Intrinsic Negative Mass from Nonlinearity.

We propose and provide experimental evidence of a mechanism able to support negative intrinsic effective mass. The idea is to use a shape-sensitive nonlinearity to change the sign of the mass in the leading linear propagation equation. Intrinsic negative-mass dynamics is reported for light beams in a ferroelectric crystal substrate, where the diffusive photorefractive nonlinearity leads to a negative-mass Schrödinger equation. The signature of inverted dynamics is the observation of beams repelled from strongly guiding integrated waveguides irrespective of wavelength and intensity and suggests shape-sensitive nonlinearity as a basic mechanism leading to intrinsic negative mass.

Intrinsic irreversibility of Markovian chains.

We show that for a large class of stationary Markov processes the total variation distance between the final equilibrium distribution and that at a given time is a strongly monotonic vanishing function. We illustrate this for basic paradigmatic processes and discuss how, for systems susceptible to a canonical description, this can be interpreted as a statistical arrow of time that exists besides the standard decrease of free energy.

Built-in reduction of statistical fluctuations of partitioning objects.

Our theoretical and numerical investigation of the movement of an object that partitions a microtubule filled with small particles indicates that vibrations warranted by thermal equilibrium are reached only after a time that increases exponentially with the number of particles involved. This points to a basic mechanical process capable of breaching, on accessible time scales, the ultimate ergodic constraints that force randomness on bound microscale and nanoscale systems.

Polarization and energy dynamics in ultrafocused optical Kerr propagation.

Developing a complete vectorial description of optical nonparaxial propagation of highly focused beams in Kerr media, we disclose a family of new phenomena. These phenomena appear to emerge as a consequence of the mutual coupling of all three components of the optical field. This circumstance, which is intrinsic to the very nature of Kerr propagation, was previously discarded on the basis of the conjecture that a reduced system is possible in which only one transverse field component interacts with the longitudinal component.

Vectorial theory of propagation in uniaxially anisotropic media.

We describe propagation in a uniaxially anisotropic medium by relying on a suitable plane-wave angular-spectrum representation of the electromagnetic field. We obtain paraxial expressions for both ordinary and extraordinary components that satisfy two decoupled parabolic equations. As an application, we obtain, for a particular input beam (a quasi-Gaussian beam), analytical results that allow us to identify some relevant features of propagation in uniaxial crystals.

Distortion correction by phase conjugation of nonparaxial vectorial beams: a general proof.

We present a general proof of the distortion-correction theorem, that is, of the possibility of correcting wave distortion by the technique of optical phase conjugation. The proof is valid for fully vectorial nonparaxial propagation in the presence of a tensorial refractive-index perturbation and backscattering of the incident field.

Scheme for total quantum teleportation

We address the issue of totally teleporting the quantum state of an external particle, as opposed to studies on partial teleportation of external single-particle states, total teleportation of coherent states and encoded single-particle states, and intramolecular teleportation of nuclear spin states. We find a set of commuting observables whose measurement directly projects onto the Bell basis and discuss a possible experiment, based on two-photon absorption, allowing, for the first time, total teleportation of the state of a single external photon through a direct projective measurement.

Self-focusing and self-trapping in unbiased centrosymmetric photorefractive media.

We predict self-focusing and self-trapping of optical beams propagating in unbiased centrosymmetric photorefractive crystals in the near-transition paraelectric phase, where the nonlinear response is proportional to the square of the diffusion space-charge field.

Nonparaxial equation for linear and nonlinear optical propagation.

The formalism of coupled-mode theory, specialized to the continuum of radiation modes, allows us to extend the standard parabolic wave equation to include nonparaxial terms and vectorial effects, and, in particular, to generalize the nonlinear Schrödinger equation that describes propagation in the presence of an intensity-dependent refractive index.

Direct measurement of the nonlinear phase shift between the orthogonally polarized states of a single-mode fiber.

We measure the phase shift induced by the optical Kerr effect between the two orthogonally polarized states of a birefringent single-mode fiber. The associated noise, which can arise whenever amplitude fluctuations of the source are present, is discussed.

Mode-power fluctuations in optical fibers.

The influence of the relative values of mutual modal delay, source coherence time, and signal modulation time on the power fluctuations between the two polarization states of a single-mode optical fiber is investigated.

Influence of chromatic dispersion on degenerate four-wave mixing.

We investigate the way in which four-wave mixing in a waveguide is affected by chromatic dispersion. The frequency dependence of the associated phase-conjugate mirror reflectivity turns out not to be influenced by chromatic dispersion itself.

Role of intensity fluctuations in nonlinear pulse propagation.

The effect of intensity fluctuations and the finite coherence time of the field on the propagation of nonlinear optical pulses is discussed. In particular, the statistical properties of the carrier are shown to affect the power level for soliton propagation.