text:
# Quantum nondemolition measurements of a qubit

\[

## Abstract

The concept of quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement is extended to coherent oscillations in an individual two-state system. Such a measurement enables direct observation of intrinsic spectrum of these oscillations avoiding the detector-induced dephasing that affects the standard (non-QND) measurements. The suggested scheme can be realized in Josephson-junction qubits which combine flux and charge dynamics.

\]

Quantum coherent oscillations in a two-state system (qubit) represent the most basic dynamic manifestation of quantum coherence between the qubit states. Motivated by potential application to quantum computation  and conceptual interest in macroscopic quantum phenomena, significant effort is devoted at present to attempts to observe and study these oscillations in individual “mesoscopic” qubits realized with Josephson-junction systems – see, e.g., . One of the most direct ways of detecting the coherent oscillations in a qubit is to monitor them continuously with a weakly-coupled linear detector . Spectral density of the detector output should exhibit then the spectral line at the oscillation frequency which contains information about the oscillation amplitude and decoherence rate, and has other interesting features. For example, the absolute intensity of the oscillation line demonstrates directly the quantum nature of the oscillations. It exceeds by a factor of two intensity of the classical harmonic oscillations of the same amplitude. Quantum mechanics makes larger intensity possible by combining harmonic oscillations of the probability with discrete jumps of the oscillating variable between the two states of the qubit .

The spectral line in the detector output, however, does not fully represent intrinsic spectral density of the oscillations. In the simplest measurement scheme the detector measures directly the oscillating coordinate, and thus tends to localize it, introducing extra dephasing in the dynamics of the oscillations. Such a “backaction dephasing” creates a fundamental limit, equal to 4, for the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement, i.e., the ratio of the height of the oscillation line to the output noise of the detector. This limitation makes direct measurement of the quantum coherent oscillations in an individual qubit difficult, and leads to an interesting question whether a variant of quantum nondemolition (QND) technique can be used to avoid the detector backaction and to overcome the limitation on the signal-to-noise ratio. This work suggests such a QND technique and develops its quantitative description.

QND measurement technique was proposed first for detection of weak forces acting on a harmonic oscillator in the context of the gravitational-wave antennas , and was discussed until now in application to measurements of various realizations of harmonic oscillators – see, e.g., . Here the concept of a QND measurement is extended to the two-state system. In general, the QND measurement is realized when a quantum system is coupled to a measuring detector through an operator (the measured observable) that represents at least an approximate integral of motion. In this case, the backaction by the detector which increases fluctuations and uncertainty in the variables not commuting with the measured observable does not couple back into its evolution. Such a “decoupling” of backaction makes it possible to measure the system continuously without significantly perturbing it.

This discussion implies that specific scheme of the QND measurement of a two-state system should depend on the main part of the system Hamiltonian. In what follows, we consider the case of unbiased two-state system that is the most advantageous for the quantum coherent oscillations. In the basis of the two states of the oscillating variable $`\widehat{x}\sigma _z`$ (e.g., charge or flux states in the case of charge  or flux  qubits, respectively) the Hamiltonian of the system is then

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _x.$$
(1)
Here and below $`\sigma `$’s denote Pauli matrices, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }/2`$ is the amplitude of tunnel coupling between the basis states. The basic idea behind the QND measurement of such a system is illustrated in Fig. 1. In the spin-$`1/2`$ representation of the two-state system (1), its dynamics can be seen as rotation with frequency $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the $`yz`$ plane. To perform the QND measurement, the direction along which the spin is measured should follow as closely as possible the system rotation. This is achieved if the measurement direction rotates with frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Delta }`$. (Since the phase of the oscillation of a spin $`1/2`$ can not maintain any semiclassical dynamics, there is no question of the phase relation between the two rotations.) Thus, one can suggest the following Hamiltonian for the QND qubit measurement:

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _x\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Omega }t\sigma _z+\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Omega }t\sigma _y)f+H_0.$$
(2)
Here $`H_0`$ is the Hamiltonian of the detector which is coupled to the qubit via the force $`f`$, and to simplify notations all coupling constants are included in the definition of $`f`$.

The Hamiltonian (2) of the QND qubit measurement is different from that of the non-QND measurement studied so far in theory  and used in experiments  in the form of the qubit-detector coupling. The coupling term in (2) should be contrasted with $`\sigma _zf/2`$ in the non-QND case when the detector is coupled directly to the oscillating variable. Apart from this difference, the two situations should be similar, and the detector properties in (2) can be taken to be the same as in the previously studied non-QND case: the detector is linear, with frequency-independent (in the frequency range given by the tunnel amplitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) response coefficient $`\lambda `$. These assumptions imply that the force $`f`$ can be viewed as random classical $`\delta `$-correlated variable with the correlation function

$$f(t+\tau )f(t)_0=2\pi S_f\delta (\tau ),$$
(3)
where the average $`\mathrm{}_0`$ is taken over the detector density matrix, and $`S_f`$ is the constant low-frequency part of the spectral density of $`f`$, i.e., the detector backaction noise. For more detailed discussion of this detector model see . Under the same assumptions, the correlation function of the detector response to the oscillations is:

$$K(\tau )=\frac{\lambda ^2}{8}[c(t)c(t+\tau )+c(t+\tau )c(t)],$$
(4)
where $`c\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Omega }t\sigma _z+\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Omega }t\sigma _y`$ is the operator of qubit-detector coupling and the average is now taken both over the detector and qubit density matrices. The time dependence of $`c`$’s in eq. (4) combines explicit time dependence in their definition and time evolution with the Hamiltonian (2).

To calculate the correlator (4) we notice that the explicit time dependence of the coupling operator $`c`$ can be written as

$$c=e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }\sigma _xt/2}\sigma _ze^{i\mathrm{\Omega }\sigma _xt/2}.$$
(5)
This relation follows directly from properties of the Pauli matrices and expresses quantitatively the notion of “rotation of the measurement direction” in Fig. 1. Using this relation one can check that the time evolution operator $`S`$ associated with the Hamiltonian (2) has a simple form in the rotating measurement frame:

$`S(t_1,t_2)=T\mathrm{exp}\left\{i{\displaystyle _{t_2}^{t_1}}𝑑t^{}H(t^{})\right\}`$

$$=e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }\sigma _x(t_1t_2)/2}e^{iH^{}(t_1t_2)},$$
(6)
where $`H^{}`$ is an effective Hamiltonian of the system in the rotating frame:

$$H^{}=\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega })\sigma _x\frac{1}{2}\sigma _zf+H_0.$$
(7)
Using the fact (demonstrated more explicitly below) that the correlator (4) should be independent of the initial density matrix $`\rho `$ of the qubit, we can take $`\rho `$ in the simplest form $`\rho =1/2`$. Equations (5) and (6) allow us then to reduce the correlator (4) to the following form:

$$K(\tau )=\frac{\lambda ^2}{4}\text{Re}\sigma _z\sigma _z(\tau ),\sigma _z(\tau )=e^{iH^{}\tau }\sigma _ze^{iH^{}\tau }.$$
(8)
To find the average of the operator $`\sigma (\tau )`$ in (8) over the detector backaction noise $`f`$, it is convenient to start with the Heisenberg equations for $`\sigma _z(\tau )`$ with the Hamiltonian $`H^{}`$. Averaging the resulting equations for the matrix elements $`\sigma _{ij}`$ of $`\sigma _z(\tau )`$ with the help of the correlator (3) we get:

$$\dot{\sigma }_{11}=i\delta (\sigma _{12}\sigma _{21})/2,\dot{\sigma }_{12}=i\delta (\sigma _{11}\sigma _{22})/2\mathrm{\Gamma }\sigma _{12},$$
(9)
and $`\dot{\sigma }_{22}=\dot{\sigma }_{11}`$. Here $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\pi S_f`$ is the rate of backaction dephasing of the oscillations by the detector.

As the next step, we need to take into account environment-induced energy relaxation/dephasing that affects the qubit in addition to the detector backaction. Assuming that interaction with the environment is weak, so that the characteristic relaxation rate is much smaller than the tunnel amplitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, we can simply add the corresponding terms in the equation (9) for $`\sigma _z(\tau )`$. It is more convenient to do this not directly in the basis of eigenstates of the oscillating coordinate used in (9), but in the basis of energy eigenstates of the qubit. Transforming eq. (9) into the energy basis (in the spin notations, the transformation is the $`\pi /2`$ rotation around the $`y`$ axis: $`\sigma _z\sigma _x,\sigma _x\sigma _z`$) and adding the term responsible for the environmental relaxation, we obtain the following equation for the off-diagonal matrix element of the operator $`s`$ of the oscillating variable (given by $`\sigma _z(\tau )`$ in the original coordinate basis):

$$\dot{s}_{12}=i\delta s_{12}\mathrm{\Gamma }(s_{12}s_{21})/2\mathrm{\Gamma }_es_{12}.$$
(10)
To find the correlator (8) we need to solve the evolution equations for $`s`$ with the initial conditions $`s_{12}=1`$ and the diagonal elements of $`s`$ equal to zero. Equations for the diagonal elements show then that they remain zero at all $`\tau `$, and $`s_{12}(\tau )`$ (10) determines the correlator completely. This means that the real part of the product $`ss(\tau )`$ is proportional to the unity matrix, and the correlator (8) is independent of initial qubit density matrix. We also note that the different form of the terms describing detector- and environment-induced dephasing in eq. (10) is due to the QND nature of the detector-qubit coupling, and that while the environmental relaxation rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e`$ was assumed to be much smaller than $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, both $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ can be larger than the detuning $`\delta `$.

Solving eq. (10) with the initial condition $`s_{12}=1`$ and substituting the solution in (8) we obtain the correlation function of the detector response to the qubit:

$$K(\tau )=\frac{\lambda ^2}{4}e^{(\mathrm{\Gamma }/2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_e)\tau }\left[\text{cosh}Dt+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2D}\text{sinh}Dt\right],$$
(11)
where $`D\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }^2/4\delta ^2\right)^{1/2}`$. The correlation function (11) determines the spectral density $`(1/\pi )𝑑\tau K(\tau )\mathrm{cos}\omega \tau `$ of the detector output. Including the constant output noise $`S_q`$ of the detector, the spectral density is:

$$S(\omega )=S_q+\frac{\lambda ^2}{4\pi }\frac{(\mathrm{\Gamma }+\mathrm{\Gamma }_e)(\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_e+\delta ^2)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_e\omega ^2}{(\omega ^2\delta ^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_e)^2+\omega ^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }+2\mathrm{\Gamma }_e)^2}.$$
(12)
If the detuning $`\delta `$ is much larger than the dephasing rates, the spectral density reduces to the two Lorentzian peaks at $`\omega =\pm \delta `$. In the vicinity of the positive-frequency peak, the spectral density can be written as

$$S(\omega )=S_q+\frac{\lambda ^2}{8\pi }\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_e+\mathrm{\Gamma }/2}{(\omega \delta )^2+(\mathrm{\Gamma }_e+\mathrm{\Gamma }/2)^2}.$$
(13)
This expression shows that for large detuning, the spectral density is close to the one obtained in the usual, non-QND measurement . The only difference is the frequency shift of the spectral peak from intrinsic oscillation frequency $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of rotation of the measurement frame. The main goal of the QND technique, avoiding the detector backaction, is not reached in this regime. The backaction dephasing broadens the oscillation spectral line, and limits the height of the oscillation peak relative to the background set by the detector output noise. Indeed, eq. (13) shows that even for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e=0`$, the maximum height $`S_{max}`$ of the oscillation peak is $`S_{max}=\lambda ^2/4\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and the limitation on the response coefficient of the detector from the linear-response theory, $`\lambda 4\pi S_fS_q`$ , shows that the peak is limited as in the non-QND measurement: $`S_{max}/S_q4`$.

The situation, however, changes, if the frequency of rotation of the measurement frame matches the oscillation frequency more accurately, so that $`\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The oscillation line is shifted then to zero frequency, and the lineshape is:

$$S(\omega )=S_q+\frac{\lambda ^2}{2\pi }\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_e+\gamma }{\omega ^2+(\mathrm{\Gamma }_e+\gamma )^2},\gamma \delta ^2/\mathrm{\Gamma }.$$
(14)
Qualitatively, $`\gamma `$ in this equation is the rate of rare jumps of spin in the rotating measurement frame between the positive and negative measurement direction, and we see that the spectral line is now broadened not directly by the backaction dephasing but by these rare jumps. The most important feature of these jumps is that the rate $`\gamma `$ vanishes together with the detuning $`\delta `$, and the spectrum (14) of the detector output reproduces then intrinsic linewidth of the oscillation unaffected by the backaction dephasing. Therefore, “rotating” measurement (2) with frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ equal to the tunnel frequency $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ avoids the detector backaction and realizes the QND measurement of the quantum coherent oscillations in a two-state system. Other methods of avoiding the backaction dephasing are based on control of the oscillations via the feedback . These methods, however, do not represent real “measurement” but rather creation of the oscillations.

The QND technique is required to measure the intrinsic spectral line of the oscillations in a qubit. Such an intrinsic oscillation line is typically found in calculations that implicitly assume that the spectral density can be measured without disturbance from the detector even in quantum mechanics – see, e.g., . As we saw above, in the case of mesoscopic qubits this assumption is not obvious, and non-trivial measurement schemes are required to observe intrinsic oscillation spectrum. Without these schemes, the detector backaction affects the spectrum at least within the linear detection approach appropriate for typical mesoscopic detectors.

In mesoscopic qubits, for which the question of measurement of an individual qubit is particularly relevant, the necessity to measure two non-commuting qubit operators to implement the QND measurement presents a non-trivial requirement since only one (basis-forming) observable typically has clear physical realization. A system where this requirement can be satisfied is the Josephson-junction qubit that combines charge and flux dynamics. The simplest version of such a qubit is the “charge-controlled SQUID”: two junctions included in a superconducting loop with inductance $`L`$, with the island between the junctions that has small electric capacitance $`C`$ (Fig. 2) . External magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ is applied to the loop, and a gate electrode induces charge $`q`$ on the middle island.

Depending on the parameter values, this system can act as a charge or flux qubit. To be specific, we consider here the situation when the junction coupling energies $`E_{1,2}`$ are small in comparison to the island charging energy $`(2e)^2/2C`$, and the inductance $`L`$ is also small. Then, dynamics of charge $`2en`$ on the middle island dominates the system, and for $`qe`$ is reduced to the two-state dynamics with the basis states $`n=0`$ and $`n=1`$. If the frequency of the “plasma” oscillations of the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the loop $`L`$ around the external flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e`$ is much larger than the energies of the charge qubit, the oscillations effectively decouple from the charge dynamics, and the charge part of the system Hamiltonian reduces then to:

$$H=\frac{e(eq)}{C}\sigma _zE_+\mathrm{cos}\phi _e\sigma _x+E_{}\mathrm{sin}\phi _e\sigma _y.$$
(15)
Here $`E_\pm (E_1\pm E_2)/2`$, Pauli matrices act in the basis of the two charge states $`n=0`$ and $`n=1`$, and $`\phi _ee\mathrm{\Phi }_e/\mathrm{}`$.

The flux part of the system still plays important role, since the tunneling of Cooper pairs in the charge qubit (15) produces current in the loop:

$$I=\frac{1}{2}(I_+\mathrm{sin}\phi _e\sigma _x+I_{}\mathrm{cos}\phi _e\sigma _y),$$
(16)
where $`I_j=2eE_j/\mathrm{}`$ are the junction critical currents, and $`I_\pm (I_1\pm I_2)/2`$. (The last equation assumes, for simplicity, that the junction capacitances are equal.) For finite loop inductance $`L`$, the current (16) creates small variations of the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ through the loop that can be detected by external system, and by monitoring these variations one can measure either $`\sigma _x`$ or $`\sigma _y`$ component of the charge qubit (15). The possibility to measure all observables of an individual mesoscopic qubit provided by the qubit (15) can be important for many different purposes.

When $`\mathrm{\Phi }_e=0`$ and $`q=e`$, the qubit (15) provides the necessary elements for the QND measurement discussed above. In this case, eq. (15) reduces to the unbiased Hamiltonian (1) with the tunnel amplitude $`E_+`$, and the current $`I=(I_{}/2)\sigma _y`$ in the inductance $`L`$ represents the $`\sigma _y`$ component of the qubit dynamics. The $`\sigma _z`$ component can obviously be measured through the charge on the middle electrode of the qubit. The final step in realization of the QND Hamiltonian (2) is to convert both measurement components into one physical form (e.g., charge or flux) and apply (with sine- and cosine-modulated coupling strength) to one detector. One way of achieving this is to convert the charge signal ($`\sigma _z`$) into the flux form by another charge-controlled SQUID operated in the regime of Bloch electrometer  (Fig. 2), when all internal frequencies of the electrometer are much larger than the frequency $`E_+`$ of the charge signal. The signal modulates then the quasistationary critical current of the double junction system and, as a result, changes the current and the flux in the electrometer loop. Once the two signals are in the flux form, the subsequent steps can be realized using known Josephson-junction circuits: modulated flux transformers and magnetometer.

To summarize, it is possible to design the QND technique for measurement of the quantum coherent oscillations in an individual two-state system. The technique avoids the detector backaction, and overcomes the limitation on the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement of the spectral density of the oscillations imposed by the backaction dephasing.

This work was supported in part by the AFOSR, and by the NSA and ARDA under the ARO contract. The author would like to thank K.K. Likharev and V.K. Semenov for useful discussions.


format: text

text:
# HST observations rule out the association between Cir X-1 and SNR G321.9-0.3Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc. under contract No NAS 5-26555

## 1 Introduction.

Cir X-1 is a strong and persistently bright galactic X-ray source with a flux modulated over a 16.6 days cycle (Kaluzienski et al. 1976, Bignami et al. 1977), which is commonly believed to coincide with the orbital period of a binary system in a highly eccentric orbit (Murdin et al. 1980). Type-I X-ray bursts have been discovered by EXOSAT (Tennant, Fabian and Shafer 1986a,b), as well as high/low frequency QPO (Tennant 1987,1988) whose properties suggested that Cir X-1 might represent an ideal link between the classes of the canonical Z and atoll-type sources (Oosterbroek et al. 1995). In addition, long-term variations in the X-ray flux have been observed, probably due to a partial obscuration of the central source by the precession of a warped accretion disk (Oosterbroek et al. 1995). Recently, X-ray spectral evolution of Cir X-1 along the orbital cycle has been reported by Iaria et al. (2001).
While the general X-ray properties of Cir X-1 (e.g. type-I bursts, QPOs) point towards a LMXB, its nature is still unclear. Although an optical counterpart has been identified (Moneti 1992; Mignani, Caraveo & Bignami 1997), no reliable spectral classification has been possible so far. The spectrum is dominated by a broad, asymmetric, H$`\alpha `$ line (Duncan, Stewart & Haynes 1993; Mignani, Caraveo & Bignami 1997) with no prominent stellar emission/absorption features (Johnston, Fender and Wu 1999).
The radio counterpart of Cir X-1 was identified soon after the X-ray detection (Clark et al. 1975) and found to be variable with the same 16.6 day period (Haynes et al. 1978). The radio picture features a point source which is embedded in a $`5\times 10`$ arcmin2 nebula and is apparently the origin of elongated structures, extending on both arcmin (Stewart et al. 1993) and arcsec scales (Fender et al. 1998). Such a morphology has been interpreted as a jet-powered synchrotron nebula, making Cir X-1 the second galactic X-ray binary, besides SS433, which shows both radio jets and a radio synchrotron nebula.
The shape of the radio nebula, protruding southward and pointing to the center of the nearby ($`25`$ arcmin) radio SNR G321.9-0.3, is reminiscent of a residual wake left behind as the point source moves away from the SNR (see Fig.1, reproduced from Fig.1 of Stewart et al. 1993). This suggested a tantalizing scenario where Cir X-1 is a runaway binary system, with the neutron star member ejected by the supernova explosion responsible for SNR G321.9-0.3 (Stewart et al. 1993) between $`2\times 10^4`$ and $`10^5`$ yrs ago (Clark, Caswell and Green 1975). Such a scenario is consistent, within the uncertainties, with the estimated distances of both Cir X-1 and of the SNR. From H I absorption measurements (Goss & Mebold 1977), the distance to Cir X-1 is anywhere between 6.7 and 8 kpc, while the distance to the SNR ranges from 5.5 kpc (Case & Battacharya 1998) to 6.5 kpc (Stewart et al. 1993). If the above scenario is correct, for a SNR age $`T`$ (yrs), Cir X-1 should move Northward in the plane of the sky with a proper motion $`\mu 15(T/10^5yrs)^1`$ mas yr-1. This value would imply a tranverse velocity with respect to the center of the SNR of $`v5\mu d_{kpc}`$ km s-1, where $`\mu `$ is in units of mas yr-1 and $`d_{kpc}`$ is the SNR distance in units of kpc.
From the combination of all the possible values of both the SNR age and distance, we would thus expect Cir X-1 to move Northward with a proper motion ranging between 15 and 75 mas yr-1, corresponding to a transverse velocity between 400 and 2400 km s-1.
Thus, the Cir X-1 angular displacement is a simple, yet powerful, tool to prove or disprove its association with SNR G321.9-0.3. Measuring a Northward angular displacement $``$ 15 mas yr -1 would secure the association, while the lack of such a displacement, or a displacement in a different direction, would rule it out. In principle, both the optical and radio counterpart could be used to gauge the precise position of the source. However, the dramatic fading of the radio point source (Stewart et al. 1991) hampers a measurement in the radio band and leaves the burden of the proof to astrometry of the optical counterpart.
The sharpness of view of HST makes it the ideal instrument to settle such a proper motion issue. Thus, we have taken advantage of an HST/WFC archival image of the field as well as of recently acquired WFPC2 ones to carry out the proper motion measurement. The observations and data reduction are described in Section 2 while the results are presented and discussed in Sections 3 and 4.

## 2 Observations.

### 2.1 The data sets

The first image of the Cir X-1 field was obtained with the pre-repair HST on October $`20^{th}`$ 1992 as a target acquisition image for spectroscopy observations with the Faint Object Spectrograph (Mignani et al. 1997). The observation was performed with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) (0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$1/pixel) through the wide band filter $`785LP`$ “I-band filter” ($`\lambda =9703`$ Å; $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =1669.5`$ Å), where the source is brighter ($`m_{785LP}18`$). The exposure time was 300 s. A new observation of Cir X-1 was performed on May $`19^{th}`$ 2001 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), as a snapshot programme. In order to achieve the highest positional accuracy, the target was positioned at the center of the Planetary Camera (PC) chip ($`0\stackrel{}{.}045`$/pixel). For consistency with the first observation, the $`785LP`$ filter was used. Three observations of 300 s each were obtained to allow for a better cosmic ray filtering. After the standard HST pipeline reduction (debiassing, dark removal, flatfielding) the 2001 images have been combined with a median filter and stacked (Fig. 2). Residual cosmic ray hits were filtered out using specific IRAF/STSDAS routines.

### 2.2 The data analysis

The cleaned images are the starting point for our astrometric analysis. Following a robust method successfully applied in several previous astrometric works (see e.g. Caraveo et al. 1996; Caraveo & Mignani 1999; De Luca et al. 2000,2001; Mignani et al. 2000,2001; Caraveo et al. 2001), this relies on an accurate image superposition which is obtained by optimizing a linear coordinate transformation between two reference grids determined by a set of common reference objects.

In order to obtain an accurate position determination, the reference objects have to be carefully selected i.e. they must be (i) not too close to the CCD edges, (ii) not extended, (iii) not saturated but not too faint. In order to avoid problems with the inter-chip astrometry (see Caraveo & Mignani 1999), the selecton of the reference objects was limited to the chip where the target star was imaged, i.e. WFC #2 in the 1992 observation and PC in the 2001 one. In the rather crowded field of Cir X-1, 46 good reference sources, matching the above constraints, could be found. Their positions were computed with a 2-D gaussian fitting of their intensity profiles using centering boxes optimized in order to obtain stable values for both the centroids coordinates and their uncertainties (see De Luca et al. 2001 for a detailed discussion of both statistical and systematic errors involved in the procedure). The reference objects were positioned with an accuracy between 0.05 and 0.08 pixel (i.e. between 5 and 8 mas) in the WFC image and between 0.05 and 0.1 pixel (i.e. between 2.3 and 4.5 mas) in the PC one, depending on the object’s S/N. The position of the target star was computed in the same way, with an accuracy of about 0.07 pixel (7 mas) and of about 0.06 pixel ($``$3 mas) in the WFC and in the PC image, respectively. We note that the uncertainties on the centroids in both the WFC and the PC images are somewhat higher than the ones measured in other fields (see e.g. De Luca et al. 2000). This can be ascribed, at least in part, to the peculiar PSF in the long-pass F785LP filter, characterized by broad and relatively bright wings. This is the same effect observed in filter F1042M (it is known as the “F1042M PSF anomaly”) and it is due to the CCD detector becoming transparent at longer wavelengths, so that light is reflected and scattered by the back of the CCD producing a defocused halo (see WFPC2 Instrument Handbook for further details). In addition, for the 2001 snapshot observations the analysis of the spacecraft attitude showed a jitter of the telescope about 2 times larger than average ($``$ 5 mas rms compared to 3 mas rms) and distributed along a preferential direction. Moreover, we note that the 2001 observations were performed during the day/night transition, which occurred during the first exposure. Thermal effects, such as “breathing”, could thus be present, determining a slight defocussing of the camera. All these effects clearly influence the PSF, thus affecting the centering accuracy.
The derived sets of coordinates were then corrected for known systematics, like the ”34th row defect” of the PC (Anderson & King 1999), and for the effects of the distortions of the WFC and the PC. While for the WFC only the geometric transformation of Gilmozzi et al. (1992) is available, for the WFPC2 we have used the most recent one provided by Casertano & Wiggs (2000), which accounts for the evolution of the distortion map of the WFPC2 due to the drift of the instrument in the Optical Telescope Assembly focal plane.
The superposition of the frames was performed using the PC image as reference. First, the PC image was aligned in Right Ascension and Declination, according to the telescope roll angle. Then, the WFC reference grid was registered on the PC one by fitting a linear coordinate transformation, accounting for 2 independent scale factors, 2 translation factors and a rotation angle. Following Caraveo et al. (2001), we checked for systematics due, e.g., to unknown displacements of the reference objects by repeating the frame superposition 46 times excluding, in turn, one of our reference stars. Four objects yielding relatively high deviations (between 0.5 and 1 PC pixel per coordinate) were thus identified and rejected. Different centering algorithms (e.g. separate gaussian fitting on the $`X`$ and $`Y`$ intensity distributions) and coordinate transformation routines were also tested. In all cases we obtained statistically indistinguishable results, showing that our procedure is correct and free of systematics.
The final frame registration yielded a rms values on the residuals of the reference objects’ coordinates of 0.33 PC pixel (15 mas) in Right Ascension and 0.25 PC pixel (11.4 mas) in Declination. Such rms values are a factor of 4 higher than those obtained by De Luca et al. (2000a) for a WFC-to-PC superposition in the Vela pulsar field. While the higher uncertainties in the centroids determination addressed above play a role, they can not account entirely for the larger residuals obtained in the image registration. This effect might be related to the likely dependance on the filter wavelength of the transformation coefficients used in the geometric correction. Unfortunately, since such dependance has been characterized for the WFPC2 (Trauger et al. 1995) but not for the WFC, the accuracy of the image registration might be affected by a non-optimized geometric correction.

## 3 Results.

We have plotted in Fig.3 the relative positions of our target together with the residuals on the reference stars positions. Since the difference between the positions of Cir X-1 is comparable with the residuals measured for the 42 reference stars, we conclude that the Cir X-1 counterpart does not show any significant displacement. The position offsets amount to 0.24$`\pm `$0.33 PC pixel in RA and -0.15$`\pm `$0.25 PC pixel in Dec. By applying the nominal plate scale tranformation (PC pixel size 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0455), these values translate into an angular displacement in the plane of the sky of -11$`\pm `$15 mas in RA and -7$`\pm `$11 mas in Dec (neglecting the correction for the Sun’s proper motion). Although such displacements are statistically null, it is worth comparing the derived proper motion with the predicted values. Over the time interval of 8.6 years spanned by our HST observations, we obtain a total yearly displacement of 1.5$`\pm `$1.6 mas yr -1, setting the $`3\sigma `$ upper limit on the proper motion to $``$ 5 mas yr -1. Such a value rules out even the minimum value of $``$ 15 mas yr-1 required by the proposed association with G321.9-0.3 (see Sect. 1). Moreover, we note that also the derived constraints on the possible proper motion directions (Fig. 3) are incompatible with the relative positions of Cir X-1 and the SNR center, which are roughly aligned North-South (see Fig. 1). Thus, we conclude that, contrary to earlier speculations, Cir X-1 and SNR G321.9-0.3 are not associated.

## 4 Discussion.

Both the lack of a measurable proper motion for Cir X-1 and its resulting non-association with SNR G321.9-0.3 have interesting astrophysical implications. Firstly, it is important to note that our result frees the neutron star age from the tight constraints imposed by the proposed SNR association. Indeed, an age greater than 100 000 years would be more easily compatible with the estimated time scales of the accretion-driven decay of the neutron star magnetic field (see, e.g., Konar & Bhattacharya 1997, 1999 and reference therein) down to the values expected for the occurance of type I X-ray bursts (Lewin & Joss 1983).
As far as the dynamics of the binary system are concerned, the null proper motion measurement sets a $`3\sigma `$ upper limit of $`24d_{kpc}`$ km s-1 on its relative tranverse velocity, where $`d_{kpc}`$ is the source distance in kpc. Such a value would imply that Cir X-1 is not moving with an anomalous velocity larger than, e.g., 400 km s-1 unless its spatial velocity is essentially radial. A possible indication for an high radial velocity ($`430`$ km s-1) was indeed found in the spectroscopic observations of the Cir X-1 optical counterpart (Johnston, Fender & Wu 1999), although it could not be unambiguously confirmed by the more recent work of Johnston et al. (2001). Together with our constraint on the tranverse velocity, an accurate spectroscopic measurement of the radial velocity would be critical to determine the dynamics of the binary system and to compute the kick velocity impressed by the SN explosion (Tauris et al. 1999). Moreover, the above constraints on the binary system dynamics may require a different scenario for the source interactions with the surrounding environment. In particular, the lack of a proper motion in the expected direction prompts for an alternative explanation for the morphology of the arc-shaped radio features observed in the synchrotron nebula, so far interpreted as jets trailing behind by a fast-moving source.
Last, but not least, our result calls, once again, for more caution in associating compact objects with SNRs purely on the basis of their proximity in the plane of the sky and on morphological arguments.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the referee, H. Johnston, for her useful comments. We are also grateful to G.F. Bignami for his critical reading of the manuscript.


text:
# New CLEO II Results on Charm Hadron Decays

## 1 First Measurement of $`D^+`$ Width

A measurement of $`D^+`$ width provides a test of the non-perturbative strong physics involving heavy quarks. The predictions for the width range from 15 to 150 keV . The level splittings in the $`B`$ sector are not large enough for strong transitions. Therefore a measurement of the $`D^+`$ width gives unique information about the strong coupling constant in heavy-light meson systems. The width depends only on $`g`$, a universal strong coupling between heavy vector and pseudoscaler mesons to the pion, since the small contribution of the electromagnetic decay can be neglected, yielding

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+)=\frac{g^2}{12\pi f_\pi ^2}(2p_{\pi ^+}^3+p_{\pi ^0}^3),$$
(1)
where $`f_\pi `$ is the pion decay constant and the momentum is for the pion in the $`D^+`$ rest frame  for the decay $`D^+D^0\pi ^+`$ and $`D^+\pi ^0`$, respectively.

The width is measured from the distribution of the energy release, $`QM(K^{}\pi ^+\pi _{slow}^+)M(K^{}\pi ^+)m_{\pi ^+}`$, in the decay $`D^+\pi _{slow}^+D^0\pi _{slow}^+K^{}\pi ^+`$ . The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $`9.0\mathrm{fb}^1`$. The measurement uses advanced tracking techniques and a reconstruction method that takes advantage of the small vertical size of the CESR beam spot, a Gaussian width of $`10\mu `$m vertically as compare to $`300\mu `$m horizontally. The $`K^{}`$ and $`\pi ^+`$ are required to form a common vertex. The resultant $`D^0`$ are then projected back to the CESR luminous region to determine the $`D^0`$ production point. This procedure determines a precise $`D^0`$ production point for $`D^0`$’s moving out of the horizontal plane and hence those moving within 0.3 radians of the horizontal plane are rejected. The track $`\pi _{slow}^+`$ is refit constraining its trajectory to intersect the $`D^0`$ production point. This improves the resolution of the energy release by more than 30%. The improvement is essential for this analysis as the resolution of $``$ 150 keV is comparable with the $`D^+`$ width. The $`Q`$ distribution as shown in Fig. 1 is fit with a P-wave Breit-Wigner using the unbinned maximum likelihood technique. The result is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+)=96\pm 4\pm 22\mathrm{keV}.$$
(2)
The difference in the result between relativistic and non-relativistic Breit-Wigner is negligible. This is the first measurement of the $`D^+`$ width; the previous upper limit as measured by the ACCMOR collaboration is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+)<131`$ keV at the 90% confidence level . The width yields the strong coupling

$$g=0.59\pm 0.01\pm 0.07.$$
(3)
This is consistent with theoretical predictions based on HQET and relativistic quark models, but higher than predictions based on QCD sum rules. We also measure the energy release in the decay and find

$$\mathrm{\Delta }mm_{D^+}m_{D^0}=145.412\pm 0.002\pm 0.012\mathrm{MeV}/c^2.$$
(4)
This agrees with the value, $`145.436\pm 0.016\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$, computed from a global fit of all flavors of $`D^{}D`$ mass difference .

## 2 Measurement of Branching Fractions for $`D^+\overline{K}^0l^+\nu _l`$

In the semileptonic decay $`D^+\overline{K}^0l^+\nu _l`$, the transition amplitude is proportional to the product of the leptonic and hadronic currents. The hadronic current can be parameterized by a few analytic functions called form factors. There are no reliable calculations of the form factors. A measurement of the form factors will help to guide the theoretical progress. It will also help to reduce the uncertainty in the measurement of $`V_{ub}`$ from the decay $`bul\nu `$ since the form factors for the two decays are related.

We measure the semileptonic decay branching fractions using the decay chain $`D^+D^+\pi ^0`$, $`D^+\overline{K}^0l^+\nu _l`$, and $`\overline{K}^0K^{}\pi ^+`$. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 9.0 fb-1. The analysis assumes that the direction of the $`D`$ meson can be approximated by the thrust axis of the event . Two methods are used to obtain up to three values for the missing $`\nu `$ momentum, $`\stackrel{}{p}_\nu `$. In the first method, the two $`\nu `$ momenta are given by the two intersections of the $`D`$ direction with the locus satisfying $`m_{K\pi l\nu }=m_{D^+}`$ as shown in Fig. 2. The second method uses the missing momentum of each event as an estimate of the $`\nu `$ momentum. Among these three $`\nu `$ momentum estimates, the estimate which gives $`\delta m=m_{K\pi l\nu \pi ^0}m_{K\pi l\nu }`$ closest to the known value of $`m_{D^+}m_{D^+}`$  is chosen. To measure the number of candidate semileptonic decays, we first plot $`K\pi `$ mass distribution in bins of $`\delta m`$ and then fit for the number of $`K^0`$. We then plot the $`K^0`$ yield as a function of $`\delta m`$ and fit the resultant distribution for the number of semileptonic decay candidates. Figure 3 shows the $`\delta m`$ distribution of the electron mode.

The semileptonic branching fractions are measured by normalizing to the decay $`D^+K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$ for two reasons. First, the branching fraction of the normalization decay has been measured with good precision and second, many systematic errors cancel in the ratio. The normalization decay candidates are selected with similar selection criteria and the yield extracted using a similar $`\delta m`$ fitting procedure. The results on the branching fractions are

$`B(D^+\overline{K}^0e^+\nu _e)`$ $`=`$ $`(6.7\pm 0.4\pm 0.5\pm 0.4)\%`$ (5)
$`B(D^+\overline{K}^0\mu ^+\nu _\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`(6.5\pm 0.9\pm 0.5\pm 0.4)\%.`$ (6)
This is the first simultaneous measurements of both branching fractions by the same experiment. The two measurements are consistent with lepton universality. The measurements are also consistent with theoretical predictions  and other measurements  except for the electron mode which is $`3\sigma `$ higher than that of E691 .

## 3 Evidence for the Decay $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+\nu _e`$

Heavy Quark Expansions (HQE) provide a successful description of the lifetimes of charm hadrons and of the absolute semileptonic branching ratios of the $`D^0`$ and $`D_s`$ . Charm baryons provide new information as corrections to HQE of order $`1/m_c^2`$ and $`1/m_c^3`$, yielding sizeable differences between the semileptonic widths of charm mesons and baryons. Comparing the semileptonic widths therefore provides a test of HQE and duality.

We searched in $`e^+e^{}c\overline{c}`$ events for the decay $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+\nu _e`$ with $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$. We identify the decay by detecting $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+`$ combinations with invariant mass in the range $`m_\mathrm{\Omega }<m_{\mathrm{\Omega }e}<m_{\mathrm{\Omega }_c}`$. The analysis is based on a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 13.8 fb-1. Figure 4 shows the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }K`$ mass distribution for combinations with a right sign ($`e^+`$) and wrong sign ($`e^{}`$) lepton. A fit to the mass spectrum yields $`13.0\pm 3.8`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+`$ pairs of which $`11.4\pm 3.8`$ are consistent with the decay $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+\nu _e`$ and the remainder are consistent with background. Only 1 wrong sign pair is observed. The probability that the signal is due to a background fluctuation is $`P<9\times 10^4`$. We have therefore established evidence for the semileptonic decay $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+\nu _e`$. This is the first $`\beta `$ decay where none of the quarks in the parent baryon are light. The product of the branching fraction and cross section is measured to be

$$B(\mathrm{\Omega }_c\mathrm{\Omega }^{}e^+\nu _e)\sigma (e^+e^{}\mathrm{\Omega }_cX)=42.2\pm 14.1\pm 11.9\mathrm{fb}.$$
(7)
## 4 Form Factor Ratio Measurement in the Decay $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{\Lambda }e^+\nu _e`$

In HQET if the initial and final states of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ type baryons both contain a heavy quark, only one form factor governs the semileptonic transition. If the quark produced in the decay is light, there are two form factors. The second form factor is expected to be smaller and it accounts for the spin interaction between the quarks in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. By studying the decay rate distribution of the decay kinematic variables in the decay $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+\mathrm{\Lambda }e^+\nu _e`$, we extract the ratio $`R=\frac{f_2}{f_1}`$ assuming a dipole dependence of the form factor evolution . The same set of form factors governs the decay $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_bpe^{}\overline{\nu _e}`$ and hence our measurement provides an important input for the extraction of $`|V_{ub}|`$ from the decay.

We searched for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ in $`e^+e^{}c\overline{c}`$ events by detecting $`\mathrm{\Lambda }e^+`$ pairs with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 13.4 fb-1. The momentum of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ cannot be measured due to the undetected neutrino. An estimate of the momentum is obtained by requiring consistency of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`e^+`$ with originating in a semileptonic decay, the overall event shape, and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ fragmentation function. The form factor ratio is measured from the decay rate distribution of three decay kinematic variables, $`t=q^2/q_{max}^2`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _W`$, where $`\theta _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ($`\theta _W`$) is the angle between $`p`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ($`e`$ and $`W`$) in the center of mass of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ($`W`$). An unbinned maximum likelihood fit  to the kinematic variable distributions (see Fig. 5) yields

$$R=f_2/f_1=0.31\pm 0.06\pm 0.06.$$
(8)
This is consistent with our previous measurement  but with much improved precision. The result provides strong evidence that the form factor $`f_2`$ describing the spin interaction of the $`s`$ quark is non-zero.

## 5 Measurement of $`\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+`$ Lifetime

Charm baryon lifetime measurements provide insight into the dynamics of non-perturbative heavy quark decays. Unlike the case of charm mesons, the exchange mechanism is not helicity suppressed and therefore can be comparable in magnitude to the spectator diagram. In addition, color suppression is only active for particular decay channels. While several theoretical models  can account for the apparent lifetime hierarchy, $`\tau _{\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+}>\tau _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+}>\tau _{\mathrm{\Xi }_c^0}>\tau _{\mathrm{\Omega }_c}`$, experimental results are necessary to advance our understanding of the various contributions to the hadronic width.

We measure the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+`$ lifetime using the decay $`\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$ with $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ . The lifetime is measured from the decay length in the vertical direction because of the significantly smaller beam spread (see Section 1). The measurement takes advantage of the three-layer double-sided silicon strip tracker installed in the CLEO II.V detector. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $`9.0\mathrm{fb}^1`$. The proper time distribution of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+`$ candidates is shown in Fig. 6. An unbinned maximum likelihood fit yields,

$$\tau _{\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+}=503\pm 47\pm 18\mathrm{fs}.$$
(9)
This is the first measurement of the lifetime from an $`e^+e^{}`$ experiment with different systematic errors from those of the fixed target experiments. The result is higher than the current world average, $`330_{40}^{+60}`$ fs, as is the Focus collaboration’s result of $`439\pm 22\pm 9`$ fs . We can combine our result with the recent CLEO II.V measurement  of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ lifetime, $`\tau _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+}=179.6\pm 6.9\pm 4.4`$ fs to obtain $`\tau _{\mathrm{\Xi }_c^+}/\tau _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+}=2.8\pm 0.3`$. The CLEO II.V ratio is higher than the expectations, $`1.21.7`$, from models based on a $`1/m_c`$ expansion .

###### Acknowledgments.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy. The author wishes to thank M. Dubrovin, T. Hart, S.J. Lee, and V. Pavlunin for helps in preparing the talk. The author wishes to thank R. Kass for the careful reading of this manuscript.


text: # Untitled Document


text:
# Generalized contact process on random environments

## I INTRODUCTION

Contact process (CP) was introduced by Harris  to describe competition between death and birth events for a spatially distributed species. In this model, the organisms localized at the sites of a lattice can die with a death rate or can create additional offspring in one of their (empty) neighboring sites. When increasing the ratio of birth to death rates, this system exhibits a critical phase transition from empty to the active state as the system size approaches infinity. This transition belongs to the so-called directed percolation (DP) universality class . Similar transitions have been observed for some other, related models (for recent reviews see the Refs. ).

The above mentioned CPs applied homogeneous backgrounds. Numerical investigations on two-dimensional random environments have been restricted to diluted lattices . Noest  have shown that, although the transition remains continuous, the extinction process is modified drastically on the randomly diluted lattice above the percolation threshold. Recently Dickman and Moreira  have reported that the scaling (a fundamental feature of critical transitions) is violated in this case. According to a field-theoretic analysis, similar result is predicted by Janssen .

Below the percolation threshold on a diluted lattice, the available sites form isolated (finite) clusters. In any particular cluster the species is expected to die out within finite time and the cluster remains empty afterwards. A simple mathematical description suggested by Noest  indicates that the average concentration of species vanishes algebrically with time and this phenomenon is analogous to the relaxation observed for the “Griffiths phase” in disordered spin models .

Field-theoretic arguments  support that the temporally quenched disorder itself, as well as the spatially quenched disorder, disturbs crucially the DP transition. However, DP transition is expected on large scales for those random environments where the spatio-temporal disorder is uncorrelated. For two-dimensional systems this expectation is supported only by a small number of numerical evidences. For example, in an evolutionary game, extinction of one of three competing strategies represents a DP transition on a background whose time dependence is maintained by the competition of the remaining two strategies .

In the present paper, we study a generalized CP on a square lattice with two types of sites that provide different conditions for survival and reproduction for a hypothetical species. Our analysis is not restricted to frozen backgrounds. We give numerical evidence that the extinction process becomes analogous to DP transition if the random environment involves uncorrelated time dependence. Using numerical simulations, we investigate the main characteristics of spreading when initially there is only a single individual in the system. This method was suggested by Grassberger and de la Torre  to study DP transition (for homogeneous background) in the close vicinity of the critical point. Moreira and Dickman  have demonstrated that this technique is also efficient for the investigation of inhomogeneous systems. Now we have adopted this method to study the above-mentioned generalized CP in random environments. The results confirm the theoretical expectations  as well as the previous observations based on MC simulations . We have also studied some geometrical features of the patches formed by occupied sites in the subcritical region.

## II THE MODEL

Space is represented by a square lattice. Each lattice site, $`𝐫=(x,y)`$ ($`x`$ and $`y`$ are integers), is assumed to represent a microhabit for one individual of a species. Quality of a site, $`g(𝐫)`$, determines the probabilities of survival and reproduction of the inhabitant individual. We assume two microhabitat types: good and bad (where $`g(𝐫)=1`$ or $`0`$, respectively). Site qualities are distributed randomly in space. Initially, each site is chosen to be good (bad) with a probability $`P`$ ($`1P`$). Distribution of individuals over this random background is described by a state variable $`\sigma (𝐫)`$ that is 1 for occupied and 0 for empty state. Time evolution of the system is governed by three elementary processes affecting the values of $`\sigma (𝐫)`$ and $`g(𝐫)`$. For an occupied site, extinction (death) can occur with a death rate $`d[g(𝐫)]`$. For an empty site, colonization (birth) can take place with a birth rate $`b[g(𝐫)]`$, provided that a randomly chosen nearest-neighbor site is occupied. It is supposed that good sites provide better conditions for living, that is $`b(1)>b(0)`$ and $`d(1)<d(0)`$. Furthermore, redrawing the value of $`g(𝐫)`$ we change the environment with a rate $`f`$. The new state is independent of the actual values of $`g(𝐫)`$ and $`\sigma (𝐫)`$. This occasional modification results in stationary distribution of good or bad sites over time, with probabilities $`P`$ and $`1P`$, respectively, and leaves their distribution uncorrelated.

In the special case when every site is good ($`P=1`$), the present model is equivalent to the well investigated contact process on homogeneous background . Previous studies have shown that in this case, the species dies out if $`\lambda =b(1)/d(1)>\lambda _c=1.6488(1)`$. Concentration of population vanishes algebrically in the active stationary state, that is $`c(\lambda \lambda _c)^\beta `$ where $`\beta =0.575(3)`$ if $`\lambda \lambda _c`$ . This critical transition is accompaned with diverging fluctuations and correlation length.

The conditions of CP on diluted lattice can be reproduced by allowing the species to stay only in good sites ($`b(0)=0`$ and $`d(0)=\mathrm{}`$) for $`P<1`$ and $`f=0`$.

A mean-field approximation for frozen backgrounds ($`f=0`$) predicts different concentration of species on good and bad sites: $`c_1`$ and $`c_0`$, respectively. Neglecting the details of a straightforward calculation, the concentrations obey the following expressions:

$$c_1=\frac{\lambda _1c}{1+\lambda _1c}\text{ and }c_0=\frac{\lambda _0c}{1+\lambda _0c},$$
(1)
where $`\lambda _\alpha =b(\alpha )/d(\alpha )`$ ($`\alpha =0`$ or 1), and the average concentration, $`c=Pc_1+(1P)c_0`$ is obtained as

$$c=\frac{A+\sqrt{A^2+4\lambda _0\lambda _1(\lambda _{\mathrm{av}}1)}}{\lambda _0\lambda _1}$$
(2)
where $`A=\lambda _0\lambda _1\lambda _0\lambda _1`$ and $`\lambda _{\mathrm{av}}=P\lambda _1+(1P)\lambda _0`$. This mean-field approximation predicts that concentration vanishes linearly when $`\lambda _{\mathrm{av}}+1`$. More precisely, for low concentrations the above expression can be approximated as

$$c=\frac{P\lambda _1+(1P)\lambda _01}{\lambda _0+\lambda _1\lambda _0\lambda _1}$$
(3)
if $`\lambda _{\mathrm{av}}1`$. Obviously, the trivial ($`c=0`$) solution will be stable for $`\lambda _{\mathrm{av}}<1`$.

In the limit $`f\mathrm{}`$ death and birth occur with averaged rates: $`\overline{d}=Pd(1)+(1P)d(0)`$ and $`\overline{b}=Pb(1)+(1P)b(0)`$), respectively. Thus the system becomes equivalent to a homogeneous system (where $`c_0=c_1=c`$), and the average concentration obeys the traditional form :

$$c=\frac{\overline{\lambda }1}{\overline{\lambda }}$$
(4)
if $`\overline{\lambda }=\overline{b}/\overline{d}1`$ and $`c=0`$ otherwise. The difference between the Eqs. (2) and (4) refers to the $`f`$ dependence.

## III SIMULATION OF SPREADING

The Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are performed on a lattice with $`L\times L`$ sites under periodic boundary conditions. Following the method suggested by Grassberger and de la Torre  spreading is investigated by averaging over many trials $`M`$ when the initial state is close to the absorbing state. More precisely, each run is started with a single individual \[at position $`𝐫=(0,0)`$\] on a new, random, uncorrelated background. We have determined the survival probability

$$S(t)=\theta \left(n(t)\right),$$
(5)
where the number of individuals at a given time $`t`$ is defined as

$$n(t)=\underset{𝐫}{}\sigma (𝐫),$$
(6)
and $`\mathrm{}`$ means the average over $`M`$ trials and $`\theta (z)=1`$ ($`0`$) for $`z>0`$ ($`z0`$). We have also evaluated the average number of surviving individuals,

$$N(t)=n(t),$$
(7)
and the mean-square distance of individuals from the origin,

$$R^2(t)=\frac{1}{N(t)}\underset{𝐫}{}r^2\sigma (𝐫).$$
(8)
$`M`$ is varied from $`10^4`$ to $`10^8`$ in the systematic investigations. The system size $`L`$ is adjusted to exceed significantly the average radius of occupied sites, namely, $`L15R(t_{max})`$, where $`t_{max}`$ indicates the time limit. As usual, time is measured in Monte Carlo Steps (MCS). During one time unit, each site has a chance to modify the value of $`\sigma (𝐫)`$ (approximately once on average).

The efficiency of these simulations can be greatly improved by labeling the individuals, recording their coordinates, and picking up one individual randomly for updating the state of occupancy . In the present case, a chosen individual residing at site $`𝐫`$ dies with a probability $`d(g(𝐫))/(b(1)+d(0))`$ or creates an offspring on one of its nearest-neighboring sites $`𝐫^{}`$ with a probability $`b(g(𝐫^{}))/(b(1)+d(0))`$. These attempted events take time $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=1/n`$ on average, therefore time is increased by $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$. Variation of the background can be handled in the same way within a smaller ($`l\times l`$) region whose sites affect the CP at the given time. Namely, the values of $`g(𝐫)`$ are redrawn at randomly chosen $`\mathrm{\Delta }tfl^2`$ sites.

The average values defined above \[see Eqs. (5)-(8)\] are determined for discrete time values chosen equidistantly in a logarithmic scale.

## IV RESULTS FOR FROZEN BACKGROUND

First we concentrate on a system where the random background is frozen, i.e. $`f=0`$. Varying the proportion of good sites ($`P`$), we have made a systematic MC analysis for fixed death and birth rates. For the present parameters (see Fig. 1) the good sites form isolated clusters \[having $`P<P_{\mathrm{perc}}=0.5926`$ (percolation threshold)\] and infinite spreading is possible across the bad sites. The results summarized in the subsequent figures agree quantitatively with those found by Moreira and Dickman  on a diluted lattice for $`P>P_{\mathrm{perc}}`$.

Figure 1 shows some typical time-dependence functions of survival in a log-log plot. The statistical errors are comparable to the line width due to the large number of trials (e.g. $`M=10^8`$ for $`P=0.22`$) . In the active region ($`P>P_c`$), $`S(t)`$ tends to a constant value as expected . In the subcritical region, $`S(t)`$ can be well approximated by a power law. Unfortunately, convergency toward the limit value becomes extremely slow in the vicinity of the critical point, and this prevents the accurate determination of $`P_c`$. Division between the active and inactive regions becomes more visible when considering the function $`N(t)`$ (see Fig. 2).

In the active region, the surviving individuals occupy a compact patch whose radius increases linearly with time. Consequently, $`N(t)`$ becomes proportional to $`t^2`$ for sufficiently long times as indicated in the Fig. 2. By contrast, when $`P<P_c`$, then $`N(t)`$ tends to a power law decay with an exponent depending on $`P`$.

Figure 3 shows the time evolution of the mean square distance of surviving individuals as defined by Eq. (8). In agrement with the expectations $`R^2(t)t^2`$ for sufficiently long times if $`P>P_c`$. In the subcritical region, the increase of $`R^2(t)`$ becomes significantly slower than that found for the homogeneous system. In the homogeneous system, the surviving individuals perform random walks independently of each other, therefore $`R^2(t)t`$ in the subcritical region. In the present case, however, our data indicate a power law increase: $`R^2(t)t^\lambda `$, where the exponent $`\lambda (P)<1`$. This indicates localization of spreading as, it will be explained in Section VI.

Evaluation of $`N(t)`$ involves those (stoped) trials which have reached the empty state before the given time $`t`$. Consequently, the ratio $`N(t)/S(t)`$ expresses the average number of individuals in the surviving trials. In the subcritical region, the time-dependence of this quantity tends to logarithmic increase as shown in a lin-log plot (see Fig. 4).

In the classical theory of percolation (reviewed in Refs. ), a geometrical feature of the clusters of size $`s`$ is characterized by an average cluster radius $`R_{\mathrm{perc}}(s)`$. Below the percolation threshold $`R_{\mathrm{perc}}(s)s^\rho `$ for the large $`s`$ limit. According to MC simulations , $`\rho 2/3`$, while the “self-avoiding walk” prediction  gives $`\rho 3/4`$. In general, $`\rho >1/2`$ values are characteristic for ramified clusters . On the contrary, above the percolation threshold the finite size clusters are compact, that yields $`\rho =1/2`$.

Following this analogy, we examine the relation between $`N(t)/S(t)`$, the actual size of population in the surviving trials, and the average radius of the area they occupy at a given time in the subcritical region. Figure 5 shows this relation on a log-log plot. In the close vicinity of the critical point (at $`P=0.239`$) we find power law behavior with an exponent 1.66(6). This behavior indicates that the species spreads over a ramified cluster in the whole time interval we could study the system.

In the subcritical region, however, we can observe two different regions. In the transient (short-time) region, the increase of $`R^2(t)`$ is faster than at the critical point. This indicates that the offspring move away from the origin along preferred pathes formed by good sites. Conversely, the long-time behavior is dominated by those trials where the individuals stay on a compact patch.

In the next section we show that these features fundamentally change when we allow the background change over time.

## V RESULTS FOR TIME-DEPENDENT BACKGROUND

Applying time-dependent backgrounds, we determined the same quantities \[$`S(t)`$, $`N(t)`$, and $`R^2(t)`$\] as before. We use the same birth and death rates when varying the value of $`P`$ for a fixed rate ($`f`$) of background change. Our results estimate the critical value for the ratio of good sites at $`P_c=0.2680(1)`$.

Figure 6 shows that the survival probability $`S(t)`$ vanishes exponentially when $`P<P_c`$. In the active region ($`P>P_c`$), however, $`S(t)`$ tends to a constant value. Notice, that the convergence is significantly faster here than at the frozen background (see Fig. 1).

Data for $`P=0.268`$ represent the behavior of the system at the critical point. A numerical analysis confirms that the survival probabilities can be well approximated by a power law, $`S(t)t^\delta `$ for sufficiently long times. Numerical fitting gives $`\delta =0.45(2)`$ in agreement with the exponent found in DP transitions in homogeneous systems .

When considering $`N(t)`$, we can also distinguish between three different behaviors (see Fig. 7). Above the critical point ($`P>P_c`$), $`N(t)`$ tends towards quadratic time dependence. Below the critical point, $`N(t)`$ decreases exponentially. At the critical point, however, our MC data indicate power law behavior, i.e., $`N(t)t^\eta `$ with $`\eta =0.23(1)`$. This numerical value of $`\eta `$ agrees with the characteristic exponent of DP transitions .

In summary, all the above-mentiend numerical results support that contact process exhibits the same features in time-dependent random environments as in homogeneous background. Similarly to $`S(t)`$ and $`N(t)`$, $`R^2(t)`$ also supports this conclusion (data not shown).

These results have been gained at a fixed rate of changes ($`f=0.01`$). Preliminary results suggest, however, that the same conclusions holds for other values of $`f`$ as well. General features of spreading remain unchanged due to the robustness of DP transition.

Here it is worth mentioning that we have also studied the concentration of individuals (as well as its fluctuation) in the stationary state for some parameter values. These analyses support that the variation of both quantities is consistent with the expectations, e.i., the species concentration and its fluctuation exhibit power law behavior with exponents characteristic for the two-dimensional DP systems .

## VI CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY

We have studied a generalized version of contact process on a square lattice. The background in the present model provides a continuous transition from a homogeneous system to a randomly fluctuating environment, including (frozen) diluted lattices. The environment is inhomogeneous, consisting of two types of sites (good and bad) that affect the rates of birth and death of the species. In this model, spreading from a cluster of good sites to another one is permitted across the bad sites and/or bridges (of good sites) created occasionally by background fluctuations.

Our analyses have been rescricted to the consideration of some typical features, because the simulations are rather time-consuming. The results confirm the theoretical expectations as well as the general picture drawn by previous authors  who considered CP on diluted lattices.

Obviously, an inhomogeneous environment contains areas that provide better (or worse) conditions for the survival relative to the average quality of the habitat. This variation becomes particularly important in the vicinity of the transition point that separates the active and inactive regions for long-time behavior. In the subcritical region, the surviving individuals are constrained to remain within isolated patches. Conversely, in the active region, favorable areas can form a percolating cluster, that has infinite extension, and sustains infinite survival.

To explain the main results, we briefly remind the reader of a simple calculation suggested by Noest . In this description we characterize the favorable patches by size $`s`$ and assume that their probability decreases exponentially, i.e., $`n_se^{As}`$. Furthermore, it is also assumed that the average over many trials (or patches of size $`s`$) yields an exponentially decreasing number of individuals over time, that is, $`m_s(t)e^{t/\tau _s}`$ where the average survival time can be approximated as $`\tau _se^{Bs}`$ if initially all sites are occupied. Noest has shown that long-time behavior can be well approximated in this case by a power law decrease, that is, $`m(t)=_ssn_sm_s(t)t^{A/B}`$. This prediction is derived from a maximum likelihood estimation that implies the existence of a typical cluster size giving the dominant contribution to $`m(t)`$. According to this approach, the size of dominant clusters increases logarithmically with time $`t`$.

The adoption of this approach is not straightforward to the present situation where we consider the spreading from a single seed. In our case, the species can die out before achieving homogeneous distribution, while homogeneous initial state is assumed in the former calculation. We can assume, however, that the species spreads over the whole cluster or dies out within a transient time, and the probabilities of these outcomes are independent of cluster size. If this hypothesis holds, than the approach of Noest can be applied for the analysis of long-time behavior.

Some predictions of this rough method have been confirmed by our MC simulations. Namely, $`S(t)`$ and $`N(t)`$ exhibit a dominant power law decrease in the subcritical region, while $`N(t)/S(t)`$ (in proportion to the dominant cluster size) increases logarithmically. Furthermore, in the active region, the algebrically decaying contribution of $`S(t)`$ comes from extinction on (compact) finite size clusters whose probability distribution satisfies the above assumption .

Noest’s approach is focused on compact clusters where $`sR^2`$. Consequently, $`N(t)/S(t)R^2(t)`$ is expected when the system behavior is dominated by a typical cluster size. This behavior can be observed for long times far below the critical point. Figure 5 indicates, however, that these predictions (and assumptions) fail in the close vicinity of the critical point. In other words, the ramified clusters give relevant contribution to $`S(t)`$ and $`N(t)`$ during a transient time that increases when approaching the critical point. In this case, we need a more sophisticated description allowing the emergence of ramified clusters and the shape-dependence of $`\tau _s`$.

Numerical analysis of the extinction process is difficult (in a quenched environment) because decrease of $`S(t)`$ and $`N(t)`$ slowes down in the vicinity of the critical point. In practice this implies persistence over long time periods before extinction. The slow extinction process, however, requires rather specific environmental conditions. Even a small degree of temporal fluctuation results in an extinction process that is analogous to DP transition on large scales. Our mean-field calculations and preliminary simulations have indicated that the transition point is strongly affected by the rate $`f`$ of background change. Further analyses are required to quantify this phenomenon for different birth and death rates.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Support from the Hungarian National Research Fund (T-33098) is acknowledged.


text:
# Quantum-optical catalysis: generating “Schrödinger kittens” by means of linear optics

## a Introduction

Beam splitter (BS) is the simplest quantum optical device in which two incident light beams interfere to produce two output beams. Quantum properties of beams splitters are manifested in its ability to generate an entangled output state with non-classical, but unentangled input . This feature has been exploited in a variety of fundamental experiments, such as preparation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen  and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger  states, discrete-  and continuous-variable  quantum teleportation. It is also an integral part of many yet unimplemented theoretical proposals, such as single-photon nonlocality , generating arbitrary quantum states of light  and efficient linear quantum computation .

In this Letter we investigate a curious consequence of beam splitter’s entangling property. A single-photon Fock state $`|1`$ and a coherent state $`|\alpha `$ present in two BS input channels generate an entangled state in its output \[Fig. 1\]. Performing measurements in one of the output channels causes this entangled state to collapse projecting the quantum state in the other (“signal”) output onto a certain local ensemble. The question we asked ourselves is as follows: what happens to this ensemble if the measurement in the first output channel detects a quantum state identical to the state in one of the BS inputs, namely, the single-photon state? Contrary to what might be expected we find the signal channel to be in a quantum state which is very different from the original coherent state. This is a quantum superposition state which possesses highly non-classical properties such as non-positive-definite Wigner function and subpoissonian photon statistics. We call the effect of such transformation quantum-optical catalysis because the single photon, while facilitating the conversion of the classical (“target”) coherent state into a non-classical signal ensemble, itself remains unaffected by this interaction. We note that an analogous effect of entanglement-facilitated catalysis has been described theoretically, although for a somewhat different setting, by Jonathan and Plenio in 1999 .

In order to understand the physics of this phenomenon let us assume that both the input coherent excitation $`\alpha `$ and the BS transmission $`t^2`$ are small: $`\alpha t1`$. In this case, the coherent state can be approximated as $`|\alpha =|0+\alpha |1`$. Suppose a single-photon detector (SPD) registers a photon. Where could this photon have originated from? If it comes from the coherent state, the photon $`|1`$ from the Fock state input is likely to have been reflected into the signal channel. If, on the other hand, the photon detected by the SPD originates from the Fock state transmitted through a BS, the quantum state in the signal channel is with a high probability vacuum $`|0`$.

The quantum properties of the beam splitter come into play when we notice that these two possibilities are fundamentally indistinguishable. If the two initial states are prepared in identical optical modes, there is no way of telling which one of the initial states the photon in the SPD channel is coming from. As a result, the quantum state in the signal channel is not a statistical mixture of the states $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ but their coherent superposition, a “Schrödinger kitten”

$$|\psi _s=\frac{1}{\sqrt{t^2+\alpha ^2}}(t|0+\alpha |1).$$
(1)
Although $`|\psi _s`$ has the same components as the initial faint coherent state, their fractions can be varied randomly by changing the ratio between $`\alpha `$ and $`t`$. For a constant, small $`t`$ the increase of $`\alpha `$ implements a gradual transition between highly classical ($`|0`$) and highly non-classical ($`|1`$) states of light. In this sense the state $`|\psi _s`$ can be considered a bridge between the particle and wave aspects of the electromagnetic field.

In the present paper we generate $`|\psi _s`$ and investigate it by means of quantum homodyne tomography . This work was inspired in part by a recent experiment by Rarity et al. who overlapped a single photon with a coherent state on a beamsplitter and studied the non-classical photon statistics in the output . Means of preparing the single photon in a well-defined spatiotemporal mode and pulsed time-domain homodyne detection have been elaborated in our group’s earlier work . Extensive theoretical investigation by Welsch et al. have shown that conditional measurements on a beam splitter can generate a wide variety of quantum states such as Schrödinger cats, photon-added and photon-subtracted states . When applied in a sequence, such measurements lead to a technique of synthesizing random quantum states of traveling fields .

Our experiment can be seen as an implementation of the first of two stages of the non-linear sign shift quantum gate, the basic element of the recent linear-optical quantum computation proposal . Such a gate is another example of quantum optical catalysis, because the required modification of the target state is achieved with the two ancilla channels involved remaining in their original quantum states.

## b Theory

We start by assuming that the input state $`|1`$ is prepared with a 100-% efficiency in an optical mode that perfectly matches that of the coherent state $`|\alpha =e^{|\alpha |^2/2}_n\alpha ^n/\sqrt{n!}|n`$ at the BS input. The entangled state in the beam splitter output can be found by applying the BS transformation operator

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{out}}=\widehat{B}|1,\alpha ,$$
(2)
where

$`\widehat{B}`$ $`|m,n={\displaystyle \underset{j,k=0}{\overset{m,n}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{(j+k)!(m+njk)!}{m!n!}}}\left(\begin{array}{c}m\\ j\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}n\\ k\end{array}\right)`$ (4)
$`\times (1)^kt^{n+jk}r^{mj+k}|j+k,m+njk,`$
$`r^2=1t^2`$ is the BS reflectivity and $`\left(\begin{array}{c}a\\ b\end{array}\right)`$ are binomial coefficients .

A commercial single-photon detector generates a “click” when $`n1`$ photons are incident upon its sensitive area. It is described by the following positive operator-valued measure (POVM):

$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\text{ no-click}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}(1\eta _{\mathrm{SPD}})^n|nn|;`$ (5)
$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\mathrm{click}}`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{1}\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\text{ no-click}},`$ (6)
where $`\eta _{\mathrm{SPD}}`$ is its quantum efficiency. A measurement via the SPD leads to a collapse of the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{out}}`$ projecting it, in the event of a “click”, upon the following ensemble in the signal channel:

$$\widehat{\rho }_s=\mathrm{Tr}_1\left(|\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{out}}\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{out}}|\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{\mathrm{click}}\right),$$
(7)
which is readily calculated.

In our experiment the initial single photon is prepared by means of conditional measurements on a biphoton generated via parametric down-conversion. As discussed in our previous publications , inefficiencies associated with this technique result in the photon being prepared with a substantial admixture of the vacuum state: $`\widehat{\rho }_{|1}=\eta _{|1}|11|+(1\eta _{|1})|00|`$, where $`\eta _{|1}`$ is the preparation efficiency. The vacuum fraction of $`\widehat{\rho }_{|1}`$, interacting on the beam splitter with the coherent state, does not entangle itself with it  but produces coherent states with amplitudes $`\alpha t`$ and $`\alpha r`$ in the two BS output channels. Taking this circumstance into account, we write the output ensemble as

$$\widehat{\rho }_s^{}=\eta _{|1}^{}\widehat{\rho }_c+(1\eta _{|1}^{})|\alpha t\alpha t|.$$
(8)
Note that the quantity $`\eta _{|1}^{}`$ in the above equation is always higher than $`\eta _{|1}`$ because a photon present in the input increases the likelihood for the SPD to trigger. For $`\alpha t`$, $`\eta _{|1}^{}`$ tends to 1, for $`\alpha t`$ it approaches $`\eta _{|1}`$.

Next we need to account for the SPD dark count events. In such an event, the quantum state in the signal channel is not conditioned on that in the SPD channel. The BS acts upon the incident single-photon state simply as a lossy reflector, reducing its efficiency by a factor of $`r^2`$. In addition, the coherent field causes the phase-space displacement of this state, producing a statistical mixture of a displaced Fock state  and a coherent state:

$$\widehat{\rho }_{\mathrm{DC}}=\eta _{|1}r^2\widehat{D}(\alpha t)|11|\widehat{D}^{}(\alpha t)+(1\eta _{|1}r^2)|\alpha t\alpha t|,$$
(9)
where $`\widehat{D}(\alpha t)`$ is the displacement operator. The above state admixes to $`\widehat{\rho }_s^{}`$ in the proportion determined by the SPD dark count rate.

Finally, in order to compare our prediction with the experimental results we need to account for the non-unitary quantum efficiency $`\eta _{\mathrm{HD}}`$ of the balanced homodyne detector (HD). This is done by means of the generalized Bernoulli transformation well described in the literature .

## c Experimental apparatus

The core of our apparatus consisted of the setup for generating the single-photon Fock state, which was the same as in our previous experiments . A 82-MHz repetition rate train of 1.6-ps pulses generated by a Spectra-Physics Ti:Sapphire laser at 790 nm was frequency doubled and directed into a beta-barium borate crystal for down-conversion. The down-conversion occurred in a type-one frequency-degenerate, but spatially non-degenerate configuration. A single-photon detector, placed into one of the emission channels, detected photon-pair creation events. This detector firing ensured that a photon has as well been emitted into the other down-conversion channel, thus preparing single-photon Fock states by conditional measurements. All further measurements were conditioned upon a biphoton production event. We have obtained between 300 and 400 such events in a second.

Pulses containing the conditionally-prepared photon entered an optical arrangement shown in Fig. 1, which had to be maintained interferometrically stable throughout the experimental run. We used a Perkin-Elmer SPCM-AQ-131 single-photon counting module with $`\eta _{\mathrm{SPD}}0.5`$ and a beam splitter with a reflectivity of $`r^2=0.92`$. The choice of the BS was dictated, on one hand, by the requirement that $`t`$ be small compared to 1; on the other hand, the SPD count rate, proportional to $`t^2+\alpha ^2`$ for small $`\alpha `$, should have been sufficiently high in order to prevent domination of the dark counts and to allow acquisition of a large amount of data sufficient for quantum tomography.

The local oscillator for balanced homodyne detection , as well as the target coherent state, have been provided by the master Ti:Sapphire laser. These pulses had to be spatially and temporarily mode matched with each other, as well as with the single-photon pulse emerging from the down-converter. To this end, we first mode matched the single-photon pulse with the local oscillator via the technique described in . The coherent state was then mode matched with the local oscillator by optimizing the visibility of the interference pattern observed between these two classical fields. The amplitude $`\alpha `$ of the target coherent state could be varied via a variable attenuator consisting of a half-wave plate and a polarizer.

A set of preliminary measurements was performed in order to test the system and evaluate its main characteristics. First, we calibrated the homodyne detector by observing the quantum noise of the vacuum state with the beam paths of both the coherent state and the Fock state blocked \[Fig. 2(a)\]. Second, we unblocked the coherent state input so the quantum state entering the HD was also a coherent state with amplitude $`\alpha t`$ \[Fig. 2(b)\]. Performing homodyne tomography on this state allowed us to determine $`\alpha `$ to within $`0.15`$. Third, we blocked the coherent state but unblocked the Fock state. In this case, the quantum noise measured by the HD was associated with the statistical mixture of the states $`|1`$ and $`|0`$ with an efficiency $`\eta _{\mathrm{tot}}=r^2\eta _{|1}\eta _{\mathrm{HD}}`$ \[Fig. 2(e)\]. By analyzing the statistics of this noise, we found $`\eta _{\mathrm{tot}}=0.58\pm 0.02`$. Since it was known from previous measurements that $`\eta _{\mathrm{HD}}=0.91`$ , we estimated $`\eta _{|1}=0.69`$ \[Fig. 2(c)\].

Finally, we unblocked both the coherent state and the Fock state BS inputs, and performed homodyne measurements conditioned upon the SPD firing. The local oscillator phase was scanned by applying a linear displacement to a mirror via a piezoelectric transducer. The acquired data was then scaled in accordance with the vacuum state noise acquired earlier and each data sample was associated with the appropriate local oscillator phase value. The Wigner function was reconstructed for each data set by means of the inverse Radon transformation implemented via the standard filtered back-projection algorithm  with a cutoff frequency of $`6.4`$. This algorithm was applied directly to the quadrature data without calculating marginal distributions associated with each phase value .

## d Results and discussion

Fig. 2(d–f) shows the Wigner functions reconstructed for various coherent state amplitudes. The three Wigner functions shown allow to trace the trend the catalysis ensembles follow with increasing $`\alpha `$. For $`\alpha =0`$, a photon registered in the SPD channel means there is nothing in the signal channel (unless it is a dark count); the signal state must thus be vacuum. We have not reproduced this case experimentally due to an extremely low count rate associated with it. With $`\alpha `$ increasing to the order of $`t`$, the quantum state approximates the “Schrödinger kitten” (1) with a significant admixture of the vacuum due to a non-unitary $`\eta _{|1}`$ \[Fig. 2(d)\].

In the regime of high $`\alpha `$’s the SPD will fire with almost every laser pulse detecting a large fraction of the reflecting coherent state’s photons. This mode is analogous to the dark count case discussed earlier: the measurement of the signal state is effectively no longer conditioned on that in the SPD channel, so a statistical mixture (9) of a displaced Fock state and a coherent state obtains. The ensemble shown in Fig. 2(f) approaches this situation. An experimental study of displaced Fock states will be reported separately .

The fits shown in Fig. 2(d–f) were calculated using the experimental parameters determined during the preliminary measurements and varied within their tolerances in order to obtain the best fit. An exception is made for $`\eta _{\mathrm{HD}}`$ which was set to $`0.83`$ in order to account for the imperfect mode matching between the coherent state and the local oscillator. Precise treatment of this imperfection is rather complicated; reducing the value of $`\eta _{\mathrm{HD}}`$ is a simplified solution which however allows to generate an excellent fit shown in Fig. 2(e,f). A deviation from the perfect fit seen in Fig. 2(d) is a technical artefact caused by a very low data acquisition rate.

Density matrices of the catalysis ensembles have been determined by applying the quantum state sampling method  directly to the homodyne data. The ensemble shown in Fig. 3 approximates a statistical mixture of the state (1) and the vacuum. Presence of non-diagonal elements $`\rho _{01}`$ and $`\rho _{10}`$ distinguishes the ensemble from a statistical mixture of the states $`|1`$ and $`|0`$ investigated in our earlier papers . On the other hand, almost vanishing matrix elements associated with states $`|2`$ and above shows the difference between this density matrix and that of the coherent state.

In conclusion, we have synthesized and characterized a new quantum state of light, a coherent superposition of the single-photon and vacuum states. This state was obtained by means of linear optics, single-photon sources and detectors. This state is generated by means of a “catalytical” process in which the single-photon state enabling the interaction without being affected by it. By changing the amplitude of the target coherent state, a gradual transition between a highly classical and a highly non-classical state of light occurs. This experiment can be viewed as a step towards experimental implementation of linear optical quantum computation.

This work has been sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Optik-Zentrum Konstanz. We thank S. Babichev for experimental assistance.