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In this study, we explore a form of quantum circuit complexity that extends to open systems. To illustrate our methodology, we focus on a basic model where the projective Hilbert space of states is depicted by the set of orientations in the Euclidean plane. Specifically, we investigate the dynamics of mixed quantum states as they undergo interactions with a sequence of gates. Our approach involves the analysis of sequences of real $2\times2$ density matrices. This mathematical model is physically exemplified by the Stokes density matrices, which delineate the linear polarisation of a quasi-monochromatic light beam, and the gates, which are viewed as quantum polarisers, whose states are also real $2\times2$ density matrices. The interaction between polariser-linearly polarised light is construed within the context of this quantum formalism. Each density matrix for the light evolves in an approach analogous to a Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan (GKLS) process during the time interval between consecutive gates. Notably, when considering an upper limit for the cost function or tolerance or accuracy, we unearth that the optimal number of gates follows a power-law relationship.

Quantum billiards are a key focus in quantum mechanics, offering a simple yet powerful model to study complex quantum features. While the development of algebras for quantum systems is traced from one-dimensional integrable models to quantum groups and the Generalized Heisenberg Algebra (GHA). The primary focus of this work is to extend the GHA to quantum billiards, showcasing its application to separable and non-separable billiards. We apply the formalism to a square billiard, first generating one-dimensional coherent states with specific quantum numbers and exploring their time evolution.Then, we extend this approach to develop two-dimensional coherent states for the square billiards. We also demonstrate its applicability in a non-separable equilateral triangle billiard, describing their algebra generators and associated one-dimensional coherent states.

Generation of ultra high frequency acoustic waves in water is key to nano resolution sensing, acoustic imaging and theranostics. In this context water immersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may act as an ideal optoacoustic source, due to their nanometric radial dimensions, peculiar thermal properties and broad band optical absorption. The generation mechanism of acoustic waves in water, upon excitation of both a single-wall (SW) and a multi-wall (MW) CNT with laser pulses of temporal width ranging from 5 ns down to ps, is theoretically investigated via a multi-scale approach. We show that, depending on the combination of CNT size and laser pulse duration, the CNT can act as a thermophone or a mechanophone. As a thermophone, the CNT acts as a nanoheater for the surrounding water, which, upon thermal expansion, launches the pressure wave. As a mechanophone, the CNT acts as a nanopiston, its thermal expansion directly triggering the pressure wave in water. Activation of the mechanophone effect is sought to trigger few nanometers wavelength sound waves in water, matching the CNT acoustic frequencies. This is at variance with respect to the commonly addressed case of water-immersed single metallic nano-objects excited with ns laser pulses, where only the thermophone effect significantly contributes. The present findings might be of impact in fields ranging from nanoscale non-destructive testing to water dynamics at the meso- to nano-scale., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures

The photoacoustic effect in liquids, generated by metal nanoparticles excited with short laser pulses, offers high contrast imaging and promising medical treatment techniques. Understanding the role of the thermal boundary resistance (TBR) and the laser pulse duration in the generation mechanism of acoustic waves is essential to implement efficient photoacoustic nanotransducers. This work theoretically investigates, for the paradigmatic case of water-immersed gold nanocylinders, the role of the TBR and of laser pulse duration in the competition between the launching mechanisms: the thermophone and the mechanophone. In the thermophone, the nanoparticle acts as a nanoheater and the wave is launched by water thermal expansion. In the mechanophone, the nanoparticle directly acts as a nanopiston. Specifically, for a gold-water interface, the thermophone prevails under ns light pulse irradiation, while the mechanophone dominates shortening the pulse to the 10 ps regime. For a graphene-functionalized gold-water interface, instead, the mechanophone dominates over the entire range of explored laser pulse durations. Results point to high-TBR, liquid-immersed nanoparticles as potentially efficient photoacoustic nanogenerators, with the advantage of keeping the liquid environment temperature unaltered., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Efficient excitation and harvesting of hot carriers from nanoscale metals is central to many emerging photochemical, photovoltaic, and ultrafast optoelectronic applications. Yet direct experimental evidence of the relevant femtosecond dynamics in ubiquitous tens-of-nanometer gold structures remains lacking, despite the rich interplay between interfacial and internal plasmonic fields, excitation distributions, and scattering processes. To explore the effects of nanoscale structure on these dynamics, we employ a new technique for simultaneous time-, angle-, and energy-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of single plasmonic nanoparticles. Photoelectron velocity distributions reveal bulk-like ballistic hot electron transport in nanorod and nanoshell geometries, with no evidence of surface effects. Energy-resolved dynamics observed in the ~1-2 eV range and extrapolated to lower energies via kinetic Boltzmann theory provide the first direct measurements of hot carrier lifetimes within nanoscale gold. Remarkably, we find that particles with dimensions as small as 10 nm serve as exemplary platforms for studying intrinsic metal dynamics.

We present ALFRED: a virtual memory abstraction that resolves the dichotomy between volatile and non-volatile memory in intermittent computing. Mixed-volatile microcontrollers allow programmers to allocate part of the application state onto non-volatile main memory. Programmers are therefore to explore manually the trade-off between simpler management of persistent state against the energy overhead for non-volatile memory operations and intermittence anomalies due to re-execution of non-idempotent code. This approach is laborious and yields sub-optimal performance. We take a different stand with ALFRED: we provide programmers with a virtual memory abstraction detached from the specific volatile nature of memory and automatically determine an efficient mapping from virtual to volatile or non-volatile memory. Unlike existing works, ALFRED does not require programmers to learn a new programming model or language syntax, while the mapping is entirely resolved at compile-time, reducing the run-time energy overhead. We implement ALFRED through a series of program machine-level code transformations. Compared to existing systems, we demonstrate that ALFRED reduces energy consumption by up to two orders of magnitude given a fixed workload. This enables the workloads to finish sooner, as the use of available energy shifts from ensuring forward progress to useful application processing.

In this work we study the inverse quantum scattering via deep learning regression, which is implemented via a Multilayer Perceptron. A step-by-step method is provided in order to obtain the potential parameters. A circular boundary-wall potential was chosen to exemplify the method. Detailed discussion about the training is provided. A investigation with noisy data is presented and it is observed that the neural network is useful to predict the potential parameters.

In this work we successfully present a quantum version of the multiplayer Colonel Blotto game. We find that players with access to the quantum strategies has a advantage over the classical ones. The payoff is invariant under the order of the strategies.

The cooling dynamics of glass-embedded noble metal nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 4 to 26 nm were studied using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. Measurements were performed probing away from the surface plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles to avoid spurious effects due to glass heating around the particle. In these conditions, the time-domain data reflect the cooling kinetics of the nanoparticle. Cooling dynamics are shown to be controlled by both thermal resistance at the nanoparticule?glass interface, and heat diffusion in the glass matrix. Moreover, the interface conductances are deduced from the experiments and found to be correlated to the acoustic impedance mismatch at the metal/glass interface.

We report the experimental evidence of the sympathetic cooling of $^{39}$K with $^{87}$Rb down to 1 $\mu$K, obtained in a novel tight confining magnetic trap. This allowed us to perform the first direct measurement of the elastic cross section of $^{39}$K below 50 $\mu$K. The result obtained for the triplet scattering length, $a_T = -51(7)$ Bohr radii, agrees with previous results derived from photoassociation spectra and from Feshbach spectroscopy of $^{40}$K., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

We report on an experimental realization of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) that allows the generation of cold atomic beams of 39K and 41K bosonic potassium isotopes. The high measured fluxes up to 1.0x10^11 atoms/s and low atomic velocities around 33 m/s are well suited for a fast and reliable 3D-MOT loading, a basilar feature for new generation experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute atomic samples. We also present a simple multilevel theoretical model for the calculation of the light-induced force acting on an atom moving in a MOT. The model gives a good agreement between predicted and measured flux and velocity values for our 2D-MOT., Comment: Updated references, 1 figure added, 10 pages, 9 figures

We observe that a mesoscopic field made of several tens of microwave photons exhibits quantum features when interacting with a single Rydberg atom in a high-Q cavity. The field is split into two components whose phases differ by an angle inversely proportional to the square root of the average photon number. The field and the atomic dipole are phase-entangled. These manifestations of photon graininess vanish at the classical limit. This experiment opens the way to studies of large Schrodinger cat states at the quantum-classical boundary.