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Solving a Poisson equation is generally reduced to solving a linear system with a coefficient matrix $A$ of entries $a_{ij}$, $i,j=1,2,...,n$, from the discretized Poisson equation. Although the variational quantum algorithms are promising algorithms to solve the discretized Poisson equation, they generally require that $A$ be decomposed into a sum of $O[\text{poly}(\text{log}_2n)]$ simple operators in order to evaluate efficiently the loss function. A tensor product decomposition of $A$ with $2\text{log}_2n+1$ terms has been explored in previous works. In this paper, based on the decomposition of sparse Hamiltonians we greatly reduce the number of terms. We first write the loss function in terms of the operator $\sigma_x\otimes A$ with $\sigma_x$ denoting the standard Pauli operator. Then for the one-dimensional Poisson equations with different boundary conditions and for the $d$-dimensional Poisson equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions, we decompose $\sigma_x\otimes A$ into a sum of at most 7 and $(4d+1)$ Hermitian, one-sparse, and self-inverse operators, respectively. We design explicitly the quantum circuits to evaluate efficiently the loss function. The decomposition method and the design of quantum circuits can also be easily extended to linear systems with Hermitian and sparse coefficient matrices satisfying $a_{i,i+c}=a_{c}$ for $c=0,1,\cdots,n-1$ and $i=0,\cdots,n-1-c$.

Quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a promising variational quantum algorithm for combinatorial optimization problems. However, the implementation of QAOA is limited due to the requirement that the problems be mapped to Ising Hamiltonians and the nonconvex optimization landscapes. Although the Ising Hamiltonians for many NP hard problems have been obtained, a general method to obtain the Ising Hamiltonians for constrained combinatorial optimization problems (CCOPs) has not yet been investigated. In this paper, a general method is introduced to obtain the Ising Hamiltonians for CCOPs and the Metropolis-Hastings warm-starting algorithm for QAOA is presented which can provably converge to the global optimal solutions. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by tackling the minimum weight vertex cover (MWVC) problem, the minimum vertex cover (MVC) problem, and the maximal independent set problem as examples. The Ising Hamiltonian for the MWVC problem is obtained first time by using this method. The advantages of the Metropolis-Hastings warm-starting algorithm presented here is numerically analyzed through solving 30 randomly generated MVC cases with 1-depth QAOA.

Currently, effective phonons (renormalized or interacting phonons) rather than solitary waves (for short, solitons) are regarded as the energy carriers in nonlinear lattices. In this work, by using the approximate soliton solutions of the corresponding equations of motion and adopting the Boltzmann distribution for these solitons, the average velocities of solitons are obtained and are compared with the sound velocities of energy transfer. Excellent agreements with the numerical results and the predictions of other existing theories are shown in both the symmetric Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-$\beta$ lattices and the asymmetric Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-$\alpha \beta$ lattices. These clearly indicate that solitons are suitable candidates for energy carriers in Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices. In addition, the root-mean-square velocity of solitons can be obtained from the effective phonons theory., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures

Thermal rectification and negative differential thermal conductance were realized in harmonic chains in this work. We used the generalized Caldeira-Leggett model to study the heat flow. In contrast to the most previous studies considering only the linear system-bath coupling, we considered the nonlinear system-bath coupling based on recent experiment [A. Eichler \emph{et al.}, Nat. Nanotech. \textbf{6}, 339 (2011)]. When the linear coupling constant is weak, the multiphonon processes induced by the nonlinear coupling allow more phonons transport across the system-bath interface and hence the heat current is enhanced. Consequently, thermal rectification and negative differential thermal conductance are achieved when the nonlinear couplings are asymmetric. However, when the linear coupling constant is strong, the umklapp processes dominate the multiphonon processes. Nonlinear coupling suppresses the heat current. Thermal rectification is also achieved. But the direction of rectification is reversed comparing to the results of weak linear coupling constant., Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures

So far, only the energy thresholds of single discrete breathers in nonlinear Hamiltonian systems have been analytically obtained. In this work, the energy thresholds of discrete breathers in thermal equilibrium and the energy thresholds of long-lived discrete breathers which can remain after a long time relaxation are analytically estimated for nonlinear chains. These energy thresholds are size dependent. The energy thresholds of discrete breathers in thermal equilibrium are same as the previous analytical results for single discrete breathers. The energy thresholds of long-lived discrete breathers in relaxation processes are different from the previous results for single discrete breathers but agree well with the published numerical results known to us. Because real systems are either in thermal equilibrium or in relaxation processes, the obtained results could be important for experimental detection of discrete breathers., Comment: 26 pages, 0 figures

In this paper, we present results from an experimental study into turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection forced externally by periodically modulated unidirectional rotation rates. We find that the azimuthal rotation velocity $\dot{\theta}$(t) and thermal amplitude $\delta$(t) of the large-scale circulation (LSC) are modulated by the forcing, exhibiting a variety of dynamics including increasing phase delays and a resonant peak in the amplitude of $\dot{\theta}$(t). We also focus on the influence of modulated rotation rates on the frequency of occurrence $\eta$ of stochastic cessation/reorientation events, and on the interplay between such events and the periodically modulated response of $\dot{\theta}$(t). Here we identify a mechanism by which $\eta$ can be amplfied by the modulated response and these normally stochastic events can occur with high regularity. We provide a modeling framework that explains the observed amplitude and phase responses, and extend this approach to make predictions for the occurrence of cessation events and the probability distributions of $\dot{\theta}$(t) and $\delta$(t) during different phases of a modulation cycle, based on an adiabatic approach that treats each phase separately. Lastly, we show that such periodic forcing has consequences beyond influencing LSC dynamics, by investigating how it can modify the heat transport even under conditions where the Ekman pumping effect is predominant and strong enhancement of heat transport occurs. We identify phase and amplitude responses of the heat transport, and show how increased modulations influence the average Nusselt number., Comment: The word count of the text of the manuscript is 19507 words. There are 28 figures in the manuscript, and we include the appendix section for detailed research methods

We present measurements of the azimuthal orientation {\theta}(t) and thermal amplitude {\delta}(t) of the large-scale circulation (LSC) of turbulent rotating convection within an unprecedented large Rossby number range 170. We identify the mechanism through which the mean retrograde rotation speed can be enhanced by stochastic cessations in the presence of weak Coriolis force, and show that a low-dimensional, stochastic model provides predictions of the observed large-scale flow dynamics and interprets its retrograde rotation., Comment: The manuscript contains 5 pages and 5 figures