Lifeboat Foundation

Photons come in every wavelength you can imagine. But one particular quantum transition makes light at precisely 21 cm, and it’s magical.

There are serious indications from attempts to create a quantum theory of gravity that time must disappear completely from the description of the quantum universe. This has been known since 1967, when DeWitt discovered the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. I shall argue that this forces us to conceive explanation and causality in an entirely new way. The present can no longer be understood as the consequence of the past. Instead, I shall suggest that one may have to distinguish possible presents on the basis of their intrinsic structure, not on the basis of an assumed temporal ordering. If correct, this could have far-reaching implications. Hitherto, because the present has always been interpreted as the lawful consequence of the past, science has made no attempt to answer ‘Why’ questions, only ‘How’ questions. But if there is no past in the traditional sense, we must consider things differently. Thus, if we eliminate time, we may even be able to start asking “Why” questions.

Specification of a point and tangent vector in conformal superspace (CS) determines a slab of spacetime in CMC foliation and unique curve in CS.
Almost perfect implementation of Mach’s principle because local inertial frames, local proper distance and local proper time all emergent and determined by the universe’s shape and shape velocity.
The Mystery: Shape velocity, as opposed to shape direction, is last vestige of Newton’s absolute space and time. Responsible for expansion of the universe and perhaps perfect transformation theory in quantum theory of the universe.

Continue reading “Timeless Explanation: A New Kind of Causality, Julian Barbour” »

After recombining the superposed photons by sending them through another crystal, the team measured the photon polarization across a number of repeated experiments. They found a quantum interference pattern, a pattern of light and dark stripes that could exist only if the photon had been split and was moving in both time directions.

“The superposition of processes we realized is more akin to an object spinning clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time,” Strömberg said. The researchers created their time-flipped photon out of intellectual curiosity, but follow-up experiments showed that time flips can be paired with reversible logic gates to enable simultaneous computation in either direction, thus opening the way for quantum processors with greatly enhanced processing power.

Theoretical possibilities also sprout from the work. A future theory of quantum gravity, which would unite general relativity and quantum mechanics, should include particles of mixed time orientations like the one in this experiment, and could enable the researchers to peer into some of the universe’s most mysterious phenomena.

The concept of ‘anti-realism’ is widely seen as a fact of life for many physicists studying the mysterious effects of quantum mechanics. However, it also seems to contradict the assumptions of many other fields of research. In his research, Dr William Sulis at McMaster University in Canada explores the issue from a new perspective, by using a novel mathematical toolset named the ‘process algebra model’. In suggesting that reality itself is generated by interacting processes more fundamental than quantum particles, his theories could improve researchers’ understanding of fundamental processes in a wide variety of fields.

The concept of ‘locality’ states that objects and processes can only be influenced by other objects and processes in their immediate surroundings. It is a fundamental aspect of many fields of research and underpins all of the most complex systems we observe in nature, including living organisms. “Biologists and psychologists have known for centuries that the physical world is dominated by processes which are characterized by factors including transformation, interdependence, and information”, Dr Sulis explains. “Organisms are born, develop, continually exchange physical components and information with their environment, and eventually die.”

Beyond biology, the principle of locality also extends to Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Since the speed of light sets a fundamental speed limit on all processes in the universe, the theory states that no process can occur if it has not been triggered by another event in its past, at a close enough distance for light to travel between them within the time separating them. In general, these theories are unified by a concept which physicists call ‘realism’. Yet despite this seemingly intuitive rule, physicists have increasingly come to accept the idea that it doesn’t present a full description of how all processes unfold.

Researchers at Tohoku University, the University of Messina, and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have developed a scaled-up version of a probabilistic computer (p-computer) with stochastic spintronic devices that is suitable for hard computational problems like combinatorial optimization and machine learning.

Moore’s law predicts that computers get faster every two years because of the evolution of semiconductor chips. While this is what has historically happened, the continued evolution is starting to lag. The revolutions in machine learning and artificial intelligence means much higher computational ability is required. Quantum computing is one way of meeting these challenges, but significant hurdles to the practical realization of scalable quantum computers remain.

A p-computer harnesses naturally stochastic building blocks called probabilistic bits (p-bits). Unlike bits in traditional computers, p-bits oscillate between states. A p-computer can operate at room-temperature and acts as a domain-specific computer for a wide variety of applications in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Just like quantum computers try to solve inherently quantum problems in quantum chemistry, p-computers attempt to tackle probabilistic algorithms, widely used for complicated computational problems in combinatorial optimization and sampling.

Researchers have used a quantum processor to make microwave photons uncharacteristically sticky. They coaxed them to clump together into bound states, then found that these photon clusters survived in a regime where they were expected to dissolve into their usual, solitary states. The discovery was first made on a quantum processor, marking the growing role that these platforms are playing in studying quantum dynamics.

Photons—quantum packets of electromagnetic radiation like light or microwaves—typically don’t interact with one another. Two crossed flashlight beams, for example, pass through one another undisturbed. But in an array of superconducting qubits, microwave photons can be made to interact.

In “Formation of robust bound states of interacting photons,” published today in Nature, researchers at Google Quantum AI describe how they engineered this unusual situation. They studied a ring of 24 superconducting qubits that could host microwave photons. By applying quantum gates to pairs of neighboring qubits, photons could travel around by hopping between neighboring sites and interacting with nearby photons.

A quantum approach to data analysis that relies on the study of shapes will likely remain an example of a quantum advantage — albeit for increasingly unlikely scenarios.

The merged computing power can give rise to faster and more accurate machine learning applications.

Last month, LUMI, the fastest supercomputer in Europe, was connected to HELMI, Finland’s first quantum computer, a five-qubit system operational since 2021. This makes Finland the first country in Europe to have created such a hybrid system — it is one of the few countries worldwide to have done the same.

LUMI is famous — the supercomputer ranks third in the latest Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputer and can carry out 309 petaflops. LUMI, too became operational in 2021.

Continue reading “Europe’s fastest supercomputer just connected to a quantum computer in Finland — here’s why” »

Dark matter makes up about 27% of the matter and energy budget in the universe, but scientists do not know much about it. They do know that it is cold, meaning that the particles that make up dark matter are slow-moving. It is also difficult to detect dark matter directly because it does not interact with light. However, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) have discovered a way to use quantum computers to look for dark matter.

Aaron Chou, a senior scientist at Fermilab, works on detecting dark matter through quantum science. As part of DOE’s Office of High Energy Physics QuantISED program, he has developed a way to use qubits, the main component of quantum computing.

Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.