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Category: quantum physics – Page 768

Very cool.

A research group from Bar-Ilan University, in collaboration with French colleagues at CNRS Grenoble, has developed a unique experiment to detect quantum events in ultra-thin films. This novel research, to be published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, enhances the understanding of basic phenomena that occur in nano-sized systems close to absolute zero temperature.

Transitions, Phases and Critical Points

A phase transition is a general term for physical phenomena wherein a system transits from one state to another as a result of changing the . Everyday examples are the transition from ice to water (solid to liquid) at zero degrees centigrade, and from water to vapor (liquid to gas) at 100 degrees.

Continue reading “Scientists create a nano-trampoline to probe quantum behavior” | >

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), which are flat panes of mostly transparent material that take sunlight (both diffuse and directed) and concentrate it at the panes’ edges, can be used as “photovoltaic windows,” which, as the name makes clear, collect solar energy while serving as ordinary windows. Now, researchers at the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca and Glass to Power Srl (both of Milano, Italy) and the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) are lowering the potential cost of such windows by using silicon nanoparticles as the fluorescent absorber/emitter in the LSC windows.

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I believe that this is a stretch for me. However, wouldn’t be nice if we could. Imagine Steve Jobs could still run Apple, we could hear Einstein and Bhor debate, etc. Again cool concept but at this stage hard to believe it will be real until we learn more about Quantum Biosystem in the mix; and even then unlikely. Nonetheless, good luck with it MIT.

Imagine debating the interpretation of a Shakespearean sonnet and being able to clarify its meaning with the bard himself. Or sitting in history class and being able to ask George Washington questions about the Constitution, no soul-conjuring witchcraft required.

In the next decade, advancing AI technology will allow us to learn from the dead first-hand. New chatbot programs are being developed to keep our knowledge active after our physical being passes away.

Early research in this topic already allows us to simulate dialogues with the dead. For example, Russian startup Luka has created a simulacrum of the notoriously private musician Prince. This AI-powered chatbot draws from song lyrics and rare interview snippets to let users instant message with a vision of the late singer, who died in 2016.

Continue reading “Want to chat with Shakespeare? AI bots will soon allow us to talk to the dead” | >

(Phys.org)—Physicists are getting a little bit closer to answering one of the oldest and most basic questions of quantum theory: does the quantum state represent reality or just our knowledge of reality?

George C. Knee, a theoretical physicist at the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick, has created an algorithm for designing optimal experiments that could provide the strongest evidence yet that the quantum state is an ontic state (a state of ) and not an epistemic state (a state of knowledge). Knee has published a paper on the new strategy in a recent issue of the New Journal of Physics.

While physicists have debated about the nature of the quantum state since the early days of quantum theory (with, most famously, Bohr being in favor of the ontic interpretation and Einstein arguing for the epistemic one), most modern evidence has supported the view that the quantum state does indeed represent reality.

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A team of researchers led by physics professor Immanuel Bloch has experimentally realized an exotic quantum system which is robust to mixing by periodic forces (Nature Physics, “Periodically driving a many-body localized quantum system”).

martini

When James Bond asks the barkeeper for a Martini (“shaken, not stirred”), he takes it for granted that the ingredients of the drink are miscible. If he were to place the order in a bar in the quantum realm, however, Agent 007 might be in for a surprise!

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Published: 2012/11/01 | ISBN: 311027325X | PDF | 349 pages | 12.06 MB

The subject of this book is theory of quantum system presented from information science perspective. The central role is played by the concept of quantum channel and its entropic and information characteristics. Quantum information theory gives a key to understanding elusive phenomena of quantum world and provides a background for development of experimental techniques that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems. This is important for the new efficient applications such as quantum computing, communication and cryptography. Research in the field of quantum informatics, including quantum information theory, is in progress in leading scientific centers throughout the world. This book gives an accessible, albeit mathematically rigorous and self-contained introduction to quantum information theory, starting from primary structures and leading to fundamental results and to exiting open problems.

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More on the QC Blueprint which enables others to use as a reference when building a QC.

According to Prof Winfried Hensinger of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, he and his team have the first practical design for a quantum computer. Like millions of others, I have struggled to come to an understanding of quantum mechanics and how a quantum computer might work.

It would use qubits rather than standard on/off or 1 and 0 bits used in traditional computers. A qubit can have a state of anywhere between zero and one, including all the “states” in between. Theoretically, a quantum computer can perform a very large number of calculations simultaneously using the ideas of super positioning and quantum entanglement. The theory is that all the necessary calculations are carried out at virtually the same time, e.g. working out all the factors of a very large number. This kind of problem can take a regular computer quite a while.

Prof Hensinger claims he has produced a “how to build it” template, published in Science Advances journal, with a scalable construction plan which you can read here: www.advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/2/e1601540.full. It involves ions, long wave radiation, overlapping fields, vacuum chambers and other pieces of exacting technology. To be honest, I have never quite understood how you program in the questions and read the answers from quantum computers.

Continue reading “A quantum leap for computers” | >