Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider tested whether top quarks, the most massive known elementary particles, comply with Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Despite theories suggesting potential deviations at high energies, the experiments confirmed that Lorentz symmetry remains intact, offering no evidence of variation in particle behavior due to the experiment’s orientation or the time of day.
Lorentz Symmetry and Relativity.
However, until now, “measuring this qubit’s spin was like trying to pick up a very, very weak light signal, like trying to squint at some dim light to determine whether the qubit was spin-up or spin-down,” Eric Rosenthal, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, said.
This is where a new study from Rosenthal and his team can make a big difference. They have figured out a way to measure the spin of tin-based qubits with 87 percent accuracy, enhancing the strength of signals from these qubits to a great extent.
A tin vacancy qubit is formed when two carbon atoms in a diamond are replaced by a single tin atom. This tin center has exceptional optical properties as it emits photons in the telecom wavelength range, which is highly suitable for quantum communication applications.
Scientists used antimony atoms to improve quantum computing by making qubits more stable, like a quantum cat, and error-resistant.
In the first study of its kind at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the CMS collaboration has tested whether top quarks adhere to Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The research is published in the journal Physics Letters B.
Along with quantum mechanics, Einstein’s special theory of relativity serves as the basis of the Standard Model of particle physics. At its heart is a concept called Lorentz symmetry: experimental results are independent of the orientation or the speed of the experiment with which they are taken.
Special relativity has stood the test of time. However, some theories, including particular models of string theory, predict that, at very high energies, special relativity will no longer work and experimental observations will depend on the orientation of the experiment in space-time.
Nothing escapes relativity—not top quarks. Scientists tested this with the Large Hadron Collider.
Scientists used the most massive fundamental particles to break special relativity, but even that didn’t work.
An international team of researchers led by the Strong Correlation Quantum Transport Laboratory of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) has demonstrated, in a world’s first, an ideal Weyl semimetal, marking a breakthrough in a decade-old problem of quantum materials.
Weyl fermions arise as collective quantum excitations of electrons in crystals. They are predicted to show exotic electromagnetic properties, attracting intense worldwide interest.
However, despite the careful study of thousands of crystals, most Weyl materials to date exhibit electrical conduction governed overwhelmingly by undesired, trivial electrons, obscuring the Weyl fermions. At last, researchers have synthesized a material hosting a single pair of Weyl fermions and no irrelevant electronic states.
A team of international researchers has developed an innovative approach to uncover the secrets of dark matter. In a collaboration between the University of Queensland, Australia, and Germany’s metrology institute (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, PTB), the team used data from atomic clocks and cavity-stabilized lasers located far apart in space and time to search for forms of dark matter that would have been invisible in previous searches.
This technique will allow the researchers to detect signals from dark matter models that interact universally with all atoms, an achievement that has eluded traditional experiments.
The team analyzed data from a European network of ultra-stable lasers connected by fiber optic cables (previously reported in a 2022 article), and from the atomic clocks aboard GPS satellites. By comparing precision measurements across vast distances, the analysis became sensitive to subtle effects of oscillating dark matter fields that would otherwise cancel out in conventional setups.
Scientists have developed ‘entanglement microscopy,’ a technique that maps quantum entanglement at a microscopic level.
By studying the deep connections between particles, researchers can now visualize the hidden structures of quantum matter, offering new perspectives on particle interaction that could revolutionize technology and our understanding of the universe.
Quantum entanglement is a fascinating phenomenon where particles remain mysteriously linked, even when separated by vast distances. Understanding how this connection works, especially in complex quantum systems, has been a long-standing challenge in physics.
The combination problem may, in fact, be a reason to favor a version of panpsychism in which consciousness is fundamental in the form of a continuous, pervasive field, analogous to spacetime. Just as spacetime and gravity have an interactive relationship, consciousness can be thought of as a fundamental “field” that interacts with, and is integral to, matter. We typically don’t think of spacetime as bits and pieces that build on each other (it’s simply everywhere), and I don’t think we should be tempted to think of consciousness, if it is indeed a pervasive field, as divisible into building blocks either. Rather, it makes more sense to talk about a field that contains a range of content —the content depending on the other forces or fields it’s interacting with. In the same way that gravity is a two-way street—matter warps spacetime and the shape of spacetime determines how matter moves—a consciousness field would imbue matter with another property, giving rise to the range of content experience d. Under this view, content is divisible, but consciousness isn’t. Therefore, consciousness is also not interacting with itself, as it would be in the act of “combining.” Considering consciousness to be fundamental allows for matter to have a specific internal character everywhere, in all of its various forms.
If consciousness is fundamental, then the questions that prompt the combination problem are potentially the same as all the other questions we might ask about spacetime in which we don’t anticipate this problem. All matter would entail consciousness, and complex systems, such as human brains, would give rise to certain types of content in those locations in spacetime. Even if each individual atom has its own experience, consciousness itself is not necessarily isolated. The matter might be isolated, and therefore the content associated with the consciousness at that location is isolated. But consciousness itself would not be said to be isolated. Again, we can think of consciousness as analogous to spacetime: How it’s affected by matter depends on the matter in question (its mass, in the case of spacetime). Similarly, a consciousness field might be “shaped” by matter in terms of experiential quality or content. And this line of thinking yields interesting questions.
In a universe stretched thin by eons, where stars have long faded and even atoms face their end, a single question remains: can intelligence find a way to outlast time itself?
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Credits:
Civilizations At The End Of Time: Eternal Intelligence.
Episode 483; January 23, 2025
Written, Produced \& Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Edited by: Ludwig Luska.
Graphics by: Jeremy Jozwik.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Phase Shift, \
