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 1.0×10(-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 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410(-180)(+160)  Mpc corresponding to a redshift z=0.09(-0.04)(+0.03). In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36(-4)(+5)M⊙ and 29(-4)(+4)M⊙, and the final black hole mass is 62(-4)(+4)M⊙, with 3.0(-0.5)(+0.5)M⊙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.

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The Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

From the Publisher: 
The accessible presentation of this book gives both a general view of the entire computer vision enterprise and also offers sufficient detail to be able to build useful applications. Users learn techniques that have proven to be useful by first-hand experience and a wide range of mathematical methods. A CD-ROM with every copy of the text contains source code for programming practice, color images, and illustrative movies. Comprehensive and up-to-date, this book includes essential topics that either reflect practical significance or are of theoretical importance. Topics are discussed in substantial and increasing depth. Application surveys describe numerous important application areas such as image based rendering and digital libraries. Many important algorithms broken down and illustrated in pseudo code. Appropriate for use by engineers as a comprehensive reference to the computer vision enterprise.

Computer vision : a modern approach = 计算机视觉 : 一种现代的方法

Researchers demonstrate the ability to multiplex and transfer data between twisted beams of light with different amounts of orbital angular momentum — a development that provides new opportunities for increasing the data capacity of free-space optical communications links.

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Terabit free-space data transmission employing orbital angular momentum multiplexing

We demonstrate that single-mode broadband amplified spontaneous parametric downconversion, combined with optical parametric amplification, can be used as a classical source of phase-sensitive cross-correlated beams. We first study the single spatial mode emission and the spectral brightness properties of the parametric fluorescence, produced in periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate. Using the same single-pass bulk-crystal configuration for a pulsed optical parametric amplifier, we achieve a gain of approximately 20 dB at an average pump power of 2W, and explain the pulse narrowing observed at the output of both parametric fluorescence and amplification in the regime of high gain. Combining these two nonlinear processes, we measured optical coherence tomography signals with standard InGaAs photodiodes, thus realizing the first classical interferometer based on amplified parametric fluorescence. The results suggest their utility for demonstrating phase-conjugate optical coherence tomography.

Classical low-coherence interferometry based on broadband parametric fluorescence and amplification.

The non-Gaussian operations effected by adding or subtracting a photon on entangled optical beams emerging from a parametric down-conversion process have been suggested to enhance entanglement. Heralded photon addition or subtraction is, as a matter of fact, at the heart of continuous-variable entanglement distillation. The use of such processes has recently been experimentally demonstrated in the context of the generation of optical coherent-state superpositions or the verification of canonical commutation relations. Here, we carry out a systematic study of the effect of local photon additions and subtractions on a two-mode squeezed vacuum state, showing that the entanglement generally increases with the number of such operations. This is analytically proven when additions or subtractions are restricted to one mode only, while we observe that the highest entanglement is achieved when these operations are equally shared between the two modes. We also note that adding photons typically provides a stronger entanglement enhancement than subtracting photons, while photon subtraction performs better in terms of energy efficiency. Furthermore, we analyze the interplay between entanglement and non-Gaussianity, showing that it is more subtle than previously expected.

Enhancing quantum entanglement by photon addition and subtraction

Summary form only given. A type-II phase-marched parametric downconverter can be used to produce polarization-entangled photon pairs. We propose a production scheme for polarization-entangled photon pairs by using a pair of optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) whose narrowband generation rate is high enough to make it a practical source for a trapped-atom quantum memory. For a type-II system using periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) (KTiOPO/sub 4/) optical parametric amplifiers OPAs.

An ultrabright narrowband source of polarization-entangled photon pairs

A 532 nm pumped type-II phase-matched, doubly resonant KTP optical parametric amplifier (OPA) was operated near frequency degeneracy to yield an inferred downconverted photon pair production rate of 1.7 x 10 6 s -1 at a pump power of 100 μW. The OPA output consisted of three components: narrowband doubly resonant mode pairs; narrowband singly resonant mode pairs for which either the signal or idler was resonant with the cavity and broadband nonresonant mode pairs. Under frequency-degenerate operation, the broadband nonresonant mode pairs were polarization triplet states. We observed quantum interference between the orthogonally polarized photons of the triplet states when they were analysed with a polarizer set at 45° relative to the OPA's output polarizations, leading to reduced coincidence counts.

A high-flux entanglement source based on a doubly resonant optical parametric amplifier : Uncertainty relations, quantum phase space, quantum optics, quantum information, imaging and computing

Jeffrey H. Shapiro

Papers

Classical low-coherence interferometry based on broadband parametric fluorescence and amplification.

Enhancing quantum entanglement by photon addition and subtraction

An ultrabright narrowband source of polarization-entangled photon pairs

A high-flux entanglement source based on a doubly resonant optical parametric amplifier : Uncertainty relations, quantum phase space, quantum optics, quantum information, imaging and computing

Finite-key analysis of high-dimensional time–energy entanglement-based quantum key distribution