The quasi-degenerate ground state manifold of the anisotropic Ising spin model can encode quantum information, but its degree of protection against local perturbations is known to be only partial. We explain how the coupling between the two ground states can be used to observe signatures of Majorana zero modes in a small controlled chain of qubits. We argue that the protection against certain l...

Thermodynamics relies on the possibility to describe systems composed of a large number of constituents in terms of few macroscopic variables. Its foundations are rooted into the paradigm of statistical mechanics, where thermal properties originate from averaging procedures which smoothen out local details. While undoubtedly successful, elegant and formally correct, this approach carries over a...

Throughout much of North America's boreal forest, the cyclical fluctuations of snowshoe hare populations (Lepus americanus) may cause other herbivores to become entrained in similar cycles. Alternating apparent competition via prey switching followed by positive indirect effects are the mechanisms behind this interaction. Our purpose is to document a change in the role of indirect interactions ...

Two-dimensional quantum loop gases are elementary examples of topological ground states with Abelian or non-Abelian anyonic excitations. While Abelian loop gases appear as ground states of local, gapped Hamiltonians such as the toric code, we show that gapped non-Abelian loop gases require nonlocal interactions (or nontrivial inner products). Perturbing a local, gapless Hamiltonian with an anti...

The aim objective of this study is to investigate the effects of near-field earthquakes on the response of mid-rise buildings with tubular structure.  For this purpose, a 20-story building with a square plan of six by six bays, all with 6 m span, and story height of 3.70 m is considered.  Axial force of columns, shear lag, and inter-story drift values are used as the main response parameters. N...

Sloshing due to ground motion develops large pressure on the walls of water retaining tanks. This paper evaluates the efficacy of padded walls on the reduction of sloshing effects in rectangular water storage tanks subjected to ground motion. An analytical solution based on velocity potential function is provided to obtain the response of  rigid and padded wall tanks in terms of the wave elevat...