Why is it important to study the gender gap in physics? Despite entering the workforce in increasing numbers over the last fifty years, women remain severely underrepresented in science and technology-related careers, particularly in positions of authority. Simultaneously, numerous studies verify that women have the ability to perform as well as – or better than – males in physics, and, when presented in certain lights, as many women as men show an interest in physics. Changes must be made in order to strive for equality and, given the changing demographic of the workforce, increase our country’s diminishing scientific prowess.

We study two aspects of the problem of a particle moving on a lattice while subject to dissipation, often called the "Schmid model." First, a correspondence between the Schmid model and boundary sine-Gordon field theory is explored, and a new method is applied to the calculation of the partition function for the theory. Second, a traditional condensed matter formulation of the problem in one spatial dimension is extended to the case of an arbitrary two-dimensional Bravais lattice. A well-known mathematical analogy between one-dimensional dissipative quantum mechanics and string theory provides an equivalence between the Schmid model at the critical point and boundary sine-Gordon theory, which describes a free bosonic field subject to periodic interaction on the boundaries. Using the tools of conformal field theory, the partition function is calculated as a function of the temperature and the renormalized coupling constants of the boundary interaction. The method pursues an established technique of introducing an auxiliary free boson, fermionizing the system, and constructing the boundary state in fermion variables. However, a different way of obtaining the fermionic boundary conditions from the bosonic theory leads to an alternative renormalization for the coupling constants that occurs at a more natural level than in the established approach. Recent renormalization group analyses of the extension of the Schmid model to a two-dimensional periodic potential have yielded interesting new structure in the phase diagram for the mobility. We extend a classic one-dimensional, finite temperature calculation to the case of an arbitrary two-dimensional Bravais lattice. The duality between weak-potential and tightbinding lattice limits is reproduced in the two-dimensional case, and a perturbation expansion in the potential strength used to verify the change in the critical dependence of the mobility on the strength of the dissipation. With a triangular lattice the possibility of third order contributions arises, and we obtain some preliminary expressions for their contributions to the mobility.

We study two aspects of the problem of a particle moving on a lattice while subject to dissipation, often called the "Schmid model." First, a correspondence between the Schmid model and boundary sine-Gordon field theory is explored, and a new method is applied to the calculation of the partition function for the theory. Second, a traditional condensed matter formulation of the problem in one spatial dimension is extended to the case of an arbitrary two-dimensional Bravais lattice. A well-known mathematical analogy between one-dimensional dissipative quantum mechanics and string theory provides an equivalence between the Schmid model at the critical point and boundary sine-Gordon theory, which describes a free bosonic field subject to periodic interaction on the boundaries. Using the tools of conformal field theory, the partition function is calculated as a function of the temperature and the renormalized coupling constants of the boundary interaction. The method pursues an established technique of introducing an auxiliary free boson, fermionizing the system, and constructing the boundary state in fermion variables. However, a different way of obtaining the fermionic boundary conditions from the bosonic theory leads to an alternative renormalization for the coupling constants that occurs at a more natural level than in the established approach. Recent renormalization group analyses of the extension of the Schmid model to a two-dimensional periodic potential have yielded interesting new structure in the phase diagram for the mobility. We extend a classic one-dimensional, finite temperature calculation to the case of an arbitrary two-dimensional Bravais lattice. The duality between weak-potential and tightbinding lattice limits is reproduced in the two-dimensional case, and a perturbation expansion in the potential strength used to verify the change in the critical dependence of the mobility on the strength of the dissipation. With a triangular lattice the possibility of third order contributions arises, and we obtain some preliminary expressions for their contributions to the mobility.

This is a thesis which contributes to research in two different fields: theoretical physics and physics education research. The common link between these two research areas is that both involve explorations of abstract physics and mathematical representations, but from different perspectives. The first part of this thesis is situated in theoretical physics. Here a cosmological scenario is explored where a de Sitter phase is replaced with a phase described with a scale factor a(t) ~ tq, where 1/3<1. This scenario could be viewed as an inflationary toy model, and is shown to open up the possibility of an information paradox. This potential paradox is resolved even in the worst case scenario by showing that the time scales involved for such a paradox to occur is of the order of magnitude of the recurrence time for the de Sitter space. The second part of this thesis is situated in physics education research. A number of learning situations that are experienced as abstract by students are explored: probability in one dimensional quantum tunnelling; the mindsets that students adopt towards understanding physics equations used in typical teaching scenarios; and what students focus on when presented with physics equations. The results for the quantum scattering study are four phenomenographic categories of description, for the mind sets study, six epistemological components of mindsets and for the focus on physics equations study, three foci creating five levels of increasing complexity of ways of experiencing physics equations.  Pedagogical implications of these results are discussed.

Quantum entanglement is employed as a resource throughout quantum information science. However, before entanglement can be put to intelligent use, the issues of its production and detection must be considered. This thesis proposes four schemes for producing the bound entangled Smolin state. Three of these schemes produce the Smolin state by means of general quantum gates acting on different initial states - an all-zero state, a GHZ-state and two combined Bell states. The fourth scheme is based on one-qubit operations acting on two-photon states produced by SPDC. Furthermore, a maximum overlap entanglement witness detecting entanglement in the Smolin state is derived. This witness is measurable in three measurement settings with the maximal noise tolerance p=2/3. Lastly, simplified entanglement witnesses for the 4-, 6- and 8-qubit unitary invariant states are derived. These witnesses are measurable in three measurement settings with noise tolerances p=0.1802..., p=0.1502... and p=0.0751..., respectively.

As technological advances allow us to peer into and beyond microscopic phenomena, new theoretical developments are necessary to facilitate this exploration. In particular, the potential afforded by utilizing quantum resources promises to dramatically affect scientific research, communications, computation, and material science. Control theory is the field dedicated to the manipulation of systems, and quantum control theory pertains to the manoeuvring of quantum systems. Due to the inherent sensitivity of quantum ensembles to their environment, time-optimal solutions should be found in order to minimize exposure to external sources. Furthermore, the complexity of the Schr\"odinger equation in describing the evolution of a unitary operator makes the analytical discovery of time-optimal solutions rare, motivating the development of numerical algorithms. The seminal result of classical control is the Pontryagin Maximum Principle, which implies that a restriction to bounded control amplitudes admits two classifications of trajectories: bang-bang and singular. Extensions of this result to generalized control problems yield the same classification and hence arise in the study of quantum dynamics. While singular trajectories are often avoided in both classical and quantum literature, a full optimal synthesis requires that we analyze the possibility of their existence. With this in mind, this treatise will examine the issue of time-optimal quantum control. In particular, we examine the results of existing numerical algorithms, including Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering and the Kaya-Huneault method. We elaborate on the ideas of the Kaya-Huneault algorithm and present an alternative algorithm that we title the Real-Embedding algorithm. These methods are then compared when used to simulate unitary evolution. This is followed by a brief examination on the conditions for the existence of singular controls, as well possible ideas and developments in creating geometry based numerical algorithms.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-148).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 208-215).

Η παρούσα εργασία χωρίζεται σε δύο μέρη. Στην εισαγωγή γίνεται μια ιστορική ανασκόπηση. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται όλες εκείνες οι βασικές εισαγωγικές έννοιες που χρησιμοποιούνται από τη θεωρία του χάους και στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο γίνεται μια στοιχειώδης σύνοψη της Κβαντομηχανικής, τονίζονται οι διαφορές από την κλασική θεωρία και επιχειρείται μια πρώτη προσέγγιση στο ερώτημα "μπορεί να υπάρξει κβαντικό χάος"; Επίσης γίνεται μια πρώτη αναφορά για τις στατιστικές κατανομές ιδιοτιμών και ιδιοσυναρτήσεων που παρατηρούνται στα κβαντομηχανικά συστήματα και βγαίνουν τα πρώτα θεωρητικά συμπεράσματα. Το δεύτερο μέρος είναι αφιερωμένο στα κβαντικά μπιλιάρδα. Το τέταρτο κεφάλαιο ασχολείται με τις στατιστικές ιδιότητες των ιδιοτιμών και των ιδιοσυναρτήσεων. Στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται αναλυτικά η μέθοδος μετασχηματισμού εφελκυσμού η οποία είναι και η μέθοδος που ακολουθήθηκε για την εξαγωγή των ιδιοτιμών στα πειραματικά μας δεδομένα. Επίσης παρουσιάζεται το μπιλιάρδο του Robnik και διάφορα άλλα μπιλιάρδα. Τέλος παρουσιάζονται τα συμπεράσματα από τη στατιστική ανάλυση των ιδιοτήτων των παραπάνω μπιλιάρδων. Επίσης υπάρχουν και τέσσερα παραρτήματα που αφορούν τη Θεωρία τυχαίων μητρών, Θεωρία διαταραχών, Στοιχειώδη τανυστική ανάλυση και άλλες αριθμητικές μεθόδους υπολογισμού των ιδιοτιμών και ιδιοκαταστάσεων κβαντικών μπιλιάρδων. / -

Recent experiments show evidence for long-lived electronic coherence in several photosynthetic complexes, for example in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex of green sulfur bacteria. The experiments raise questions about the microscopic reasons for this quantum coherence and its role to the functioning of these highly evolved biological systems. The present thesis addresses both questions. We find that an interplay of electronic coherence and the fluctuating phonon environment is responsible for the high exciton transport efficiency in these complexes and generalize this idea to the concept of environment-assisted quantum transport (ENAQT). In addition, we quantify the contribution of coherent dynamics to the efficiency and thus to the biological functioning. We determine the effect of temporal (non-Markovian) and spatial correlations and develop an ab initio propagation method based on atomistic detail which predicts the long-lived coherence. The research in photosynthetic energy transfer can inspire new designs for the control of excitons in engineered systems. We develop a method for computing the Forster coupling between semiconductor nanoparticle quantum dots. The focus is on the size and shape dependence and the presence of a spatially varying dielectric environment and metallic gates. A separation of the wavefunction into slowly and fast varying part provides the basis for an efficient computation on a real-space grid. Finally, the simulation of structured models of photosynthetic energy transfer is a challenging task using conventional computing resources. To this end, we propose a special-purpose superconducting device based on flux quantum bits and quantum LC resonators and show that parameters can be engineered such that this simulation becomes possible. / Chemistry and Chemical Biology