Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: computing – Page 18

Laser qubits in the sky over Long Island — scientists test quantum communication in the air

American scientists plan to implement a project to test quantum communication in free space. Using lasers, they want to launch qubits over the Long Island Sound.

It is noted, that three laser beams from the telescope on top of the Kline Tower on the Yale University campus will be directed across the Long Island Sound at a distance of nearly 43.5 km and captured on the opposite side by a similar telescope on the roof of the University Hospital Stony Brook.

The goal of the Quantum Laser Across the Sound project is to expand the ability to send and receive quantum information and demonstrating the potential for possible future quantum computing infrastructures. The telescope on top of the Kline Tower will send entangled photons 43.4 km across the Long Island Sound.

Superconducting diode bridge efficiently converts AC to DC for quantum circuits

Superconductivity is an advantageous property observed in some materials, which entails an electrical resistance of zero at extremely low temperatures. Superconductors, materials that exhibit this property, have proved to be highly promising for the development of various electronic components for both classical and quantum technologies.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California–Riverside and SEEQC Inc. recently introduced a new system comprised of four superconducting diodes (SDs), which are that allow electric current to flow in only one direction and are made of .

Their superconducting diode bridge, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, was found to perform remarkably well at cryogenic temperatures, achieving rectification efficiencies as high as 42% ± 5%.

Twisting light for memory: New chiral photonic device enables real-time control of light polarization and data storage

As fast as modern electronics have become, they could be much faster if their operations were based on light, rather than electricity. Fiber optic cables already transport information at the speed of light; to do computations on that information without translating it back to electric signals will require a host of new optical components.

Researchers at the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering have now developed such a device: one that can be adjusted on the fly to give light different degrees of circular polarization. Because information can be stored in this chiral property of light, the researchers’ device could serve as a multifunctional, reconfigurable component of an optical computing system.

Led by Weilu Gao, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Jichao Fan, a Ph.D. candidate in his lab, a study demonstrating the device was published in the journal Nature Communications. Fellow Gao lab members Ruiyang Chen, Minhan Lou, Haoyu Xie, Benjamin Hillam, Jacques Doumani, and Yingheng Tang contributed to the study, as did Nina Hong of the J.A. Woollam Company.

Solitonic superfluorescence paves way for high-temperature quantum materials

A study in Nature describes both the mechanism and the material conditions necessary for superfluorescence at room temperature. The work could serve as a blueprint for designing materials that allow exotic quantum states—such as superconductivity, superfluidity or superfluorescence—at high temperatures, paving the way for applications such as quantum computers that don’t require extremely low temperatures to operate.

The international team that did the work was led by North Carolina State University and included researchers from Duke University, Boston University and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris.

“In this work, we show both experimental and theoretical reasons behind macroscopic quantum coherence at high temperature,” says Kenan Gundogdu, professor of physics at NC State and corresponding author of the study.

Rapid nanoparticle simulations could boost efforts to combat air pollution

A pioneering method to simulate how nanoparticles move through the air could boost efforts to combat air pollution, suggests a study in the Journal of Computational Physics.

Tiny particles found in exhaust fumes, wildfire smoke and other forms of airborne pollution are linked with serious health conditions such as stroke, and cancer, but predicting how they move is notoriously difficult, researchers say.

Now, scientists have developed a new computer modeling approach that dramatically improves the accuracy and efficiency of simulating how nanoparticles behave in the air. In practice, this could mean simulations that can currently take weeks to run could be completed in a matter of hours, the team says.

University of Arizona scientists unveil breakthrough petahertz-speed transistor

A team of scientists has unveiled a breakthrough that could one day propel computers to operate at speeds millions of times faster than today’s most advanced processors.

The discovery, led by researchers at the University of Arizona and their international collaborators, centers on harnessing ultrafast pulses of light to control the movement of electrons in graphene – a material just one atom thick.

The research, recently published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that electrons can be made to bypass barriers almost instantaneously by firing laser pulses lasting less than a trillionth of a second at graphene. This phenomenon, known as quantum tunneling, has long intrigued physicists, but the team’s ability to observe and manipulate it in real time marks a significant milestone.

A new molecular model of bilayer graphene with higher semiconducting properties

Juan Casado Cordón, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Malaga, considers graphene—an infinite layer of carbon atoms—as one of the greatest discoveries of the last 20 years due to its “unique properties” such as high electrical and thermal conductivity or its great flexibility and, also, resistance. Qualities that become exceptional, he explains, with a recently found evolution consisting in joining two layers of this material—bilayer graphene.

Researchers from the University of Malaga, led by Casado Cordón, and from the Complutense University, under the coordination of Professor Nazario Martín, have taken a step further and created an unprecedented molecular model of that is capable of controlling rotation, which in turn allows controlling conductivity and achieving “potentially spectacular semiconducting properties.”

The result is a new model molecule of bilayer graphene. “By designing covalently bound molecular nanographenes we can simulate the search for the magic angle between graphene-like sheets, which is where semiconductivity is achieved, a key property in, for example, the construction of transistors, the basic units of computers,” explains this scientist from the Faculty of Science. This finding has been published in Nature Chemistry.

Over 70 Malicious npm and VS Code Packages Found Stealing Data and Crypto

As many as 60 malicious npm packages have been discovered in the package registry with malicious functionality to harvest hostnames, IP addresses, DNS servers, and user directories to a Discord-controlled endpoint.

The packages, published under three different accounts, come with an install‑time script that’s triggered during npm install, Socket security researcher Kirill Boychenko said in a report published last week. The libraries have been collectively downloaded over 3,000 times.

“The script targets Windows, macOS, or Linux systems, and includes basic sandbox‑evasion checks, making every infected workstation or continuous‑integration node a potential source of valuable reconnaissance,” the software supply chain security firm said.

Nvidia in Talks to Invest in Quantum Startup PsiQuantum

Nvidia is in advanced talks to invest in PsiQuantum, a quantum computing startup, according to a person involved in the discussions. The investment would be the latest signal that Nvidia has shifted its stance on quantum computing after CEO Jensen Huang earlier this year seemed to cast doubt on…