Using advanced computational modelling, a research team led by the University of Oxford, working in partnership with the Instituto Superior Técnico in the University of Lisbon, has achieved the first-ever real-time, three-dimensional simulations of how intense laser beams alter the ‘quantum vacuum’ — a state once assumed to be empty, but which quantum physics predicts is full of virtual electron-positron pairs.
When we think about the future of our communications, we rarely imagine that it could be hidden in the intricacies of the infinitely small. Yet, it is there, among frisky photons, that the next digital revolution could take shape. A simple photon, teleported from one point to another across the globe via the Internet, opens up dizzying horizons. Who would have thought that the key to our future exchanges would lie in an elementary particle, capable of challenging everything we thought we knew about information transmission?
Researchers at Northwestern University have recently achieved a major milestone in the field of quantum physics. They have succeeded in teleporting a photon over a distance of 30.2 km through an Internet network. This feat, once confined to the realm of science fiction novels, represents a significant advance in exploring the possibilities offered by quantum entanglement. With this accomplishment, the foundations of a future global quantum network seem to be rapidly approaching.
IN A NUTSHELL ✨ Scientists developed a new quantum clock that achieves extraordinary precision with reduced energy consumption. 🔬 The clock operates on the principle of coherent quantum transport, minimizing energy loss by avoiding constant measurement. 💡 This innovation could significantly impact quantum computing and other technologies requiring precise synchronization. 🌍 Researchers are building prototypes
In this paper, the authors propose a three-dimensional time model, arguing that nature itself hints at the need for three temporal dimensions. Why three? Because at three different scales—the quantum world of tiny particles, the realm of everyday physical interactions, and the grand sweep of cosmological evolution—we see patterns that suggest distinct kinds of “temporal flow.” These time layers correspond, intriguingly, to the three generations of fundamental particles in the Standard Model: electrons and their heavier cousins, muons and taus. The model doesn’t just assume these generations—it explains why there are exactly three and even predicts their mass differences using mathematics derived from a “temporal metric.”
This paper introduces a theoretical framework based on three-dimensional time, where the three temporal dimensions emerge from fundamental symmetry requirements. The necessity for exactly three temporal dimensions arises from observed quantum-classical-cosmological transitions that manifest at three distinct scales: Planck-scale quantum phenomena, interaction-scale processes, and cosmological evolution. These temporal scales directly generate three particle generations through eigenvalue equations of the temporal metric, naturally explaining both the number of generations and their mass hierarchy. The framework introduces a metric structure with three temporal and three spatial dimensions, preserving causality and unitarity while extending standard quantum mechanics and field theory.
Quantum key distribution (QKD), a cryptographic technique rooted in quantum physics principles, has shown significant potential for enhancing the security of communications. This technique enables the transmission of encryption keys using quantum states of photons or other particles, which cannot be copied or measured without altering them, making it significantly harder for malicious parties to intercept conversations between two parties while avoiding detection.
As true single-photon sources (SPS) are difficult to produce, most QKD systems developed to date rely on attenuated light sources that mimic single photons, such as low-intensity laser pulses. As these laser pulses can also contain no photons or more than one photon, only approximately 37% of pulses employed by the systems can be used to generate secure keys.
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) were recently able to overcome this limitation of previously proposed QKD systems, using a true SPS (i.e., a system that can emit only one photon on demand). Their newly proposed QKD system, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, was found to outperform techniques introduced in the past, achieving a substantially higher secure key rate (SKR).
Quantum computers have the potential to speed up computation, help design new medicines, break codes, and discover exotic new materials—but that’s only when they are truly functional.
One key thing that gets in the way: noise or the errors that are produced during computations on a quantum machine—which in fact makes them less powerful than classical computers —until recently.
Daniel Lidar, holder of the Viterbi Professorship in Engineering and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, has been iterating on quantum error correction, and in a new study along with collaborators at USC and Johns Hopkins, has been able to demonstrate a quantum exponential scaling advantage, using two 127-qubit IBM Quantum Eagle processor-powered quantum computers, over the cloud.