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# Statistics of temperature fluctuations in a buoyancy dominated boundary layer flow simulated by a Large-eddy simulation model

## 1 Introduction

Temperature in an atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is typically convected by a velocity background, $`𝒗`$, and diffuses by the action of molecular motion and/or small-scale turbulent eddies. The basic equation governing such a process is the well-known advection-diffusion equation (Pielke, 1984) for the (potential) temperature, $`\theta `$,

$$_t\theta +v_\alpha _\alpha \theta =D_0^2\theta +S_\theta ,$$
(1)
where $`S_\theta `$ represents the sources and sinks of heat, eventually present within the domain, $`𝒗`$ is the velocity field advecting the temperature, and $`D_0`$ may represent either the diffusion coefficients or, alternatively, an eddy diffusion coefficient if one intends to focus on the large scale behavior (i.e. large eddies) of $`\theta `$ and thus needs to parameterize, in some way, small scale temperature dynamics. Repeated indexes are summed.
Here, we use the following short notations: $`_t/t`$; $`_i/x_i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},3`$; $`^2_{i=1}^3_i_i`$.

In many situations, temperature dynamics, driven by the velocity field via the advection term in Eq. (1), does not react back on the velocity field. This is the case, for instance, in a neutrally stratified boundary layer (occurring, e.g., under windy conditions with a complete cloud cover) where buoyancy forces are negligible compared to the other terms in the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations ruling the velocity field dynamics. In this case, temperature behaves as a passive scalar as a good approximation.
As a matter of fact, during the diurnal cycle neutral stratification is rarely observed in the ABL (Garratt, 1999). More frequently, one observes stable conditions (occurring, e.g., at night in response to surface cooling by longwave emission to space) or unstable, convective, ones (occurring, e.g., when strong surface heating produces thermal instability or convection). The role of temperature is active in both cases, that amounts to say that temperature drives the velocity field dynamics through the buoyancy contribution (usually modeled by means of the well-known Boussinesq coupling). The latter contribution is now the leading one in the NS equations.

The main feature characterizing both active and passive scalar dynamics is the presence of strong fluctuations in the temperature field. Such fluctuations affect the whole range of scales involved in the temperature dynamics, from the largest scales of motion to the smallest ones where diffusive effects become important. This huge excitation of degrees of freedom, gives meaning to the term “scalar turbulence” recently used to denote the dynamics of temperature fluctuations (Shraiman and Siggia, 2000).

The first unpleasant consequence of persistent fluctuations is the failure of any attempt to construct dimensional theories for the statistics of temperature fluctuations (Frisch, 1995), quantitatively defined as temperature differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$ between points separated by $`r`$: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta \theta (𝒓,t)\theta (\mathrm{𝟎},t)`$. The common strategy for dimensional approaches consists to define typical length/time scales and typical amplitude for the fluctuations of the unknown fields (e.g., $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r𝒗`$) and then try to balance the various terms in the basic equations (e.g. Eq. (1) coupled to the NS equations) to deduce predictions for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r𝒗`$ as a function of the separation $`𝒓`$.
This is, for instance, the essence of the first dimensional theory for scalar turbulence due to Kolmogorov, Obukhov and Corrsin (1949) and Bolgiano (1959). As a result of these theories, probability density functions (pdfs), $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$, of temperature differences, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$, obey the following simple rescaling: $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )=r^\alpha \stackrel{~}{P}(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta /r^\alpha )`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{P}`$ is a function of the sole ratio $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta /r^\alpha `$.
Such property immediately implies that, dimensionally, one has $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta r^\alpha `$ and, for the $`p`$-th moment of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$: $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )^pr^{\zeta _p}`$, with $`\zeta _p`$ (known as scaling exponents) linear function of $`p`$: $`\zeta _p=\alpha p`$
The linearity of $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ reflects the fact that only one parameter, $`\alpha `$, is necessary to explain most of the statistical properties of $`\theta `$. One has, in other words, ‘single-scale fluctuations’; that amounts to say that it is irrelevant which part of the probability density function of temperature differences is sampled to define a typical fluctuation.

Rather than the above simple scenario predicted by dimensional theories, turbulent systems show an infinite hierarchy of ‘independent’ fluctuations (Frisch, 1995), that amounts to say the strong dependence on the order $`p`$ considered to define the typical fluctuation. More quantitatively, turbulent systems exhibit a nonlinear behavior of $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$111Such curve must be concave and not decreasing, as it follows from general inequalities of probability theory (see, e.g., Frisch (1995)). where the infinite set of exponents, $`\zeta _p`$, select different classes of fluctuations. The departure of the actual curve of $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ from the linear (dimensional) prediction is named “intermittency” or “anomalous scaling” (Frisch, 1995). Intermittency is probably the most representative property characterizing a turbulent system.

Our aim here is to provide a statistical characterization of temperature fluctuations in a convective boundary layer dominated by well-organized plumes, simulated by a large eddy simulation model (Moeng, 1984).
We shall focus, in particular, on the statistical characterization of two different classes of fluctuations: weak temperature fluctuations, mainly occurring in the inner plume regions and strong temperature fluctuations, associated to the plume interfaces (see Fig. 1). As we shall show, weak fluctuations are associated to linear behavior of scaling exponents $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ for small $`p`$’s, while strong fluctuations (captured by large $`p`$’s) cause the so-called intermittency saturations, i.e. the curve $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ tends a to a constant value, $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$, for $`p`$ large enough. The saturation exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ is simply connected (see Sec. 5.1.1) to the fractal dimension of the set hosting large temperature excursions: $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=dD_F`$, where $`d`$ and $`D_F`$ are the usual dimension of the space and the fractal dimension of the large temperature fluctuation set, respectively.
Despite the complexity of temperature fluctuation dynamics in a convective boundary layer (CBL), reflected in the strong intermittency of the system, only two exponents are necessary to capture most of the statistics of temperature fluctuations.
It is worth emphasizing that the same statistical characterization has been recently found for two dimensional idealized models of both passive (see Frisch et al (1999), Celani et al (2000) and Celani et al (2001a)) and active scalar turbulence (see Celani et al (2001b)) simulated by means of both direct numerical simulations and Lagrangian methods (see, e.g., Frisch et al (1998)). This points toward the generality of our new findings within the context of scalar transport.

## 2 Statistical tools

The aim of this section is to provide a quick summary of the statistical tools we have exploited to characterize temperature fluctuations in a CBL.
The basic and well-known indicator is the probability density function, $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝒓;𝒙}\theta )`$, of temperature differences, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝒓;𝒙}\theta `$, over a scale $`r`$, defined as:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝒓;𝒙}\theta \theta (𝒙+𝒓,t)\theta (𝒙,t).$$
(2)
The pdf $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝒓;𝒙}\theta )`$ will depend other than on $`𝒓`$ also on $`𝒙`$ if the system is not homogeneous. In our CBL, we have homogeneity along $`x`$-$`y`$ planes, but not along the vertical direction $`z`$. We thus shall have a dependence on the vertical coordinate $`z`$. Moreover, in the analysis of Sec. 5, separations $`𝒓`$ will be taken along $`x`$-$`y`$ planes in the direction forming an angle of $`\pi /4`$ with the geostrophic wind direction. We shall thus denote our pdf simply as $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$. The choice for the direction $`\pi /4`$ has been done in order to reduce the contamination of the scaling exponents by anisotropic effects. More details on this ‘magic’ angle can be found in Celani et al. (2001a).

By definition, weak fluctuations (i.e. small values of $`|\theta (𝒙+𝒓,t)\theta (𝒙,t)|`$ with respect to a typical fluctuation defined as $`\sigma ^{(z)}[\theta ^2\theta ^2]^{1/2}`$) are associated to the pdf core while, on the contrary, large fluctuations (i.e. $`|\theta (𝒙+𝒓,t)\theta (𝒙,t)|\sigma ^{(z)}`$) are associated to the pdf tails.
The above considerations can be easily paraphrased in terms of the moments, $`S_p(𝒓;z)(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )^p`$, known as structure functions. Large fluctuations are captured by large $`p`$’s, while weak fluctuations by small $`p`$’s.

Let us now introduce two possible behaviors for the pdf $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$. As we shall show in the sequel, such behaviors will characterize, within the entire mixed layer, the statistical properties of weak temperature fluctuations and strong temperature fluctuations, respectively.

Self-similar behavior

In terms of probability density functions of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta `$, such a behavior is defined by the rescaling property:

$$P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )=r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}\stackrel{~}{P}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta }{r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}}\right).$$
(3)
It can be immediately verified from the definition of moments:

$$S_p(𝒓;z)=_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )^pd(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )$$
(4)
that (3) is equivalent to the following behavior for the structure functions, $`S_p`$:

$$S_p(𝒓;z)r^{\zeta _p^{(z)}}\text{with}\zeta _p^{(z)}=\alpha ^{(z)}p,\alpha ^{(z)}>0,$$
(5)
that is a linear behavior, with the factor $`\alpha ^{(z)}`$ in general depending on the elevation $`z`$ within the mixed layer.

It is worth noticing that (3) and (5) does not necessarily imply a Gaussian shape for $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$. On the contrary, if $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$ is Gaussian then (5) (and thus (3)) are immediately satisfied as it follows from the well-known property of Gaussian statistics (see, e.g., Frisch (1995)): $`S_{2p}(𝒓;z)=(2p1)!![S_2(𝒓;z)]^p`$, together with the assumption that $`S_2(𝒓;z)r^{2\alpha ^{(z)}}`$.

Intermittency saturation (i.e. the strongest violation of dimensional predictions):

In terms of $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$, intermittency saturation is defined as

$$P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )=\frac{r^{\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}}}{\sigma ^{(z)}}Q\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta }{\sigma ^{(z)}}\right)\text{for}|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}(\lambda >1),$$
(6)
where $`Q`$ is some function (not determined a priori) which does not depend on the separation $`r`$.
In terms of cumulated probabilities, i.e. the sum (integral) of the pdfs over the large temperature fluctuations (i.e. for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}`$, with $`\lambda >1`$), defined as:

$$Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]_{\mathrm{}}^{\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )d(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )+_{\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}}^+\mathrm{}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )d(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta ),$$
(7)
saturation is equivalent to the following power law behavior, holding for different values of $`\lambda >1`$:

$$Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]r^{\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}}.$$
(8)
The scaling exponents, $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}`$, can be thus easily extracted by measuring the slope of $`\mathrm{log}\left\{Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]\right\}`$ vs $`\mathrm{log}r`$.

Finally, it is worth observing that, in terms of structure functions intermittency saturations means:

$$S_p(𝒓;z)r^{\zeta _p^{(z)}}\text{with}\zeta _p^{(z)}=\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)},\text{for}p>p_{crit},$$
(9)
as one can easily verify from the definitions of moments (4) and from (6).
The scaling exponents $`\zeta _p^{(z)}`$ thus tend to a constant value $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}`$ for orders, $`p`$’s large enough. Such behavior justifies the word ‘saturation’ to denote the laws (6) and (8).

## 3 The Large-Eddy simulation model

In order to gather statistical informations on the turbulent structure of a CBL, we used the LES code described in Moeng (1984) and Sullivan et al (1994). Such model has been widely used and tested to investigate fundamental problems in the framework of boundary layers (see, e.g., Moeng and Wyngaard (1989), Moeng et al. (1992), Andrén and Moeng (1993), Moeng and Sullivan (1994), among the others).
For this reason we confine ourselves only on general aspects of the LES strategy. Details can be found in the aforementioned references.

The key point of the LES strategy is that the large scale motion (i.e. motion associated to the large turbulent eddies) is explicitly solved while the smallest scales (typically in the inertial range of scales) are described in a statistical consistent way (i.e. parameterized in terms of the resolved, large scale, velocity and temperature fields). This is done by filtering the governing equations for velocity and potential temperature by means of a filter operator. Applied, e.g., to the potential temperature field $`\theta `$, the filter is defined as the convolution:

$$\overline{\theta }(𝒙)=\theta (𝒙^{})G(𝒙𝒙^{})𝑑𝒙^{}$$
(10)
where $`\overline{\theta }`$ is the filtered variable and $`G(𝐱)`$ is a tridimensional filter function. The field $`\theta `$ can be thus decomposed as

$`\theta =\overline{\theta }+\theta ^{}.`$ (11)
Applying the filter operator both to the Navier–Stokes equations and to the equation for the potential temperature, and exploiting the decomposition (11) (and the analogous for the velocity field) in the advection terms one obtains the corresponding filtered equations. For the sake of brevity, we report the sole filtered equation for the potential temperature:

$`_t\overline{\theta }=\overline{\overline{v}_\alpha _\alpha \overline{\theta }}_\alpha \tau _\alpha ^{(\theta )}`$ (12)
where $`\tau _\alpha ^{(\theta )}`$ are the subgrid turbulence fluxes of virtual temperature (in short SGS fluxes). They are related to the resolved-scale field as

$$\tau _\alpha ^{(\theta )}=K_H_\alpha \overline{\theta }$$
(13)
$`K_H`$ being the SGS eddy coefficient for heat. A similar expression holds for the subgrid turbulence fluxes of momentum (see Moeng, 1984) that are defined in terms of the SGS eddy coefficient for momentum ($`K_M`$).
The above two eddy coefficients are related to the velocity scale $`\overline{e^{}}^{1/2}`$, $`\overline{e^{}}`$ being the SGS turbulence energy the equation of which is solved in this model, and to the length scale $`l(\mathrm{\Delta }x\mathrm{\Delta }y\mathrm{\Delta }z)^{1/3}`$ (valid for the convective cases) $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }y`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$ being the grid mesh spacing in $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$. Namely:

$$K_M=0.1l\overline{e^{}}^{1/2}$$
(14)
$$K_H=3K_M.$$
(15)
## 4 The simulated convective experiment

In the present first study, our attention has been focused on the Simulation B (hereafter referred to as Sim B) by Moeng and Sullivan (1994). Sim B is a buoyancy-dominated flow with a relatively small shear effect, where vigorous thermals (see again Fig. 1) set up due to buoyancy force.
The sole difference of our simulation with respect to the Moeng and Sullivan’s simulation is the increased spatial resolution, here of $`128^3`$ grid points.
A preliminary sensitivity test at the lower resolution $`96^3`$ (as in Moeng and Sullivan (1994)) did not show significant differences in the results we are going to present. Sensitivity tests at higher resolutions are still in progress and seem to confirm our preceding conclusion.

Our choice for a convective boundary layer lies on the fact that, in such regimes, dependence of resolved fields on SGS parameterization should be very weak, and thus LES strategy appears completely justified. Indeed, in convective regimes, SGS motion acts as net energy sinks that drain energy from the resolved motion. This is another way to say that energy blows from large scales of motion toward the smallest scales and the cumulative (statistical) effect of the latter scales can be successfully captured by means of simple eddy-diffusivity/viscosity SGS models. Uncertainties eventually present at the smallest scales directly affected by SGS parameterizations (that are not the concern of the analysis we are going to show) do not propagate upward but are promptly diffuse (and thus dissipated) owing to the action of the aforementioned eddy-diffusivity/viscosity character of SGS motion. Genuine inertial range dynamics can thus develop and, as we shall see, the typical features characterizing an inertial range of scales (e.g., rescaling properties of statistical objects) to appear.

The following parameters characterize the Sim B. Geostrophic wind, $`U_g=10m/s`$; friction velocity, $`u_{}=0.56m/s`$; convective velocity, $`w_{}=2.02m/s`$; PBL height, $`z_i=1030m`$; large-eddy turnover time, $`\tau _{}=510s`$; stability parameter, $`z_i/L=18`$ ($`L`$ being the Monin–Obukov length); potential temperature flux at the surface, $`Q_{}=0.24mK/s`$.
Moreover, the numerical domain size in the $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$ directions are $`L_x=L_y=5km`$ and $`L_z=2km`$, respectively; the time step for the numerical integration is about $`1s`$. For details on the simulated experiment, readers can refer to Moeng and Sullivan (1994).

To perform our statistical analysis, we first reached the quasi-steady state. It took, as in Moeng and Sullivan (1994), about six large-eddy turnover times, $`\tau _{}`$. After that time, a new simulation has been made for about $`37\tau _{}`$ and the simulated potential temperature field saved at $`0.5\tau _{}`$ intervals for the analysis. Our data set was thus formed by 74 (almost independent) potential temperature snapshots.

Each simulation hour required about 24 computer hours on an Alpha-XP1000 workstation.

## 5 Results and discussions

### 5.1 Statistics of large temperature fluctuations

Let us start our statistical analysis from the large temperature fluctuations. These are controlled by the pdf tails of temperature differences, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta `$, and, as we are going to show, they are compatible with the laws (6) and (8), that means intermittency saturation.
To show that, it is enough to see whether or not there exist a positive number, $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}`$, such that the quantities $`\sigma ^{(z)}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )r^{\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}}`$ collapse on the same curve, $`Q`$, for different values of the separation $`r`$. Indeed, as showed in Sec. 2, in the presence of saturation the function $`Q`$, appearing in (6), does not depend on $`r`$.
The validity of (6) can be seen in Fig. 2, where the behavior of $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$ for $`z/z_i=0.3`$ and two values of $`r`$ are shown, $`z`$ and $`z_i`$ being the elevation above the bottom boundary and the mixed layer height, respectively. In the graph (a), $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$ is reported without any $`r`$-dependent rescaling; in (b) we show $`\sigma ^{(z)}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )r^{\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}}`$ for $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}0.6`$. The data collapse occurring on the tails of the curves of graph (b) is the footprint of intermittency saturation.
In Figs. 3 and 4 we show the analogous of Fig. 2 but for $`z/z_i=0.45`$ and $`z/z_i=0.6`$. Also in these cases, the exponent giving the data collapse is $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}0.6`$. Similar behaviors have been observed for all $`z`$’s within the mixed layer.
As a conclusion, from the evidences of Figs. 2, 3 and 4, it turns out that the saturation exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}^{(z)}`$ does not depend on $`z`$ within the mixed layer. It is thus a property of the entire mixed layer and, for this reason, it will be simply denoted by $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$.

Let us now corroborate the scenario of intermittency saturation by looking at the cumulated probability (7).
For the saturation to occur, such probability has to behave as a power law with exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ (see (8)). Such behavior is indeed observed and showed in Fig. 4(a) (for $`z/z_i=0.3`$ and $`\lambda =5`$ and $`5.5`$) and in Fig. 4(b) (for $`z/z_i=0.6`$ and $`\lambda =5`$ and $`5.5`$). The continuous lines have the slope $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}0.6`$ as measured from Figs. 2 and 3. The fact that there exist a region of scales, $`r`$, where that slope is parallel to the slope of the cumulated probabilities means, again, intermittency saturation with a unique (i.e. characterizing the whole mixed layer) exponent.
It is worth noting that figures similar to Figs. 5(a) and 5(b) have been obtained also for smaller values of $`\lambda `$, e.g., $`\lambda =2.5`$ and $`\lambda =3.5`$. Population of strong events being decreasing as $`\lambda `$ increases, the above independence on $`\lambda `$ points for the robustness of our statistics.

In Fig. 6(a) we report, for $`z/z_i=0.45`$, the behaviors of the sixth and eight-order structure functions of temperature differences vs the separation between points (squares). Stright lines have the slope $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=0.6`$. This is a further, direct, evidence of intermittency saturation. To investigate the statistical convergence of our sixth and eight-order moments, we reported in Fig. 6(b) the bulk contribution to such moments: $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )^pP(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$, with $`p=6`$ and $`p=8`$, $`r/L7\times 10^2`$ in the inertial range of scales. For comparison $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$ is also shown. Note that the maximum contribution to the moments six and eight comes from fluctuations $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$ in the region where $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$ (i.e., $`p=0`$) is well resolved, i.e., our statistics appears reliable up to the order eight.

Once $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ is known, we evaluated from (6) the unknown function $`Q`$. Such function is shown in Fig. 7 for two different values of $`z`$ within the mixed layer. Differences among the two curves are evident, signaling that $`Q`$ contains a dependence on the elevation $`z`$. Such dependence can be associated to the relatively small shear present in our convective simulation (see Sec. 4) .
Further simulations spanning intermediate ABL (i.e. where both shear and buoyancy are important) have however to be performed in order to confirm the above last conclusion.

It is worth stressing that the scales $`r`$ at which we observe scaling behaviors are always larger than $`8`$ grid-points (i.e. sufficiently far from the scales directly affected by SGS parameterizations). Our attention being focused in a region sufficiently far from boundaries, this is another point in favor for the possible SGS independence of our results.

#### 5.1.1 A link between geometry and statistics

Let us now conclude this section with a geometric point of view for the intermittency saturation (see also Celani et al, 2001a). As we shall see, the saturation exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ is related to the fractal dimension, $`D_F`$, of the set hosting the strong temperature fluctuations.
To do that, let us schematize in a very rough way our strong (i.e. larger than some $`\sigma ^{(z)}`$) temperature fluctuations in the form of quasi-discontinuities (i.e. step functions). Each quasi-discontinuity will define a point (we are performing the analysis on planes at constant $`z`$) of given coordinate in our two-dimensional plane. The ensemble of all points defines the set, $`S`$, hosting strong temperature fluctuations. Roughly, $`S`$ is formed by the intersection of our two-dimensional plane with the plume interfaces across which strong temperature jumps occur.
A useful indicator to characterize geometrically our set, $`S`$, is the fractal dimension, $`D_F`$, (see, e.g., Frisch (1995) for a presentation oriented toward turbulence problems). We briefly recall the standard way to define $`D_F`$.

* Take boxes of side, $`r`$, and cover the whole plane at fixed $`z`$. Denote with $`N_{tot}`$ the total number of those boxes;
* Define the function $`N(r)`$ as the number of boxes containing at least one point of $`S`$;
* For $`r`$ sufficiently small, one expects power law behavior for $`N(r)`$ in the form: $`N(r)r^{D_F}`$, which defines the fractal dimension of $`S`$.

Given the fractal dimension, $`D_F`$, it is now easy to compute the probability, $`Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]`$, of having strong (i.e. larger than some $`\sigma ^{(z)}`$) temperature jumps within a certain distance $`r`$. Indeed, by definition, we have:

$$Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]\frac{\text{favorable cases}}{\text{possible cases}}=\frac{N(r)}{N_{tot}}\frac{r^{D_F}}{r^2}=r^{2D_F}.$$
(16)
From (8) and (9) the identification $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=2D_F`$ immediately follows. Notice that if one does not restrict the attention on the sole planes at constant $`z`$, but focuses on the whole three dimensional space, the above relation becomes $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=3D_F^{}`$ where $`D_F^{}`$ is the fractal dimension of the new set $`S`$.

### 5.2 Statistics of weak temperature fluctuations

Let us now pass to investigate the statistics of well-mixed regions of the temperature field, corresponding to the inner parts of plumes that are likely to be present in our CBL (see again Fig. 1).
In these regions, fluctuations turn out to be very gentle and, as an immediate consequence, statistics is expected to be controlled in terms of single-scale fluctuations (see the Introduction). The best candidate to characterize, from a statistical point of view, weak fluctuations is thus the rescaling form given by (3).
To investigate whether or not our data are compatible with such rescaling, it is enough to verify whether there exist a number, $`\alpha ^{(z)}`$, (a priori dependent on the elevation $`z`$ within the mixed layer) such that, looking at $`r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$ vs $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta /r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}`$ for different values of $`r`$, all curves collapse one on the other for each value of $`z`$.
Our data support this behavior for the pdf cores (as expected, the rescaling (3) holds solely for weak fluctuations), as it can be observed in Fig. 2(c) (for $`z/z_i=0.3`$), in Fig. 3(c) (for $`z/z_i=0.45`$) and Fig. 4(c) (for $`z/z_i=0.6`$). In all cases, the values of $`\alpha ^{(z)}`$ is $`0.2`$, that means that $`\alpha ^{(z)}`$ does not depend on $`z`$. As the exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$, $`\alpha \alpha ^{(z)}`$ thus characterizes the entire mixed layer.

## 6 Conclusions and discussions

We have characterized, from a statistical point of view, both large and weak temperature fluctuations of a convective boundary layer simulated by a large eddy simulation model.
The main results of our study can be summarized as follows.

* Large temperature fluctuations, occurring across plume interfaces, turn out to be strongly intermittent. This is the cause of the observed break down of mean field theories á la Kolmogorov, predicting a linear behavior of the scaling exponents, $`\zeta _p`$, of the structure functions of temperature differences, vs the order $`p`$. We found, on the contrary, a pdf rescaling which corresponds to a nonlinear shape of $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$, with $`\zeta _p\zeta _{\mathrm{}}const`$ for $`p`$ large enough. This behavior is named intermittency saturation, i.e. the strongest violation of dimensional predictions.
Hence, the concept of ‘typical fluctuation’ does not make sense: it is necessary to specify which part of the pdf of temperature differences is sampled for the definition of ‘typical fluctuation’.
* Weak temperature fluctuations, characterizing the inner plume region where temperature is extremely well-mixed, have a self-similar character. This amounts to say that, despite the fact that many scales are excited in the well-mixed regions, the concept of ‘typical fluctuation’ here makes sense. In this case a simple rescaling characterizes the pdf core, which corresponds to a linear behavior of the curve $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ for small $`p`$’s. The slope of the straight line $`\zeta _p`$ vs $`p`$ is $`\alpha 0.2`$.
* Exponents $`\alpha `$ and $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ appear to be independent on the elevation within the mixed layer. They are thus an intrinsic property of the entire mixed layer.
* Statistics and geometry turn out to be intimately related. A simple relationship holds indeed between $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ and the fractal dimension, $`D_F`$, of the set hosting the large temperature fluctuations: $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=dD_F`$ where $`d`$ is the usual dimension of the physical space.
As for $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$, $`D_F`$ appears an intrinsic, i.e. $`z`$-independent, property of the entire mixed layer.

It is worth stressing that the present scenario holds also for idealized, two-dimensional, models of scalar turbulence both passive (see Frisch et al (1999), Celani et al (2000) and Celani et al (2001a)) and active (see Celani et al (2001b)), simulated by means of direct numerical simulations. This fact naturally points toward the possible generality of the present statistical characterization for the entire class of scalar transport problems.

Finally, let us discuss a possible application of our results within boundary layer physics, and, more specifically, in the LES approach. As well known, one of the most challenging problem in the LES strategy is to find a proper way to describe the dynamical effect of small-scale unresolved motion on the resolved large scale dynamics. Recently, new approaches have emerged as alternatives to the eddy viscosity and similarity models (see, e.g., Meneveau and Katz, 2000). They construct the small-scale unresolved part of a total field (e.g., the velocity field) by extrapolating properties of the (resolved) coarse-grained field. A specific form for the subgrid scale field is thus postulated exploiting scale-invariance (i.e. inertial range scaling behavior) of the coarse-grained field. Note that, standard approaches postulate the form of the stress tensor rather than the structure of the unresolved field.
The mathematical tool which permits to perform such an interpolation is known as “fractal interpolation” (see Meneveau and Katz (2000) and references therein) where the free parameter of the theory is the fractal dimension of the field.
Up to now, many efforts have been devoted to exploit such strategy for the velocity fields. The latter exhibit however a multifractal structure (roughly speaking, an infinite set of fractal dimensions characterizes the whole field) and thus the fractal dimension parameter is a sort of ‘mean field’ description.
The suggestion arising from our results is that the same technique exploited for the velocity field appears successfully applicable in the convective case to the temperature field as well. Indeed, our results support a fractal structure of the temperature field. The situation seems to be even better than that for the velocity field. As we have stressed in the preceding sections, solely two exponents characterize most of the statistical properties of temperature fluctuations. We thus propose to schematize temperature fluctuations as a bi-fractal object (i.e., the simplest multifractal object) described by our two exponents $`\alpha `$ and $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$, and to generalize “fractal interpolation” to this case.
To do that, it seems necessary to investigate how the exponents we found for the analyzed experiment change by varying, e.g., the weight of buoyancy with respect to shear. We are currently working on this point and, as far as we remain on convective experiments, it seems that only small variations appear.
It should also be interesting to investigate what happens to the above scenario in stable stratified boundary layers. In that cases LES approach appears more delicate than in a CBL. Observations in field and/or in a wind tunnel should be thus necessary to investigate the problem.

## References

Andrén, A., and C.-H. Moeng, 1993: Single-point closure in a neutrally stratified boundary layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 3366-3379.

Bolgiano, R., 1959: Turbulent spectra in a stably stratified atmosphere. J. Geophys. Res., 64, 2226-2229.

Celani, A., A. Lanotte, A. Mazzino, and M. Vergassola, 2000: Universality and saturation of intermittency in passive scalar turbulence. Phys. Rev. Lett., 84, 2385-2388.

Celani, A., A. Lanotte, A. Mazzino, and M. Vergassola, 2001a: Fronts in passive scalar turbulence. Phys. Fluids, 13, 1768-1783.

Celani, A., A. Mazzino, and M. Vergassola, 2001b: Thermal plume turbulence. Phys. Fluids, 13, 2133-2135.

Frisch, U., 1995: Turbulence. The legacy of A.N. Kolmogorov. Cambridge University Press, 296 pp.

Frisch, U., A. Mazzino, and M. Vergassola, 1998: Intermittency in passive scalar advection. Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, 5532-5537.

Frisch, U., A. Mazzino, and M. Vergassola, 1999: Lagrangian dynamics and high-order moments intermittency in passive scalar advection. Phys. Chem. Earth, 24, 945-951.

Garratt, J.R., 1999: The atmospheric boundary layer. Cambridge University Press, 316 pp.

Meneveau, C. and J. Katz, 2000: Scale-Invariance and turbulence models for Large-eddy simulation, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., 32, 1-32.

Moeng, C.-H., 1984: A large-eddy-simulation model for the study of planetary boundary-layer turbulence, J. Atmos. Sci., 41, 2052-2062.

Moeng, C.-H. and J.C. Wyngaard, 1989: Evaluation of turbulent transport and dissipation closures in second-order modeling. J. Atmos. Sci., 46, 2311-2330.

Moeng C.-H., and P.P. Sullivan, 1994: A comparison of shear and buoyancy driven Planetary Boundary Layer flows. J. Atmos. Sci., 51, 999-1021.

Obukhov, A., 1949: Structure of the temperature field in turbulence. Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR. Ser. Geogr., 13, 55-69.

Pielke, R.A., 1984: Mesoscale Meteorological Modeling. Academic Press, 612 pp.

Shraiman B.I, and E.D. Siggia, 2000: Scalar turbulence. Nature, 405, 639-646.

Sullivan, P.P., J.C. McWilliams, and C.-H. Moeng, 1994: A subgrid-scale model for large-eddy simulation of planetary boundary layer flows. Bound. Layer Meteorol., 71, 247-276.

Acknowledgments
We are particularly grateful to Chin-Hoh Moeng and Peter Sullivan, for providing us with their LES code as well as many useful comments, discussions and suggestions. Helpful discussions and suggestions by A. Celani, R. Festa, C.F. Ratto and M. Vergassola are also acknowledged. This work has been partially supported by the INFM project GEPAIGG01 and Cofin 2001, prot. 2001023848. Simulations have been performed at CINECA (INFM parallel computing initiative).

## List of Figures

1. A typical snapshot of the potential temperature field $`\theta `$, in the quasi-steady state of a convective boundary layer simulated by a Large Eddy Simulation with resolution $`128^3`$. Above: vertical cross-section restricted to the mixed layer; below: horizontal cross-section inside the mixed layer. Colors are coded according to the intensity of the field: white corresponds to large temperature, black to small ones. Plumes and well-mixed regions are clearly detectable.
2. The pdf’s $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )`$, for two values of $`r`$ inside the inertial range of scales (dotted lines: $`r/L=0.22`$; continuous line: $`r/L=0.11`$, $`L`$ being the side of the (squared) simulation domain) and $`z/z_i=0.3`$, $`z_i`$ being the elevation of the mixed layer top. (a): pdf’s are shown without any $`r`$-dependent rescaling; (b) the pdf is multiplied by the factor $`\sigma ^{(z)}r^\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ with $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}0.6`$: the collapse of the curves indicate the asymptotic behavior $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta )r^\zeta _{\mathrm{}}`$ for large $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta `$, that means saturation of temperature scaling exponents (see, and (6), (8) and (9)); (c) pdf’s are multiplied by the factor $`r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}`$ while $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta `$ by $`r^{\alpha ^{(z)}}`$: the collapse of pdf cores indicates the validity of (3) that is equivalent to the linear behavior of low-order temperature scaling exponents (see (4)).
3. As in Fig. 2 but for $`z/z_i=0.45`$.
4. As in Fig. 2 but for $`z/z_i=0.6`$.
5. The cumulated probabilities $`Prob[|\mathrm{\Delta }_{r;z}\theta |>\lambda \sigma ^{(z)}]`$ for two values of $`\lambda `$ are shown for (a): $`z/z_i=0.3`$ and (b): $`z/z_i=0.6`$. The slope of these curves (continuous line) are compatible with the exponent $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}0.6`$. The error bar on this slope is of the order of $`0.1`$, evaluated by means of the local scaling exponents (on half-decade ratios) as customary in turbulence data analysis.
6. (a) Sixth and eight-order structure functions of temperature differences vs the separation between points (squares). Stright lines have the slope $`\zeta _{\mathrm{}}=0.6`$. (b) The bulk contribution to the moments $`p=6`$ and $`p=8`$, $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )^pP(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$, with $`r/L1.1\times 10^1`$ in the inertial range of scales. For comparison $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$ (i.e. for $`p=0`$) is also shown. Note that the maximum contribution to the moments six and eight comes from fluctuations $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta `$ in the region where $`P(\mathrm{\Delta }_r\theta )`$ is well resolved. This proves the reliability of our statistics to compute moments up to the order eight.
7. The function $`Q`$ defined in (6) is shown for two different values of $`z`$ within the mixed layer: $`z/z_i=0.3`$ (dotted line) and $`z/z_i=0.6`$ (continuous line). Differences in the shape of these two curves, reveal that $`Q`$ contains a dependence on the elevation, $`z`$, within the mixed layer.


text:
# Realization of Fredkin Gate by Three Transition Pulses in NMR Quantum Information Processor

(Apr 19, 2002)

## Abstract

The three-qubit conditional swap gate(Fredkin gate) is a universal gate that can be used to create any logic circuit and has many direct usages. In this paper, we experimentally realized Fredkin gate with only three transition pulses in solution of alanine. It appears that no experimental realization of Fredkin gate with fewer pulses has yet been reported up to now. In addition, the simple structure of our scheme makes it easy to be implemented in experiments.

Quantum information processing offers great advantages over classical information processing, both for efficient algorithmsShor ; Grover ; Daniel  and for secure communication Bennett . It can be accomplished by universal gates, such as Fredkin gate, Toffoli gate and the controlled-not(CNOT) gate. Of them Fredkin gate is of interest because it is not only a universal gate for classical reversible computationFredkin , but also has direct applications in error correctingEkert , polarization transfer in NMRDE.Chang  and some quantum algorithmBuhrman . Various schemes have been proposed to implement Fredkin gate. In principle any multi-qubit gate can be build up from combination of the CNOT gates and the single-qubit gatesBarenco ; Sleator . Chau and Wilczek have given a construction of Fredkin gate with six specific gatesChau . Then Smolin and DiVicenzo show that five two-qubit gates are sufficient to implement itSmolin , and no scheme with smaller number of two-qubit gates was reported yet. Of the growing number of methodsCory1 ; Cirac ; Kane  proposed to realize Quantum Information Processor(quantum computer), NMR(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Quantum Information Processor(QIP)Cory2  has given the most successful resultLieven1 ; Lieven2 ; Knill ; Collins . In NMR QIP quantum gates are realized by pulse sequences. For example the CNOT gate was realized by a pulse sequence composed of five pulsesGershenfeld . Then the pulse sequence of Fredkin gate using two-qubit gates would include over twenty pulses in NMR QIP. The more pulses we used in the sequence, the more complexity and the more errors induced in experiment. Efforts are made to reduce the number of pulses in the sequences and to simplify the structure of the pulse sequences realizing the quantum gates.Du1 ; Du2 ; Price

In this paper, we report a practical experimental realization of Fredkin gate, which is accomplished by only three transition pulses in NMR QIP. The molecule that we use is alanine(FIG. 1). The effect of undesired coupling on the H nuclei which is also spin$`\frac{1}{2}`$ is removed by common selective decoupling technique in NMR. Our experimental results show that this scheme is convenient and easy to be realized. And it appears that no experimental realization of Fredkin gate with fewer pulses has yet been reported up to now.

Fredkin gate is also called controlled-swap gate(FIG. 2a), that is, when the controlling qubit(the first qubit) is in the state $`|1`$, the two controlled qubits(the second and third qubits) exchange their states after the action of Fredkin gate. Otherwise, if the controlling qubit is in state $`|0`$, the two controlled qubits remain their original states. Smolin and DiVincenzo have suggested a scheme to implement Fredkin gate(FIG. 2b)Smolin . Their scheme depends greatly on implementation of two-qubit quantum gates and the combination of them. But in NMR QIP implementing two-bit gate in a multi-spin system is more complex than implementing it in two-spin system. In other words, in NMR QIP, for multi-spin system combining two-qubit gates is not always an efficient way to implement bigger gates. The reason is that considering two-qubit gates as the basic elements is mainly for mathematics convenience,and can help us calculate and understand the general questions in quantum information. However, in NMR QIP considering two-qubit gates as the basic gates is not a reasonable choice, a better choice would be fewer pulses and the pulse sequences which have simple structure and are easier to be realized.

So we reconsider Smolin and DiVincenzo’s scheme to implement Fredkin gate that is composed of two CNOT gates and one Toffoli gate(FIG. 2b). We do not keep on decomposing the Toffoli gate into two-qubit gates. However, inspired by the method Du and his collaborators suggestedDu2 , we notice that Fredkin gate may be realized with only three transition pulses. Transition pulses are deliberately designed to perturb transverse magnetic field to sway only a small area of spectra. The pulse sequence is shown in FIG. 3, and the parameters of the transition pulses are shown in TABLE.1. TP$`i`$-cont3-2($`i=1,3`$) is a $`\pi `$ transition pulse to implement the CNOT gate(qubit-3 as controlling qubit and qubit-2 as controlled qubit).

$`U_{TP1}=exp[i\pi {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\sigma _y^2(1\sigma _z^3)`$ (1)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{cccccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0\end{array}\right)`$ (2)
$`U_{TP3}=exp[i\pi {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\sigma _y^2(1\sigma _z^3)]`$ (3)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{cccccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0\end{array}\right)`$ (4)
The phases of TP1 and TP3 are set to be inverse with each other. It would help to greatly conceal undesired effects of the chemical shifts evolution during the length of TP2-tof-12-3 and the time needed to switch the on-resonance frequencies($`O_1`$). TP2-tof-12-3 is a $`\pi `$ transition pulse to implement the Toffoli gate(qubit-1,2 as controlling qubit, qubit-3 as controlled qubit),

$`U_{TP2}=exp[i\pi {\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}(1\sigma _z^1)(1\sigma _z^2)\sigma _x^3]`$ (5)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_6& 0\\ 0& i\sigma _x\end{array}\right)`$ (6)
The three transition pulses are all 180-degree pulses. This is also help to reduce undesired effects of the chemical shifts during the length of transition pulses and J-couplings evolution during the length of transition pulses. Combining the three transition pulses we get

$`U_{Fred}=U_{TP3}.U_{TP2}.U_{TP1}`$
$`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}I_5& 0& 0\\ 0& i\sigma _x& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ (7)
To confirm whether Fredkin gate is correctly realized, We act the pulse sequence on the state

$$\rho _{in}=\frac{1}{2^3}I_{8\times 8}+ϵ(I_x^1+I_z^2+I_x^3)$$
(8)
where $`I_\alpha ^k(k=1,2,3,\alpha =x,y,z)`$ is the matrix for the $`\alpha `$-component of the angular momentum of the spin-$`k`$. The relation between $`I_\alpha ^k`$ and Pauli Matrix $`\sigma _\alpha ^k`$ is $`I_\alpha ^k=\sigma _\alpha ^k/2`$. This state can be obtained from the equilibrium state

$$\rho _{eq}=\frac{1}{2^3}I_{8\times 8}+ϵ(I_z^1+I_z^2+I_z^3)$$
(9)
by applying two selective pulse $`R_y^1(\frac{\pi }{2})`$ and $`R_y^3(\frac{\pi }{2})`$. Calculation shows that the final state should be

$`\rho _{out}=U_{TP3}.U_{TP2}.U_{TP1}.\rho _{in}.U_{TP1}^{}.U_{TP2}^{}.U_{TP3}^{}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^3}}I_{8\times 8}+{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{2}}(I_x^1+I_x^3+I_z^2+I_z^3`$
$`+2I_z^1I_x^32I_y^2I_z^3+2I_z^1I_z^22I_z^1I_z^3`$
$`+4I_x^1I_z^2I_z^3+4I_z^1I_y^2I_z^34I_y^1I_x^2I_x^34I_y^1I_y^2I_y^3)`$ (10)
The experimental spectra corresponding to the state of $`\rho _{out}`$ without applying any readout pulse are shown in FIG.4. There are two inner peaks in the spectra of qubit-1(Spin-$`C_1`$), which is the expected spectra form of $`I_x^1+4I_x^1I_z^2I_z^3`$; two left peaks(inverse phase) of $`J_{12}`$ in the spectra qubit-2(Spin-$`C_2`$), which is the expected spectra form of $`2I_y^2I_z^3+4I_z^1I_y^2I_z^3`$ with 90 degree phase adjusting(Notice that $`J_{12}`$ has a different sign with other J.); two left peaks of $`J_{13}`$ in the spectra qubit-3(Spin-$`C_3`$), which is the expected spectra form of $`I_x^3+2I_z^1I_x^3`$. These spectra together show that we gain the expected state $`\rho _{out}`$ after applying the three transition pulses to the state $`\rho _{in}`$. We have also tried other states as the input state and also gained the corresponding expected output states. Experiment results implies that the scheme is working for all 8 basic product basis states. Hence we conclude that Fredkin gate is successfully realized by the three transition pulses.

In conclusion, with a solution of alanine, we have experimentally demonstrated that Fredkin gate can be realized with only three transition pulses in NMR QIP. The pulse sequence that we use has a excellent symmetry. Such symmetry makes the realization of Fredkin gate easier to accomplish in experiment, and also makes the realization be more accurate. We notice that there are small bumps in the spectra of qubit-1(Spin-$`C_1`$) and the spectra qubit-2(Spin-$`C_2`$). These distortions are really small if we notice that the resolution of our Bruker Avance DMX500 spectrometer(0.5Hz) and $`J_{12}`$(1.27Hz) are comparable. However small, they show that our realization of Fredkin gate is not perfect. Reasons are: first, the magnetic field is not homogeneous; second, $`\pi `$ transition pulses rotate not precisely 180 degree in experiment; third, although chemical shifts evolution during the length of TP2-tof-12-3 and the time needed to switch the on-resonance frequencies($`O_1`$) are greatly concealed, there are still a little undesired effects of the chemical shifts left during the time of pulse sequence. Our realization of Fredkin gate depend on the realization of transition pulses. For other molecule whose $`J_{12}`$ is bigger, realizing TP$`i`$-cont3-2 will need to implement two single-line selective pulses. With the technique presented by Steffen, Lieven and Chuang in paper Steffen  it can be accomplished with satisfying accuracy at the same time. So our scheme is also practicable in other molecules, and in principle it is ready to use in NMR QIP.

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China(Grants No. 10075041 and 10075044).


text:
# Distinguishing locally of quantum states and the distillation of entanglement

## Abstract

This paper try to probe the relation of distinguishing locally and distillation of entanglement. The distinguishing information (DI) and the maximal distinguishing information (MDI) of a set of pure states are defined. The interpretation of distillation of entanglement in term of information is given. The relation between the maximal distinguishing information and distillable entanglement is gained. As a application of this relation the distillable entanglement of Bell-diagonal states is present.

A basic features of quantum mechanics is that one cannot distinguish a set of non-orthogonal states. If the states are shared by bipartite (Alice and Bob) and only local operation and classical communication (LOCC) are allowed, in general, one even cannot distinguish a set of orthogonal states . Some interesting works on locally distinguishability of quantum states have been present. For example, any three of the four Bell states

$`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|00\pm |11)`$ (1)
$`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|01\pm |10)`$ (2)
cannot be distinguished by LOCC operation if only a single copy is provided . Another basic features of quantum mechanics is entanglement. On the hand, maximally entangled states may have many applications in quantum information, such as error correcting code, dense coding and teleportation, etc. On the other hand, in the laboratory, however, maximally entangled state became a mixed state easily due to the interaction with environment. This results in poor application. The idea of distillation protocols is to get some maximally entangled states from many or infinite copies of a mixed states. A few of distillation protocols was given, but finding the most efficient distillation protocol and calculation of distillable entanglement (the maximal value of entanglement gained from per mixed state), $`E_D,`$ are still open questions. All distillation protocols have a common feature: the distillable entanglement from a mixed state is not more than the entanglement of formation of the mixed state owing to the loss of information. In essence, indistinguishability of a set of orthogonal entangled states is also owing to the loss of information. The transformation of information acts as a important role in both distillation of entanglement and distinguishing of states. In this sense, the distinguishing locally and the distillation of entanglement should have some connection. In this paper, we try to probe this question. First we define the distinguishing information (DI) and the maximal distinguishing information (MDI) of a set of pure states (which are, in general, entangled states). Then we give an interpretation of distillation of entanglement in term of information and get the relation between MDI and distillable entanglement $`E_D`$. Finally as a application of this interpretation and this relation we discuss the MDI and get the $`E_D`$ of Bell-diagonal states

$$\rho =p_1|\mathrm{\Phi }^+\mathrm{\Phi }^+\left|+p_2\right|\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\left|+p_3\right|\mathrm{\Psi }^+\mathrm{\Psi }^+\left|+p_4\right|\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Psi }^{}|$$
(3)
Locally distinguishing, in essence, consists of local unitary transformation and local measurement with the help of classical communication. Suppose there are a set of pure bipartite states:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }_1,|\mathrm{\Psi }_2,\mathrm{},|\mathrm{\Psi }_i,\mathrm{},|\mathrm{\Psi }_ni=1,\mathrm{},n$$
(4)
which are shared by Alice and Bob. In general, one cannot distinguish deterministically each state, but it is possible that after locally distinguishing operation one can determine that a state is one of a few of possible states and not the other states. It is to say one can divide n states into a few of groups states by distinguishing locally. For example, by the use of a complete set of projecting operation:

$$|0000|,|0101|,|1010|,|1111|$$
(5)
one can distinguish $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ from $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm `$ in four Bell-diagonal states (but cannot distinguish $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^+`$ from $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ or $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^+`$ from $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^{})`$, i.e., divide four Bell-diagonal states into two group states $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm .`$ If one can divide locally n states into k groups states with corresponding probability $`p_k`$, one can get the information of these pure states, $`I_d`$

$$I_d=\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}p_k\mathrm{ln}p_k$$
(6)
We define $`I_d`$ as distinguishing information (DI). For Bell-diagonal states and the projecting operation above, one can get $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ with probability $`p_1+p_2`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$with probability $`p_3+p_4.`$ So the distinguishing information is

$$I_d=(p_1+p_2)\mathrm{ln}(p_1+p_2)(p_3+p_4)\mathrm{ln}(p_3+p_4)$$
(7)
Different local operation may result in different DI, but for a definite set of states there is the maximal distinguishing information (MDI), $`I_{d\mathrm{max}}.`$ In the latter of this paper we will see that the MDI and the distillable entanglement have close relation.

Now we discuss the relation between distinguishing locally and the distillation. A mixed state $`\sigma `$

$$\sigma =\underset{i}{}\lambda _i|\mathrm{\Phi }_i\mathrm{\Phi }_i|,\underset{i}{}\lambda _i=1$$
(8)
is shared by Alice and Bob. The distillation protocol is to get some maximally entangled states (or some pure entangled states because pure entangled states can be transferred into maximally entangled states reversibly) from many or infinite copies of a mixed entangled states $`\sigma ,\sigma ^n`$

In term of information, $`\sigma ^n,`$ which have $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ ”likely” strings of orthogonal pure states, such as, one of strings

$`\stackrel{n3}{\stackrel{}{|\mathrm{\Phi }_1\mathrm{}|\mathrm{\Phi }_1}}|\mathrm{\Phi }_2|\mathrm{\Phi }_3|\mathrm{\Phi }_4,`$

include $`nS(\sigma )`$ bits information. Where $`S(\sigma )`$ is the information entropy of $`\sigma `$

$$S(\sigma )=\underset{i=1}{}\lambda _i\mathrm{ln}\lambda _i$$
(9)
One cannot distinguish the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ strings without destroying the entanglement of each string owing to the irreversibility of mixing process, but may distinguish the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ strings, i.e., get $`nS(\sigma )`$ bits information by the measurement on some pairs, the entanglement of which would be lost unavoidably. The essence of distillation is to distinguish the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ strings by measurement on some pairs. The more the measured pairs to distinguish the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ strings are, the lesser the distillable entanglement of per pair is. The maximal distillable entanglement of per pair is defined as $`E_D`$ of the mixed state $`\sigma `$ . Suppose one need at least measure ($`nm)`$ pairs particles to get $`nS(\sigma )`$ bits information. To get $`nS(\sigma )`$ bits information by the measurement on the ($`nm)`$ pairs particles, one may apply the local unitary transformation to the all copies $`\sigma ^n`$ so that when one measure the left (or right) ($`nm)`$ pairs particles, one can get the MDI of each pair particles, $`I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )`$. From the following of this paper one can find easily that if n is infinite, one can get same MDI from any one of ($`nm)`$ pairs particles, so the MDI from ($`nm)`$ pairs particles is $`(nm)I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )`$. When equality

$$nS(\sigma )=(nm)I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )$$
(10)
holds one can get the information from $`(nm)`$ pair particles as much as that $`\sigma ^n`$ includes, i.e., one can distinguish the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ strings in $`\sigma ^n`$ at least expense of measured pairs. Because each of the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ ”likely” strings has same entanglement, after measurement on the left ($`nm)`$ pairs particles in each string the right unmeasured $`m`$ pairs have also same entanglement if $`n`$ is infinite. Suppose the entanglement in the right $`m`$ pairs is $`mE,`$ where $`E`$ is average entanglement of right $`m`$ pairs unmeasured particles, after the distinguishing measurement one get entanglement $`mE`$ from $`n`$ pairs. So according to the definition of distillable entanglement

$$E_D=\frac{mE}{n}$$
(11)
and E.q (10) one can get the distillable entanglement of $`\sigma `$

$$E_D(\sigma )=(1\frac{S(\sigma )}{I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )})E$$
(12)
From E.q(12) one can know that distillable entanglement is dependent on $`S(\sigma ),I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )`$ and $`E.`$ E.q (12) show the relation of distinguishing information and distillable entanglement, and is fit to any mixed state including multipartite mixed states. For general mixed state it may be difficult to calculate $`I_{d\mathrm{max}}(\sigma )`$ and $`E,`$ in the following we discuss the case of Bell-diagonal states.

A Bell-diagonal state has following features:

1. Each one of the $`2^{nS(\sigma )}`$ ”likely” strings in $`\sigma ^n`$ is a maximally entangled state in $`2^n2^{n\text{ }}`$ dimension Hilbert space.

2. Any local unitary transformation on $`\sigma ^n`$ does not change the entanglement of states, so after local unitary transformation each pair particle in each string is still a Bell state.

3. For n copies of a Bell-diagonal state, $`\rho ^n,`$ the distinguishing measurements on each pair particle can only distinguish $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ from $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm ,`$ and get the distinguishing information less or equal to 1 bit. This is because for a Bell-diagonal state $`\rho `$, one at most can distinguish locally two states of four Bell states under any LOCC operation. It is to say that after local distinguishing one can distinguish 4 Bell states into two group states. So the MDI is 1 bit, i.e.,

$$I_d(\rho )1\text{ bit}$$
(13)
The equality holds if and only if two group states have same probability $`\frac{1}{2}`$. So the MDI of Bell-diagonal states is 1 bit.

Now we will show that there exist a set of local operation so that one can get 1 bit MDI by the distinguishing measurements on an pair particle of the $`2^{nS(\rho )}`$ ”likely” strings for n-copies of Bell-diagonal states $`\rho ^n`$. First we apply $`(n1)`$ times bilateral Controlled-Not (BCNOT) operation by letting the left first pair particle as the ”target” and the second pair, third pair, …, n’st pair as a ”source” in turn. The result of applying a BCNOT is: if the ”source” is the state $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$, the ”target” will unchange $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ or $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$; if the ”resource” is the state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$, the ”target” will exchange $`|\mathrm{\Phi }|\mathrm{\Psi }.`$ The ”source” pair will unchange $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ or $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ in both cases. If the $`n1`$ ”source” pairs have odd (even) $`|\mathrm{\Psi },`$ the ”target” will exchange (unchange) $`|\mathrm{\Phi }|\mathrm{\Psi }.`$ Obviously when n is infinite the probability that the ”source” has odd or even $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is $`\frac{1}{2}`$ . So after $`(n1)`$ times BCNOT the probability that the ”target” is $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ or $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is exactly $`\frac{1}{2}.`$ Then one use projecting operations, $`|0000|,|0101|,|1010|,|1111|,`$ on the first pair and get 1 bit distinguishing information. Similarly we operate a set of BCNOT by letting the $`i`$’st pair as ”target” and j’st pair as ”source”, $`i=2,\mathrm{},(nm),j=(i+1),(i+2),\mathrm{},n.`$ After we finish these operation each one of the left $`(nm)`$ pair particles has $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ or $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ with same probability $`\frac{1}{2}.`$ Thus we can get $`(nm)`$ bits information by measurement left $`(nm)`$ pairs particles. So for Bell-diagonal states the $`I_{d\mathrm{max}}`$ of each pair particle in the $`2^{nS(\rho )}`$ ”likely” strings of $`\rho ^n`$ is 1 bit, and the $`E`$ in E.q(12) equal to 1. Thus we get the distillable entanglement of Bell-diagonal state $`\rho `$

$$E_D(\rho )=1S(\rho )$$
(14)
It is well known that  $`1S(\rho )`$ is a lower bound of distillable entanglement $`E_D(\rho )`$ of Bell-diagonal states. After consider the limit of distinguishing locally and the relation between distillation and distinguishing, we prove that $`1S(\rho )`$ is also a upper bound of distillable entanglement $`E_D(\rho ).`$ E.q(14) imply that there are some Bell-diagonal states, the information entropy of which $`S(\rho )`$ are greater than unity, are entangled but have zero $`E_D(\rho ).`$ This is not contradict with the claim  that any entangled state in two-qubit system is distillable. Because a state W is distillable imply that one can get at least a maximally entangled state from infinite copies of the state W, otherwise, W is a ”bound” entangled state . However, only when one get the same order infinite number of maximally entangled states from infinite copies of the state W the $`E_D(W)`$ is not zero.

In summary, the transformation of information in distillation of entanglement and distinguishability locally of quantum states act as a important role. The relation of maximal distinguishing information and distillable entanglement in E.q (12) is fit to any mixed state. This relation may be useful to calculate distillable entanglement and understand the essence of entanglement. Although we only get the distillable entanglement of a class of states here, we believer that this relation is powerful in some others, especially in multi-partite and higher dimension of bipartite system. A open question is how to calculate the maximal distinguishing information of any mixed state.


text:
# Giant change in IR light transmission in La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 film near the Curie temperature: promising application in optical devices

## I Introduction

It is known that the conductivity of doped manganites increases dramatically at the transition from the paramagnetic to the ferromagnetic state. In the La1-xCaxMnO3 system with doping levels in the range $`0.17<x<0.5`$ this transition occurs simultaneously with an insulator-metal transition. If the manganite samples have fairly good crystalline order, huge temperature changes in light absorption and magneto-absorption can occur at the transition to the metallic ferromagnetic state. These effects open the possibility for use of doped manganites not only as magnetic recording media, but also for developing various optoelectronics devices controlled by magnetic or thermal fields. Previously large temperature changes in light absorption and magneto-absorption near the Curie temperature, $`T_c`$, have been found in single-crystal (La1-xPrx)0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films ($`T_c185`$ K)  and single crystal La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 ($`T_c160`$ K) . This work reports similar effects in polycrystalline La0.67Ca0.33 MnO3 films with a higher $`T_c`$, which is only moderately less than room temperature. This may be important in practical use of these effects. This study will also address correlations of other material properties (the structural, transport and magnetic properties) with the optical measurements for this system.

## II Experiment

The La1-xCax MnO3 ($`x1/3`$) film described in this paper was grown by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) on a (001) oriented LaAlO3 substrate. A PLD system from Neocera Inc. with a Lambda Physik KrF excimer laser operating at 248 nm was used to ablate the target material with a nominal composition La2/3Ca1/3MnO3. The target was prepared by solid-state reaction starting from high purity powders of La2O3, CaCO3 and MnCO3. The lattice parameter for the target indexed for a pseudo-cubic unit cell is found to be $`a_p=0.38435`$ nm. The film (about 150 nm thick) was ablated at a substrate temperature of 600C in an oxygen atmosphere at pressure $`P_{O2}=250`$ mTorr. During deposition the pulse energy was 584 mJ with a repetition rate of 8 Hz. The target-substrate distance was about 7 cm. Time of deposition was about 31 min. After deposition the film was cooled to room temperature in the same oxygen atmosphere. The film was post-annealed in flowing oxygen for 25 hours at 950C.

The film characterization and measurements were done using a variety of experimental techniques. A standard $`\mathrm{\Theta }2\mathrm{\Theta }`$ scan was used for the X-ray diffraction (XRD) study of the film. The XRD patterns were obtained using a Rigaku model D-MAX-B diffractometer with a graphite monochromator and Cu-Kα1,2 radiation. The AC susceptibility and DC magnetization were measured in a Lake Shore model 7229 AC Susceptometer/DC Magnetometer. Resistance as a function of temperature and magnetic field was measured using a standard four-point probe technique in magnetic fields up to 5 T.

Optical absorption spectra and temperature dependences of the intensity of the transmitted light (transmission) were investigated in the energy range 0.12–1.0 eV, the temperature range 80-295 K and in magnetic fields up to 0.8 T. The constant magnetic field was applied along the direction of light propagation perpendicular to the plane of the film. The magneto-optical (MO) properties of the film were studied by measurements of the linear transverse Kerr effect (TKE). The TKE was investigated in the energy range 0.5–3.8 eV, the temperature range 10–300 K and in magnetic fields 0.3 T. A dynamic method to record TKE was used. The relative change in the intensity of the reflected light $`\delta =[I(H)I(0)]/I(0)`$, where $`I(H)`$ and $`I(0)`$ are the intensities of the reflected light in the presence and in absence of a magnetic field respectfully, was directly measured in the experiment. Other details of the technique used were described previously.

## III Results and discussion

### A Structural, transport and magnetic properties

A $`\mathrm{\Theta }2\mathrm{\Theta }`$ scan permits determination of the lattice parameters in the direction perpendicular to the film plane. In the XRD pattern (Fig. 1) only the (001), (002), (003) and (004) reflections from both the substrate and the film are found, indicating a high degree out-of-plane orientation of the film. The XRD pattern for the substrate corresponds to single-crystal LaAlO3. At fairly high angles the peaks for the substrate are split (having doublets), due to contribution of the Kα1 and Kα2 radiation. The less intense film peaks are not split. The lattice parameter for the substrate is found to be $`a_s=0.3789\pm 0.0002`$ nm. This agrees well with the expected value $`a=0.37896`$ nm for single-crystal LaAlO3. The out-of-plane lattice parameter for the film is equal to $`a_f=0.3838\pm 0.0002`$ nm which is a little less than that of the target. The surface of the film appears bright and specular. Other films having the same structural, magnetic and transport properties were prepared in the same PLD run. The rms roughness of one of these films was determined to be less than 2 nm in an atomic force microscope. The film studied here is expected to have has the same high surface smoothness.

The temperature dependence of the real ($`\chi ^{^{}}`$) and the imaginary ($`\chi ^{^{\prime \prime }}`$) components of the AC susceptibility are shown in Fig. 2. In the same figure the temperature dependence of the magnetization is presented. The latter is rather noisy due to the small mass of the film. Nonetheless, it is evident from Fig. 2 that the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition is quite sharp. From these temperature dependences the Curie temperature, $`T_c`$, can be obtained. The value of $`T_c276`$ K, is found if $`T_c`$ is defined as the temperature of the inflection point in the $`\chi ^{^{}}(T)`$ curve. It is expected also that $`\chi ^{^{\prime \prime }}(T)`$ should peak at $`T_c`$. This temperature is about 273.3 K, which is very close to the $`T_c`$ value found from the $`\chi ^{^{}}(T)`$ curve.

The temperature dependence of the film resistivity and of the magneto-resistance (MR) are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. As evident from Fig. 3, the resistive transition which accompanies the magnetic one is also sharp (see also the temperature behavior of the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) shown in the insert to this Figure). In general, the observed $`\rho (T)`$ behavior (as well as the $`\chi ^{^{}}(T)`$ curve) reflects the high-quality of the film studied. The temperature, $`T_p=277.5`$ K, where resistance peaks, is very close to $`T_c`$, as expected for high quality films. The ratio of resistances at $`T_p`$ and 4.2 K, $`R_p/R_{4.2}`$, is extremely high (about 48.6). This large variation of resistance with temperature is attributed mainly to the strengthening of the magnetic order with decreasing temperature. The resistivity at $`T=4.2`$ K is about 0.9 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$ m which is one of the lowest values reported for La1-xCax MnO3 ($`x1/3`$) films (e.g., compared with those in Ref. ). As a measure of the MR $`\delta _H=[R(H)R(0)]/R(0)`$ is plotted in Fig. 4. The MR has a sharp maximum (with an absolute value of 0.65 at $`H=5`$ T) at $`T_m=275.6`$ K, that is actually at $`T=T_c`$. Nearly identical and high values of $`T_c`$, $`T_p`$ and $`T_m`$ found in this study provide evidence of the high quality of this highly oriented film.

### B Magneto-optical and optical properties

The spectral dependence of TKE for the film studied (Fig. 5a) is consistent with previous data for doped manganites with similar doping level . There is a large “negative peak” at $`E2.8`$ eV together with an additional feature near $`E1.6`$ eV. At $`T=55`$ K, the peak amplitude near $`E=2.8`$ eV is about $`23\times 10^3`$. The temperature dependence of TKE (Fig. 5b) was measured at two incident photon energies (1.8 eV and 2.8 eV), corresponding to the peak positions in TKE spectra (Fig. 5a). These temperature dependences should reflect that of the magnetization. Indeed, the temperature at which an appreciable Kerr effect can be seen, when going from high to lower temperature, is close to the $`T_c`$ values obtained from the magnetic and resistance measurements. On the other hand, the temperature dependence curves for TKE recorded at different photon energies, are quite different from each other. It can be seen that temperature dependence of TKE, measured at $`E=1.8`$ eV, looks quite similar to the M(T) dependence (Fig. 2b). Both curves reveal a sharp increase in magnetization near $`T_c`$, but that for $`E=2.8`$ eV, shows a far slower increase in the TKE signal with decreasing temperature below $`T_c`$. This effect is most likely associated with the shifting of the peak to lower energy (“red” region) with increasing temperature (Fig. 5a); whereas the peak at $`E=1.8`$ eV is not shifted for a wide temperature range. The mechanism of this difference in temperature behavior of the spectral peaks is not clear at present. It is conceivable that this is connected with the different nature of optical transitions responsible for magneto-optical activity in these energy regions. As was shown earlier , in the spectral range under study there is an allowed electric-dipole transition in the octahedral complex (MnO$`{}_{6}{}^{})^9`$ at $`E=3.5`$ eV and spin-resolved $`dd`$ transition in Mn3+ and Mn4+ at lower energies. That is, a large magneto-optical effect in the neighborhood of $`E=3`$ eV is caused by a charge-transfer transition with an involvement of both Mn and O ions. The temperature dependence of this transition should be more complex than that for Mn ions, as is actually observed in this study. Further studies are necessary, of course, to clarify this effect. In general, the TKE data obtained correlate well with the results of magnetic and transport measurements and support arguments that this film is of excellent quality and homogeneity.

Let us turn now to the optical properties of the film. An absorption spectrum for the film in the paramagnetic state at $`T=295`$ K is presented in Fig. 6. It can be seen that an increase in wavelength, $`\lambda `$, leads to a decrease in absorption, that can be associated with the influence of “tails” of inter-band optical transitions. For a large enough increase in wavelength, the absorption begins to increase. This is determined by the presence of the impurity band, which is usually positioned around $`\lambda =10`$ $`\mu `$m ($`E=0.12`$ eV) for manganites and associated with Mn4+ ions . Below $`T_c`$ a strong increase in absorption has been observed. This is connected with the light absorption by free charge carriers. This phenomena is demonstrated more clearly by the temperature dependence of intensity of light transmitted through the film at a wavelength $`\lambda =6.4`$ $`\mu `$m (Fig. 7).

The light intensity is sharply reduced below 270 K in a narrow temperature range (Fig. 7). The giant change in the intensity is more than a 1000-fold decrease. The magnetic field shifts the intensity curve $`I(T)`$ to higher temperature. The relative change of transmission under the influence of the magnetic field \[magneto-transmittance (MT)\], $`\mathrm{\Delta }I_H/I_0=[I_HI_0]/I_0`$, peaks at 28 % in a field of 0.8 T at $`T=265`$ K (see insert in Fig. 7). The magneto-transmittance is found to be significant for the film studied in the temperature range 250-280 K. That can be important for possible applications. In previous works  this effect was observed at significantly lower temperatures ($`T<200`$ K). It must be emphasized as well that the effect is seen in unpolarized light.

### C Discussion

It is quite clear that the giant decrease in transmission found below $`T_c`$ in this study is determined by the transition of the film to the metallic state with fairly high density of free (or quasi-free) charge carriers. In spite of extensive experimental and theoretical efforts, a clear understanding of the metal-insulator transition in doped manganites and the colossal magneto-resistance (CMR) associated with it is not yet available. Several possible explanations can be found in review papers . One of the possible reasons for CMR in homogeneous samples is the shift of the mobility edge induced by a change in temperature or magnetic field . However, it is hard to expect a sufficiently high homogeneity in doped manganites . One of the certain things is that a clear correlation exists between transport properties and magnetization in the mixed-valence manganites . Namely, the resistance $`R`$ of manganites in the ferromagnetic state is a function of magnetization and the conductivity increases with enhancement of ferromagnetic order. This, together with the large drop of resistivity and light transmission below $`T_c`$, is the source of the huge negative MR and MT in manganites.

The sharp drop in resistance below $`T_c`$ in doped manganites can be used for bolometric applications . Actually, the TCR of the film studied is fairly high in the temperature range close to room temperature (see insert in Fig. 3). It has been shown here, however, that changes in the transmission at the magnetic transition are much larger. Indeed, the ratio of resistances at $`T_p`$ and 4.2 K, $`R_p/R_{4.2}`$, was found to be very high (about 48.6), but the optical transmission exhibits a far larger drop (more than a 1000-fold decrease) below $`T_c`$.

The transmission, $`t`$, of films is defined as the ratio between intensities of transmitted and incident light. For a film with high absorption , when $`t<10`$ %, the transmission is related to the absorption coefficient, $`K`$, by the equation $`t=(1R_1)(1R_2)(1R_{12})\mathrm{exp}(Kd)`$, where $`d`$ is film thickness, $`R_{12}`$, $`R_2`$, $`R_1`$ are reflection coefficients at the boundaries of film-substrate, substrate-vacuum, film-vacuum, respectfully. The absorption coefficient is proportional to the DC conductivity (Drude model). It is evident from the foregoing equation that there is no direct proportionality between the transmission and the resistivity, but the temperature dependence of the transmission reflects the $`\rho (T)`$ behavior. The change in intensity of the transmitted light through the sample at the transition to the ferromagnetic state is of particular interest for practical use. This change is large for the film studied in comparison with the moderate change in the absorption coefficient. (It can be shown that a 1000-fold decrease in the transmission corresponds to an increase in the absorption coefficient by a factor of 5.6, not taking into account the change in reflectivity.) The decrease in skin depth, $`\delta `$, at $`T<200`$ K is responsible for the non-transparency of the film in the ferromagnetic state. This can be estimated with the expression $`\delta =(2\rho /\mu \mu _0\omega )^{1/2}`$ under the assumption that the magnetic permeability is equal to unity to obtain $`\delta 70`$ nm at $`T=4.2`$ K, and $`\delta 486`$ nm at $`T=T_p`$ for light with $`\lambda =6.4`$ $`\mu `$m. That is, the skin depth is far larger than the film thickness ($`d150`$ nm) in the paramagnetic state, but in the ferromagnetic state it is significantly less than the film thickness. It should be added that the relative change of the intensity of transmitted light in a magnetic field, MT = $`[I_HI_0]/I_0`$, is certain to be a direct analogue of MR = ($`[R(H)R(0)]/R(0)`$). As in the case of MR, this quantity MT is determined by the ability of an external magnetic field to enhance the magnetic order in the doped manganites.

The high-temperature optical phenomena of magneto-transmittance and the strong temperature dependence of magneto-transmittance near $`T_c`$ that has been reported here can be used for development of a number of IR optoelectronic devices, such as light modulators, optical attenuators, light shutters, temperature and magnetic-field indicators, etc. These devices can work in the IR range with $`\lambda `$ up to 14 $`\mu `$m. As far as we know, the number of materials, which can be used in this energy range as optical control devices, is very limited. High quality and high homogeneity doped manganite films which exhibit a sharp magnetic transition and high conductivity in the ferromagnetic state should be very useful in development of appropriate optical devices.

In conclusion, at a temperature ($`T270`$ K) not far from room temperature giant temperature changes in light transmittance and large magneto-transmittance has been observed. These effects can be used for IR optoelectronics devices.

###### Acknowledgements.

This study was supported in part by INTAS (project INTAS-97-30253) and by the Ministry of Science of Russia (contract No. 2.4.01). The research at Texas A&M University was supported by the Robert A Welch Foundation (A-0514) and the Texas Center for Superconductivity of the University of Houston (TCSUH).


text:
# Entangled coherent states and squeezing in 𝑁 trapped ions

\[

## Abstract

We consider a resonant bichromatic excitation of $`N`$ trapped ions that generates displacement and squeezing in their collective motion conditioned to their ionic internal state, producing eventually Schrödinger cat states and entangled squeezing. Furthermore, we study the case of tetrachromatic illumination for producing the so called entangled coherent states in two motional normal modes.

\]

In the last years great attention has being given to the possibility of producing mesoscopic superposition of states where a great number of particles and degrees of freedom is involved . Beyond their possible applications in quantum information , they represent an important tool in the experimental studies of decoherence and the emergence of the classical world out of its quantized version . In the microscopic world, a system can exist in a superposition of different quantum states, given rise to interference effects. However, these superpositions do not manifest themselves in the classical world . This paradox is partially solved by realizing that coherence is lost increasingly fast with the size of the system . Therefore, the generation of mesoscopic quantum superpositions, and the study of the time scale in which decoherence occurs, is an important step for understanding the boundary between classical physics and quantum mechanics. The system of $`N`$ trapped ions is a good laboratory for building large quantum superpositions and analyzing how decoherence appears when the system grows, since it is weakly affected by the environment . In this work, we discuss some proposals for producing, in a fast and controllable way, vibronic mesoscopic superpositions and other nonclassical states in a system consisting of $`N`$ trapped ions . In particular, generation of Schrödinger cat states, entangled squeezing and entangled coherent states are discussed.

We consider the situation where $`N`$ two-level ions of mass $`m`$ are confined to move in the $`z`$ direction of a Paul trap. We assume that they are cooled down to low temperatures  and able to perform small oscillations around their equilibrium positions, $`z_{j0}`$ ($`j=1,2\mathrm{}N`$). Two classical fields, $`\stackrel{}{E}_I=\stackrel{}{E}_{0I}e^{i(q_Iz\omega _It\phi _I)}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{E}_{II}=\stackrel{}{E}_{0II}e^{i(q_{II}z\omega _{II}t\phi _{II})}`$, illuminate homogeneously all $`N`$ ions, with angular frequencies $`\omega _I`$ and $`\omega _{II}`$, wave vectors, $`q_I=q_{II}=q`$, parallel to the $`z`$ direction, and phases $`\phi _I=\phi _{II}=\phi `$. Depending on the experimental setup, each of theses fields may be obtained effectively from a pair of lasers in Raman configuration. The angular frequencies $`\omega _I`$ and $`\omega _{II}`$ are chosen to be quasiresonant with a ionic internal transition between long-living levels $`|e_j`$ and $`|g_j`$ $`(j=1,\mathrm{}N),`$ with energies $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$ and $`0`$, respectively. The total Hamiltonian of the system may be written, in the optical rotating wave approximation (RWA), as

$`\widehat{H}=\widehat{H}_0+\widehat{H}_{\mathrm{int}},`$ (1)
with

$`\widehat{H}_0=\mathrm{}\omega _0{\displaystyle \underset{j=1,N}{}}|e_je_j|+\mathrm{}\nu a^{}a+{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda =1,N1}{}}\mathrm{}\nu _\lambda b_\lambda ^{}b_\lambda ,`$ (2)
and

$`\widehat{H}_{\mathrm{int}}=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }{\displaystyle \underset{j=1,N}{}}`$ $`\left[e^{i(q\widehat{z}_ji\omega _It\phi )}+e^{i(q\widehat{z}_ji\omega _{II}t\phi )}\right]|e_jg_j|`$ (4)
$`+\mathrm{H}.\mathrm{c}.`$
The operators $`\{a,b_\lambda \}`$ and $`\{a^{},b_\lambda ^{}\}`$ are the annihilation and creation operators associated with the center-of-mass (CM) mode of frequency $`\nu `$ and with the $`N1`$ other vibrational modes of frequency $`\nu _\lambda `$, respectively . We assumed also that the same real coupling constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ appears in the interaction of each excitation field with each ion.

We choose the frequencies $`\omega _I`$ and $`\omega _{II}`$ to be

$`\omega _I=\omega _0+k\nu \mathrm{and}\omega _{II}=\omega _0k\nu ,`$ (5)
so that we excite the CM vibronic transition in the $`k`$-th blue and $`k`$-th red motional sideband . We go to the interaction picture and make a RWA with respect to the CM vibrational frequency, selecting the terms that oscillate with minimum frequency . For simplifying the notation, we set $`\phi =k\pi /2`$ and define the ”spin angular momentum states” $`|_j`$$`=e^{iqz_{j0}}|e_j`$ and $`|_j=|g_j`$. Then, in the Lamb-Dicke regime, the resulting effective Hamiltonian may be written as

$`H_{\mathrm{int}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\eta ^k\mathrm{\Omega }}{k!}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}(\sigma _{j}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+\sigma _j)(a^k+a^k),`$ (6)
where $`\eta =q\sqrt{\mathrm{}/2Nm\nu }`$ is the CM Lamb-Dicke parameter and $`\widehat{\sigma }_{+j}=|_j_j|`$ $`=e^{iqz_{j0}}|e_jg_j|`$ is the so redefined flip-up operator. Note that, in the Hamiltonian of Eq. (6), the operators associated with the internal and external degrees of freedom are decoupled. In fact, it could be rewritten as

$`H_{\mathrm{int}}={\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{}\eta ^k\mathrm{\Omega }}{k!}}J_x(a^k+a^k),`$ (7)
where $`J_x=_{j=1}^N(\sigma _{j}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+\sigma _j)/2`$ may be associated with the $`x`$ component of an angular momentum operator $`\stackrel{}{J}`$, being the $`y`$ and $`z`$ components $`J_y=_{j=1}^N(\sigma _j^{}\sigma _j)/(2i)`$ and $`J_z=_{j=1}^N(|e_je_j||g_jg_j|)/2`$, respectively. We now express the evolution operator, at time $`t`$, as a sum of products of unitary operators acting on the motional state and projection operators acting on the internal state of the ions

$`U_k(t)={\displaystyle \underset{j,m}{}}D_k[m\mathrm{\Omega }_kt]|j,m_{xx}j,m|,`$ (8)
with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k=2i\eta ^k\mathrm{\Omega }/k!`$. Also,

$$D_k(\chi )=e^{\chi a^k\chi ^{}a^k}$$
(9)
and $`|j,m_x`$ are the simultaneous eigenvectors of the operators $`J_x`$ and $`J^2J_x^2+J_y^2+J_z^2`$ associated with the eigenvalues $`m=j,(j1),\mathrm{}..j`$ and $`j(j+1)`$, respectively. $`j`$ varies from $`0`$ $`(1/2)`$ to $`N/2`$ by steps of $`1,`$ if $`N`$ is even (odd).

Eq. (8) shows an important feature of the proposed scheme, it yields an evolution that corresponds to unitary operations $`\widehat{D}_k(\chi )`$ on the CM mode conditioned to the value $`m`$ of the $`x`$-component of the ”angular momentum” electronic state. When $`k=1`$, the excitations occuring in the first red and first blue sidebands, Eq. (9) turns into the familiar displacement operator $`D(\alpha )`$, which produces the coherent state $`|\alpha `$ out of an initial vacuum state $`|0`$. For example, let us consider the case $`N=1`$ with an initial state $`||0=(|++|)/\sqrt{2}`$, where the sates $`|\pm =(|\pm |)/\sqrt{2}`$ are the eigenstates of the operator $`J_x`$ for the case of a single spin $`1/2`$. After a time $`\tau `$, the evolved state will be

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|+|\alpha +||\alpha \right),`$ (10)
where $`\alpha =i\eta \mathrm{\Omega }\tau `$. This state is usually called Schrödinger cat state, consisting of an entangled bipartite system correlating microscopic and mesoscopic quantum states. A measurement of the ionic internal state will project the motional state in

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\alpha \pm |\alpha \right),`$ (11)
usually called even and odd coherent states, if the outcome of the detection was $`|`$ or $`|`$, respectively. Bigger entangled and superposition states, involving different coherent states for the case of $`N`$ ions, were considered recently by the same authors .

The case $`k=2`$, the excitations occuring in the second red and second blue sidebands, can offer us other interesting nonclassical states. The operator of Eq. (9) turns into $`S(\xi )`$, a squeezing operator with squeezing parameter $`\xi `$, that creates two-photon coherent states

$$|\xi =e^{(\xi a^2\xi ^{}a^2)}|0.$$
(12)
If, again, we choose $`N=1`$ (for $`k=2`$) and an initial state $`||0=(|++|)/\sqrt{2}`$, the final state after an interaction time $`\tau `$ is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|+|\xi +||\xi \right),`$ (13)
where $`|\xi `$ and $`|\xi `$ are squeezed vacuum states with $`\xi =i\eta ^2\mathrm{\Omega }/2`$. These squeezing parameters, $`\xi =re^{i\varphi }`$ and $`\xi =re^{i(\varphi +\pi )}`$, will produce the same compression $`e^r`$ in the motional quadratures associated with the orthogonal directions $`\varphi /2`$ and $`\varphi /2+\pi /2`$, respectively. The state of Eq. (13) is, then, an entangled state correlating the microscopic states $`|\pm `$ with the orthogonally squeezed vacuum states $`|\pm \xi `$, produced with a single bichromatic Raman laser pulse. When comparing the entangled states of Eq. (10) and those of Eq. (13), note that coherent states are considered as ”classical” states and squeezed states as ”nonclassical” ones . Going to higher values of $`N`$ will produce, as can be seen from Eq. (8), multiple entanglement of different microscopic internal states with different squeezed vacuum states. Note, also, that it is possible to produce squeezing in a chosen motional quadrature without affecting or entangling the internal degrees of freedom . For achieving this goal, it is enough to consider an initial state that contains one of the electronic eigenstates, say $`|j,m_x|0`$, that in the case of the previous example ($`N=1`$) can be written as $`|\pm |0`$.

We now consider the simultaneous application of four Raman laser fields on $`N`$ trapped ions ($`N>2`$). Their frequencies are chosen as

$`\omega _I`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0+k\nu ,\omega _{II}=\omega _0k\nu ,`$ (14)
$`\omega _{III}`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0+k\nu _r,\omega _{IV}=\omega _0k\nu _r,`$ (15)
where $`\nu _r=\sqrt{3}\nu `$ is the frequency associated with the stretch vibrational mode. By so doing, we excite simultaneously the $`k`$-th red and the $`k`$-th blue vibronic sidebands of the CM and the stretch mode. The amplitudes of the fields exciting the CM mode are taken as equal and the ones exciting the stretch mode follow a similar condition. We take the phases of all Raman laser pulses equal to $`\phi =k\pi /2`$. The effective Hamiltonian, after following the same steps as in the case of the bichromatic illumination, reads

$`H_{\mathrm{int}}=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{}}{k!}}J_x[\eta ^k\mathrm{\Omega }(a^k+a^k)+\eta _r^k\mathrm{\Omega }_r(b^k+b^k)],`$ (16)
where $`b`$ and $`b^{}`$ are the annihilation and creation operator of the stretch mode and $`\eta _r=\eta /\sqrt[4]{3}`$ its associated Lamb-Dicke parameter. $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_r`$ are the different coupling constants associated with the CM and stretch mode excitations, respectively. Using a similar reasoning, it is easy to see that the time evolution operator is now given by

$$U(t)=\underset{j,m}{}D_k(m\mathrm{\Omega }_kt)D_{kr}(m\mathrm{\Omega }_{kr}t)|j,m_{xx}j,m|.$$
(17)
Here, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{kr}=2i\eta _r^k\mathrm{\Omega }_r/k!`$ and

$$D_{kr}(\chi _r)=e^{\chi _rb^k\chi _r^{}b^k}.$$
(18)
In what follows we will restrict us to the case $`k=1`$. We can say, then, that Eq. (17) shows the possibility of producing simultaneous displacements in the CM and stretch mode conditioned to the collective internal state.

Let us consider the particular case $`N=2`$ and an initial state $`||00=\frac{1}{2}(|\varphi _1+|\varphi _2+|\varphi _3+|\varphi _4)|00`$, where

$`|\varphi _{1,2}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(|\pm |\pm |+|)`$ (19)
$`|\varphi _{3,4}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(|\pm |||)`$ (20)
are the eigenvectors of $`J_x=_{j=1}^2(\sigma _{j}^{}{}_{}{}^{}+\sigma _j)/2`$ (spin 1) with eigenvalues $`\lambda _{1,2}=\pm 1`$ and $`\lambda _{3,4}=0`$, respectively. The application of the four Raman laser fields during a time $`\tau `$ will produce the entangled state

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(|\varphi _1|\alpha ,\beta +|\varphi _2|\alpha ,\beta +|\varphi _3|00+|\varphi _4|00)`$ , (21)
with $`\alpha =2i\eta \mathrm{\Omega }\tau `$ and $`\beta =2i\eta _r\mathrm{\Omega }_r\tau `$. This is a more sophisticated Schrödinger cat state, correlating several microscopic states with the vacuum and different mesoscopic states in the CM and stretch motional modes. Measuring the internal state $`|`$ or $`|`$ will project the motional state into

$$\frac{|\alpha ,\beta |\alpha ,\beta }{\sqrt{2(1e^{2|\alpha |^22|\beta |^2})}}.$$
(23)
These states, called entangled coherent states, own special entanglement properties , and have found diverse applications in the domain of quantum information theory . In the language of the Gedankenexperiment after Schrödinger , the state of Eq. (23) represents the simultaneous occurrence of two alife cats and two dead cats. To our knowledge it is the first proposal for producing such entangled states in normal modes of $`N`$ trapped ions, with homogeneous illumination, involving quantum mechanical correlations between two classical states . It is clear that, by imposing $`\eta \mathrm{\Omega }=\eta _r\mathrm{\Omega }_r`$, we could have made $`\alpha =\beta `$. If in Eq. (21) we measure $`|`$ or $`|`$, we will project the motional state into

$$𝒩\left(|\alpha ,\beta +|\alpha ,\beta \pm 2|00\right),$$
(24)
respectively, where $`𝒩`$ is a normalization constant. A more elaborated way of producing entangled coherent states is to consider the initial state $`\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|+|)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\varphi _1+|\varphi _2)`$ . The application of the four Raman laser fields during a time $`\tau `$ generates the state

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(|\varphi _1|\alpha ,\beta +|\varphi _2|\alpha ,\beta \right).`$ (25)
The subsequent detection of the state $`|`$ will produce the state

$$\frac{|\alpha ,\beta +|\alpha ,\beta }{\sqrt{2(1+e^{2|\alpha |^22|\beta |^2})}},$$
(26)
and the measurement of the state $`|`$ will reproduce the entangled coherent state of Eq. (23).

It is easy to generalize this procedure to $`n`$ vibrational normal modes in an $`N`$ ion system, by using different bichromatic excitation fields with frequencies $`\omega _o\pm k\nu _n`$, $`\nu _n`$ being the frequency of the $`n^{\mathrm{th}}`$ normal mode. By so doing, we could obtain more sophisticated entangled mesoscopic superpositions.

In conclusion, we have shown that resonant bichromatic and tetrachromatic excitations of $`N`$ trapped ions can be an important tool for producing different families of nonclassical states, involving the ionic internal and external degrees of freedom. Generating bigger nonclassical states, and studying their decay properties, should help us to understand better the border between the quantum and the classical world. At the same time, interesting applications may appear, specially the ones related to the field of quantum information. In particular, for the case of a single ion and a bichromatic illumination, we have shown how to produce Schrödinger cat states and entangled squeezed states by means of a single bichromatic Raman laser pulse. In the case of two ions and tetrachromatic excitation, we have shown how to produce, in a straightforward manner, entangled coherent states in two motional normal modes, and other states involving multiple entanglement.

This work was partially supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), the Programa de Apoio a Núcleos de Excelência (PRONEX) and Fundação José Bonifácio (FUJB).