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The engineering of so-called Floquet states leads to almost-perfect atom-optics elements for matter-wave interferometers—which could boost these devices’ ability to probe new physics.

Since Michelson and Morley’s famous experiment to detect the “luminiferous aether,” optical interferometry has offered valuable tools for studying fundamental physics. Nowadays, cutting-edge applications of the technique include its use as a high-precision ruler for detecting gravitational waves (see Focus: The Moon as a Gravitational-Wave Detector) and as a platform for quantum computing (see Viewpoint: Quantum Leap for Quantum Primacy). But as methods for cooling and controlling atoms have advanced, a new kind of interferometer has become available, in which light waves are replaced by matter waves [1]. Such devices can measure inertial forces with a sensitivity even greater than that of optical interferometers [2] and could reveal new physics beyond the standard model.

A multiwavelength laser source known as a frequency comb provides a new technique for atom interferometry, potentially leading to new tests of fundamental physics.

In atom interferometry, researchers use the interference of quantum waves of matter, often for high-precision experiments testing fundamental physics principles. A research team has now demonstrated a new way to produce matter-wave interference by using a frequency-comb laser—a comb-like set of spectral lines at regularly spaced frequencies [1]. The comb allowed the team to generate interference in a cloud of cold atoms. The method might ultimately be used to investigate differences between matter and antimatter.

According to the weak equivalence principle, gravity must cause both matter and antimatter to fall at the same rate (see the graphical explanation, The Equivalence Principle under a MICROSCOPE). Deviations from this principle could point to explanations for the hitherto mysterious imbalance in the amounts of matter and antimatter in the Universe. Atom interferometry could provide a test of weak equivalence through precise measurements of the free fall of antihydrogen. So far, light-based control of atom interferometry has used continuous-wave (cw) lasers [2], which can’t easily be extended to the short wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) that are needed for such studies of antihydrogen.

Just in time for Halloween’s spooky season, a quantum sensor now has double the spookiness by combining entanglement between atoms and delocalization of atoms.

Future quantum sensors will be able to provide more precise navigation, explore for needed natural resources, more precisely determine fundamental constants, look more precisely for dark matter, or maybe someday discover gravitational waves thanks to a team of researchers led by Fellow James K. Thompson from the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Thompson and his team have for the first time successfully combined two of the “spookiest” features of quantum mechanics: entanglement between atoms and delocalization of atoms. By doubling down on these “spooky” features, better quantum sensors can be made.

Continue reading “In a world first, researchers combine two of the ‘spookiest’ features of quantum mechanics” »

Using artificial intellgence to find possibilities while humans gauge their significance is proving to be a powerful new form of scientific discovery.

Circa 2019 o.o!!!!

A light-based machine could hold the answers.

Continue reading “Quantum computer processor made entirely of lasers offers ‘extreme’ scale” »

Many modern science fiction movies tend to use the veneer of science fiction as a way to plug potholes or feature elaborate explosions and action. There’s always a time-travel portal to stand in as the deus ex machina, and some advanced robot or alien who only seems interested in killing everyone.

I like those movies as much as the next fella. But some filmmakers do make a sincere effort to imagine other realities and technologies that inspire in the way classic science fiction does. It doesn’t mean the films have to be the on-screen equivalent of reading an MIT paper on quantum entanglement or something, just that they spin a decent yarn inspired by actual science.

Continue reading “5 Science Fiction Movies That Actually Have Science Fiction in Them” »

Summary: Study suggests quantum processes are part of cognitive and conscious brain functions.

Source: TCD

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin believe our brains could use quantum computation after adapting an idea developed to prove the existence of quantum gravity to explore the human brain and its workings.

JILA and NIST Fellow James K. Thompson’s team of researchers have for the first time successfully combined two of the “spookiest” features of quantum mechanics to make a better quantum sensor: entanglement between atoms and delocalization of atoms.

Einstein originally referred to entanglement as creating spooky action at a distance—the strange effect of quantum mechanics in which what happens to one atom somehow influences another atom somewhere else. Entanglement is at the heart of hoped-for quantum computers, quantum simulators and quantum sensors.

A second rather spooky aspect of quantum mechanics is delocalization, the fact that a single atom can be in more than one place at the same time. As described in their paper recently published in Nature, the Thompson group has combined the spookiness of both entanglement and delocalization to realize a matter-wave interferometer that can sense accelerations with a precision that surpasses the standard quantum limit (a limit on the accuracy of an experimental measurement at a quantum level) for the first time.

A fundamental principle in statistical mechanics called microscopic reversibility has been extended to the quantum world.