There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of $1.0 \times 10^{-21}$. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1 {\sigma}. The source lies at a luminosity distance of $410^{+160}_{-180}$ Mpc corresponding to a redshift $z = 0.09^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$. In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are $36^{+5}_{-4} M_\odot$ and $29^{+4}_{-4} M_\odot$, and the final black hole mass is $62^{+4}_{-4} M_\odot$, with $3.0^{+0.5}_{-0.5} M_\odot c^2$ radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals.These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

https://physics.aps.org/featured-article-pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102

Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

Quantum networks provide opportunities and challenges across a range of intellectual and technical frontiers, including quantum computation, communication and metrology. The realization of quantum networks composed of many nodes and channels requires new scientific capabilities for generating and characterizing quantum coherence and entanglement. Fundamental to this endeavour are quantum interconnects, which convert quantum states from one physical system to those of another in a reversible manner. Such quantum connectivity in networks can be achieved by the optical interactions of single photons and atoms, allowing the distribution of entanglement across the network and the teleportation of quantum states between nodes.

The quantum internet

Meeting the Universe Halfway is an ambitious book with far-reaching implications for numerous fields in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In this volume, Karen Barad, theoretical physicist and feminist theorist, elaborates her theory of agential realism. Offering an account of the world as a whole rather than as composed of separate natural and social realms, agential realism is at once a new epistemology, ontology, and ethics. The starting point for Barad’s analysis is the philosophical framework of quantum physicist Niels Bohr. Barad extends and partially revises Bohr’s philosophical views in light of current scholarship in physics, science studies, and the philosophy of science as well as feminist, poststructuralist, and other critical social theories. In the process, she significantly reworks understandings of space, time, matter, causality, agency, subjectivity, and objectivity.

In an agential realist account, the world is made of entanglements of “social” and “natural” agencies, where the distinction between the two emerges out of specific intra-actions. Intra-activity is an inexhaustible dynamism that configures and reconfigures relations of space-time-matter. In explaining intra-activity, Barad reveals questions about how nature and culture interact and change over time to be fundamentally misguided. And she reframes understanding of the nature of scientific and political practices and their “interrelationship.” Thus she pays particular attention to the responsible practice of science, and she emphasizes changes in the understanding of political practices, critically reworking Judith Butler’s influential theory of performativity. Finally, Barad uses agential realism to produce a new interpretation of quantum physics, demonstrating that agential realism is more than a means of reflecting on science; it can be used to actually do science.

Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning

Measurements of atmospheric ozone at altitudes from 5 to 50 km using the lidar (DIAL) differential absorption technique are described. A XeCl excimer laser with a repetition rate of up to 50 Hz and a wavelength of 308 nm was used for the measurements. The reference line was produced by the stimulated Raman effect in a hydrogen gas cell, leading to a wavelength of 353 nm. The time-resolved measurement of the backscattered light allows one to evaluate the ozone concentration as a function of the altitude. Exceptionally good agreement between the lidar data and those measured with chemical balloonsondes was obtained. A narrow-band laser and a receiving system, including a set of three Fabry-Perot filters, also allow daytime measurements. Thus investigations in polar regions are possible even in summer periods. Measurements performed in arctic and equatorial regions with the lidar system installed on board the research vessel Polarstern are reported.

Lidar setup for daytime and nighttime probing of stratospheric ozone and measurements in polar and equatorial regions

An interferometer in which an atom traverses two identical micromaser cavities in succession is proposed. Depending on the preparation of the cavity fields, the probability for finding the atom in a definite final state displays Ramsey fringes or not. If the initial cavity fields are such that the state of the atom between the cavities can be determined, then the Ramsey fringes disappear, as is required by the principle of complementarity.

Quantum optical ramsey fringes and complementarity

We present a probabilistic scheme for generating and purifying maximally entangled states of two atoms inside an optical cavity via no-photon detection at the cavity output, where ideal detectors are not required. The intermediate mixed states can be continuously purified so as to violate Bell inequalities in a parametrized manner. The scheme relies on an additional strong-driving field that realizes, atypically, simultaneous Jaynes-Cummings and anti-Jaynes-Cummings interactions.

Generation and purification of maximally entangled atomic states in optical cavities

Infrared laser radiation is coupled via the tip into the tunneling junction of a scanning tunneling microscope. Rectification and difference frequency generation of the laser light caused by the nonlinearity in the current‐voltage characteristic of the junction are observed. Images with atomic resolution are obtained either by recording the rectified signal or by measuring the intensity at the difference frequency when the tip is scanned across the surface. These images are compared with others obtained in the conventional way by observing the tunneling current.

Laser‐assisted scanning tunneling microscopy

We report a Rydberg-atom experiment, demonstrating the dynamic suppression of spontaneous emission in a resonant microwave cavity driven by a resonant external field. If the Rabi frequency of the injected field is larger than the atomic and cavity line widths, the atoms almost completely decouple from the cavity mode due to suppressed field fluctuations at the sideband frequencies of the Mollow triplet. This was achieved with about 100 microwave photons in the cavity. The reduced decay rate is a consequence of non-Markovian dynamics induced by the finite cavity-response time.

Herbert Walther

Papers

Lidar setup for daytime and nighttime probing of stratospheric ozone and measurements in polar and equatorial regions

Quantum optical ramsey fringes and complementarity

Generation and purification of maximally entangled atomic states in optical cavities

Laser‐assisted scanning tunneling microscopy

Observation of dynamic suppression of spontaneous emission in a strongly driven cavity