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Work is an observable quantity associated with a process, however there is no Hermitian operator associated with its measurement. We consider an ancilla-assisted protocol measuring the work done on a quantum system driven by a time-dependent Hamiltonian via two von-Neumann measurements of the system's energy carried out by a measuring apparatus modeled as a free particle of finite localization and interaction time with the system. We consider system Hamiltonians which both commute and do not commute at different times, finding corrections to fluctuation relations like the Jarzynski equality and the Crooks relation. This measurement model allows us to quantify the effect that measuring has on the estimated work distribution, and associated average work done on the system and average heat exchanged with the measuring apparatus., Comment: 8+2 pages, 5 figures

Detection and quantification of bacterial endotoxins is important in a range of health-related contexts, including during pharmaceutical manufacturing of therapeutic proteins and vaccines. Here we combine experimental measurements based on nematic liquid crystalline droplets and machine learning methods to show that it is possible to classify bacterial sources (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella minnesota) and quantify concentration of endotoxin derived from all three bacterial species present in aqueous solution. The approach uses flow cytometry to quantify, in a high-throughput manner, changes in the internal ordering of micrometer-sized droplets of nematic 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl triggered by the endotoxins. The changes in internal ordering alter the intensities of light side-scattered (SSC, large-angle) and forward-scattered (FSC, small-angle) by the liquid crystal droplets. A convolutional neural network (Endonet) is trained using the large data sets generated by flow cytometry and shown to predict endotoxin source and concentration directly from the FSC/SSC scatter plots. By using saliency maps, we reveal how EndoNet captures subtle differences in scatter fields to enable classification of bacterial source and quantification of endotoxin concentration over a range that spans eight orders of magnitude (0.01 pg mL-1 to 1 μg mL-1). We attribute changes in scatter fields with bacterial origin of endotoxin, as detected by EndoNet, to the distinct molecular structures of the lipid A domains of the endotoxins derived from the three bacteria. Overall, we conclude that the combination of liquid crystal droplets and EndoNet provides the basis of a promising analytical approach for endotoxins that does not require use of complex biologically-derived reagents (e.g., Limulus amoebocyte lysate).

We provide an in-depth convolutional neural network (CNN) analysis of optical responses of liquid crystals (LCs) when exposed to different chemical environments. Our aim is to identify informative ...

The problem of time in quantum gravity calls for a relational solution. Using quantum reduction maps, we establish a previously unknown equivalence between three approaches to relational quantum dynamics: 1) relational observables in the clock-neutral picture of Dirac quantization, 2) Page and Wootters' (PW) Schr\"odinger picture formalism, and 3) the relational Heisenberg picture obtained via symmetry reduction. Constituting three faces of the same dynamics, we call this equivalence the trinity. We develop a quantization procedure for relational Dirac observables using covariant POVMs which encompass non-ideal clocks. The quantum reduction maps reveal this procedure as the quantum analog of gauge-invariantly extending gauge-fixed quantities. We establish algebraic properties of these relational observables. We extend a recent clock-neutral approach to changing temporal reference frames, transforming relational observables and states, and demonstrate a clock dependent temporal nonlocality effect. We show that Kucha\v{r}'s criticism, alleging that the conditional probabilities of the PW formalism violate the constraint, is incorrect. They are a quantum analog of a gauge-fixed description of a gauge-invariant quantity and equivalent to the manifestly gauge-invariant evaluation of relational observables in the physical inner product. The trinity furthermore resolves a previously reported normalization ambiguity and clarifies the role of entanglement in the PW formalism. The trinity finally permits us to resolve Kucha\v{r}'s criticism that the PW formalism yields wrong propagators by showing how conditional probabilities of relational observables give the correct transition probabilities. Unlike previous proposals, our resolution does not invoke approximations, ideal clocks or ancilla systems, is manifestly gauge-invariant, and easily extends to an arbitrary number of conditionings., Comment: 38+15 pages, 6 figures, simplified notation, some simplified results, addressed Unruh's and Wald's non-monotonicity issue of realistic quantum clocks, expanded comparison with previous proposals for resolving Kuchar's criticisms, references updated

We have previously shown (arXiv:1912.00033) that three approaches to relational quantum dynamics -- relational Dirac observables, the Page-Wootters formalism and quantum deparametrizations -- are equivalent. Here we show that this `trinity' of relational quantum dynamics holds in relativistic settings per frequency superselection sector. We ascribe the time according to the clock subsystem to a POVM which is covariant with respect to its (quadratic) Hamiltonian. This differs from the usual choice of a self-adjoint clock observable conjugate to the clock momentum. It also resolves Kucha\v{r}'s criticism that the Page-Wootters formalism yields incorrect localization probabilities for the relativistic particle when conditioning on a Minkowski time operator. We show that conditioning instead on the covariant clock POVM results in a Newton-Wigner type localization probability commonly used in relativistic quantum mechanics. By establishing the equivalence mentioned above, we also assign a consistent conditional-probability interpretation to relational observables and deparametrizations. Finally, we expand a recent method of changing temporal reference frames, and show how to transform states and observables frequency-sector-wise. We use this method to discuss an indirect clock self-reference effect and explore the state and temporal frame-dependence of the task of comparing and synchronizing different quantum clocks., Comment: 28+7 pages

One of the most basic notions in physics is the partitioning of a system into subsystems, and the study of correlations among its parts. In this work, we explore these notions in the context of quantum reference frame (QRF) covariance, in which this partitioning is subject to a symmetry constraint. We demonstrate that different reference frame perspectives induce different sets of subsystem observable algebras, which leads to a gauge-invariant, frame-dependent notion of subsystems and entanglement. We further demonstrate that subalgebras which commute before imposing the symmetry constraint can translate into non-commuting algebras in a given QRF perspective after symmetry imposition. Such a QRF perspective does not inherit the distinction between subsystems in terms of the corresponding tensor factorizability of the kinematical Hilbert space and observable algebra. Since the condition for this to occur is contingent on the choice of QRF, the notion of subsystem locality is frame-dependent., 8+10 pages, 1 figure

Alam, S., et al., Cosmological growth can be measured in the redshift space clustering of galaxies targeted by spectroscopic surveys. Accurate prediction of clustering of galaxies will require understanding galaxy physics, which is a very hard and highly non-linear problem. Approximate models of redshift space distortion (RSD) take a perturbative approach to solve the evolution of dark matter and galaxies in the universe. In this paper, we focus on extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic (eBOSS) emission line galaxies (ELGs) that live in intermediate mass haloes. We create a series of mock catalogues using haloes from the Multidark and outer rim dark matter only N-body simulations. Our mock catalogues include various effects inspired by baryonic physics such as assembly bias and the characteristics of satellite galaxies kinematics, dynamics, and statistics deviating from dark matter particles. We analyse these mocks using the TNS RSD model in Fourier space and the convolution Lagrangian perturbation theory (CLPT) in configuration space. We conclude that these two RSD models provide an unbiased measurement of RSD within the statistical error of our mocks. We obtain the conservative theoretical systematic uncertainty of $3.3{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, $1.8{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, and $1.5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in fσ8, α∥, and α⊥, respectively, for the TNS and CLPT models. We note that the estimated theoretical systematic error is an order of magnitude smaller than the statistical error of the eBOSS ELG sample and hence are negligible for the purpose of the current eBOSS ELG analysis., SA and JAP are supported by the European Research Council through the COSFORM Research Grant (#670193). VGP acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC grant #769130) and by the Atracción de Talento Project no. 2019-T1/TIC-12702 granted by the Comunidad de Madrid in Spain. SH and KH acknowledge support under the U.S. Department of Energy contract W-7405-ENG-36 at Argonne National Laboratory. GR acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) through grant 2017R1E1A1A01077508 and No. 2020R1A2C1005655 funded by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST). RP and SE acknowledge support from the French National Research Agency under grants ANR-16-CE31-0021 (ANR eBOSS), ANR-11-LABX-0060 (OCEVU LABEX), and ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02 (A*MIDEX project).

We develop a series of N-body data challenges, functional to the final analysis of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 (DR16) galaxy sample. The challenges are primarily based on high-fidelity catalogues constructed from the Outer Rim simulation - a large box size realization (3h-1Gpc) characterized by an unprecedented combination of volume and mass resolution, down to 1.85 × 109h-1M. We generate synthetic galaxy mocks by populating Outer Rim haloes with a variety of halo occupation distribution (HOD) schemes of increasing complexity, spanning different redshift intervals. We then assess the performance of three complementary redshift space distortion (RSD) models in configuration and Fourier space, adopted for the analysis of the complete DR16 eBOSS sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We find all the methods mutually consistent, with comparable systematic errors on the Alcock-Paczynski parameters and the growth of structure, and robust to different HOD prescriptions - thus validating the robustness of the models and the pipelines used for the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and full shape clustering analysis. In particular, all the techniques are able to recover α and α to within $0.9{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, and fσ8 to within $1.5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. As a by-product of our work, we are also able to gain interesting insights on the galaxy-halo connection. Our study is relevant for the final eBOSS DR16 'consensus cosmology', as the systematic error budget is informed by testing the results of analyses against these high-resolution mocks. In addition, it is also useful for future large-volume surveys, since similar mock-making techniques and systematic corrections can be readily extended to model for instance the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) galaxy sample., GR, PDC, and JM acknowledge support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) through Grants No. 2017R1E1A1A01077508 and No. 2020R1A2C1005655 funded by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), and from the faculty research fund of Sejong University. GR was on sabbatical leave in 2020, when this research was completed. Some numerical work performed in this paper was carried out using the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) supercomputing infrastructure under allocations KSC-2018-G3-0008 and KSC-2018-T1-0061, and with computing resources at Sejong University (Xeon Silver 4114 master node and Xeon Gold 6126 computing node architecture). HGM acknowledges support from la Caixa Foundation (ID 100010434) which code LCF/BQ/PI18/11630024. RP, SdlT, and SE acknowledge support from the eBOSS ANR grant (under contract ANR-16-CE31-0021) and the OCEVU LABEX (Grant No. ANR-11-LABX-0060) of the French National Research Agency.

The entanglement harvesting protocol is an operational way to probe vacuum entanglement. This protocol relies on two atoms, modelled by Unruh-DeWitt detectors, that are initially unentangled. These atoms then interact locally with the field and become entangled. If the atoms remain spacelike separated, any entanglement between them is a result of entanglement that is `harvested' from the field. Thus, quantifying this entanglement serves as a proxy for how entangled the field is across the regions in which the atoms interacted. Using this protocol, it is demonstrated that while the transition probability of an individual inertial atom is unaffected by the presence of a gravitational wave, the entanglement harvested by two atoms depends sensitively on the frequency of the gravitational wave, exhibiting novel resonance effects when the energy gap of the detectors is tuned to the frequency of the gravitational wave. This suggests that the entanglement signature left by a gravitational wave may be useful in characterizing its properties, and potentially useful in exploring the gravitational-wave memory effect and gravitational-wave induced decoherence., Comment: 6 + 8 pages, 6 figures

We provide an in-depth convolutional neural network (CNN) analysis of optical responses of liquid crystals (LCs) when exposed to different chemical environments. Our aim is to identify informative features that can be used to construct automated LC-based chemical sensors and that can shed some light on the underlying phenomena that governs and distinguishes LC responses. Previous work demonstrated that, by using features extracted from AlexNet, micrographs of different LC responses can be classified with an accuracy of 99%. Reaching such high levels of accuracy, however, required use of a large number of features (on the order of thousands), which was computationally intensive and which clouded the physical interpretability of the dominant features. To address these issues, here we report a study of the effectiveness of using features extracted from color images using VGG16, which is a more compact CNN than Alexnet. Our analysis reveals that features extracted from the first and second convolutional layers of VGG16 are sufficient to achieve a perfect classification accuracy on the same dataset used by Cao and coworkers, while reducing the number of features to less than a hundred. The number of features is further reduced to ten via recursive feature elimination with minimal loss in classification accuracy (5-10%). This feature reduction procedure reveals that differences in spatial color patterns are developed within seconds in the LC response. The results thus reveal that hue histograms provide an informative set of features that can be used to characterize LC micrographs of the sensor response. We also hypothesize that differences in spatial correlation length of LC textures detected by VGG16 with DMMP and water likely reflect differences in the anchoring energy of the LC on the surface of the sensor. This latter proposal hints at fresh approaches for the design of LC-based sensors based on characterization of spontaneous fluctuations in orientation (as opposed to changes in time-average orientation)

Datasets are mathematical objects (e.g., point clouds, matrices, graphs, images, fields/functions) that have shape. This shape encodes important knowledge about the system under study. Topology is an area of mathematics that provides diverse tools to characterize the shape of data objects. In this work, we study a specific tool known as the Euler characteristic (EC). The EC is a general, low-dimensional, and interpretable descriptor of topological spaces defined by data objects. We revise the mathematical foundations of the EC and highlight its connections with statistics, linear algebra, field theory, and graph theory. We discuss advantages offered by the use of the EC in the characterization of complex datasets; to do so, we illustrate its use in different applications of interest in chemical engineering such as process monitoring, flow cytometry, and microscopy. We show that the EC provides a descriptor that effectively reduces complex datasets and that this reduction facilitates tasks such as visualization, regression, classification, and clustering.

Quantum time dilation occurs when a clock moves in a superposition of relativistic momentum wave packets. We utilize the lifetime of an excited hydrogen-like atom as a clock to demonstrate how quantum time dilation manifests in a spontaneous emission process. The resulting emission rate differs when compared to the emission rate of an atom prepared in a mixture of momentum wave packets at order $v^2/c^2$. This effect is accompanied by a quantum correction to the Doppler shift due to the coherence between momentum wave packets. This quantum Doppler shift affects the spectral line shape at order $v/c$. However, its effect on the decay rate is suppressed when compared to the effect of quantum time dilation. We argue that spectroscopic experiments offer a technologically feasible platform to explore the effects of quantum time dilation., Comment: 15 pages

A primary hypothesis that drives scientific and engineering studies is that data has structure. The dominant paradigms for describing such structure are statistics (e.g., moments, correlation functions) and signal processing (e.g., convolutional neural nets, Fourier series). Topological Data Analysis (TDA) is a field of mathematics that analyzes data from a fundamentally different perspective. TDA represents datasets as geometric objects and provides dimensionality reduction techniques that project such objects onto low-dimensional spaces that are composed of elementary geometric objects. Key property of these elementary objects (also known as topological features) are that they persist at different scales and that they are stable under perturbations (e.g., noise, stretching, twisting, and bending). In this work, we review key mathematical concepts and methods of TDA and present different applications in chemical engineering., Comment: 42 pages, 44 figures

The quantum measurement problem can be regarded as the tension between the two alternative dynamics prescribed by quantum mechanics: the unitary evolution of the wave function and the state-update rule (or "collapse") at the instant a measurement takes place. The notorious Wigner's friend gedankenexperiment constitutes the paradoxical scenario in which different observers (one of whom is observed by the other) describe one and the same interaction differently, one --the Friend-- via state-update and the other --Wigner-- unitarily. This can lead to Wigner and his friend assigning different probabilities to the outcome of the same subsequent measurement. In this paper, we apply the Page-Wootters mechanism (PWM) as a timeless description of Wigner's friend-like scenarios. We show that the standard rules to assign two-time conditional probabilities within the PWM need to be modified to deal with the Wigner's friend gedankenexperiment. We identify three main definitions of such modified rules to assign two-time conditional probabilities, all of which reduce to standard quantum theory for non-Wigner's friend scenarios. However, when applied to the Wigner's friend setup each rule assigns different conditional probabilities, potentially resolving the probability-assignment paradox in a different manner. Moreover, one rule imposes strict limits on when a joint probability distribution for the measurement outcomes of Wigner and his Friend is well-defined, which single out those cases where Wigner's measurement does not disturb the Friend's memory and such a probability has an operational meaning in terms of collectible statistics. Interestingly, the same limits guarantee that said measurement outcomes fulfill the consistency condition of the consistent histories framework., 12 pages (plus appendices), 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Quantum

This article generalizes the conditional probability interpretation of time in which time evolution is realized through entanglement between a clock and a system of interest. This formalism is based upon conditioning a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation on a subsystem of the Universe, serving as a clock, being in a state corresponding to a time $t$. Doing so assigns a conditional state to the rest of the Universe $|\psi_S(t)\rangle$, referred to as the system. We demonstrate that when the total Hamiltonian appearing in the Wheeler-DeWitt equation contains an interaction term coupling the clock and system, the conditional state $|\psi_S(t)\rangle$ satisfies a time-nonlocal Schr\"{o}dinger equation in which the system Hamiltonian is replaced with a self-adjoint integral operator. This time-nonlocal Schr\"{o}dinger equation is solved perturbatively and three examples of clock-system interactions are examined. One example considered supposes that the clock and system interact via Newtonian gravity, which leads to the system's Hamiltonian developing corrections on the order of $G/c^4$ and inversely proportional to the distance between the clock and system., Comment: Two new examples of clock-system interactions have been added and a few points clarified. Comments welcome

We examine in $(2+1)$-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) space the phenomena of entanglement harvesting - the process in which a pair of detectors (two-level atoms) extract entanglement from a quantum field through local interactions with the field. We begin by reviewing the Unruh-DeWitt detector and its interaction with a real scalar field in the vacuum state, as well as the entanglement harvesting protocol in general. We then examine how the entanglement harvested by a pair of such detectors depends on their spacetime trajectory, separation, spacetime curvature, and boundary conditions satisfied by the field. The harvested entanglement is interpreted as an indicator of field entanglement between the localized regions where the detectors interact with the field, and thus this investigation allows us to probe indirectly the entanglement structure of the AdS vacuum. We find an island of separability for specific values of the detectors' energy gap and separation at intermediate values of the AdS length for which entanglement harvesting is not possible; an analogous phenomena is observed in AdS$_4$, to which we compare and contrast our results. In the process we examine how the transition probability of a single detector, as a proxy for local fluctuations of the field, depends on spacetime curvature, its location in AdS space, and boundary conditions satisfied by the field., Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures

The Unruh effect is a surprising prediction of quantum field theory that asserts accelerating observers perceive a thermal spectrum of particles with a temperature proportional to their acceleration. However, it has recently been shown that particle detectors can click less often or even cool down as their acceleration increases, in contrast to the heating one would expect. This leads to the so called anti-Unruh phenomena. Here we consider detectors outside a BTZ black hole and demonstrate the existence of black hole analogues of these effects, which we dub anti-Hawking phenomena.

Both quantum communication without a shared reference frame and the construction of a relational quantum theory require the notion of a quantum reference frame. Aspects of quantum reference frames associated with noncompact groups, specifically, the translation group and the group of Galilean boosts are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the usually employed group average, used to dispense of the notion of an external reference frame, leads to unphysical states when applied to reference frames associated with noncompact groups. However, it is shown that this average does lead naturally to a reduced state on the relative degrees of freedom of a system, which was previously considered by Angelo et al. (J Phys A 44:145304, 2011). The informational properties of this reduced state for systems of two and three particles in Gaussian states are characterized in detail.

As a model of a two-level quantum system interacting with a quantum field, the Unruh-DeWitt detector is introduced and physically motivated. Both the transition probability and transition rate of this detector model are defined and expressed to leading order in terms of the vacuum Wightman function for a scalar field living on a curved spacetime. The entanglement harvesting protocol is introduced in which two detectors begin in a separable state and as a result of their local interaction with the field become entangled. This entanglement is interpreted as being extracted from entanglement present in the vacuum state of the field and is quantified by various measures. The measurement model induced by a collection of such detectors is constructed, identifying the POVMs associated with the field that such a collection of detectors measures.

This chapter investigates the behaviour of detectors in two black hole spacetimes: the BTZ black hole and the \(\mathbb {R} {\mathbf {P}}^2\) geon, which are locally indistinguishable from one another but differ in their global topology. As a result of this difference, the \(\mathbb {R} {\mathbf {P}}^2\) geon is shown to be an intermediate between a stationary and dynamical spacetime, and it is shown that this non-stationarity can be observed in the transition rate of a single detector. The entanglement harvesting protocol is then examined for two detectors located in the exterior region of the BTZ black hole. This allows for an operational investigation into the entanglement structure of the Hartle-Hawking vacuum as seen by two detectors, in particular, how this entanglement depends on the detectors proximity to the black hole’s horizon.

At the intersection of quantum theory and relativity lies the possibility of a clock experiencing a superposition of proper times. We consider quantum clocks constructed from the internal degrees of relativistic particles that move through curved spacetime. The probability that one clock reads a given proper time conditioned on another clock reading a different proper time is derived. From this conditional probability distribution, it is shown that when the center-of-mass of these clocks move in localized momentum wave packets they observe classical time dilation. We then illustrate a quantum correction to the time dilation observed by a clock moving in a superposition of localized momentum wave packets that has the potential to be observed in experiment. The Helstrom-Holevo lower bound is used to derive a proper time-energy/mass uncertainty relation., The usual definition of external time is unlikely to survive if we want to unite quantum mechanics and relativity. Here the authors consider two quantum clocks moving in curved spacetime and formulate the probability distribution that relates their proper times, allowing them to explore quantum time dilation.

This chapter describes methods for generation of hydrolysates amenable to conversion to microbial lipids from herbaceous lignocellulosic biomass utilizing either mild alkali pretreatment with NaOH or alkaline hydrogen peroxide pretreatment with NaOH and H2O2. This pretreatment is followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of the plant cell wall polysaccharides to yield hydrolysates. These hydrolysates are composed primarily of the monosaccharides glucose and xylose as well as acetate and phenolic monomers that may all serve as a source of renewable carbon to produce microbial lipids. Application of these mild pretreatment conditions minimizes the generation of inhibitors, enabling microbial cultivations to often be performed without the need for detoxification.

This chapter describes the quantization of field theories on curved spacetimes, highlighting the differences between quantum field theory on Minkowski space. Beginning with the action describing a real scalar field, the equations of motion for the field are derived and an appropriate inner product on the space of solutions is introduced. The canonical quantization of this field theory is carried out, emphasizing the non-uniqueness of the vacuum state. The particle interpretation of such a field theory is described in detail with an emphasis on the importance of an operational definition of particles.

This chapter generalizes a quantum communication protocol introduced by Bartlett et al. (New J Phys 11:063013, 2009) in which two parties communicating do not share a classical reference frame, to the case where changes of their reference frames form a one-dimensional noncompact Lie group. Alice sends to Bob the state ρR ⊗ ρS, where ρS is the state of the system Alice wishes to communicate and ρR is the state of an ancillary system serving as a token of her reference frame. Because Bob is ignorant of the relationship between his reference frame and Alice’s, he will describe the state ρR ⊗ ρS as an average over all possible reference frames. Bob measures the reference token and applies a correction to the system Alice wished to communicate conditioned on the outcome of the measurement. The recovered state \(\rho _S^{\prime }\) is decohered with respect to ρS, the amount of decoherence depending on the properties of the reference token ρR. An example of this protocol is presented in which Alice and Bob do not share a reference frame associated with the one-dimensional translation group and the fidelity between ρS and \(\rho _S^{\prime }\) is used to quantify the success of the recovery operation.

This chapter generalizes the conditional probability interpretation of time in which time evolution is realized through entanglement between a clock and a system of interest. This formalism is based upon conditioning a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation on a subsystem of the Universe, serving as a clock, being in a state corresponding to a time t. Doing so assigns a conditional state to the rest of the Universe |ψS(t)〉, referred to as the system. It is shown that when the total Hamiltonian appearing in the Wheeler-DeWitt equation contains an interaction term coupling the clock and system, the conditional state |ψS(t)〉 satisfies a time-nonlocal Schrodinger equation in which the system Hamiltonian is replaced with a self-adjoint integral operator.

We present a machine learning framework to explore the predictability limits of catalytic activity from experimental descriptor data (which characterizes catalyst formulations and reaction conditions). Artificial neural networks are used to fuse descriptor data to predict activity and we use principal component analysis (PCA) and sparse PCA to project the experimental data into an information space and with this identify regions that exhibit low- and high-predictability. Our framework also incorporates a constrained-PCA optimization formulation that identifies new experimental points while filtering out regions in the experimental space due to constraints on technology, economics, and expert knowledge. This allows us to navigate the experimental space in a more targeted manner. Our framework is applied to a comprehensive water–gas shift reaction data set, which contains 2228 experimental data points collected from the literature. Neural network analysis reveals strong predictability of activity across reaction conditions (e.g., varying temperature) but also reveals important gaps in predictability across catalyst formulations (e.g., varying metal, support, and promoter). PCA analysis reveals that these gaps are due to the fact that most experiments reported in the literature lie within narrow regions in the information space. We demonstrate that our framework can systematically guide experiments and the selection of descriptors in order to improve predictability and identify new promising formulations.

The epilepsies affect around 65 million people worldwide and have a substantial missing heritability component. We report a genome-wide mega-analysis involving 15,212 individuals with epilepsy and 29,677 controls, which reveals 16 genome-wide significant loci, of which 11 are novel. Using various prioritization criteria, we pinpoint the 21 most likely epilepsy genes at these loci, with the majority in genetic generalized epilepsies. These genes have diverse biological functions, including coding for ion-channel subunits, transcription factors and a vitamin-B6 metabolism enzyme. Converging evidence shows that the common variants associated with epilepsy play a role in epigenetic regulation of gene expression in the brain. The results show an enrichment for monogenic epilepsy genes as well as known targets of antiepileptic drugs. Using SNP-based heritability analyses we disentangle both the unique and overlapping genetic basis to seven different epilepsy subtypes. Together, these findings provide leads for epilepsy therapies based on underlying pathophysiology., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The following paper deals with acoustic flame suppression mechanics in a microgravity environment with measurements taken from an Arduino-based sensor system and validation of the technique. A Zippo lighter is ignited in microgravity and then displaced from the base of the flame and suppressed using surface interactions with single tone acoustic waves to extinguished the flame. The analysis of data collected shows that the acoustic flame suppression measurementtechniques are effective to finding qualitative differences in extinguishing in microgravity and normal gravity. Further, the results suggest that the suppression may be more effective in a microgravity environment than in a normal (1g) environment and may be a viable method of extinguishing fires during space flight.

We generalize a quantum communication protocol introduced by Bartlett et al. [New. J. Phys. 11, 063013 (2009)] in which two parties communicating do not share a classical reference frame, to the case where changes of their reference frames form a one-dimensional noncompact Lie group. Alice sends to Bob the state $\rho_R \otimes \rho_S$, where $\rho_S$ is the state of the system Alice wishes to communicate and $\rho_R$ is the state of an ancillary system serving as a token of her reference frame. Because Bob is ignorant of the relationship between his reference frame and Alice's, he will describe the state $\rho_R \otimes \rho_S$ as an average over all possible reference frames. Bob measures the reference token and applies a correction to the system Alice wished to communicate conditioned on the outcome of the measurement. The recovered state $\rho_S'$ is decohered with respect to $\rho_S$, the amount of decoherence depending on the properties of the reference token $\rho_R$. We present an example of this protocol when Alice and Bob do not share a reference frame associated with the one-dimensional translation group and use the fidelity between $\rho_S$ and $\rho_S'$ to quantify the success of the recovery operation., Comment: Comments welcome

We implement the entanglement harvesting protocol, in which two Unruh-DeWitt detectors become entangled through local interactions with a quantum field, for the first time in the vicinity of a black hole. Our study, focusing on the BTZ black hole, reveals that black holes inhibit entanglement harvesting. The entanglement harvested rapidly falls to zero when two detectors with fixed proper separation approach the horizon. This effect is a combination of black hole radiation and gravitational red shift, both generic properties of horizons, suggesting it is a general result for black holes., 6 pages, 3 figures

Due to meteoritic transfer between Earth and Mars, if life on Mars exists, it may be related to life on Earth and utilize nucleic acids as informational polymers. Thus, a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes (SETG) could detect and sequence (deoxy)ribonucleic acids (DNA/RNA) utilized by any extant or recently dead life on Mars. The abiotic synthesis of common organic building blocks, such as nucleobases, sugars, and amino acids, in the solar nebula and potentially in diverse habitable environments could also bias a second genesis of life towards utilizing informational polymers similar to life as we know it. Here we build on prior work and describe the advancement of a SETG instrument to technology readiness level 4 through sample-to-sequence processing with limited manual handling. Another advance includes validation of nucleic acid extraction from Mars analogs at cell counts down to 104 per 50 mg sample, equivalent to a limit of detection of approximately 1 part per billion. In addition, we demonstrate that biological nanopore-based single molecule sequencing can be used to detect non-standard bases. Finally, we link sequence data to a statistical test to distinguish between any forward contamination and putative life beyond Earth. Nanopore-based sensing may ultimately enable characterization of non-standard polymers and other molecules, highlighting the potential for nanopore-based life detection and sequencing on Mars or other words such as the icy moons Enceladus or Europa.

We show that massive particles created in a relativistically accelerated reference frame, as predicted by the Unruh effect, can only be found in a tiny layer above the event horizon, whose thickness corresponds to a single Compton wavelength. This is beyond the reach of any detector and suggests that the Unruh effect may not ever be directly observed for massive fields. The case of massless particles is also examined, for which qualitatively different behaviour is observed in a low-acceleration regime, suggesting that an observation of the Unruh effect for massless particles is more promising.

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), a low cost and time efficient remote sensing platform, can help public agencies obtain useful urban aerial imagery of cities and update land use information frequently, especially in natural colour bands. In this paper, a decision tree based land use classification approach using optical aerial imagery is proposed. First, land cover information is extracted through the Maximum Likelihood Classifier and tabulated with an Ownership parcel map. Second, a decision tree is generated to establish the relationship between land cover and land use. Taking advantage of the geometric characteristics of parcels, an organized land use parcel map is produced. Afterwards, by resampling the aerial imagery from 20 cm, 50 cm and 100 cm resolution, effects of spatial resolution in this classification approach are discussed and determined. This land use classification method is flexible and can be widely used in urban planning and landscape monitoring.

We study how an arbitrary Gaussian state of two localized wave packets, prepared in an inertial frame of reference, is described by a pair of uniformly accelerated observers. We explicitly compute the resulting state for arbitrarily chosen proper accelerations of the observers and independently tuned distance between them. To do so, we introduce a generalized Rindler frame of reference and analytically derive the corresponding state transformation as a Gaussian channel. Our approach provides several new insights into the phenomenon of vacuum entanglement such as the highly non-trivial effect of spatial separation between the observers including sudden death of entanglement. We also calculate the fidelity of the two-mode channel for non-vacuum Gaussian states and obtain bounds on classical and quantum capacities of a single-mode channel. Our framework can be directly applied to any continuous variable quantum information protocol in which the effects of acceleration or gravity cannot be neglected., 21 pages, 13 figures. A few typos corrected

The NOνA experiment will measure neutrino oscillations using a long-baseline beam, a ∼220-ton near detector and a ∼14-kiloton far detector. Production of ∼12500 modules to build these detectors is an industrial scale operation requiring careful quality assurance to meet the stringent technical specifications. Unlike a typical industrial operation, this project will use primarily a part time labor force of ∼200 University of Minnesota undergraduate students managed by a small team of full time employees. The quality assurance system is involved in nearly every aspect of the production: assembly, scheduling, training, payroll, materials, machine maintenance, test data, and safety compliance. The quality assurance data collected during the assembly process allows us to quickly identify and correct any problems that arise.

In quantum communication protocols the existence of a shared reference frame between two spatially separated parties is normally presumed. However, in many practical situations we are faced with the problem of misaligned reference frames. In this paper, we study communication between two inertial observers who have partial knowledge about the Lorentz transformation that relates their frames of reference. Since every Lorentz transformation can be decomposed into a pure boost followed by a rotation, we begin by analysing the effects on communication when the parties have partial knowledge about the transformation relating their frames, when the transformation is either a rotation or pure boost. This then enables us to investigate how the efficiency of communication is affected due to partially correlated inertial reference frames related by an arbitrary Lorentz transformation. Furthermore, we show how the results of previous studies where reference frames are completely uncorrelated are recovered from our results in appropriate limits., 9 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected, figures updated

We derive the structure of the density matrix for two Unruh-DeWitt detectors coupled to a massless scalar field to all orders of perturbation theory, in spacetimes admitting a well-defined Wightman function. Calculating all of its leading terms enables us to fully characterize observable correlations, entanglement, and quantum discord. We apply these results to study detector responses in two locally flat topologically nontrivial spacetimes constructed from identifications of Minkowski space. We demonstrate how local statistics and detector-detector correlations depend on the global spacetime structure. In particular, we show that if the spacetime has a preferred direction, this direction may be inferred from the dependence of correlations between the two detectors on their orientation. While using such measurements to distinguish spacetimes with identical local geometry is apparently impractical, this effect points to fundamental connections between quantum field correlations and the structure of spacetime. This relationship may also be relevant in the phenomenology of the early Universe.