utilisation factor, and operating temperature of the fuel cell. The optimisation efforts yielded impressive results, achieving an energy efficiency of 64% and a levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of 0.18£/kWh. The proposed system surpassed traditional natural gas-fuelled power plants in terms of efficiency and specific emissions. Furthermore, the system's performance was evaluated when operated with green hydrogen fuel, which led to a substantial improvement in efficiency, estimated at 73.37%. However, it was found that the LCOE of the system is relatively higher and approximately 15% higher than the methane-based alternative.

We study spectral form factor in periodically-kicked bosonic chains. We consider a family of models where a Hamiltonian with the terms diagonal in the Fock space basis, including random chemical potentials and pair-wise interactions, is kicked periodically by another Hamiltonian with nearest-neighbor hopping and pairing terms. We show that for intermediate-range interactions, random phase approximation can be used to rewrite the spectral form factor in terms of a bi-stochastic many-body process generated by an effective bosonic Hamiltonian. In the particle-number conserving case, i.e., when pairing terms are absent, the effective Hamiltonian has a non-abelian $SU(1,1)$ symmetry, resulting in universal quadratic scaling of the Thouless time with the system size, irrespective of the particle number. This is a consequence of degenerate symmetry multiplets of the subleading eigenvalue of the effective Hamiltonian and is broken by the pairing terms. In the latter case, we numerically find a nontrivial systematic system-size dependence of the Thouless time, in contrast to a related recent study for kicked fermionic chains., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

Combining biomass-fuelled power plant with carbon capture and storage allows CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere, considering biomass a carbon–neutral fuel. In the present study, a biomass-based CO2 negative system has been proposed, which combines a biomass steam gasification facility with a solid oxide fuel cell, a post-combustion carbon capture facility with a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), and waste heat recovery using the organic Rankine cycle. A techno-economic analysis of two scenarios, namely a) with MCFC-based CO2 capture and b) without CO2 capture, was conducted. Integration of MCFC and carbon capture system was able to capture 99.2% of CO2. It was found that the energy efficiency of the system was decreased by 9.43%, with the incorporation of CO2 capture facilities. Furthermore, exergy efficiencies for the configuration with CO2 capture and without CO2 capture are calculated as 62% and 70.22%, respectively. The economic analysis reveals that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for the configuration with CO2 capture and without CO2 capture is estimated to be 0.062 $/kWh and 0.052 $/kWh, respectively. Finally, life cycle CO2 emissions for both the scenarios have been performed, and the analysis reveals that the proposed CO2 negative system is able to capture 1100 tonnes of CO2 per year.

In this note we prove that almost cap sets $A \subset \mathbb{F}_q^n$, i.e., the subsets of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ that do not contain too many arithmetic progressions of length three, satisfy that $|A| < c_q^n$ for some $c_q < q$. As a corollary we prove a multivariable analogue of Ellenberg-Gijswijt theorem., 5 pages

The exact number of CNOT and single qubit gates needed to implement a Quantum Algorithm in a given architecture is one of the central problems of Quantum Computation. In this work we study the importance of concise realizations of Partially defined Unitary Transformations for better circuit construction using the case study of Dicke State Preparation. The Dicke States $(\left|D^n_k \right>)$ are an important class of entangled states with uses in many branches of Quantum Information. In this regard we provide the most efficient Deterministic Dicke State Preparation Circuit in terms of CNOT and single qubit gate counts in comparison to existing literature. We further observe that our improvements also reduce architectural constraints of the circuits. We implement the circuit for preparing $\left| D^4_2 \right>$ on the "ibmqx2" machine of the IBM QX service and observe that the error induced due to noise in the system is lesser in comparison to the existing circuit descriptions. We conclude by describing the CNOT map of the generic $\left| D^n_k \right>$ preparation circuit and analyze different ways of distributing the CNOT gates in the circuit and its affect on the induced error., 13 pages, 22 figures

Three decades ago, in a celebrated work, Zak found an expression for the geometric phase acquired by an electron in a one-dimensional periodic lattice as it traverses the Bloch band. Such a geometric phase is useful in characterizing the topological properties and the electric polarization of the periodic system. Unfortunately Zak's expression suffers from two flaws: its value depends upon the choice of origin of the unit cell, and is gauge dependent. Here we explain that these flaws in Zak's expression arise from the assumption that the electron's adiabatic motion is cyclic in the sense of recurrence of the density matrix in course of time evolution. We find through a careful investigation that the system displays cyclicity in a generalized sense wherein the physical observables return in the course of evolution. This notion of generalized cyclicity paves the way for a correct and consistent expression for the geometric phase in this system, christened as Pancharatnam-Zak phase. Pancharatnam-Zak geometric phase does not suffer from the flaws inherent in Zak's expression, and correctly classifies the Bloch bands of the lattice. A natural filled band extension of the Pancharatnam-Zak phase is also constructed and studied., Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures

Rashba spin-orbit coupled semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structures in the presence of Zeeman splitting have emerged as the first experimentally realizable topological superconductor supporting zero-energy Majorana bound states. However, recent experimental studies in these hybrid structures are not in complete agreement with the theoretical predictions, for example, the observed height of the zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) associated with the Majorana bound states is less than 10% of the predicted quantized value 2e^2/h. We try to understand the sources of various discrepancies between the recent experiments and the earlier theories by starting from a microscopic theory and studying non-equilibrium transport in these systems at arbitrary temperatures and applied bias voltages. Our approach involves quantum Langevin equations and non-equilibrium Green's functions. Here we are able to model the tunnel coupling between the one-dimensional semiconductor-superconductor hybrid structure and the metallic leads realistically; study the role of tunnel coupling on the height of the ZBCP and the subgap conductance; predict the nature of the splitting of the ZBCP with an increasing magnetic field beyond the critical field; show the behavior of the ZBCP with an increasing gate-controlled onsite potential; and study the evolution of the full differential conductance across the topological quantum phase transition. When the applied magnetic field is quite large compared to the Rashba splitting and the bulk energy gap is much reduced, we find the ZBCP even for an onsite potential much larger than the applied magnetic field. The height of the corresponding ZBCP depends on the tunnel coupling even at zero temperature and can be much smaller than 2e^2/h., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

Topological superconductors are prime candidates for the implementation of topological-quantum-computation ideas because they can support non-Abelian excitations like Majorana fermions. We go beyond the low-energy effective-model descriptions of Majorana bound states (MBSs), to derive non-equilibrium transport properties of wire geometries of these systems in the presence of arbitrarily large applied voltages. Our approach involves quantum Langevin equations and non-equilibrium Green's functions. By virtue of a full microscopic calculation we are able to model the tunnel coupling between the superconducting wire and the metallic leads realistically; study the role of high-energy non-topological excitations; predict how the behavior compares for increasing number of odd vs. even number of sites; and study the evolution across the topological quantum phase transition (QPT). We find that the normalized spectral weight in the MBSs can be remarkably large and goes to zero continuously at the topological QPT. Our results have concrete implications for the experimental search and study of MBSs., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We study two simple mesoscopic models of interacting two electrons; first one consists of two quantum coherent parallel conductors with long-range Coulomb interaction in some localized region and the other is of an interacting quantum dot (QD) side-coupled to a noninteracting quantum wire. We evaluate exact two-particle scattering matrix as well as two-particle current which are relevant in a two-particle scattering experiment in these models. Finally we show that the on-site repulsive interaction in the QD filters out the spin-singlet two-electron state from the mixed two-electron input states in the side-coupled QD model., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. B