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We measure the expansion of an ultracold plasma across the field lines of a uniform magnetic field. We image the ion distribution by extracting the ions with a high voltage pulse onto a position-sensitive detector. Early in the lifetime of the plasma ($< 20$ $\mu$s), the size of the image is dominated by the time-of-flight Coulomb explosion of the dense ion cloud. For later times, we measure the 2-D Gaussian width of the ion image, obtaining the transverse expansion velocity as a function of magnetic field (up to 70 G). We observe that the expansion velocity scales as B$^{-1/2}$, explained by a nonlinear ambipolar diffusion model with anisotropic diffusion in two different directions., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRL

Applying the space-charge forces of a low-energy electron beam can lead to a significant improvement of the beam-particle lifetime limit arising from the beam-beam interaction in a high-energy collider [1]. In this article we present the results of various beam experiments with electron lenses, novel instruments developed for the beam-beam compensation at the Tevatron, which collides 980-GeV proton and antiproton beams. We study the dependencies of the particle betatron tunes on the electron beam current, energy and position; we explore the effects of electron-beam imperfections and noises; and we quantify the improvements of the high-energy beam intensity and the collider luminosity lifetime obtained by the action of the Tevatron Electron Lenses., Comment: submitted for publication in New Journal of Physics

We investigate how to carry out universal quantum computation deterministically with free electrons in decoherence-free subspace by using polarizing beam splitters, charge detectors, and single-spin rotations. Quantum information in our case is encoded in spin degrees of freedom of the electron-pairs which construct a decoherence-free subspace. We design building blocks for two noncommutable single-logic-qubit gates and a logic controlled phase gate, based on which a universal and scalable quantum information processing robust to dephasing is available in a deterministic way., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures

Three-body recombination, an important collisional process in plasmas, increases dramatically at low electron temperatures, with an accepted scaling of T_e^-9/2. We measure three-body recombination in an ultracold neutral xenon plasma by detecting recombination-created Rydberg atoms using a microwave-ionization technique. With the accepted theory (expected to be applicable for weakly-coupled plasmas) and our measured rates we extract the plasma temperatures, which are in reasonable agreement with previous measurements early in the plasma lifetime. The resulting electron temperatures indicate that the plasma continues to cool to temperatures below 1 K., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We propose a scheme to generate cluster states of atomic qubits by using cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) and linear optics, in which each atom is confined in a resonant optical cavity with two orthogonally polarized modes. Our scheme is robust to imperfect factors such as dissipation, photon loss, and detector inefficiency. Discussions are made for experimental feasibility of our scheme., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. A

We propose schemes to create cluster states and W states by many superconducting-quantum-interference-device (SQUID) qubits in cavities under the influence of the cavity decay. Our schemes do not require auxiliary qubits, and the excited levels are only virtually coupled throughout the scheme, which could much reduce the experimental challenge. We consider the cavity decay in our model and analytically demonstrate its detrimental influence on the prepared entangled states., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. A

A potential scheme is proposed to generate complete sets of entangled photons in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The scheme includes twice interactions of atoms with cavities, in which the first interaction is made in two-mode optical cavities and the second one exists in a microwave cavity. In the optical cavities the atoms are resonant with the cavity modes, while the detuned interaction of the atoms with a single-mode of the microwave cavity is driven by a classical field. We show that our scheme is carried out with higher efficiency than previeous schemes, and is close to the reach of current technique., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Phys. B

Aims: The galactic superluminal microquasar GRO J1655-40 started a new outburst in February 2005, after seven years in quiescence, rising to a high/soft state in March 2005. In this paper we study the X-ray spectra during this rise. Methods: We observed GRO J1655-40 with XMM-Newton, on 27 February 2005, in the low/hard state, and on three consecutive days in March 2005, during the rise of the source to its high/soft state. The EPIC-pn camera was used in the fast-read Burst mode to avoid photon pile-up. Results: First, we contributed to the improvement of the calibration of the EPIC-pn, since the high flux received from the source required some refinements in the correction of the Charge Transfer Efficiency of the camera.Second, we find that the X-ray spectrum of GRO J1655-40 is dominated in the high/soft state by the thermal emission from the accretion disk, with an inner radius of 13-14(D/3.2kpc)km and a maximum temperature of 1.3 keV. Two absorption lines are detected in the EPIC-pn spectra, at 6.7-6.8 and 7.8-8.0 keV, which can be identified either as blended Fe XXV and Fe XXVI K-alpha and K-beta lines, or as blueshifted Fe XXV. We find no orbital dependence on the X-ray properties, which provides an upper limit for the inclination of the system of 73 degr. The RGS spectrometers reveal interstellar absorption features at 17.2AA, 17.5AA (Fe L edges) and 23.54AA (OI K-alpha). Finally, while checking the interstellar origin of the OI line, we find a general correlation of the OI K-alpha line equivalent width with the hydrogen column density using several sources available in the literature., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Revised version with important changes

Quantum cluster states and entangled state analyzers are essential to measurement-based quantum computing. We propose to generate a quantum cluster-state and to make multipartite entanglement analyzer by using noninteracting free electrons or conduction electrons in quantum dots, based on polarizing beam splitters, charge detectors and single-spin rotations. Our schemes are deterministic without the need of qubit-qubit interaction., Comment: 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. A

Within the realms of the possibility of solid quark matter, we fitted the 500ks Chandra LETG/HRC data for RX J1856.5-3754 with a phenomenological spectral model, and found that electric conductivity of quark matter on the stellar surface is about > 1.2 x 10^{18} s^{-1}., Comment: 2 page and no figure, IAU Symposium No.218, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_C.htm

With excellent angular resolution, good energy resolution and broad energy band, the Chandra ACIS is the best instrument for studying the X-ray halos around some galactic X-ray point sources caused by the dust scattering of X-rays in the interstellar medium. However, the direct images of bright sources obtained with ACIS usually suffer from severe pile-up. Making use of the fact that an isotropic image could be reconstructed from its projection into any direction, we can reconstruct the images of the X-ray halos from the data obtained with the HETGS and/or in CC mode. These data have no or less serious pile-up and enable us to take full advantage of the excellent angular resolution of Chandra. With the reconstructed high resolution images, we can probe the X-ray halos as close as 1$''$ to their associated point sources. Applying this method to Cygnus X-1 observed with Chandra HETGS in CC mode, we derived an energy dependent radial halo flux distribution and concluded that, in a circular region (2$'$ in radius) centered at the point source: (1) relative to the total intensity, the fractional halo intensity (FHI) is about 15% at $\sim$1 keV and drops to about 5% at $\sim$6 keV; (2) about 50% of the halo photons are within the region of a radius less than 40$''$; and (3) the spectrum of the point source is slightly distorted by the halo contamination., Comment: Extend the region to 2 acrmin and make some corrections, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters