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Ru0.05Ce0.95Ox is an active catalyst for methanation of CO2 with H2. Under reaction conditions one expects that oxygen vacancies are present on the oxide catalyst surface and that their steady-state concentration depends upon the relative ratio of the oxidant (CO2) to the reductant (H2). We show that the activity of the catalyst is sensitive to the degree of surface reduction: a surface that is too reduced or too oxidized loses activity. Exposing the oxidized surface to CO2 and then to H2 produces no methane, while on a reduced surface methane is produced by exposure to CO2 followed by H2. If the reaction is carried out at the steady state, purged, and then exposed to only hydrogen, methane is produced. Methane is formed through the reaction of hydrogen with surface species, whose infrared spectrum is associated with a variety of surface carbonates, and not through CO or a formate intermediate.

Two types of Ru-ceria catalysts were investigated, one prepared by combustion to create an atomically doped metal oxide, and the other, prepared by impregnation, as supported Ru oxide. They have different physical properties (as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Infrared spectra of adsorbed CO) but identical catalytic activity for dry reforming of methane. We show that the catalyst for dry reforming is partially reduced using XPS and IR spectroscopy. Furthermore, transient oxidation reaction spectroscopy with oxygen pulses confirms partial reduction of the catalyst is necessary for dry reforming activity. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Objectives To evaluate the relationship among dysnatraemia at hospital presentation and duration of admission, risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and all-cause mortality and to assess the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of hyponatraemia in patients with COVID-19. Our hypothesis is that both hyponatraemia and hypernatraemia at presentation are associated with adverse outcomes.Design Observational study.Setting Secondary care; 11 Dutch hospitals (2 university and 9 general hospitals).Participants An analysis was performed within the retrospective multicentre cohort study COVIDPredict. 7811 patients were included (60% men, 40% women) between 24 February 2020 and 9 August 2022. Patients who were ≥18 years with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 or CT with COVID-19 reporting and data system score≥4 and alternative diagnosis were included. Patients were excluded when serum sodium levels at presentation were not registered in the database or when they had been transferred from another participating hospital.Outcome measures We studied demographics, medical history, symptoms and outcomes. Patients were stratified according to serum sodium concentration and urinary sodium excretion.Results Hyponatraemia was present in 2677 (34.2%) patients and hypernatraemia in 126 (1.6%) patients. Patients with hyponatraemia presented more frequently with diarrhoea, lower blood pressure and tachycardia. Hyponatraemia was, despite a higher risk for ICU admission (OR 1.27 (1.11–1.46; p

Quantum many-body systems display rich phase structure in their low-temperature equilibrium states 1 . However, much of nature is not in thermal equilibrium. Remarkably, it was recently predicted that out-of-equilibrium systems can exhibit novel dynamical phases 2-8 that may otherwise be forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics, a paradigmatic example being the discrete time crystal (DTC) 7,9-15 . Concretely, dynamical phases can be defined in periodically driven many-body-localized (MBL) systems via the concept of eigenstate order 7,16,17 . In eigenstate-ordered MBL phases, the entire many-body spectrum exhibits quantum correlations and long-range order, with characteristic signatures in late-time dynamics from all initial states. It is, however, challenging to experimentally distinguish such stable phases from transient phenomena, or from regimes in which the dynamics of a few select states can mask typical behaviour. Here we implement tunable controlled-phase (CPHASE) gates on an array of superconducting qubits to experimentally observe an MBL-DTC and demonstrate its characteristic spatiotemporal response for generic initial states 7,9,10 . Our work employs a time-reversal protocol to quantify the impact of external decoherence, and leverages quantum typicality to circumvent the exponential cost of densely sampling the eigenspectrum. Furthermore, we locate the phase transition out of the DTC with an experimental finite-size analysis. These results establish a scalable approach to studying non-equilibrium phases of matter on quantum processors., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Interactions in quantum systems can spread initially localized quantum information into the exponentially many degrees of freedom of the entire system. Understanding this process, known as quantum scrambling, is key to resolving several open questions in physics. Here, by measuring the time-dependent evolution and fluctuation of out-of-time-order correlators, we experimentally investigate the dynamics of quantum scrambling on a 53-qubit quantum processor. We engineer quantum circuits that distinguish operator spreading and operator entanglement and experimentally observe their respective signatures. We show that whereas operator spreading is captured by an efficient classical model, operator entanglement in idealized circuits requires exponentially scaled computational resources to simulate. These results open the path to studying complex and practically relevant physical observables with near-term quantum processors.

The discovery of topological order has revised the understanding of quantum matter and provided the theoretical foundation for many quantum error–correcting codes. Realizing topologically ordered states has proven to be challenging in both condensed matter and synthetic quantum systems. We prepared the ground state of the toric code Hamiltonian using an efficient quantum circuit on a superconducting quantum processor. We measured a topological entanglement entropy near the expected value of –ln2 and simulated anyon interferometry to extract the braiding statistics of the emergent excitations. Furthermore, we investigated key aspects of the surface code, including logical state injection and the decay of the nonlocal order parameter. Our results demonstrate the potential for quantum processors to provide insights into topological quantum matter and quantum error correction.

A promising approach to study condensed-matter systems is to simulate them on an engineered quantum platform 1-4 . However, the accuracy needed to outperform classical methods has not been achieved so far. Here, using 18 superconducting qubits, we provide an experimental blueprint for an accurate condensed-matter simulator and demonstrate how to investigate fundamental electronic properties. We benchmark the underlying method by reconstructing the single-particle band structure of a one-dimensional wire. We demonstrate nearly complete mitigation of decoherence and readout errors, and measure the energy eigenvalues of this wire with an error of approximately 0.01 rad, whereas typical energy scales are of the order of 1 rad. Insight into the fidelity of this algorithm is gained by highlighting the robust properties of a Fourier transform, including the ability to resolve eigenenergies with a statistical uncertainty of 10 -4 rad. We also synthesize magnetic flux and disordered local potentials, which are two key tenets of a condensed-matter system. When sweeping the magnetic flux we observe avoided level crossings in the spectrum, providing a detailed fingerprint of the spatial distribution of local disorder. By combining these methods we reconstruct electronic properties of the eigenstates, observing persistent currents and a strong suppression of conductance with added disorder. Our work describes an accurate method for quantum simulation 5,6 and paves the way to study new quantum materials with superconducting qubits.