Dr. L. Larrabee Strow, Research Professor, is a member of the science team for the satellite IBUKI launched from Japan on January 23rd. IBUKI (also known as the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, GOSAT) is a Japanese mission designed to map the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. During its five-year mission it will identify and monitor sources of CO₂ in support compliance with international treaties and agreements such as Kyoto. So far, the number of ground-based CO₂ observation points has been limited, and they have been distributed unequally throughout the world. IBUKI will enable the precise monitoring of the density of carbon dioxide by combining global observation data sent from space with data obtained on land, and with simulations. “Synergy between IBUKI/GOSAT and my recent work on global CO₂ trends using NASA's AIRS satellite instrument”, said Dr. Strow, “should improve both instruments unique view of global greenhouse gases. The very international nature of the IBUKI/GOSAT Science Team has already provided me with new collaborations in this politically relevant field of science." More information on IBUKI can be found at http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gosat/index_e.html.

Junlin successfully defended her thesis proposal on January 28, 2009.

TITLE:
Entangled Photon Holes

ABSTRACT:
The concept of quantum entanglement has been identified as a key practical resource for quantum information processing. Over the past 30 years, experiments on entanglement have mostly involved studying correlations of the physical properties (such as polarization or momentum) of two distant photons. Recently, a new form of entanglement called “entangled photon holes” has been discovered. Roughly speaking, the entanglement is due to the absence of the photon pair rather than some physical property of the pairs. Although a recent experiment has provided some initial evidence of the existence of photon-hole states, the entangled nature of the state has not yet been experimentally observed. Here we propose an experimental test of Bell’s inequalities using photon-hole states. If successful, the results of this experiment would explicitly demonstrate the entangled properties of photon-hole states, which would represent a major advance in quantum optics and quantum information science.