CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de NÃvel Superior / O presente trabalho à divido em duas partes. Na primeira, a utilizaÃÃo do interferÃmetro de Sagnac em informaÃÃo quÃntica à analisada atravÃs da aplicaÃÃo do mesmo em trÃs problemas: MediÃÃo livre de interaÃÃo, distribuiÃÃo quÃntica de chaves e compartilhamento de segredo. Para a mediÃÃo livre de interaÃÃo, dois sistemas usando o Sagnac foram propostos. Considerando detectores ideais e ausÃncia de perdas, um deles apresenta probabilidade de sucesso de 25% por fÃton consumido, enquanto que o segundo apresenta probabilidade de determinar corretamente a presenÃa do objeto prÃxima a 100% por fÃton consumido. Para a distribuiÃÃo quÃntica de chaves foi proposta uma configuraÃÃo diferente das existentes, sendo a principal diferenÃa a ausÃncia de retorno do pulso enviado, como ocorre nos sistemas com Sagnac anteriormente propostos. Isto evita ataques do tipo Cavalo de TrÃia. Por fim, foi proposta uma configuraÃÃo Ãptica que permite que um segredo compartilhado por cinco pessoas, localmente distantes, seja usado apenas quando todos os cinco concordarem. A segunda parte da dissertaÃÃo apresenta um estudo analÃtico e numÃrico da variaÃÃo do entrelaÃamento de estados bipartites de qubits quando da propagaÃÃo dos mesmos em canais quÃnticos ruidosos. Em particular, foi encontrada uma fÃrmula exata que relaciona os entrelaÃamentos dos estados na entrada e saÃda do canal, quando o estado na entrada à puro e o canal à modelado pela interaÃÃo do estado bipartite (sinal) com um qubit (estado do canal) atravÃs de uma operaÃÃo unitÃria canÃnica. / This work is divided into two parts. In the first one, the use of the Sagnac interferometer in quantum information is analyzed applying it in three problems: interaction-free measurement, quantum key distribution, and secret sharing. For the interaction-free measurement two systems using Sagnac interferometer were proposed. Considering ideal detectors and loss less devices, one of them has a success probability of 25% for each photon used while the other presents the probability of getting success to detect the presence of the object close to 100% for each photon used. For quantum key distribution, it was proposed a different setup, where the main difference is that the pulse sent by the transmitter does not come back to him/her as happen with the systems based on Sagnac proposed before. This avoids the Trojan horse attack. Finally, it was proposed an optical configuration where it is possible to share a secret among five users, locally distant, that could be used only when all five persons agreed. The second part of this dissertation presents an analytical and numerical study of the entanglement variation of bipartite states of qubits during propagation in a quantum noisy channel. Particularly, it was found an exactly formula which relates the entanglement of states in the input and output of the channel, when the input state is pure and the channel is modeled by a canonical unitary operation.

When seen among the constellation of Edgar Allan Poe's works culminating in Eureka, "The Colloquy of Monos and Una" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt," take on an important role as vehicles for scientific contemplation. Similar to early quantum physicists, such as Einstein and Schrödinger, Poe uses macro-level analogies to explore the unity of individual entities, which becomes an important tenet of his explanation of the universe. His thought experiments also resemble those of modern physics in their approach to reality as probabilistic, an idea that finds its echo in quantum field theory, which distinguishes between observed particles and their underlying existence as vibrations in a field rather than distinct units. In this thesis, I use specific examples from "Monos and Una" to demonstrate that the barrier between individuals blurs when viewed from the perspective of a unified field. I also examine ways that "Marie Rogêt" expands the idea of a unified field in terms of entangled individuals and correlated events, and pushes against the Newtonian deterministic tradition. In the context of Poe's body of work, these stories depart from the aesthetic that characterizes many of his most widely-read stories, in that their exploration of the scientific seems to overtake the narrative. However, their composition, which leaves some readers dissatisfied, expertly comments on the dichotomy between the observed and the real, and the role that narrative plays in interpreting experience.

Cette thèse est consacrée à la mécanique et à la mécanique statistique de biofilaments/biopolymères et de leur modèle le plus répandu le Worm-Like Chain (WLC) qu’il s’avère nécessaire d’étendre. Nous étudions WLC à 2-d en présence d’obstacles plus proches que la longueur de persistance. Nous caractérisons le mouvement aux temps courts par des simulations numériques complétées par des calculs analytiques. Des concepts similaires servent à décrire des ADN greffés balayés par le front d’une vésicule en cours d’étalement, l’adhésion de la vésicule est promue par des paires biotine/streptavidine qui contraignent les molécules d'ADN sur des chemins étroits où ils peuvent être imagés. Les microtubules (MT) ici stabilisés au taxol, présentent par contre certains comportements qui échappent au WLC et doivent être ramenés à leur structure interne : i)les déflexions latérales d’un MT attaché par un bout correspondent à une longueur de persistance apparente qui augmente avec la longueur ii) les MT adoptent des formes super-hélicoïdales. Ces deux points sont établis au moyen d’analyses de forme des MT. Des transitions de forme corrélées le long du MT mises en évidence sont compatibles avec un modèle basé sur la bistabilité du dimère de tubuline. Finalement un modèle de chaîne super-hélicoïdale comprenant une courbure et une torsion spontanées élargi le WLC. Confiné à 2-d, HWLC peut adopter un état fondamental circulaire ou sinueux caractérisé par le nombre de points d’inflexion où se concentre la torsion (twist-kink). Dans le cas circulaire, il existe des états métastables proches, à petit nombre de twist-kinks, hyperflexibles. / This PhD is devoted to the mechanics and statistical mechanics of biofilaments and their most widespread model, the Worm-Like Chain (WLC) model, which, as it turns out, needs to be extended. We study the WLC in 2-d in the presence of obstacles closer than their persistence length. We characterize the short time motion by numerical simulations complemented by analytical calculations. Similar concepts serve to describe grafted DNAs swept by the front of a spreading vesicle whose adhesion is promoted by biotin/streptavidin bonds, which constrain the DNAs on narrow paths where they can be imaged. Microtubules (MT), here stabilized by taxol, show features which cannot be rationalized by the WLC and shall be related to their internal structure : i)lateral deflections of a clamped MT correspond to an effective persistence length growing with the MT size ii) MT adopt super-helical shapes. These two points are proven by refined image analysis. We analyze shape transitions correlated along the MT which are compatible with a model based on dimer bi-stability. Finally, a super helical chain model (HWLC) allowing for spontaneous curvature and twist is developed which extends the WLC. When confined to 2-d, the HWLC can adopt a ground state which is circular or wavy with inflection points where twist accumulates, so-called twist-kinks. In the circular case there exist close metastable states, with a small number of twist-kinks, which are hyperflexible.

Une mémoire quantique réversible permettant de stocker et relire de l'information quantique est une composante majeure dans la mise en œuvre de nombreux protocoles d'information quantique. Comme la lumière est un porteur de l'information quantique fiable sur des longues distances, et comme les atomes offrent la possibilité d'obtenir de longues durées de stockage, le recherche actuelle sur la création d'une mémoire quantique se concentre sur la transfert des fluctuations quantiques de la lumière sur des cohérences atomiques. Le travail réalisé durant cette thèse porte sur le développement d'une mémoire quantique pour la lumière comprimée, utilisant un ensemble d'atomes froids de Césium stock'es dans un piege magnéto-optique. Nos deux principaux objectifs étaient le développement d'une source de lumière non-classique, et le développement d'un milieu atomique pour le stockage de celle-ci. Tout d'abord, nous commençons par présenter la construction d'un oscillateur paramétrique optique qui utilise un cristal non-linéaire de PPKTP. Cet OPO fonctionne comme source d'états de vide comprime résonant avec la raie D2 du Césium. Nous caractérisons ces états grâce à une reconstruction par tomographie quantique, en utilisant une approche de vraisemblance maximale. Ensuite, nous examinons une nouvelle expérience qui nous permet d'utiliser comme milieu de stockage des atomes froids de Césium dans un piège magneto-optique récemment développé. Car cette expérience exige l'utilisation de nouveaux outils et techniques, nous discutons le développement de ceux-ci, et comment ils ont contribue à notre progression vers le stockage des états quantiques dans nos atomes des Césium, et finalement vers l'intrication de deux ensembles atomiques.

This thesis, Earth satellites and detection of air andground based activities by Ulf Ekblad of the Physics departmentat the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), addresses theproblem of detecting military activities in imagery. Examplesof various techniques are presented. In particular, problemsassociated with "novelties" and "changes" in an image arediscussed and various algorithms presented. The imagery usedincludes satellite imagery, aircraft imagery, and photos offlying aircraft. The timely delivery of satellite imagery is limited by thelaws of celestial mechanics. This and other information aspectsof imagery are treated. It is e.g. shown that dozens ofsatellites may be needed if daily observations of a specificsite on Earth are to be conducted from low Earth orbit. New findings from bioinformatics and studies of small mammalvisual systems are used. The Intersecting Cortical Model (ICM),which is a reduced variant of the Pulse-Coupled Neural Network(PCNN), is used on various problems among which are changedetection. Still much more could be learnt from biologicalsystems with respect to pre- and post-processing as well asintermediate processing stages. Simulated satellite imagery is used for determining theresolution limit for detection of tanks. The necessary pixelsize is shown to be around 6 m under the conditions of thissimulation. Difference techniques are also tested on Landsat satelliteimagery with the purpose of detecting underground nuclearexplosions. In particular, it is shown that this can easily bedone with 30 m resolution images, at least in the case studied.Satellite imagery from SPOT is used for detecting undergroundnuclear explosions prior to the detonations, i.e. under certainconditions 10 m resolution images can be used to detectpreparations of underground nuclear explosions. This type ofinformation is important for ensuring the compliance of nucleartest ban treaties. Furthermore, the necessity for havingcomplementary information in order to be able to interpretimages is also shown. Keywords: Remote sensing, reconnaissance, sensor,information acquisition, satellite imagery, image processing,image analysis, change detection, pixel difference, neuronnetwork, cortex model, PCNN, ICM, entanglement, Earthobservation, nuclear explosion, SPOT, Landsat, verification,orbit.

This study is concerned with subject formation in the fiction of contemporary postcolonial authors Abdulrazak Gurnah, Yvonne Vera, and David Dabydeen. In contextualised readings of a total of nine works – Gurnah’s Admiring Silence (1996), By the Sea (2001), and Desertion (2005); Vera’s Without a Name (1996), Butterfly Burning (1998), and The Stone Virgins (2002); Dabydeen’s Disappearance (1993), Turner (1994), and A Harlot’s Progress (1999) – it explores thematic and formal aspects of the subject’s constitution in the texts. Investigating the representation of material and discursive traces that constitute the individual, this study has a double aim. First, it describes the particular historical formations that mould the individual in the different texts. Second, it investigates the tactics used to imaginatively upset these formations in order to present new and more enabling modes of being. Gurnah’s fiction depicts the intricate meshwork of social codes, emotions, and narratives that shape subjectivity in a highly unstable and cosmopolitan social reality. His novels repeatedly thematise cultural disorientation, migration, and the efforts of establishing a minimum of social and narrative stability in the form of a home. The chapter reads Gurnah’s fiction against a background of Zanzibari history and diaspora and suggests that various forms of “entanglements” paradoxically provide the means to pull the subject out of states of anxiety and alienation into more viable states of being. Vera’s novels engage a powerful Zimbabwean discourse on history, and the psychic and bodily wounds that result from its violent impact on the subject. Set at moments of special and contested historical importance, her novels address the exclusions and silences of this discourse in order both to assess its effects and the possibilities of imagining alternative versions that would allow other modes of subjectivity. These possibilities are manifested, thematically and textually, through an improvisational form of “movement,” geographical, linguistic, and musical. Dabydeen’s fiction investigates the textual dimensions of identity and its connections to larger cultural archives of tropes and languages. Focusing on the constraining yet constitutive impact of various modes of colonial and racial rhetoric, his literary texts display a manipulation of textual elements from these archives that approaches a re-conception of the subject. To describe this manipulation of English and Caribbean sources, thematised and dramatically staged in his fiction, I am using Dabydeen’s own phrase, “creative amnesia.”

This paper aims to describe and elaborate on a recent discursive change within the new-age movement. Since the seventies and the publishing of speculative popular science books like The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The self-aware universe by Amit Goswami, the idea that quantum physics resonates with spirituality has become the topic of hundreds of books and movies. The quantum-spiritual discourse has three distinct ways to approach quantum physics in its discussion on spirituality: The parallelistic approach which emphasizes the similarities between eastern philosophies and modern physics, the monistic-idealistic approach which tells us that mind is the foundation of matter and the scientific spiritual approach which tries to explain spiritual claims scientifically. In the quantum-spiritual discourse, quantum physical phenomena (e.g. non-locality and entanglement) are being called upon to validate metaphysical statements. The primary assumption of the discourse is that the shift of paradigm due to the establishment of modern physics also is a shift of paradigm of spirituality. With the object to examine the common claims made in the discourse, cross-references between spiritual arguments and facts of quantum physics are being made. A discussion is held about the probable influence of the historical context, with particular focus on the monistic evolvement during the late nineteenth century.

<p>This thesis, Earth satellites and detection of air andground based activities by Ulf Ekblad of the Physics departmentat the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), addresses theproblem of detecting military activities in imagery. Examplesof various techniques are presented. In particular, problemsassociated with "novelties" and "changes" in an image arediscussed and various algorithms presented. The imagery usedincludes satellite imagery, aircraft imagery, and photos offlying aircraft.</p><p>The timely delivery of satellite imagery is limited by thelaws of celestial mechanics. This and other information aspectsof imagery are treated. It is e.g. shown that dozens ofsatellites may be needed if daily observations of a specificsite on Earth are to be conducted from low Earth orbit.</p><p>New findings from bioinformatics and studies of small mammalvisual systems are used. The Intersecting Cortical Model (ICM),which is a reduced variant of the Pulse-Coupled Neural Network(PCNN), is used on various problems among which are changedetection. Still much more could be learnt from biologicalsystems with respect to pre- and post-processing as well asintermediate processing stages.</p><p>Simulated satellite imagery is used for determining theresolution limit for detection of tanks. The necessary pixelsize is shown to be around 6 m under the conditions of thissimulation.</p><p>Difference techniques are also tested on Landsat satelliteimagery with the purpose of detecting underground nuclearexplosions. In particular, it is shown that this can easily bedone with 30 m resolution images, at least in the case studied.Satellite imagery from SPOT is used for detecting undergroundnuclear explosions prior to the detonations, i.e. under certainconditions 10 m resolution images can be used to detectpreparations of underground nuclear explosions. This type ofinformation is important for ensuring the compliance of nucleartest ban treaties. Furthermore, the necessity for havingcomplementary information in order to be able to interpretimages is also shown.</p><p>Keywords: Remote sensing, reconnaissance, sensor,information acquisition, satellite imagery, image processing,image analysis, change detection, pixel difference, neuronnetwork, cortex model, PCNN, ICM, entanglement, Earthobservation, nuclear explosion, SPOT, Landsat, verification,orbit.</p>

La spectroscopie d'intrication, initialement introduite par Li et Haldane dans le contexte de l'effet Hall quantique fractionnaire, a suscité un large éventail de travaux. Le spectre d'intrication est le spectre de la matrice de densité réduite, quand on partitionne le système en deux. Pour de nombreux systèmes quantiques, il révèle une caractéristique unique : calculé uniquement à partir de la fonction d'onde de l'état fondamental, le spectre d'intrication donne accès à la physique des excitations de bord. Dans ce manuscrit, nous donnons un apercu de la spectroscopie d'intrication. Nous introduisons les concepts de base dans le cas des chaînes de spins quantiques. Nous présentons une étude approfondie des spectres d'intrication appliqués aux phases de l'effet Hall quantique fractionnaire, montrant quel type d'information est encodé dans l'état fondamental et comment les différentes facons de partitionner le système permettent de sonder différents types d'excitation. Comme application pratique de cette technique, nous discutons de la manière dont cette technique peut aider à faire la distinction entre les différentes phases qui émergent dans les isolants de Chern en interaction forte.

Some special features of polaritons, quasi-particles being normal modes of system of excitons interacting with photons in so called strong coupling regime, are theoretically and numerically analyze in low dimensional systems. In Chapter 1 is given a brief overview of 0D, 1D and 2D semiconductor structures with a general introduction to the polariton field. Chapter 2 is devoted to micro / nano wires. The so called whispering gallery modes are studied in the general case of an anisotropic systems as well as polariton formation in ZnO wires. Theoretical model is compared with an experiment. In the Chapter 3 Josephson type dynamics with Bose-Einstein condensates of polaritons is analyzed taking into account pseudospin degree of freedom. Chapter 4 start with an introduction to Aharonov-Bohm effect, as the best known represent of geometrical phases. An another geometrical phase - Berry phase, occurring for a wide class of systems performing adiabatic motion on a closed ring, is main subject of this section. We considered one proposition for an exciton polariton ring interferometer based on Berry phase effect. Chapter 5 concerns one 0D system : strongly coupled quantum dot exciton to cavity photon. We have discussed possibility of obtaining entangled states from a quantum dot embedded in a photonic crystal in polariton regime.