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Category: computing – Page 433

Researchers have created a device that enables them to electronically steer and focus a beam of terahertz electromagnetic energy with extreme precision. This opens the door to high-resolution, real-time imaging devices that are hundredths the size of other radar systems and more robust than other optical systems.

Terahertz waves, located on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light, exist in a “no man’s land” where neither classic electronics nor optical devices can effectively manipulate their energy. But these high-frequency radio waves have many unique properties, like the ability to pass through certain solid materials without the health effects of X-rays. They may also enable higher-speed communications, or vision systems that can see through foggy or dusty environments.

The Terahertz Integrated Electronics Group at MIT, led by Associate Professor Ruonan Han, seeks to bridge this so-called terahertz gap. These researchers have now demonstrated the most precise, electronically steerable, terahertz antenna , which contains the largest number of antennas. The antenna array, called a “reflectarray,” operates like a controllable mirror with its direction of reflection guided by a computer.

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We construct quantum algorithms to compute physical observables of nonlinear PDEs with M initial data. Based on an exact mapping between nonlinear and linear PDEs using the level set method, these new quantum algorithms for nonlinear Hamilton-Jacobi and scalar hyperbolic PDEs can be performed with a computational cost that is independent of M, for arbitrary nonlinearity. Depending on the details of the initial data, it can also display up to exponential advantage in both the dimension of the PDE and the error in computing its observables. For general nonlinear PDEs, quantum advantage with respect to M is possible in the large M limit.

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We’ve just taken another step closer to time crystals that can be used for practical applications.

New experimental work has yielded a room-temperature time crystal in a system that is not isolated from its ambient surroundings.

This, the researchers say, paves the way for chip-scale time crystals that can be used in real-world settings, away from expensive laboratory equipment required to keep them running.

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BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) — China has released a new quantum computing programming software named “isQ-Core” and deployed it to the country’s superconducting quantum hardware platform.

It represents a significant step forward in the combination of home-grown quantum computing hardware and software, said its primary developer, the Institute of Software under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

According to the institute, the isQ-Core has the advantages of simplicity, ease-of-use, high efficiency, solid scalability, and high reliability.

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Historically, the first program you write for a new computer language is “Hello World,” or, if you are in Texas, “Howdy World.” But with quantum computing on the horizon, you need something better. Like “Hello Many Worlds.” [IonQ] proposes what that looks like and then writes it in seven different quantum languages in a post you should check out.

Here’s the description of the simple program:

The basic quantum program we’ll write is simple. It creates a fully-entangled state between two qubits, and then measures this state. This state is sometimes called a Bell State, or Bell Pair, after physicist John Stewart Bell.

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While it’s difficult to put something as vast, conceptual, and, frankly still emerging as the metaverse in quantifiable terms, Jon Radoff breaks it down logically and thoroughly.

When it comes to describing the metaverse, definitions and opinions abound. And while it’s difficult to put something as vast, conceptual, and, frankly, still emerging as the metaverse into quantifiable terms, Jon Radoff, entrepreneur, author and game designer, breaks it down logically and thoroughly in Measuring the Metaverse. He moves up the value chain from infrastructure at the bottom to experience at the top, stopping at human interface, decentralization, spatial computing, creator economy, and discovery along the way.

A common framework is necessary in Radoff’s view of the metaverse. He writes, “And while there will be many proprietary (and very fun) theme parks in the metaverse, I’m even more excited by the opportunity in the Switzerlands: a metaverse powered by a robust creator-economy enabled through decentralization.”

This, of course, isn’t the first seven-layer model to lay out a critical framework. The IT world has long adhered to the seven layers of the OSI Model to organize networking functions into a universal set of rules and requirements to support interoperability among different products and software. Perhaps Radoff’s seven-layer model will become a similar conceptual framework for the metaverse.

Continue reading “Understanding the 7 layers of the metaverse” | >

Northwestern University synthetic biologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use, hand-held device that can let users know—within mere minutes—if their water is safe to drink.

The new device works by using powerful and programmable genetic networks, which mimic , to perform a range of logic functions.

Among the DNA-based circuits, for example, the researchers engineered cell-free molecules into an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a ubiquitous circuit type found in nearly all electronic devices. In the -quality device, the ADC circuit processes an analog input (contaminants) and generates a digital output (a visual signal to inform the user).

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A light in the dark — If quantum computers continue to advance, and perform more calculations for less steep costs, Rinaldi and his team might be able to reveal what happens inside of black holes, beyond the event horizon — a region immediately surrounding a black hole’s singularity, within which not even light, nor perhaps time itself, can escape the immense force of gravity.

In practical terms, the event horizon prevents all conventional, light-based observations. But, and perhaps more compelling, the team hopes that further advances in this line of inquiry will do more than peek inside a black hole, and unlock what physicists have dreamed of since the days of Einstein: a unified theory of physics.

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