Researchers from Cornell University have identified a new state of matter in candidate topological superconductors, a discovery that may have far-reaching implications for both condensed matter physics and the fields of quantum computing.
Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.
Researchers at Duke University have implemented a quantum-based method to observe a quantum effect in the way light-absorbing molecules interact with incoming photons. Known as a conical intersection, the effect puts limitations on the paths molecules can take to change between different configurations.
The observation method makes use of a quantum simulator, developed from research in quantum computing, and addresses a long-standing, fundamental question in chemistry critical to processes such as photosynthesis, vision and photocatalysis. It is also an example of how advances in quantum computing are being used to investigate fundamental science.
The results appear online August 28 in the journal Nature Chemistry.
The road to a quantum future may be longer and more winding than some expect, but the potential it holds is profound.
If the Sydney Harbour Bridge was rebuilt today engineers would design, build and test the new bridge in virtual worlds before a sod of dirt was turned.
Nature is the ultimate quantum computer.
A team of researchers is designing novel systems to capture water vapor in the air and turn it into liquid.
University of Waterloo professor Michael Tam and his Ph.D. students Yi Wang and Weinan Zhao have developed sponges or membranes with a large surface area that continually capture moisture from their surrounding environment. In the journal Nature Water Tam and his team discuss several promising new water collection and purification technologies.
Traditionally, fresh water for consumption is collected from rivers, lakes, groundwater, and oceans (with treatment). The current technologies Dr. Tam is developing are inspired by nature to harvest water from alternative sources as the world is facing a serious challenge with freshwater scarcity.
Scientists at the University of Sydney have, for the first time, used a quantum computer to engineer and directly observe a process critical in chemical reactions by slowing it down by a factor of 100 billion times.
Joint lead researcher and Ph.D. student, Vanessa Olaya Agudelo, said, It is by understanding these basic processes inside and between molecules that we can open up a new world of possibilities in materials science, drug design, or solar energy harvesting.
It could also help improve other processes that rely on molecules interacting with light, such as how smog is created or how the ozone layer is damaged.
For the first time, researchers have been able to track the behavior of triplons, a quasi-particle created between entangled electrons. They are very tricky to study and they do not form in conventional magnetic material. Now, researchers have been able to detect them for the first time using real-space measurements.
Quasi particles are not real particles. They form in specific interactions, but for as long as that interaction lasts they behave like a particle. The interaction in this case is the entanglement of two electrons. This pair can be entangled in a singlet state or a triplet state, and the triplon comes from the latter interaction.
To get the triplon in the first place, the team used small organic molecules called cobalt-phthalocyanine. What makes the molecule interesting is that it possesses a frontier electron. Now, don’t go picture some gunslinger particle – a frontier electron is simply an electron on the highest-energy occupied orbital.
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have successfully developed a new way to produce a specific type of photon that could prove critical for quantum data exchange, notably encryption. The specific kind of photons, called “circularly polarized light,” have thus far proved challenging to create and control, but this new technique makes the process easier and, importantly, cheaper. This was achieved, the team explains, by stacking two different, atomically thin materials to “twist” (polarize) photons in a predictable fashion.
Encoded, “twisted,” photons
“Our research shows that it is possible for a monolayer semiconductor to emit circularly polarized light without the help of an external magnetic field,” explained Han Htoon, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “This effect has only been achieved before with high magnetic fields created by bulky superconducting magnets, by coupling quantum emitters to very complex nanoscale photonics structures, or by injecting spin-polarized carriers into quantum emitters. Our proximity-effect approach has the advantage of low-cost fabrication and reliability,” he added.
Using natural quantum interactions allows faster, more robust computation for Grover’s algorithm and many others.
Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have developed a groundbreaking quantum computing.
Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.
By Charlie Wood
Quantum computing is still really, really hard. But the rise of a powerful class of error-correcting codes suggests that the task might be slightly more feasible than many feared.
The association between this mass concentration and the idea that atoms are empty stems from a flawed view that mass is the property of matter that fills a space. However, this concept does not hold up to close inspection, not even in our human-scale world. When we pile objects on top of each other, what keeps them separated is not their masses but the electric repulsion between the outmost electrons at their touching molecules. (The electrons cannot collapse under pressure due to the Heisenberg uncertainty and Pauli exclusion principles.) Therefore, the electron’s electric charge ultimately fills the space.
Anyone taking Chemistry 101 is likely to be faced with diagrams of electrons orbiting in shells.
In atoms and molecules, electrons are everywhere! Look how the yellow cloud permeates the entire molecular volume in Figure 1. Thus, when we see that atoms and molecules are packed with electrons, the only reasonable conclusion is that they are filled with matter, not the opposite.
