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Quantum bottleneck breaks wide open as one light beam carries 23 secure channels at the same time

A new Bar-Ilan University study points to a major advance in quantum information processing, demonstrating a way to send, manipulate, and measure quantum information across many frequency channels simultaneously, rather than one at a time. The study was recently published in the journal Science Advances.

The approach could allow quantum communication technologies, including secure key distribution and quantum teleportation, to operate far more efficiently by taking advantage of the enormous bandwidth already available in quantum light sources.

Today, one of the main limits in quantum information processing is not the light source itself, but the measurement technology. Quantum light sources can operate across an extremely broad optical spectrum, but standard detectors can measure only a tiny fraction of that bandwidth. As a result, much of the available capacity goes unused.

New methods can help study the phenomenon of turbulence

In his doctoral thesis, Michael Roop develops numerical methods that allow finding physically reliable approximate solutions to nonlinear differential equations used to model turbulence.

Many processes in nature can be described by differential equations, but only a few of them can be solved explicitly with solutions in formulas. This is the motivation for developing numerical equations to find approximate solutions. The numerical equations developed in Roop’s thesis have a particular focus on geometric properties. Though the thesis is mathematical, the problems it addresses originate in physics and mainly have to do with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence.

“It is difficult to define turbulence rigorously. Intuitively, you can think of the turbulent behavior when a fluid moves, but it is very hard to predict how it will behave in the future. It looks chaotic though there is no randomness in the models of motion.”

Confirming altermagnetism in an abundant mineral

Also known as magnetoelectronics, spintronics rely on electron spin rather than electron charge, as found in traditional electronics. Although spintronics is still an emerging field, spintronic technologies are already found in hard disk drives and giant magnetoresistance sensors used in industrial and automotive applications. Once the right foundational materials are discovered and verified, including economical materials for altermagnets, spintronics could advance technologies from wireless communication to quantum computing.

Researchers using neutrons at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) discovered that hematite, essentially rust, can help design energy-efficient spintronics.

The team’s findings, published in Physical Review Letters, confirmed a key signature of altermagnetism (a new type of magnetism discovered in 2022) in hematite. Altermagnets are magnetic materials in which electron spins align in opposite directions, allowing pure spin currents to flow without a net electric charge—ideal conditions for spintronics. The team measured spin waves, which move through a material’s magnetic order similar to how sound waves move through air. They discovered that these waves show a clear separation in energy, a unique signature that confirms the material’s altermagnetic nature.

Quantum Fourier transform reaches 52 qubits, shattering the previous 27-qubit record

The spin-off company ParityQC has implemented the largest quantum Fourier transform ever reported using an IBM quantum computer, thereby setting a new milestone on the path toward the industrial application of quantum computers. The quantum Fourier transform is a cornerstone algorithm with applications in cryptography, financial modeling, and materials science.

Innsbruck-based quantum architecture company ParityQC performed a quantum Fourier transform using 52 superconducting qubits on an IBM Heron quantum processor. This surpasses the previous record of 27 qubits, which was set two years ago using an ion-trap quantum computer. The results were published this week on the arXiv preprint server.

“This milestone was only possible through the synergy of IBM’s latest quantum hardware and the ParityQC Architecture, which unlocked an exponential improvement in efficiency,” say Wolfgang Lechner and Magdalena Hauser, Co-CEOs of ParityQC. “What we are witnessing is European quantum innovation taking a global lead in translating theoretical potential into real-world performance.”

New laser method gives insight into radioactive atomic nuclei

By directing pulses of laser light at atoms, researchers can study how radioactive elements decay in a matter of seconds. The method is described in a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, which shows that the atomic nuclei of the elements neptunium and fermium are shaped like rugby balls.

Actinides are a group of elements at the bottom of the periodic table. They have a high density, are radioactive, and several of them only exist for a few seconds before they decay. Only four of the 14 elements in this group occur naturally on Earth. The others can be produced in an accelerator, but only in very small quantities. Uranium is the best-known actinide, but a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg focuses on neptunium and fermium.

New Microsoft Defender “RedSun” zero-day PoC grants SYSTEM privileges

A researcher known as “Chaotic Eclipse” has published a proof-of-concept exploit for a second Microsoft Defender zero-day, dubbed “RedSun,” in the past two weeks, protesting how the company works with cybersecurity researchers.

This exploit is for a local privilege escalation (LPE) flaw that grants SYSTEM privileges in Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server on the latest April Patch Tuesday patches, when Windows Defender is enabled.

“When Windows Defender realizes that a malicious file has a cloud tag, for whatever stupid and hilarious reason, the antivirus that’s supposed to protect decides that it is a good idea to just rewrite the file it found again to it’s original location,” explains the researcher.

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