Papers and preprints worth reading, Jan-midFeb 2012

Question

Which recent (i.e. Jan-midFeb 2012) papers and preprint do you consider really worth reading?

References should be followed by a summary saying what is the result and (implicitly or explicitly) why it is important/interesting/insightful/...

One paper per answer (and start from its citation); you can add further but only in the description (e.g. It generalizes the ides of X in [cite]...).

As it is a community wiki - vote whenever you consider a paper good. Also - feel free to contribute to other's posts.

See Journal club-like thing for a meta post.

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Comments

This answer does not fit the format specified, so feel free to remove. I'd just like to point out that there is a place to share and discuss recent papers posted to the quant-ph arXiv at http://www.reddit.com/r/quantph/

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@James I changed it into a comment. Thanks for link (I knew SciRate ['] but not this; BTW: also one can have RSS and g+ it); however, the philosophy behind this post is different - more _selecting and introducing_ a paper to others than just _voting and commenting_.

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Answer 1

Light-cone-like spreading of correlations in a quantum many-body system reports the first measurements of the speed at which quantum correlations spread in a quantum many-body system. Prior related theoretical works are [2,3,4]. Though the main innovations are plausibly the experimental techniques, I guess theorists should be aware of the results.

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Answer 2

http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4390

The Operator Tensor Formulation of Quantum Theory

Lucien Hardy

A formal but I think pedagogical presentation of a formulation of Quantum Mechanics successfully used by Lucien Hardy. The tensor formulation makes intense use of Penrose’s diagrammatic notation, adapted to quantum operators. The quantum processes are viewed as circuits, in a way which decouples them from the time evolution. Many interesting quantum phenomena become by this visible, so I think this formulation should be part of the toolbox of anyone interested in the foundations of QM.

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Answer 3

http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v108/i7/e070402

Procedure for Direct Measurement of General Quantum States Using Weak Measurement

Jeff S. Lundeen and Charles Bamber

Arxiv version: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.5471

By combining weak and strong measurements on complementary observables, on identically prepared ensembles, the real and complex parts of the uncollapsed wavefunction are obtained. This is a simpler and more direct alternative to Quantum State Tomography, but unlike the latter, it works only with pure states.

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Answer 4

http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4276

Dream-land with Classic Higgs field, Dimensional Reduction and all that

D. V. Shirkov

A summary/continuation of the work of D. V. Shirkov and its collaborators in the regularization by dimensional reduction, as an alternative to the Higgs boson in the standard model.

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Answer 5

http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.2274

Quantum Einstein Gravity

Martin Reuter, Frank Saueressig

A pedagogical but detailed review of the asymptotic safety program in Quantum Einstein Gravity.

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Answer 6

http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.0631

Quantum Cheshire Cats

Yakir Aharonov, Sandu Popescu, Paul Skrzypczyk

Another quantum paradox a la Aharonov, a pre and post-selected experiment which separates the photon (cat) from its circular polarization (smile).

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