Good-bye 2011: Ten things...

It seems like a tradition to have top-10 lists when the end of year comes about. I think I have never done so in my life, but  I'm ready to give it my best shot. I can hardly figure out if I'm gonna get to 10 but surely I'm gonna try and prevail with a "Ten things that 2011 left me". Here I go!

1. I'm a lucky guy, not just because I won great prices on last and this year Christmas' dinner at CQT, but for all the reasons that follow.
2. I've a great family. I was born to a school teacher and an oil worker who barely finished half his junior high, yet they saw me through my bachelor and more. And of course my mother and father aunts are the most amazing, supportive and crazy women I know, the same goes to my cousins and adopted brothers. I have known this for a long time, but every year they manage to remind me of it.
3. I've had very good examples in life. I also have known this but, again, this year I met and saw with my eyes the works of great people: Kwek, Valerio, Bjorn, Berger, Chang, great individuals, great examples.
4. I've had incredible bosses in the past. This is a reflexive. Man, oh man. I have had very good supervisors in the past, honest, responsible with moral and ethical standards and good hearths.  
5. I've worked with great people. Thanks to my actual job, I met a bunch of great guys who have taught me a lot of physics, who have made me laugh a lot, run after a football for the fist time in many years, and enjoy a beer and a burger now and then.
6. I've lived in a wonderful city. Singapore is something very special, it is a first world island/country/city where everything works, crime is very low and nothing is more than one-hour away by public transport.
7. I've tried my best to live a honest life. That's hard, there's always a corner to cut, a rationalization to made or simply one can believe that it is doing so, without even taking time to meditate about it. I have failed in somethings, I have managed to keep my ground in some others, but I have always gone for it.
8. I've everything I've ever needed. I have a roof over my head, food on my plate and clothes to enjoy the outdoors, a wonderful family, great friends and savings to survive while I get another job. I cannot ask for more. 
9. It is us that decide what and when enough is enough. I guess the bar rises or lowers as you have to support wife, kids, or even such a bullshit as a "life-style," but in the end it is up to each and everyone to set that bar and take responsibility for it.
10. I'll try to keep giving the good fight... is life about something else? I don't think so. 

May God bless us all in this new 2012!

Last weekend movies...

Lyx wanted a Christmas themed weekend of movies, here is the result plus some that I managed to squeeze on my own time...

1. Hogfather, ****
   Human belief is conserved, if one major belief is getting lost then there will be belief to support minor lies into existence.This was the first tv-movie made from a Discworld book and it was a great film centered on Death and Susan. Not as good as The Colour of Magic, though.
   
   
2. The Polar Express, ***
   A boy is loosing his belief in Santa Claus and needs to be brought back into the Christmas spirit. I guess this was an amazing animation in its own time. The story, well, is dull and boring but the quality of the animation is very good even though it's almost eight years old.
   
   
3. Just go with it, **
   A guy's heart is broken by his fiance just minutes before the wedding and this is enough to make him take on girls based on pure lies from then on, until he finds love, love out from honesty and respect. It's a good laugh and Jennifer Aniston is so cute!
   
   
4. Bad Santa, **
   A conman finds something that could pass as redemption through a neglected kid during Christmas. Billy Bob Thornton plays the role of an alcoholic conman that makes his year every Christmas alongside a fellow criminal. I don't like happy endings in this kind of movies.
   
   
5. Setup, **
   A diamond heist goes south when the leader decides to cheat on the gang but making the mistake of letting one alive. It lacked the fast pace and explosiveness that I would expect from an action/violent film. After the first scenes I was expecting Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels, but got nothing.
   
   
6. Scrooged, *
   A Christmas carol told in the 80s with Bill Murray in the role of a modern Scrooge. It was better when I first saw it in the 90s.
   
   
7. Hall Pass, *
   Two married guys neglected by their wives get a one week free from marriage and find that the good old times are actually gone while their wives are the ones really getting the time off and the fooling around. It gets a few laughs but nothing out of the ordinary.
   
   
8. Elf, *
   A human orphan gets to the North Pole and is raised as an Elf and some thirty years later comes back to his father to try to live like human, during Christmas in New York. Of course, he ends up saving Christmas and his family. Some laughs but mostly embarrassment.

Most of the series have gone to hiatus...

1. Terra Nova S01 E11-13, ****
   Terra Nova is over and it seems like it's not gonna be back. In these last chapters the colony faces the invasion from the future when the mole helps Lucas finish his solution for the two-way tunnel. The colony is taken by the forces from the future and the bridge severed by Taylor and his men to prevent the corporation from ruining Terra Nova.
   
   
2. Hawaii five-o, (hiatus)
   
   
3. Castle, (hiatus)
   
   
4. Last Man Standing, (hiatus)
   
   
5. Big Bang Theory, (hiatus)
   
   
6. Psych, (hiatus)

LWP: On-chip, photon-number-resolving, telecommunication-band detectors for scalable photonic information processing

by T. Gerrits et. al.
Physical Review A 84, 060301(R) (2011)

Some of the big problems in commercial realizations of Quantum Optics protocols are the inefficient coupling between systems and detectors and the forest of optical devices needed to realize them in the laboratory. Integration in optical circuits could resolve both.

This article shows a realization of a photon-number-resolving detector that can be integrated with superconducting devices in photonic circuits. The detector is a transition-edge sensor made of tungsten evanescently coupled to the system to measure.

I'm not that bright to understand everything about the technical stuff but I find this very interesting in the sense that now they can strongly increase the efficiency of their detection process and as well as resolve photon number in the system (they tested their detection scheme with a coherent pulse with a few photons)

I wish I could say more, but I am far from my lab days. It is a nice paper presenting something that may very useful in the near future go and have a look and maybe you could come back and tell me more about it.

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

In this the fifth installment of the Dark Tower series, Mr. King takes Roland's ka-tet closer to the Tower in a Seven Samurai (or Magnificent Seven) Mid-world spin including Dr. Doom look-a-likes armed with lightsabers and snitches while trying to figure out how to protect the rose in 1977 New York. 

Mr. King's penmanship gets the main story arc advanced and manages to twist it with a remnant from Jake's entrance to Mid-world: Suze is in troubles an developing a new personality as a consequence of her mating with the demon guardian. Also, the cast of players related to the main story arc gets larger with Calvin Tower and Deepneau's role in the story increasing as a result of Tower's family being related to the rose; and Father Callahan from  Salem's Lot becoming a part of the gunslingers ka-tet. 

Again, the book is an intertwined collection of stories. The main one being the defense of old western town Calla Brym Sturgis from the Wolves that every twenty years or so kidnap one of each set of twins to deliver them back ruined: stupid and gigant; second in importance is the storyline developing in New York 1977 where the rose is in danger as the servants of the dark try to make a grab on the vacant lot; a third important arc is the developments in Susannah Dean's life that lead into the next installment of the series. A significant part of the book is filled with Father Callahan story during and after Salem's Lot.

The novel is a page-turner as all other installments in the series are. The confluence of all of Mr. King's worlds into the Dark Tower multiverse becomes stronger with the introduction of Father Callahan and the tales of his wandering through multiple worlds. Again, I have to tell that Mr. King's is making a better job than Mr. Heinlin did in consolidating all his stories into a single multiverse; oh, he even introduces himself into the story citing Salem's Lot. Also, he cites Mr. Heinlin's The Door into Summer—a nice self-recreation time travel paradox based story (one of Mr. Heinlin favorite topics) and a must read, I guess the idea of projecting into the future thanks to cryogenic storage came out ot this one. 

Anyway, as you, my five readers, know, I have become somehow addicted to Mr. King's Dark Tower series. That's why Wolves of the Calla was my first ebook purchase ever (I got it from Kobo Books alongside their Kobo Touch ereader). I managed to get through it during my daily commute for the last three weeks and I cannot wait to get the next installment sometime next week. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Last weekend movies...

Although Lyx spend most of the weekend at the shelter helping with the Christmas party for the kids, we manage to squeeze some movie time...

1. The Colour of Magic, *****
   I thought that whenever they decided to launch a Discworld movie I will be disappointed. The point is that I have read 37 of the 39 Discworld novels in the last 15 years and I always wanted to see a movie about it. Well, I couldn't be more wrong! It is awesome! Go for it! It is actually both the colour of magic and the light fantastic.
   
   
2. The Myth, *
   I have to be honest, the star is all Jackie Chan. The story could be great were not continuity lapses like seeing the hills from the Korean border from an Indian border temple and such. As always, the stunts are awesome, but that's it. I got disappointed.  

Uhm, some series have gone into end of year hiatus...

1. Terra Nova, ****
   I'm really liking the twist of events. Although the characters are starting to become cartoonish due to the extreme polarization, the possibilities for the story arising from Lucas and his work on the wormhole are actually limitless; I just hope this doesn't end in a Stargate Atlantis with dinosaurs.
   
   
2. Hawaii five-o S02 E02-12, ***
   I spend most of my before-bed time catching up with this series and I'm glad I did. It is still very bland in the procedural thing but the story is unfolding nicely. Now, everybody seems to be more than meets the eye.
   
   
3. Castle, (hiatus)
   
   
4. Last Man Standing S01 E11, ***
   Love, work and responsibilities comes to the family, each one to different girls. Of course, a mess ensues with outdoor man in the middle of it. It still keeps me laughing most of the time.
   
   
5. Big Bang Theory, (hiatus)
   
   
6. Psych S06 E09, **
   Brandon from Beverly Hills 90210 is the guest 90s star this week. The story unfolds during a romantic weekend with Shawn and Jules, con and murder included.

LWP: Complex coordinates in transformation optics

Bogdan-Ioan Popa and Steven A. Cummer
Physical Review A 84, 063837 (2011)

I learned to love coordinate system during my time at IF-UNAM, it is amazingly funny all the things you can do just by choosing a suitable reference frame. Invisibility cloaks are one such thing.

Back in 2006 the original proposal to manufacture a coating to reduce scattering was published, it was followed by a number of proposals utilizing material design to create funky optical devices. It seems like the most common approach is to choose a real coordinate transformation (implemented through smooth changes in the material properties) that is used to control the phase of an impinging electromagnetic field as it propagates through a surface; with a real transformation, the amplitude of the field remains unchanged. Popa and Cummer propose and show that complex coordinate transformations can manipulate amplitude as well.

First, they introduce the idea of complex coordinate transformation for a radial electromagnetic wave through an arbitrary inhomogeneous and anisotropic material (assuming that locally the field can be approximated as a plane wave in a small neighborhood) and show that this allows for amplitude manipulation and that it may be used in combination with well-known real transformation optics. Also, their manipulation scheme does not produce unwanted scattering off this neighborhood.

Second, they extend the idea to two-dimensions and apply their results to a typical invisibility cloak (which is a real space one dimensional coordinate transformation). A typical cloak has the problem that small deviations from the ideal material parameters on the inner cloak boundary may produce tell off scattering off the cloak. They show that this unwanted scattering may be reduced by use of a complex coordinate transformation at least in one propagation direction because the fields propagating towards the inner cloak boundary are greatly attenuated in one direction. They note that it is not possible to obtain such an attenuation for all directions of incidence, as once the transformation parameter is chosen, the wave whose propagation vector is perpendicular to the transformation parameter vector will not see the transformation.

Then, they extend the idea to the design of reflectionless perfectly matched layers of irregular shape, where previous work has already used complex coordinates in curvilinear coordinate frames. It seems like their approach simplifies the computational power involved in the numerical simulations.
 
It is a nice paper to read, I'm still trying to get all the equations involved. I thought it would be easy but it seems like I'm missing a fine point here and there; specifically, an electromagnetic wave propagator, anyway, I will be satisfied with finishing following the analyticals.

See you next Monday at lunch-time (I hope there will be something open at the University's Mess Hall, I hate coming to the office and not being able to eat)

Last weekend movies...

Lyx had a busy weekend preparing candy bags for the kids at the shelter. We didn't have a chance to sit down and watch movies together.  I had to help myself into this one...

1. The Devil's Double, *
   This film tells the alleged story of Latif Yahia, an Iraqi national recruited to be the double of Uday Hussain. In my opinion, the movie has cheap stamped everywhere. I think they had the chance to tell the story of one fallen modern dictator through a forced servant but it came out slow, bland, some minutes of softcore porn, and most sadly trying to portrait a hard-to-believe-is-truth hero. Even recollections of Jarhead seem better in comparison right now.

The thanksgiving break is over and the missing series are back!

1. Stacked S01-02 E01-19, **
   Pam Anderson plays the role of Skyler, a bimbo bouncing out of a relationship and trying to avoid the hot, sturdy men that are the story of her life. The solution, find a job at a book store run by two nerd brothers. The jokes are light, filled with sexual innuendo. I laughed out loud on this simple and nipply nippy antithesis of good old Cheers. 
   
   
2. Hawaii five-o S02 E01, ***
   Last season was finished with McGarrett in jail, in this, the first episode of a second season, we are treated with a closure to that history, new characters, and a hint of treason that surely will reverberate all over this season.
   
   
3. Castle S04 E10, **
   Really? Come on, this is the second time that Castle and Beckett are trapped together! Give me something nice and new! At least they are keeping up with current pop culture references.
   
   
4. Last Man Standing S01 E10, ***
   Mike has to deal with Christmas, specially the time for forgiving part. I loved the "That's all you keep from church, Forgiveness? What about the vengeful guy, rainning brimstone and toads on people?"
   
   
5. Big Bang Theory S05 E11, *
   The guys are bad without any punch, but the girls. O, the girls are enjoying their time atoning raiding charity clothes boxes.
   
   
6. Psych S06 E08, *
   It seems this was not my week for tv-series. Gus fells in love, again, but this time it comes with murder and fraud, at least this time he's not the target.

LWP: Anderson localization of partially incoherent light

by D. Capeta, J. Radic, A. Szameit, M. Segev and H. Buljan.

Physical Review A 84, 011801(R) 2011.

Lately, I have been reading a lot about waveguides. It is interesting how one can classically simulate—this word is en vogue—condensed matter and relativistic phenomena with light in coupled waveguides.

Last week, I found this this rapid communication. In it, Capeta et. al. focus in Anderson localization—first described in disordered electronic systems and optically realized a few years ago—. Their particular crux goes around these facts:

• Anderson localization arises from the interference among scattering events in a disordered medium.
• In an optical realization one can use incoherent light; say, light from a spceckle source.
• But incoherent light can be seen as an infinite superposition of coherent modes and each should Anderson localize in a sufficiently disordered medium.

So, Does incoherent light localize in the presence of disordered media?

Capeta et. al. find their answer: Yes, it does localize after a sufficiently long propagation time both numerically and experimentally; the first by studying the mutual coherence function of a spatially incoherent optical beam propagating through a photonic waveguide lattice where the refraction index of individual waveguides varies randomly, the second by following the intensities of the beam at different propagation distances on the lattice. They cover both finite and infinite cases through finite realizations with reflective and absorbing boundaries. They find the exponential decaying tail of Anderson localization even with instantaneous realizations of the incoherent fields.

It is a nicely written paper, simple to read and follow. If you are interested in what has been going around optical realizations of  Anderson localization, the references have a nice survey on the topic.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

When I started reading the windup girl, I thought 'yeah! cyberpunk!' It only took me a few pages more to realize that Paolo Bacigalupi just constructed something that I have learnt to call biopunk; that is, a cyberpunk derivative where the focus is the effect of gene-hacking—instead of cyber-hacking—in a world that has been taken over by mega-corporations.

The novel is an exploration of human nature in a world filled with biological threats produced by the unethical practices of biotechnology companies in their dog-race for profit and market monopoly. Peculiar, though, I perceived all characters as anti-heroes motivated by personal or corporate gain. Even the one driven by the love of his people dwells in a grey region far from the archetypal hero.

The story centers around the fate of the self-isolated Kingdom of Thailand and its seed-bank. It is told, mainly through Anderson Lake, an american cover operative for a biotech corporation, Hock Seng, a Malay Chinese refugee who barely escape ethnic/religious cleansing in the Malay peninsula,  Jaidee/Kanya, a captain and his right arm at the Ministry of the Environment of the Thai Kingdom, and Emiko, a genetic mashup created by the Japanese to be the perfect assistant, lady in waiting. It is through these characters that Bacigalupi explores different angles of ambition/desire/attachment in this apocalyptic setting where all decisions are made under pressure or, even, duress. The author's conclusion seems to be that human nature is immutable when it comes to ambition/desire/attachment.

I like the way Bacigalupi weaves the story going from one to another character. In the process, one gets to know each of them a little bit more as pages turn. It happens slowly, through their actions, fears, desires, attachments, and ambitions. Also, the author did his homework in researching the actual culture and environment of the Thai Kingdom and Southeast Asia.

I got the feeling that Bacigalupi's penmanship is still developing. Sometimes, the narrative seems choppy; a kind of stutter-step motion. Nevertheless, the story flows at a great pace and delivers some interesting visions of a what if world that may overlap with our future.

I highly recommend this novel. If you are living in this part of the world— South Pacific Asia—, it is a must read.

Last weekend movies...

Another busy week. This time I found a little after work project that may give something interesting. Wish me luck! It seems like Lyx was also pretty busy as we only managed to watch one movie...

1. Cowboys and Aliens, ***
   Cowboys with the quintessential space cowboy, Han Solo. The aliens are a nice construction but otherwise it's gone without pain nor glory. It's good to kill a morning. 

So, Thundercats is over, Big Bang Theory is on hiatus, Castle is coming back this week, I think, and we couldn't catch episode nine of Terra Nova. In the end, I had to find something short to watch and kill the day after working a lot at home and I found Hawaii 5 O thanks to my office mate listening to the soundtrack one of these afternoons.

1. Last Man Standing S01 E09, ***
   I'm not gonna lie to you. I totally agree with Mr. Outdoor Man. Once one enters home, one should not be requested to deal with the neighbors, go to parties, or socialize unless you really like them people, hehehe.
   
   
2. Psych S06 E03-07, ***
   William Shatner! Jules' dad is portrayed by William Shatner! C'mon, can you think about something cooler? Psych is as bland as always but William Shatner is enough reason to sit down and watch it.
   
   
3. Hawaii 5-0 S01 E01-24, ***
   This is the remake of an old—and twelve seasons long—police series from the 60-70s. It is a good sit-down-don't-think pseudo-procedural action/crime series. I'm already hooked up and waiting to see how the story unfolds on the second season. R. Orci, the screenplay writer from Cowboys and Aliens is a writer here. 

Last week paper...

Quantum simulation of the hexagonal Kitaev model with trapped ions. 

R. Schmied, J. H. Wesenberg and D. Leibfried. 

New Journal of Physics 13, 115011 (2011).

This was the paper I liked the most last week. That Janus is a great guy and a friend—which counts a lot—is not the reason behind my choice but that it is...

1. ... a rigorous analisis of the effects of introducing conducting cover plates into ion traps.
2. ... a proposal to generate optimal two-dimensional trapping configurations.
3. ... a proposal for analogue quantum simulation of Kitaev model with ions in a structured 2D trap.

For the first point, they use the method of images in electrostatic analysis in order to get the Green functions of ions in the presence of a conducting and a grounded cover plates, then they add the effect of the conducting electrodes and the dipole-dipole interactions between trapped ions.

So, that's already something really nice, but they go further and analyze the Columb-potential-induced nearest neighbor interactions. They realize that this allow them to do analogue (continuous time) simulation—usually ion trap schemes are used for digital (step time) simulation—. Again, they conduct a meticulous approach: the normal modes and the vibrational bands are calculated under stiff traping and they develop a series of conditions and arguments for the scheme to work. In particular they talk about stringent bounds to time scales.

Finally, they put their money where their mouth is and show how to simulate the hexagonal Kitaev Hamiltonian. Again, their treatment is as complete as it can get.

The document is so nicely written that one gets that feeling of understanding every step they are taking. Go for it, it's for free! You will enjoy good, formal, honest physics.