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Spatiotemporal optical vortices (STOVs) are short pulses that present a vortex whose axis is perpendicular to the main propagation direction. We present analytic expressions for these pulses that satisfy exactly Maxwell's equation, by applying appropriate differential operators to complex focus pulses with Poisson-like frequency spectrum. We also provide a simple ray picture for understanding the deformation of these pulses under propagation. Finally, we use these solutions to propose a type of pulse with sagittal skyrmionic polarization distribution covering all states of transverse polarization., Comment: 12 pages

Reference-guided DNA sequencing and alignment is an important process in computational molecular biology. The amount of DNA data grows very fast, and many new genomes are waiting to be sequenced while millions of private genomes need to be re-sequenced. Each human genome has 3.2 B base pairs, and each one could be stored with 2 bits of information, so one human genome would take 6.4 B bits or about 760 MB of storage (National Institute of General Medical Sciences). Today most powerful tensor processing units cannot handle the volume of DNA data necessitating a major leap in computing power. It is, therefore, important to investigate the usefulness of quantum computers in genomic data analysis, especially in DNA sequence alignment. Quantum computers are expected to be involved in DNA sequencing, initially as parts of classical systems, acting as quantum accelerators. The number of available qubits is increasing annually, and future quantum computers could conduct DNA sequencing, taking the place of classical computing systems. We present a novel quantum algorithm for reference-guided DNA sequence alignment modeled with gate-based quantum computing. The algorithm is scalable, can be integrated into existing classical DNA sequencing systems and is intentionally structured to limit computational errors. The quantum algorithm has been tested using the quantum processing units and simulators provided by IBM Quantum, and its correctness has been confirmed., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures

De novo DNA sequence assembly is based on finding paths in overlap graphs, which is a NP-hard problem. We developed a quantum algorithm for de novo assembly based on quantum walks in graphs. The overlap graph is partitioned repeatedly to smaller graphs that form a hierarchical structure. We use quantum walks to find paths in low rank graphs and a quantum algorithm that finds Hamiltonian paths in high hierarchical rank. We tested the partitioning quantum algorithm, as well as the quantum algorithm that finds Hamiltonian paths in high hierarchical rank and confirmed its correct operation using Qiskit. We developed a custom simulation for quantum walks to search for paths in low rank graphs. The approach described in this paper may serve as a basis for the development of efficient quantum algorithms that solve the de novo DNA assembly problem., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

Given an $m-$qubit $\Phi_0$ and an $(n,m)-$quantum code $\mathcal{C}$, let $\Phi$ be the $n-$qubit that results from the $\mathcal{C}-$encoding of $\Phi_0$. Suppose that the state $\Phi$ is affected by an isotropic error (decoherence), becoming $\Psi$, and that the corrector circuit of $\mathcal{C}$ is applied to $\Psi$, obtaining the quantum state $\tilde\Phi$. Alternatively, we analyze the effect of the isotropic error without using the quantum code $\mathcal{C}$. In this case the error transforms $\Phi_0$ into $\Psi_0$. Assuming that the correction circuit does not introduce new errors and that it does not increase the execution time, we compare the fidelity of $\Psi$, $\tilde\Phi$ and $\Psi_0$ with the aim of analyzing the power of quantum codes to control isotropic errors. We prove that $F(\Psi_0) \geq F(\tilde\Phi) \geq F(\Psi)$. Therefore the best option to optimize fidelity against isotropic errors is not to use quantum codes.

By studying the effects of quadratic anisotropy and quartic perturbations on the two-dimensional harmonic oscillator, one arrives at a simple model termed here the Ince oscillator, whose analytic solutions are given in terms of Ince polynomials. This one model unifies diverse physical systems, including aberrated optical cavities that are shown to support Ince-Gauss beams as their modes, and the two-mode Bose-Hubbard dimer describing two coupled superfluids. The Ince oscillator model describes a topological transition which can have very different origins: in the optical case, which is fundamentally linear, it is driven by the ratio of astigmatic to spherical mirror aberrations, whereas in the superfluid case it is driven by the ratio of particle tunneling to interparticle interactions and corresponds to macroscopic quantum self trapping.

This report describes the physics case, the resulting detector requirements, and the evolving detector concepts for the experimental program at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The EIC will be a powerful new high-luminosity facility in the United States with the capability to collide high-energy electron beams with high-energy proton and ion beams, providing access to those regions in the nucleon and nuclei where their structure is dominated by gluons. Moreover, polarized beams in the EIC will give unprecedented access to the spatial and spin structure of the proton, neutron, and light ions. The studies leading to this document were commissioned and organized by the EIC User Group with the objective of advancing the state and detail of the physics program and developing detector concepts that meet the emerging requirements in preparation for the realization of the EIC. The effort aims to provide the basis for further development of concepts for experimental equipment best suited for the science needs, including the importance of two complementary detectors and interaction regions. This report consists of three volumes. Volume I is an executive summary of our findings and developed concepts. In Volume II we describe studies of a wide range of physics measurements and the emerging requirements on detector acceptance and performance. Volume III discusses general-purpose detector concepts and the underlying technologies to meet the physics requirements. These considerations will form the basis for a world-class experimental program that aims to increase our understanding of the fundamental structure of all visible matter, Comment: 902 pages, 415 authors, 151 institutions

In this work we prove that the 5-qubit quantum error correcting code does not fix qubit independent errors, even assuming that the correction circuit does not introduce new errors. We say that a quantum code does not fix a quantum computing error if its application does not reduce the variance of the error. We also prove for qubit independent errors that if the correction circuit of the 5-qubit quantum code detects an error, the corrected state has central symmetry and, as a consequence, its variance is maximum. We have been able to obtain these results thanks to the high symmetry of the 5-qubit quantum code and we believe that the necessary calculations for less symmetric codes are extremely complicated but that, despite this, the results obtained for the 5-qubit quantum code reveal a general behavior pattern of quantum error correcting codes against qubit independent errors.

Based on the operator formalism that arises from the underlying SU(2) group structure, a formula is derived that provides a description of the generalized Hermite-Laguerre Gauss modes in terms of a Jones vector, traditionally used to describe polarization. This identity highlights the relation between these generalized Gaussian beams, the elliptical ray families, and the Majorana constellations used to represent structured-Gaussian beams. Moreover, it provides a computational advantage over the standard formula in terms of Wigner $d$ functions.

Structured-Gaussian beams are shown to be fully and uniquely represented by a collection of points (or constellation) on the surface of the modal Majorana sphere, providing a complete generalization of the modal Poincar\'e sphere to higher-order modes. The symmetries of this Majorana constellation translate into invariances to astigmatic transformations, giving way to continuous or quantized geometric phases. The experimental amenability of this system is shown by verifying the existence of both these symmetries and geometric phases.

A simple non-interferometric approach for probing the geometric phase of a structured Gaussian beam is proposed. Both the Gouy and Pancharatnam-Berry phases can be determined from the intensity distribution following a mode transformation if a part of the beam is covered at the initial plane. Moreover, the trajectories described by the centroid of the resulting intensity distributions following these transformations resemble those of ray optics, revealing an optical analogue of Ehrenfest's theorem associated with changes in geometric phase., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

Online Behavioural targeted Advertising (OBA) has risen in prominence as a method to increase the effectiveness of online advertising. OBA operates by associating tags or labels to users based on their online activity and then using these labels to target them. This rise has been accompanied by privacy concerns from researchers, regulators and the press. In this paper, we present a novel methodology for measuring and understanding OBA in the online advertising market. We rely on training artificial online personas representing behavioural traits like 'cooking', 'movies', 'motor sports', etc. and build a measurement system that is automated, scalable and supports testing of multiple configurations. We observe that OBA is a frequent practice and notice that categories valued more by advertisers are more intensely targeted. In addition, we provide evidences showing that the advertising market targets sensitive topics (e.g, religion or health) despite the existence of regulation that bans such practices. We also compare the volume of OBA advertising for our personas in two different geographical locations (US and Spain) and see little geographic bias in terms of intensity of OBA targeting. Finally, we check for targeting with do-not-track (DNT) enabled and discovered that DNT is not yet enforced in the web., Comment: To appear in ACM CoNEXT 2015, Heidelberg, Germany. Please cite the conference version of this paper