With anaesthetics and brain organoids, we are finally testing whether quantum effects can explain consciousness. We may have misunderstood this long-derided idea, says George Musser.
By Chuck Brooks
Computing paradigms as we know them will exponentially change when artificial intelligence is combined with classical, biological, chemical, and quantum computing. Artificial intelligence might guide and enhance quantum computing, run in a 5G or 6G environment, facilitate the Internet of Things, and stimulate materials science, biotech, genomics, and the metaverse.
Computers that can execute more than a quadrillion calculations per second should be available within the next ten years. We will also rely on clever computing software solutions to automate knowledge labor. Artificial intelligence technologies that improve cognitive performance across all envisioned industry verticals will support our future computing.
Continue reading “Computational Capabilities That Will Transform the World” »
PRESS RELEASE — It is hard to imagine our lives without networks such as the internet or mobile phone networks. In the future, similar networks are planned for quantum technologies that will enable the tap-proof transmission of messages using quantum cryptography and make it possible to connect quantum computers to each other.
Like their conventional counterparts, such quantum networks require memory elements in which information can be temporarily stored and routed as needed. A team of researchers at the University of Basel led by Professor Philipp Treutlein has now developed such a memory element, which can be micro-fabricated and is, therefore, suitable for mass production. Their results were recently published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
An experiment conducted in Italy, with theory support from Newcastle University, has produced the first experimental evidence of vacuum decay.
In quantum field theory, when a not-so-stable state transforms into the true stable state, it’s called “false vacuum decay.” This happens through the creation of small localized bubbles. While existing theoretical work can predict how often this bubble formation occurs, there hasn’t been much experimental evidence.
Now, an international research team involving Newcastle University scientists has for the first observed these bubbles forming in carefully controlled atomic systems. Published in the journal Nature Physics, the findings offer experimental evidence of bubble formation through false vacuum decay in a quantum system.
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light led by Dr. Birgit Stiller has succeeded in cooling traveling sound waves in waveguides considerably further than has previously been possible using laser light. This achievement represents a significant move towards the ultimate goal of reaching the quantum ground state of sound in waveguides.
Unwanted noise generated by the acoustic waves at room temperature can be eliminated. This experimental approach both provides a deeper understanding of the transition from classical to quantum phenomena of sound and is relevant to quantum communication systems and future quantum technologies.
The quantum ground state of an acoustic wave of a certain frequency can be reached by completely cooling the system. In this way, the number of quantum particles, the so-called acoustic phonons, which cause disturbance to quantum measurements, can be reduced to almost zero and the gap between classical and quantum mechanics bridged.
Photonic integrated circuits have grown as potential hardware for neural networks and quantum computing, yet the tuning speed and large power consumption limited the application. Here, authors introduce the memresonator, a memristor heterogeneously integrated with a microring resonator, as a non-volatile silicon photonic phase shifter to address these limitations.
A team at HZB has developed a new measurement method that, for the first time, accurately detects tiny temperature differences in the range of 100 microKelvin in the thermal Hall effect. Previously, these temperature differences could not be measured quantitatively due to thermal noise.
Their study is published in Materials & Design.
Using the well-known terbium titanate as an example, the team demonstrated that the method delivers highly reliable results. The thermal Hall effect provides information about coherent multi-particle states in quantum materials based on their interaction with lattice vibrations (phonons).
In a paradigm-shifting revelation, scientists at Heriot-Watt University have conducted experiments suggesting that two conflicting versions of reality can coexist simultaneously within the realm of quantum mechanics. This study challenges fundamental concepts in physics and raises questions about the existence of an objective reality.
The research delves into “Wigner’s friend,” a theoretical construct proposed by Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner in 1961. This concept revolves around a photon existing in a superposition, where its polarization is both vertical and horizontal until measured. This theoretical dilemma becomes the focal point for the experimental exploration.
Scientists have developed “quantum ping-pong”: Using a special lens, two atoms can be made to bounce a single photon back and forth with high precision.
Atoms can absorb and reemit light — this is an everyday phenomenon. In most cases, however, an atom emits a light particle in all possible directions — recapturing this photon is therefore quite hard.
Continue reading “Quantum Ping-Pong: The New Era of Atomic Photon Control” »
Over ten years ago, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) began mapping the universe to find evidence that could help us understand the nature of the mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy. I’m one of more than 100 contributing scientists that have helped produce the final DES measurement, which has just been released at the 243rd American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans.
Dark energy is estimated to make up nearly 70% of the observable universe, yet we still don’t understand what it is. While its nature remains mysterious, the impact of dark energy is felt on grand scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.
The announcement in New Orleans may take us closer to a better understanding of this form of energy. Among other things, it gives us the opportunity to test our observations against an idea called the cosmological constant that was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1917 as a way of counteracting the effects of gravity in his equations to achieve a universe that was neither expanding nor contracting. Einstein later removed it from his calculations.
