Department of Physics

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Groundwater is the most important source of water in arid and semi-Arid regions of India and its quality plays an important role to plan the proper irrigation strategy. Thus, a study was carried out for the quality appraisal of the groundwater of Ellenabad block (58924 ha) of district Sirsa, Haryana. One hundred and seventeen groundwater samples from running tubewells in the block have been analyzed for ionic concentrations of C032", HC03\ CI', S042", Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+. Parameters such as electrical conductance (EC), pH, sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) have also been evaluated. In the block, EC ranged from 0.3 to 8.7 dS/m with an average of 2.7 dS/m and pH ranged from 7.2 to 9.0 with an average of 8.4. SAR ranged from 0.7 to 21.9 (m mol/1)1'2 with an average of 7.2 (m mol/l)1/2and RSC ranged from 0.0 to 3.6 and it was absent in all samples having EC greater than 2 dS/m. According to AICRP criteria, out of seven categories, maximum 44.4% of samples were found in good and minimum 6.8% were found in saline as well as in marginally alkali categories. Contour maps of EC, SAR, RSC and groundwater quality plotted to study spatial variability of these parameters in the block. The most dominating range of EC of groundwater was 0-2 dS/m, lying in central part of the block and for pH, it was 8.4-8.8. On the basis of GIS mapping, the maximum area (25462 ha) was estimated under good category which comprised 43.2% area of the block.

World University root node

Annals of Biology

Assessment of groundwater quality of ellenabad block of Sirsa district, Haryana

We develop a Bloch vector representation of the Unruh channel for a Dirac field mode. This is used to provide a unified, analytical treatment of quantum Fisher and skew information for a qubit subjected to the Unruh channel, both in its pure form as well as in the presence of experimentally relevant external noise channels. The time evolution of Fisher and skew information is studied along with the impact of external environment parameters such as temperature and squeezing. The external noises are modelled by both purely dephasing phase damping and the squeezed generalised amplitude damping channels. An interesting interplay between the external reservoir temperature and squeezing on the Fisher and skew information is observed, in particular, for the action of the squeezed generalised amplitude damping channel. It is seen that for some regimes, squeezing can enhance the quantum information against the deteriorating influence of the ambient environment. Similar features are also observed for the analogous study of skew information, highlighting a similar origin of the Fisher and skew information. © 2016, The Author(s).

Fulltext

European Physical Journal C

Quantum Fisher and skew information for Unruh accelerated Dirac qubit

ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr absorber-reflector tandem layered structures were fabricated on stainless steel (SS) and copper (Cu) substrates using DC/RF magnetron sputtering system. ZrC-ZrN absorber layer was grown on the Zr infrared reflector, in conjunction with the top ZrOx anti-reflecting layer. Absorbing properties, of ZrC-ZrN absorber layer, were optimized by varying nitrogen flow during deposition of this layer. The optimized ZrN fraction in a ZrC-ZrN layer showed additional plasmonic absorption in ~1.0-2.5 μm wavelength range, together with other intrinsic absorptions, providing enhanced solar absorption in 0.3-2.5 μm wavelength range. The detailed structural, micro-structural, surface and optical characterization showed the strong structure - solar thermal property correlation. We observed that absorber-reflector tandem structures, fabricated at ~12.5 sccm nitrogen flow rate, exhibit the best solar thermal response among investigated structures with absorptance α ~ 0.88 and 0.85 and emittance ε27°C ~ 0.04 and 0.1 on stainless steel and copper substrates. Thermal studies showed high temperature stability at ~700 °C and 600 °C in vacuum for these solar selective coatings on SS and Cu substrates, whereas at or below 200 °C in the air. These studies suggest that ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr absorber-reflector tandem structures may be a good choice for high temperature applications under vacuum/inert conditions. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

Solar Energy

Spectrally selective response of ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr absorber-reflector tandem structures on stainless steel and copper substrates for high temperature solar thermal applications

We investigated the impact of corrosion on pristine and thermally treated ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr absorber–reflector tandem solar selective coatings (ARTSSCs) on stainless steel (SS) and copper (Cu) substrates using microstructure, electrochemical and nanoindentation measurements. Electrochemical measurements are carried out in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, emulating the corrosion environments, under potentiodynamic polarization states. The corrosion treated samples exhibit strong correlations among microstructural, mechanical properties and their solar thermal responses. The thermally treated ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr structures on SS substrates show degraded corrosion resistance from 1379 KΩ to 104 KΩ for vacuum and 435 KΩ for air thermal conditions. The measured mechanical properties, such as Young's modulus and hardness, substantiate the observed corrosion mediated degradation of thermally treated structures under both vacuum and air environmental conditions. The solar thermal performance shows degradation for both pristine and thermally treated sample after corrosion and room temperature after corrosion emissivity ‘ε27 °C’ values are ~0.28, 0.35, 0.42 for pristine and thermally treated ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr structures respectively. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Impact of corrosion on microstructure and mechanical properties of ZrOx/ZrC-ZrN/Zr absorber–reflector tandem solar selective structures

Tetragonal BaTiO3 bulk samples are prepared using the solid-state route in conjunction with intermediate high-temperature annealing steps. The (002) and (200) X-ray diffraction peaks near 2Ɵ~45° and 310, 520, and 720 cm−1 characteristic vibrational modes in Raman spectroscopic measurements confirm the tetragonal crystallographic structure of BaTIO3 bulk samples. The 1100°C annealed BaTiO3 sample showed optimal tetragonality ~1.016 and the same is used for BaTiO3–acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) composites at different BaTiO3 loading fractions in parts per hundred (PHR). These BaTiO3/NBR composite systems exhibit dual band microwave resonance, widening the operating window for microwave absorption applications. Eighty PHR BaTiO3/NBR composite exhibits microwave reflection losses (RL) at 9.5 and 16.5 GHz with ~−9 and ~−18 dB reflection losses, respectively. The onset of dual band is attributed to the ferroelectric-induced dipolar relaxation at 9.5 GHz and its second-order resonance at 16.5 GHz in such composite systems. © 2016 The American Ceramic Society

Journal of the American Ceramic Society

Dual Band Resonance in Tetragonal BaTiO3/NBR Composites for Microwave Absorption Applications

The effect of noise on various protocols of secure quantum communication has been studied. Specifically, we have investigated the effect of amplitude damping, phase damping, squeezed generalized amplitude damping, Pauli type as well as various collective noise models on the protocols of quantum key distribution, quantum key agreement, quantum secure direct quantum communication and quantum dialogue. From each type of protocol of secure quantum communication, we have chosen two protocols for our comparative study: one based on single-qubit states and the other one on entangled states. The comparative study reported here has revealed that single-qubit-based schemes are generally found to perform better in the presence of amplitude damping, phase damping, squeezed generalized amplitude damping noises, while entanglement-based protocols turn out to be preferable in the presence of collective noises. It is also observed that the effect of noise depends upon the number of rounds of quantum communication involved in a scheme of quantum communication. Further, it is observed that squeezing, a completely quantum mechanical resource present in the squeezed generalized amplitude channel, can be used in a beneficial way as it may yield higher fidelity compared to the corresponding zero squeezing case. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Quantum Information Processing

A comparative study of protocols for secure quantum communication under noisy environment: single-qubit-based protocols versus entangled-state-based protocols

In this study, an atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet has been generated based on dielectric barrier discharge plasma. The double ring electrode configuration is used and analysis has been performed subjected to wide range of supply frequencies up to 25 kHz and supply voltage up to 6 kV. The electrical characterization of the plasma jet has been carried out using a high voltage probe. The V-I characteristics of the developed cold plasma jet have been studied and the consumption of the power has been analyzed at various input combinations of supply frequency and applied voltage. Consequently, the supply voltage and supply frequency are optimized with respect to the discharge current and jet length for optimum power consumption. The peak power consumed for glow discharge operation has been found to be 1.27 W in the optimized configuration. © Cambridge University Press 2016.

Laser and Particle Beams

Electrical characterization of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge-based cold plasma jet using ring electrode configuration

The replacement of Fe with Co is investigated in the (Fe1−xCox)79Si8.5B8.5Nb3Cu1 (x=0, 0.05, 0.2, 0.35, 0.5) amorphous alloys. The alloys are synthesized in the forms of ribbons by single roller melt spinning technique, and the structural and magnetic properties of annealed ribbons are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), B–H curve tracer, respectively. All as-cast alloys are structurally amorphous, however, their magnetic properties are varying with Co addition. The Co addition within 5–20 at% results in moderate thermal stability, saturation induction, Curie temperature and lowest coercivity, while 35 at% Co causes highest saturation induction, coercivity, Curie temperature and lowest thermal stability. On devitrification, the magnetic properties change with the generation of α-FeCo nanocrystallites and (FeCo)23B6, Fe2B phases during primary and secondary crystallization stages, respectively. A small amount Co is advantageous for maintaining finer nanocrystallites in amorphous matrix even after annealing at 600 °C, leading to high saturation magnetization (&gt;1.5 T) and low coercivity (~35 A/m). The improved magnetic properties at elevated temperatures indicate these alloys have a potential for high frequency transformer core applications. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

Effect of Co content on structure and magnetic behaviors of high induction Fe-based amorphous alloys

In this paper we consider the separability problem for bipartite quantum states arising from graphs. Earlier it was proved that the degree criterion is the graph-theoretic counterpart of the familiar positive partial transpose criterion for separability, although there are entangled states with positive partial transpose for which the degree criterion fails. Here we introduce the concept of partially symmetric graphs and degree symmetric graphs by using the well-known concept of partial transposition of a graph and degree criteria, respectively. Thus, we provide classes of bipartite separable states of dimension m×n arising from partially symmetric graphs. We identify partially asymmetric graphs that lack the property of partial symmetry. We develop a combinatorial procedure to create a partially asymmetric graph from a given partially symmetric graph. We show that this combinatorial operation can act as an entanglement generator for mixed states arising from partially symmetric graphs. © 2016 American Physical Society.

Physical Review A

Bipartite separability and nonlocal quantum operations on graphs

Building upon our previous work, on graphical representation of a quantum state by signless Laplacian matrix, we pose the following question. If a local unitary operation is applied to a quantum state, represented by a signless Laplacian matrix, what would be the corresponding graph and how does one implement local unitary transformations graphically? We answer this question by developing the notion of local unitary equivalent graphs. We illustrate our method by a few, well known, local unitary transformations implemented by single-qubit Pauli and Hadamard gates. We also show how graph switching can be used to implement the action of the (Formula presented.) gate, resulting in a graphical description of Bell state generation. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.