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There is a huge global effort to engineer a computer capable of harnessing the power of quantum physics to carry out computations of unprecedented complexity. While formidable technological obstacles still stand in the way of creating such a quantum computer, today’s early prototypes are still capable of remarkable feats.

For example, the creation of a new phase of matter called a “time crystal.” Just as a crystal’s structure repeats in space, a time crystal repeats in time and, importantly, does so infinitely and without any further input of energy—like a clock that runs forever without any batteries. The quest to realize this phase of matter has been a longstanding challenge in theory and experiment—one that has now finally come to fruition.

In research published Nov. 30 in Nature, a team of scientists from Stanford University, Google Quantum AI, the Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems and Oxford University detail their creation of a time crystal using Google’s Sycamore quantum computing hardware.

Today’s quantum computers are complicated to build, difficult to scale up, and require temperatures colder than interstellar space to operate. These challenges have led researchers to explore the possibility of building quantum computers that work using photons—particles of light. Photons can easily carry information from one place to another, and photonic quantum computers can operate at room temperature, so this approach is promising. However, although people have successfully created individual quantum “logic gates” for photons, it’s challenging to construct large numbers of gates and connect them in a reliable fashion to perform complex calculations.

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Erratum: Figures in episode should be Minev et al. (2019), not Minney et al. (2009). Our apologies to the authors!

This is the experiment we talk about:
To Catch and Reverse a Quantum Jump Mid-Flight.
Minev, Mundhada, Shankar, Reinhold, Gutiérrez-Jáuregui, Schoelkopf.
Mirrahimi, Carmichael & Devoret (2019), Nature, v.570, p.200
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1287-z.

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Photonics is a branch of technology development that specializes in the creation of devices that can generate, detect or manipulate light. Recently, researchers at Université Paris-Saclay coined a new term for a new photonics sub-field called non-Euclidean photonics.

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team introduced new devices that could be used as a test bed for non-Euclidean photonics. These devices are microlasers in which the is a . In particular, they investigated one-sided, non-orientable surfaces known as Möbius strips.

“Our project started 10 years ago with the Ph.D. thesis of Clement Lafargue,” Melanie Lebental, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. “At the time, we had good expertise on 2D polymer-based microlasers and their use as quantum chaos platforms. We wanted to explore the third dimension, because we expected a lot of different features and a broad variety of dynamical behaviors, particularly regarding the symmetry classes of the laser modes and their polarization features.”

Today’s quantum computers are complicated to build, difficult to scale up, and require temperatures colder than interstellar space to operate. These challenges have led researchers to explore the possibility of building quantum computers that work using photons—particles of light. Photons can easily carry information from one place to another, and photonic quantum computers can operate at room temperature, so this approach is promising. However, although people have successfully created individual quantum “logic gates” for photons, it’s challenging to construct large numbers of gates and connect them in a reliable fashion to perform complex calculations.

Now, Stanford University researchers have proposed a simpler design for photonic quantum computers using readily available components, according to a paper published Nov. 29 in Optica. Their proposed design uses a laser to manipulate a single atom that in turn, can modify the state of the photons via a phenomenon called “quantum teleportation.” The atom can be reset and reused for many quantum gates, eliminating the need to build multiple distinct physical gates, vastly reducing the complexity of building a quantum .

“Normally, if you wanted to build this type of quantum computer, you’d have to take potentially thousands of quantum emitters, make them all perfectly indistinguishable, and then integrate them into a giant photonic circuit,” said Ben Bartlett, a Ph.D. candidate in applied physics and lead author of the paper. “Whereas with this design, we only need a handful of relatively simple components, and the size of the machine doesn’t increase with the size of the quantum program you want to run.”

This is what we are experiencing over the next ten years in the near vertical rate of change. We are in these last stages of these changes where we can shape this future into the flowers analogy. The confluence of environmental, social, biological, physical, digital-inspired, technological, quantum-infused, cosmological, creator culture; an endless list. All significantly transforming our lives. We are in the time where creativity, innovation, intuition, imagination, inspiration, purpose, meaning can be driving us.

What we are experiencing forms my top 10 omni wishes for 2022 that will have outsized impact on our lives.

Top Ten Omni Wishes.

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On-chip frequency shifters in the gigahertz range could be used in next generation quantum computers and networks.

The ability to precisely control and change properties of a photon, including polarization, position in space, and arrival time, gave rise to a wide range of communication technologies we use today, including the Internet. The next generation of photonic technologies, such as photonic quantum networks and computers, will require even more control over the properties of a photon.

One of the hardest properties to change is a photon’s color, otherwise known as its frequency, because changing the frequency of a photon means changing its energy.