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Showing posts with label quantum physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quantum physics. Show all posts

2010-03-15

New Answer to 80-Year-Old Question Makes Computer Modeling 100,000 Times Faster

From Popular Science:

A new formula allows computers to simulate how new materials behave up to 100,000 times faster than previously possible, and could drastically speed up innovation relating to electronic devices and energy-efficient cars. Princeton engineers came up with the model based on an 80-year-old quantum physics puzzle.
Full article


2010-02-26

Quantum measurement precision approaches Heisenberg limit

From PhysOrg.com:

Now, using techniques from machine learning, physicists Alexander Hentschel and Barry Sanders from the University of Calgary have recently shown how to generate measurement procedures that can outperform the best previous strategy in achieving highly precise quantum measurements. The new level of precision approaches the Heisenberg limit, which is an important goal of quantum measurement. Such quantum-enhanced measurements are useful in several areas, such as atomic clocks, gravitational wave detection, and measuring the optical properties of materials.
Full article


2010-02-15

'Bubbles' of Broken Symmetry in Quark Soup at RHIC

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator at the U.S. DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, report the first hints of profound symmetry transformations in the hot soup of quarks, antiquarks, and gluons produced in RHIC's most energetic collisions. In particular, the new results, reported in the journal Physical Review Letters, suggest that "bubbles" formed within this hot soup may internally disobey the so-called "mirror symmetry" that normally characterizes the interactions of quarks and gluons.
Full articke


2010-02-05

Physicist proposes method to teleport energy

From PhysOrg.com:

Using the same quantum principles that enable the teleportation of information, a new proposal shows how it may be possible to teleport energy. By exploiting the quantum energy fluctuations in entangled particles, physicists may be able to inject energy in one particle, and extract it in another particle located light-years away. The proposal could lead to new developments in energy distribution, as well as a better understanding of the relationship between quantum information and quantum energy.
Full article


2010-01-13

Theorists Close In on Improved Atomic Property Predictions

From PhysOrg.com:

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Indiana University have determined the most accurate values ever for a fundamental property of the element lithium using a novel approach that may permit scientists to do the same for other atoms in the periodic table.
Full article

2010-01-07

Golden ratio discovered in a quantum world

From PhysOrg.com:

Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB, Germany), in cooperation with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol Universities, as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, have for the first time observed a nanoscale symmetry hidden in solid state matter. They have measured the signatures of a symmetry showing the same attributes as the golden ratio famous from art and architecture.
Full article


2009-12-22

Digital Quantum Battery Could Boost Energy Density Tenfold

From PhysOrg.com:

Physicists theorize that quantum phenomena could provide a major boost to batteries, with the potential to increase energy density up to 10 times that of lithium ion batteries. According to a new proposal, billions of nanoscale capacitors could take advantage of quantum effects to overcome electric arcing, an electrical breakdown phenomenon which limits the amount of charge that conventional capacitors can store.
Full article


2009-10-16

Weird "Particles" Spotted in Hot New Material

From Science NOW:

In the past 5 years, no material has excited more interest from condensed matter physicists than graphene, a sheet of carbon only one atom thick. Electrons zing through the stuff in an unusual way, and they flow so easily that graphene could someday replace silicon and other semiconductors as the material of choice for microchips. Now, a team of physicists has taken a key step in fulfilling graphene's promise as a hotbed of exotic physics by showing that the electrons within it can team up to behave like particles with a fraction of the electron's charge.
Full article


2009-10-07

Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos

From PhysOrg.com:

Until now, no one has produced experimental evidence that chaos occurs in the quantum world, the world of photons, atoms, molecules and their building blocks.
...
Now, however, Jessen and his group in UA's College of Optical Sciences have performed a series of experiments that show just how classical chaos spills over into the quantum world.
Full article


Physicists Demonstrate Three-Color Entanglement

From PhysOrg.com:

For the first time, physicists have demonstrated the quantum entanglement of three light beams, all of different wavelengths. Entanglement of two light beams of different wavelengths has already been demonstrated, but the researchers explain that going beyond two beams is important since three beams can serve as connections at the nodes of a quantum network.


Full article


2009-09-30

Physicists Investigate Unusual Four-Qubit Entanglement

From PhysOrg.com:

For the first time, physicists have experimentally demonstrated a four-qubit bound-entangled state - a peculiar form of entanglement that cannot be distilled (optimized) by the usual means. However, the scientists have found a novel method for distilling the entanglement by working with two qubits at a time. As the researchers explain, the special properties of bound entanglement could make it a useful quantum resource for new multiparty communication and secret sharing schemes, and the results could also contribute to a deeper understanding of the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Full article


2009-08-27

Physicist Proposes Solution to Arrow-of-Time Paradox

From PhysOrg.com:

Entropy can decrease, according to a new proposal - but the process would destroy any evidence of its existence, and erase any memory an observer might have of it. It sounds like the plot to a weird sci-fi movie, but the idea has recently been suggested by theoretical physicist Lorenzo Maccone, currently a visiting scientist at MIT, in an attempt to solve a longstanding paradox in physics.
Full article


2009-08-17

New Law of Physics Could Explain Quantum Mysteries

From PhysOrg.com:

Since the early days of quantum mechanics, scientists have been trying to understand the many strange implications of the theory: superpositions, wave-particle duality, and the observer’s role in measurements, to name a few. Now, a new proposed law of physics that describes the geometry of physical reality on the cosmological scale might help answer some of these questions. Plus, the new law could give some clues about the role of gravity in quantum physics, possibly pointing the way to a unified theory of physics.
Full article


2009-07-30

Discovery about behavior of building block of nature could lead to computer revolution

From PhysOrg.com:

The electron is a fundamental building block of nature and is indivisible in isolation, yet a new experiment has shown that electrons, if crowded into narrow wires, are seen to split apart.
Full article


2009-07-17

Controlling the electronic surface properties of a material

From PhyOrg.com:

A recent breakthrough by researchers at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute sees for the first time the creation of thin films with controllable electronic properties. This discovery could have a large impact on future applications in sensors and computing...

It's commonly accepted that electrical resistance of a given material cannot be adjusted as is the case with, for example, density and color. However, Dr Meike Stöhr and her collaborators have now succeeded in developing a new method to selectively tune surface properties such as resistance.
Full article


2009-05-18

Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?

From PhyOrg.com:

In trying to understand how gravity behaves on the quantum scale, physicists have developed a model that has an interesting implication: mini black holes could be everywhere, and all particles might be made of various forms of black holes.
Continued


2009-03-27

Exerting better control over matter waves (A first step to major new technologies?)

From PhysOrg.com:

“The concept of matter waves is at the heart of quantum mechanics,” Oliver Morsch tells PhysOrg.com. “At the beginning of the last century, scientists discovered that solid particles could exhibit properties of waves, such as interference and diffraction. Until then, it was assumed that only light behaved as a wave. But in the quantum world everything is basically a wave.”
Full article

This is a great example of something that is relatively modest in itself, but could eventually be seen as the first step to new technologies of major strategic importance. Often the first step towards such major/revolutionary/transcendent new science and/or technology seems—deceptively—rather innocuous.


2009-03-20

Making quantum computing scalable

From PhysOrg.com:

Quantum information processing is one of the hottest areas of science and technology right now. Making quantum information processing scalable is an important part of the efforts involved with regard to practical quantum computing. “By tuning the gap of a superconducting qubit, we can allow different types of coupling for use in quantum information processing,” Hans Mooij tells PhysOrg.com.

Full article


2009-03-04

It's Easier to Observe the Failure of Local Realism than Previously Thought

From PhysOrg.com:

(PhysOrg.com) -- Local realism is something we live with every day, even if we don’t realize it. The principle of local realism combines two assumptions: locality and realism. Locality says that distant objects cannot directly and instantaneously influence each other (since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light). Realism says that the things we measure and sense are indeed really there apart from our measurements, and it’s not just our measurements that make them exist.

Full article


2009-02-18

Scientists Model Words as Entangled Quantum States in our Minds

From PhysOrg.com:

When you hear the word “planet,” do you automatically think of the word’s literal definition, or of other words, such as “Earth,” “space,” “Mars,” etc.? Especially when used in sentences, words tend to conjure up similar words automatically. Further, human beings’ ability to draw associations and inferences between words may explain why we’re generally able to communicate complex ideas with each other quite clearly using a limited number of words.
...
“We think it is odd that entanglement occurs at all,” he said. “As a phenomenon, it suggests that the world is not the separable and reducible place that we have always taken it to be. If entanglement is found in other types of (non-physical) systems, it will suggest that the quantum formalism is modeling non-separability per se, and this will indicate that quantum theory could provide a whole new approach to the study of complex systems, i.e. non-separable and irreducible systems.”

Continued

Compare and constrast with The Laws of Form