Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from HAWC Observations of Gamma Rays above 100 TeV.

Because of the high energies and long distances to the sources, astrophysical observations provide a unique opportunity to test possible signatures of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). Superluminal LIV enables the decay of photons at high energy. The high altitude water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is among the most sensitive gamma-ray instruments currently operating above 10 TeV. HAWC finds evidence of 100 TeV photon emission from at least four astrophysical sources. These observations exclude, for the strongest of the limits set, the LIV energy scale to 2.2×10^{31} eV, over 1800 times the Planck energy and an improvement of 1 to 2 orders of magnitude over previous limits.

Implementation of nearly arbitrary spatially varying polarization transformations: an in-principle lossless approach using spatial light modulators.

A fast and automated scheme for general polarization transformations holds great value in adaptive optics, quantum information, and virtually all applications involving light-matter and light-light interactions. We present an experiment that uses a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator to perform polarization transformations on a light field. We experimentally demonstrate the point-by-point conversion of uniformly polarized light fields across the wavefront to realize arbitrary, spatially varying polarization states. Additionally, we demonstrate that a light field with an arbitrary spatially varying polarization can be transformed to a spatially invariant (i.e., uniform) polarization.

Determining Complementary Properties with Quantum Clones.

In a classical world, simultaneous measurements of complementary properties (e.g., position and momentum) give a system's state. In quantum mechanics, measurement-induced disturbance is largest for complementary properties and, hence, limits the precision with which such properties can be determined simultaneously. It is tempting to try to sidestep this disturbance by copying the system and measuring each complementary property on a separate copy. However, perfect copying is physically impossible in quantum mechanics. Here, we investigate using the closest quantum analog to this copying strategy, optimal cloning. The coherent portion of the generated clones' state corresponds to "twins" of the input system. Like perfect copies, both twins faithfully reproduce the properties of the input system. Unlike perfect copies, the twins are entangled. As such, a measurement on both twins is equivalent to a simultaneous measurement on the input system. For complementary observables, this joint measurement gives the system's state, just as in the classical case. We demonstrate this experimentally using polarized single photons.

Direct Measurement of the Density Matrix of a Quantum System.

One drawback of conventional quantum state tomography is that it does not readily provide access to single density matrix elements since it requires a global reconstruction. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scheme that can be used to directly measure individual density matrix elements of general quantum states. The scheme relies on measuring a sequence of three observables, each complementary to the last. The first two measurements are made weak to minimize the disturbance they cause to the state, while the final measurement is strong. We perform this joint measurement on polarized photons in pure and mixed states to directly measure their density matrix. The weak measurements are achieved using two walk-off crystals, each inducing a polarization-dependent spatial shift that couples the spatial and polarization degrees of freedom of the photons. This direct measurement method provides an operational meaning to the density matrix and promises to be especially useful for large dimensional states.

Measurement of the transverse electric field profile of light by a self-referencing method with direct phase determination.

We present a method for measuring the transverse electric field profile of a beam of light which allows for direct phase retrieval. The measured values correspond, within a normalization constant, to the real and imaginary parts of the electric field in a plane normal to the direction of propagation. This technique represents a self-referencing method for probing the wavefront characteristics of light.

Absolute efficiency estimation of photon-number-resolving detectors using twin beams.

A nonclassical light source is used to demonstrate experimentally the absolute efficiency calibration of a photon-number-resolving detector. The photon-pair detector calibration method developed by Klyshko for single-photon detectors is generalized to take advantage of the higher dynamic range and additional information provided by photon-number-resolving detectors. This enables the use of brighter twin-beam sources including amplified pulse pumped sources, which increases the relevant signal and provides measurement redundancy, making the calibration more robust.

Experimental joint weak measurement on a photon pair as a probe of Hardy's paradox.

It has been proposed that the ability to perform joint weak measurements on postselected systems would allow us to study quantum paradoxes. These measurements can investigate the history of those particles that contribute to the paradoxical outcome. Here we experimentally perform weak measurements of joint (i.e., nonlocal) observables. In an implementation of Hardy's paradox, we weakly measure the locations of two photons, the subject of the conflicting statements behind the paradox. Remarkably, the resulting weak probabilities verify all of these statements but, at the same time, resolve the paradox.

Optimal quantum phase estimation.

By using a systematic optimization approach, we determine quantum states of light with definite photon number leading to the best possible precision in optical two-mode interferometry. Our treatment takes into account the experimentally relevant situation of photon losses. Our results thus reveal the benchmark for precision in optical interferometry. Although this boundary is generally worse than the Heisenberg limit, we show that the obtained precision beats the standard quantum limit, thus leading to a significant improvement compared to classical interferometers. We furthermore discuss alternative states and strategies to the optimized states which are easier to generate at the cost of only slightly lower precision.

Photon pair generation in birefringent optical fibers.

We study both experimentally and theoretically the generation of photon pairs by spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in standard birefringent optical fibers. The ability to produce a range of two-photon spectral states, from highly correlated (entangled) to completely factorable, by means of cross-polarized birefringent phase matching, is explored. A simple model is developed to predict the spectral state of the photon pair which shows how this can be adjusted by choosing the appropriate pump bandwidth, fiber length and birefringence. Spontaneous Raman scattering is modeled to determine the tradeoff between SFWM and background Raman noise, and the predicted results are shown to agree with experimental data.

Classical dispersion-cancellation interferometry.

Even-order dispersion cancellation, an effect previously identified with frequency-entangled photons, is demonstrated experimentally for the first time with a linear, classical interferometer. A combination of a broad bandwidth laser and a high resolution spectrometer was used to measure the intensity correlations between anti-correlated optical frequencies. Only 14% broadening of the correlation signal is observed when significant material dispersion, enough to broaden the regular interferogram by 4250%, is introduced into one arm of the interferometer.

Photon pair-state preparation with tailored spectral properties by spontaneous four-wave mixing in photonic-crystal fiber.

We study theoretically the generation of photon pairs by spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in photonic crystal optical fiber. We show that it is possible to engineer two-photon states with specific spectral correlation ("entanglement") properties suitable for quantum information processing applications. We focus on the case exhibiting no spectral correlations in the two-photon component of the state, which we call factorability, and which allows heralding of single-photon pure-state wave packets without the need for spectral post filtering. We show that spontaneous four wave mixing exhibits a remarkable flexibility, permitting a wider class of two-photon states, including ultra-broadband, highly-anticorrelated states.

Super-resolving phase measurements with a multiphoton entangled state.

Interference phenomena are ubiquitous in physics, often forming the basis of demanding measurements. Examples include Ramsey interferometry in atomic spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction in crystallography and optical interferometry in gravitational-wave studies. It has been known for some time that the quantum property of entanglement can be exploited to perform super-sensitive measurements, for example in optical interferometry or atomic spectroscopy. The idea has been demonstrated for an entangled state of two photons, but for larger numbers of particles it is difficult to create the necessary multiparticle entangled states. Here we demonstrate experimentally a technique for producing a maximally entangled three-photon state from initially non-entangled photons. The method can in principle be applied to generate states of arbitrary photon number, giving arbitrarily large improvement in measurement resolution. The method of state construction requires non-unitary operations, which we perform using post-selected linear-optics techniques similar to those used for linear-optics quantum computing.

Experimental application of decoherence-free subspaces in an optical quantum-computing algorithm.

For a practical quantum computer to operate, it is essential to properly manage decoherence. One important technique for doing this is the use of "decoherence-free subspaces" (DFSs), which have recently been demonstrated. Here we present the first use of DFSs to improve the performance of a quantum algorithm. An optical implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm can be made insensitive to a particular class of phase noise by encoding information in the appropriate subspaces; we observe a reduction of the error rate from 35% to 7%, essentially its value in the absence of noise.

Quantum state preparation and conditional coherence.

It is well known that spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be used to probabilistically prepare single-photon states. We have performed an experiment in which arbitrary superpositions of zero- and one-photon states can be prepared by appropriate postselection. The optical phase, which is meaningful only for superpositions of photon number, is related to the relative phase between the zero- and one-photon states. Whereas the light from spontaneous parametric down-conversion has an undefined phase, we show that this technique collapses one beam to a state of well-defined optical phase when a measurement succeeds on the other beam.

Nonlinear optics with less than one photon.

We demonstrate suppression and enhancement of spontaneous parametric down-conversion via quantum interference with two weak fields from a local oscillator (LO). Effectively, pairs of LO photons up-convert with high efficiency for appropriate phase settings, exhibiting an effective nonlinearity enhanced by at least 10 orders of magnitude. This constitutes a two-photon switch and promises to be applicable to a wide variety of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena.

Clinical results of intraarticular fractures of the base of the fifth metacarpal treated by closed reduction and cast immobilization.

This retrospective study evaluated the results of closed reduction and cast immobilization for isolated intraarticular fractures of the base of the fifth metacarpal. Twenty-two of 37 such fractures were available for follow-up at an average of 43 months, and these had all healed at an average of 5 weeks without any cast complications. Twenty patients reported excellent or good results, and two reported fair or poor results. At follow-up, 13 had no arthrosis and nine had mild arthrosis of the carpometacarpal joint. However, outcome was not influenced by fracture type, the degree of subluxation or articular step off, or the presence of arthrosis. We conclude that isolated fractures of the base of the fifth metacarpal can be reliably treated with closed reduction and cast immobilization.

Two dimensional echocardiographic similarity of Fabry's disease to cardiac amyloidosis: a function of ultrastructural analogy?

A 53-year-old man with Fabry's disease was studied by echocardiography. Both M-mode and two dimensional echocardiographic examinations produced findings indistinguishable from those previously described as virtually diagnostic of cardiac amyloidosis. Possible causes for the "granular sparkling" appearance and clinical implications of the similarities were discussed.

Acute electrophysiologic effects of nadolol.

The acute effects of intravenous nadolol (0.01 and 0.02 mg/kg) on cardiac electrophysiologic parameters were assessed with His bundle recording and programmed atrial stimulation. The higher dose of nadolol reduced resting heart rate (71 vs. 65 beats/min, P less than 0.02), and the degree of slowing was related to the initial heart rate (r = -0.68, P less than 0.05). Atrioventricular conduction time as defined by the paced A-H interval, rose by 12 msec (P less than 0.001) after nadolol (0.02 mg/kg) administration. Atrial refractoriness increased (by 10 msec, P less than 0.02) only at the higher dose level with nadolol. At both dose levels, atrioventricular nodal effective and functional refractory periods were increased (P less than 0.02) by a mean of 45 and 21 msec, respectively, suggesting greater sensitivity of atrioventricular nodal refractoriness to beta-adrenergic blockade. Nadolol's effects were generally similar to those of previously reported studies with other beta-adrenergic blockers. These data suggest that nadolol slows conduction through the atrioventricular node and increases atrial and atrioventricular nodal refractoriness.

A comparative radiographic study of low anterior colon anastomoses in dogs.

A radiographic animal study comparing two-layer and hand-sewn colorectal anastomoses to anastomoses made with an inverting circular stapling device revealed a highly significant difference in anastomotic leak rate: 13 anastomotic dehiscences were demonstrated in 20 dogs with hand-sewn anastomosis (65%), and four leaks (20%) were found in 20 dogs with stapled anastomoses. All leaks occurred between the third and seventh postoperative days and most were not clinically significant. A marginally significant difference in mortality rate was found, with four deaths among the hand-sewn group (20%) and two among the stapled group (10%). The data suggest that the EEA stapling device may be preferable to hand-sewn techniques, particularly for low extraperitoneal colorectal anastomoses.

Mallory-Weiss syndrome: analysis of fifty-nine cases.

Fifty-nine patients with Mallory-Weiss gastroesophageal lacerations are described. These patients consisted of 6% of all cases of upper gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage we evaluated. The most common symptoms were hematemesis (92%) and retching (61%). A history of chronic alcoholism was present in 69.5%, and recent binge drinking in 52.5% of our patients. Diagnosis was made endoscopically (55 patients) or surgically (four patients). Two deaths occurred in the 51 patients who were managed nonoperatively and two deaths occurred in the eight patients who underwent surgery. None of the deaths was related to delay in operative treatment. Eleven patients had late rebleeding, but in only three of these patients was this due to recurrent Mallory-Weiss lesions. We believe the Mallory-Weiss laceration can now be considered to be a relatively benign condition that can be managed successfully by nonoperative means in the majority of cases.