This 2D material is only one atom thick and allows electrical charges to move through it much faster, which would make computers remarkably faster.
This gravitational wave model has been created with the quantum gravity theory in mind, which has been predicted for decades. What else could the discovery of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory uncover and reveal about this theory? (Photo : Henze | NASA)
Quantum gravity is a theory that has been the target of decades of study by physicists worldwide. If this idea is proven, it would tie together the General Theory of Relativity (which governs gravitational fields) with quantum mechanics, and the bizarro-world of subatomic particles.
Gravitational waves, produced by accelerating objects, ripple through space-time, according to most interpretations of the General Theory of Relativity penned by famed physicist Albert Einstein. Researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have announced they detected these disturbances in the fabric of time and space for the first time.
Jungsang Kim is trying to create a quantum computer by controlling the frequency of a laser to within a millionth of a percent.
According to David DiVincenzo, a prominent computer scientist at IBM, researchers must meet five criteria to create a true quantum computing device.
First, Kim needs a well-defined system that can represent different states. For example, classical computers use small electrical switches made out of semiconductors to indicate a 1 or a 0. But because an atom’s quantum spin can point in an infinite number of directions, controlling its state with a high degree of reliability is very difficult. Kim’s group has demonstrated this feat with an accuracy on par with anyone in the world.
Radiation works as a ‘tuning fork’ to control the spin of electrons.
Scientists have found a new way of moving information between quantum bits in a computer. They used a highly purified sample of silicon doped with bismuth atoms (left) before fitting a superconducting aluminium resonator to it (middle and right).
Continue reading “Could microwaves finally crack quantum computing?” »
Theoretical physicists at MIT recently reported a quantum computer design featuring an array of superconducting islands on the surface of a topological insulator. They propose basing both quantum computation and error correction on the peculiar behavior of electrons at neighboring corners of these islands and their ability to interact across islands at a distance. “The lowest energy state of this system is a very highly entangled quantum state, and it is this state that can be used to encode and manipulate qubits,” says graduate student Sagar Vijay, lead co-author of the paper on the proposed system, with senior author Liang Fu, associate professor of physics at MIT, and Timothy H. Hsieh PhD ’15. As Vijay explains it, the proposed system can encode logical qubits that can be read by shining light on them. At the simplest level of explanation, the system can characterize the state of a quantum bit as a zero or a one based on whether there is an odd or even number of electrons associated with a superconducting quantum bit, but the underlying physical interactions that allow this are highly complex.
The Prius is an intentionally odd-looking car that gets odder with every generation; I’m pretty sure even ardent defenders of Toyota’s flagship hybrid could agree with me on that. So why not throw an equally odd paint color on top?
What you’re looking at here is the new Prius in “Thermo-Tect Lime Green,” which is more than your average upsettingly loud paint color. Toyota says that by removing the carbon black particles found in most paint and replacing them with titanium oxide, it has significantly increased the vehicle’s solar reflectivity — in other words, the car heats up less, which lessens the need for air conditioning, which in turn improves fuel economy. And fuel economy, of course, is what the Prius is all about.
White paint also does a good job of keeping the sun’s heat at bay, but Toyota actually says that its Thermo-Tect paint outperformed white in a two-hour summer test outdoors. Basically, this technology means that you might be able to get the color of your choice on your next car and still reduce your AC use. Granted, lime green may not be your first choice, but there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping Toyota from rolling it out to other colors as well.
Graphene is going to change the world — or so we’ve been told.
Since its discovery a decade ago, scientists and tech gurus have hailed graphene as the wonder material that could replace silicon in electronics, increase the efficiency of batteries, the durability and conductivity of touch screens and pave the way for cheap thermal electric energy, among many other things.
Continue reading “Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences” »
An international group of scientists, with the help of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have found proof of something physicists have spent decades expecting for, subatomic particles acting in a way that challenges the Standard Model. By using the LHC, scientists observed conditions that violate the standard rules of particle physics. The group of physicists looked at data gathered from the LHC’s first run from year 2011–2012, a run made famed for the discovery of the Higgs boson, and found the proof they were looking for: Leptons disobeying the Standard Model. Leptons are a group of subatomic particles consist of of three different variations: the tau, the electron, and the muon. Electrons are very stable, however both the tau and muon decay very fast.
Image credit: Michael Taylor/Shutterstock.
Quantum Entanglement “Fluffy Bunny Style”.
UVM physicist wins NSF CAREER grant to study entanglement 02-08-2016 By Joshua E. Brown Two different ways in which atoms can be quantum entangled. Left: spatial entanglement where atoms in two separated regions share quantum information. Right: particle entanglement for identical atoms (colored here for clarity) due to quantum statistics and interactions.
What you’re looking at is the first direct observation of an atom’s electron orbital — an atom’s actual wave function! To capture the image, researchers utilized a new quantum microscope — an incredible new device that literally allows scientists to gaze into the quantum realm.
An orbital structure is the space in an atom that’s occupied by an electron. But when describing these super-microscopic properties of matter, scientists have had to rely on wave functions — a mathematical way of describing the fuzzy quantum states of particles, namely how they behave in both space and time. Typically, quantum physicists use formulas like the Schrödinger equation to describe these states, often coming up with complex numbers and fancy graphs.
Up until this point, scientists have never been able to actually observe the wave function. Trying to catch a glimpse of an atom’s exact position or the momentum of its lone electron has been like trying to catch a swarm of flies with one hand; direct observations have this nasty way of disrupting quantum coherence. What’s been required to capture a full quantum state is a tool that can statistically average many measurements over time.
