Author Correction: The wide-binary origin of (2014) MU-like Kuiper belt contact binaries.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The wide-binary origin of (2014) MU-like Kuiper belt contact binaries.

Following its flyby and first imaging of the Pluto-Charon binary, the New Horizons spacecraft visited the Kuiper belt object (KBO) 2014 MU (also known as (486958) Arrokoth). The imaging showed MU to be a contact binary that rotates at a low spin period (15.92 hours), is made of two individual lobes connected by a narrow neck and has a high obliquity (about 98 degrees), properties that are similar to those of other KBO contact binaries inferred through photometric observations.

A primordial origin for the compositional similarity between the Earth and the Moon.

Most of the properties of the Earth-Moon system can be explained by a collision between a planetary embryo (giant impactor) and the growing Earth late in the accretion process. Simulations show that most of the material that eventually aggregates to form the Moon originates from the impactor. However, analysis of the terrestrial and lunar isotopic compositions show them to be highly similar.

Interaction of atomic and molecular hydrogen with tholin surfaces at low temperatures.

We study the interaction of atomic and molecular hydrogen with a surface of tholin, a man-made polymer considered to be an analogue of aerosol particles present in Titan's atmosphere, using thermal programmed desorption at low temperatures below 30 K. The results are fitted and analyzed using a fine-grained rate equation model that describes the diffusion, reaction, and desorption processes. We obtain the energy barriers for diffusion and desorption of atomic and molecular hydrogen.

Classical diffusion of a quantum particle in a noisy environment.

We study the spreading of a quantum-mechanical wave packet in a tight-binding model with a noisy potential and analyze the emergence of classical diffusion from the quantum dynamics due to decoherence. We consider a finite correlation time of the noisy environment and treat the system by utilizing the separation of fast (dephasing) and slow (diffusion) processes. We show that classical diffusive behavior emerges at long times and we calculate analytically the dependence of the classical diffusion coefficient on the noise magnitude and correlation time.

Realization of quantum walks with negligible decoherence in waveguide lattices.

Quantum random walks are the quantum counterpart of classical random walks, and were recently studied in the context of quantum computation. Physical implementations of quantum walks have only been made in very small scale systems severely limited by decoherence. Here we show that the propagation of photons in waveguide lattices, which have been studied extensively in recent years, are essentially an implementation of quantum walks.

Modeling of negative autoregulated genetic networks in single cells.

We discuss recent developments in the modeling of negative autoregulated genetic networks. In particular, we consider the temporal evolution of the population of mRNA and proteins in simple networks using rate equations. In the limit of low copy numbers, fluctuation effects become significant and more adequate modeling is then achieved using the master equation formalism.