Taxonomy and evolution of asymmetric male genitalia in the subgenus Ashima Chen (Diptera: Drosophilidae: Phortica Schiner), with descriptions of seven new species

The taxonomy of the subgenus Ashima of the genus Phortica is revised. A cladistic analysis of 66 morphological characters is conducted, covering 35 species (28 known and 7 new species: Phortica efragmentata sp. nov., P. andreagigoni sp. nov., P. watabei sp. nov., P. halimunensis sp. nov., P. akutsui sp. nov., P. kerinciensis sp. nov., and P. takehiroi sp. nov.) which correspond to 71.4% of 49 total spp. of Ashima. The resulting cladogram shows that the studied species are separated into several clades/subclades/cluster each highly supported with specific synapomorphies. Those clades/subclades/cluster are newly defined as the following species groups, subgroups or complex: the afoliolata, foliiseta, nigrifoliiseta and angulata species groups; the foliiseta, tanabei, nigrifoliiseta and glabra species subgroups; and the foliiseta species complex. The subgenus Ashima is peculiar in having the asymmetric male genitalia as the ground plan and showing the antisymmetry (i.e. intraspecific mirror-image variation) in some species but the directional asymmetry (i.e. side-fixed asymmetry) in others. The evolution of genital asymmetry in this subgenus is estimated by mapping the states (symmetry, directional asymmetry and antisymmetry) of bilateral structures of male genitalia on the cladogram. This ancestral state reconstruction estimates that the directional asymmetry of male genitalia has evolved at the ancestor of this subgenus and then changed to the antisymmetric state independently in two lineages, the angulata + nigrifoliiseta species groups and the foliiseta species complex. In this study, a standardized terminology recently proposed for the male terminalia of Drosophila melanogaster is extendedly adopted to describe the morphology of male terminalia in the subgenus Ashima, one group of the subfamily Steganinae.

Entanglement dynamics for static two-level atoms in cosmic string spacetime

We study the entanglement dynamics of two static atoms coupled with a bath of fluctuating scalar fields in vacuum in the cosmic string spacetime. Three different alignments of atoms, i.e. parallel, vertical, and symmetric alignments with respect to the cosmic string are considered. We focus on how entanglement degradation and generation are influenced by the cosmic string, and find that they are crucially dependent on the atom-string distance r, the interatomic separation L, and the parameter $$\nu $$ν that characterizes the nontrivial topology of the cosmic string. For two atoms initially in a maximally entangled state, the destroyed entanglement can be revived when the atoms are aligned vertically to the string, which cannot happen in the Minkowski spacetime. When the symmetrically aligned two-atom system is initially in the antisymmetric state, the lifetime of entanglement can be significantly enhanced as $$\nu $$ν increases. For two atoms which are initially in the excited state, when the interatomic separation is large compared to the transition wavelength, entanglement generation cannot happen in the Minkowski spacetime, while it can be achieved in the cosmic string spacetime when the position of the two atoms is appropriate with respect to the cosmic string and $$\nu $$ν is large enough.

𝒫𝒯-symmetric and antisymmetric nonlinear states in a split potential box

We introduce a one-dimensional -symmetric system, which includes the cubic self-focusing, a double-well potential in the form of an infinitely deep potential box split in the middle by a delta-functional barrier of an effective height ε , and constant linear gain and loss, γ , in each half-box. The system may be readily realized in microwave photonics. Using numerical methods, we construct -symmetric and antisymmetric modes, which represent, respectively, the system’s ground state and first excited state, and identify their stability. Their instability mainly leads to blowup, except for the case of ε =0, when an unstable symmetric mode transforms into a weakly oscillating breather, and an unstable antisymmetric mode relaxes into a stable symmetric one. At ε >0, the stability area is much larger for the -antisymmetric state than for its symmetric counterpart. The stability areas shrink with increase of the total power, P . In the linear limit, which corresponds to , the stability boundary is found in an analytical form. The stability area of the antisymmetric state originally expands with the growth of γ , and then disappears at a critical value of γ . This article is part of the theme issue ‘Dissipative structures in matter out of equilibrium: from chemistry, photonics and biology (part 1)’.

REGULARIZATION OF TUNNELING RATES WITH QUANTUM CHAOS

We study tunneling in various shaped, closed, two-dimensional, flat-potential, double wells by calculating the energy splitting between symmetric and antisymmetric state pairs. For shapes that have regular or nearly regular classical behavior (e.g. rectangular or circular) the tunneling rates vary greatly over wide ranges often by several orders of magnitude. However, for well shapes that admit more classically chaotic behavior (e.g. the stadium, the Sinai billiard) the range of tunneling rates narrows, often by orders of magnitude. This dramatic narrowing appears to come from destabilization of periodic orbits in the regular wells that produce the largest and smallest tunneling rates and causes the splitting versus energy relation to take on a possibly universal shape. It is in this sense that we say the quantum chaos regularizes the tunneling rates.

Quantum cloning of identical mixed qubits

Quantum cloning of two identical mixed qubits $\rho \otimes \rho$ is studied. We propose the quantum cloning transformations not only for the triplet (symmetric) states but also for the singlet (antisymmetric) state. We can copy these two identical mixed qubits to $M$ ($M\ge 2$) copies. This quantum cloning machine is optimal in the sense that the shrinking factor between the input and the output single qubit achieves the upper bound. The result shows that we can copy two identical mixed qubits with the same quality as that of two identical pure states.

Phase Interference in the Two-Photon Excitation of Phenanthrene

Two-photon polarization measurements are shown to provide an incorrect symmetry assignment for the first excited state of phenanthrene, both in solution and in the vapor phase. Published assignments from one-photon, single-crystal measurements indicate a totally symmetric state, while the assignment from two-photon measurements indicates an antisymmetric state. Possible reasons for the failure of the two-photon symmetry assignment are low-frequency vibronic overlap, and interference among the diagonal tensor elements. Experimental evidence points to interference as the origin of the discrepancy.