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Archive for the ‘quantum physics’ category: Page 484

Nov 21, 2020

This Weird, Cheap Quantum Device Can Run For a Year With a Single Kick of Energy

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

As our need for electronic gadgets and sensors grows, scientists are coming up with new ways to keep devices powered for longer on less energy.

The latest sensor to be invented in the lab can go for a whole year on a single burst of energy, aided by a physics phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling.

The tunnelling aspect means that with the help of a 50-million-electron jumpstart, this simple and inexpensive device (made up of just four capacitors and two transistors) can keep going for an extended period of time.

Nov 20, 2020

Cracking the secrets of an emerging branch of physics

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

This discovery opens the door to topological quantum computing. Current quantum computing systems, where the elemental units of calculation are qubits that perform superfast calculations, require superconducting materials that only function in extremely cold conditions. Fluctuations in heat can throw one of these systems out of whack.

“The properties inherent to materials such as TaP could form the basis of future qubits,” says Nguyen. He envisions synthesizing TaP and other topological semimetals — a process involving the delicate cultivation of these crystalline structures — and then characterizing their structural and excitational properties with the help of neutron and X-ray beam technology, which probe these materials at the atomic level. This would enable him to identify and deploy the right materials for specific applications.

“My goal is to create programmable artificial structured topological materials, which can directly be applied as a quantum computer,” says Nguyen. “With infinitely better heat management, these quantum computing systems and devices could prove to be incredibly energy efficient.”

Nov 20, 2020

The Physics of COVID-19 –“People are Like Galaxies”

Posted by in categories: biological, cosmology, military, quantum physics

Some of the greatest medical discoveries of the 20th century came from physicists who switched careers and became biologists. Francis Crick, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology and helped identify the structure of DNA, started his career as a physicist, as did Leo Szilard who conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, writing the letter for Albert Einstein’s signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb, but spent the last decades of his life doing pioneering work in biology, including the first cloning of a human cell.

Today, a group of world-renowned researchers at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics with expertise from cosmology to quantum gravity are using physics to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nov 19, 2020

Dark Matter Candidate Could Generate String-Like Entities in Exotic Materials

Posted by in categories: cosmology, mathematics, particle physics, quantum physics

Calculations show how theoretical ‘axionic strings’ could create odd behavior if produced in exotic materials in the lab.

A hypothetical particle that could solve one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology just got a little less mysterious. A RIKEN physicist and two colleagues have revealed the mathematical underpinnings that could explain how so-called axions might generate string-like entities that create a strange voltage in lab materials.

Axions were first proposed in the 1970s by physicists studying the theory of quantum chromodynamics, which describes how some elementary particles are held together within the atomic nucleus. The trouble was that this theory predicted some bizarre properties for known particles that are not observed. To fix this, physicists posited a new particle—later dubbed the axion, after a brand of laundry detergent, because it helped clean up a mess in the theory.

Nov 18, 2020

Six questions physicists ask when evaluating scientific claims

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Not all scientific claims are equal. How can you tell if a discovery is real?

Extremely massive fundamental particles could exist, but they would seriously mess with our understanding of quantum mechanics.

Handedness—and the related concept of chirality—are double-sided ways of understanding how matter breaks symmetries.

Nov 18, 2020

Physicists discover the ‘Kings and Queens of Quantumness’

Posted by in categories: mathematics, quantum physics

Extreme quantum states.


A new mathematical framework helps physicists define the degree of quantumness of a system.

Nov 17, 2020

Quantum tunneling pushes the limits of self-powered sensors

Posted by in categories: energy, quantum physics

Shantanu Chakrabartty’s laboratory has been working to create sensors that can run on the least amount of energy. His lab has been so successful at building smaller and more efficient sensors, that they’ve run into a roadblock in the form of a fundamental law of physics.

Sometimes, however, when you hit what appears to be an impenetrable roadblock, you just have to turn to and tunnel through it. That’s what Chakrabartty and other researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis did.

The development of these self-powered quantum sensors from the lab of Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Systems & Electrical Engineering, was published online Oct. 28 in the journal Nature Communications.

Nov 17, 2020

Alternative tech makes gains in quantum computer race

Posted by in categories: business, computing, health, quantum physics

A technology for building quantum computers that has long been sidelined by major companies is gaining momentum. As quantum computing has transformed from academic exercise to big business over the past decade, the spotlight has mostly been on one approach — the tiny superconducting loops embraced by technology giants such as IBM and Intel. Superconductors enabled Google last year to claim it had achieved ‘quantum advantage’ with a quantum machine that for the first time performed a particular calculation that is beyond the practical capabilities of the best classical computer. But a separate approach, using ions trapped in electric fields, is gaining traction in the quest to make a commercial quantum computer.

Nov 15, 2020

Get started on the new Advantage quantum computer. Try it for free

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, quantum physics

Sign up for Leap™ and get a free minute of direct QC access time, which is enough to run between 400 and 4000 problems. Alternatively, get 20 minutes of free access to Leap’s quantum-classical hybrid solvers, which exploit the complementary strengths of both best-in-class classical algorithms and quantum resources.

Nov 15, 2020

The First Quantum Computer You Own Could Be Powered by a Time Crystal

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Now that researchers have created time crystals, the next step is to understand more about this bizarre material.