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Category: particle physics – Page 35

Braided, exotic particles could build reliable, universal quantum computers

A truly useful quantum computer must be able to run any algorithm, with the same versatility an ordinary laptop offers. Physicists have now shown a new way to give a quantum computer exactly that flexibility, harnessing the capabilities of exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons.

A team of scientists from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME), Harvard, Stony Brook University and Quantinuum built and tested a complete toolkit of operations using non-Abelian anyons, proving for the first time the broad utility of this approach.

“We demonstrated a so-called universal gate set—meaning that if you store information in these emergent versions of quarks, and you move them around, you can do any quantum computation you might want to do,” said Ruben Verresen, assistant professor of molecular engineering at UChicago PME and a co-author of the new study published in Nature.

Plasma agriculture makes strides toward super-seeding conventional methods

Occasionally, the sun unleashes powerful flares and coronal mass ejections, which hurl plasma and energetic particles into space. On the infant Earth, this solar activity drove cascades of atmospheric chemical reactions that may have helped form the building blocks of life. More recently, scientists have discovered that applying plasma to seeds in a controlled way can trigger similar activity, making them faster-growing and more resilient. Researchers at Nagoya University and Kyushu University in Japan have compiled a comprehensive review of this new field—termed “plasma agriculture”—as a potential sustainable solution to address global food shortages.

The word plasma brings to mind a hot, ionized inferno that makes up the fourth state of matter. But the plasma used here is different. By applying high voltage to air or any gas, electrons are stripped from a tiny fraction of its molecules and gain very high energies. These electrons zipping around can effectively mimic the behavior of plasma even though the bulk of the gas remains at room temperature.

This low-temperature plasma can be applied directly to seeds without burning them. Excessive use of chemicals and genetic modification of plants cause concern for many people. Instead, plasma agriculture can offer similarly high crop yields without invasive intervention.

What does it mean to be ‘quantum?’ A physicist explains the basics behind Einstein’s spooky actions at a distance

Imagine shining a flashlight across a dark room. You can predict exactly what the light will do: travel in a straight line from one point to another. That seems obvious because, in the world we see around us, light appears to follow a single, clear path.

Quantum mechanics paints a far stranger picture.

If you zoom in to the atomic scale, light does not behave as though it follows only one straight route. Instead, a particle of light explores every path available to it at once. One path may indeed be the straight line across the room. But others could involve the light bouncing off walls, curving through space or tracing wildly improbable detours before reaching its destination.

How the universe generates time and space from a single rewriting rule | Stephen Wolfram

Hypergraphs.

We experience only one small slice of the ruliad. What’s the ruliad? Physicist Stephen Wolfram explains.

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❍ Watch Wolfram’s full interview here: • Physics doesn’t explain the universe. Comp…

Is it time for a new ‘theory of everything’?
World-renowned physicist Stephen Wolfram explains his theory that the universe may be built from simple computational rules. He describes space as a giant network made of tiny “atoms of space,” constantly updating in ways that create time, gravity, quantum mechanics, and the laws of physics. He also introduces the ruliad: the space of all possible computations. Ultimately, Wolfram argues that reality may be far more complex than we can see, shaped by both the universe and how we observe it.

Read the full video transcript: https://bigthink.com/videos/objective…

Continue reading “How the universe generates time and space from a single rewriting rule | Stephen Wolfram” | >

New technique for building ultra-thin material stacks promises quantum breakthrough

Scientists have unveiled a new fabrication technique for the ultra-clean manufacturing of 2D heterostructures—materials just a few atoms thick—that could be used in quantum technology and electronics. Experts from Southampton and Singapore say the method could be used to develop next-generation devices that accelerate research in quantum computing.

The research behind their technique, published in Nature Communications, was developed in collaboration between the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials at the National University of Singapore and the University of Southampton.

Current manufacturing methods to build two-dimensional materials rely on sticky synthetic polymers to assemble the atomic layers. However, these often leave behind microscopic residues that contaminate the tiny structures and disrupt the performance of electronic devices that use them. The research team instead used the natural mineral muscovite, or mica, to stack the atomically thin materials together.

Physicists confirm 20-year-old theory that could boost quantum technology

Future quantum computing will require correlations between distant modules—a feature known as distributed entanglement. Traditionally, such entanglement has relied on active control and repeated measurements. Now, physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have realized a fully autonomous method for distributed entanglement using a “quantum bath” of correlated light particles. Published in Physical Review X, their work experimentally confirms a 20-year-old prediction and could provide a new platform for applied quantum technologies.

Entanglement is a central feature of quantum physics in which shared correlations exceed what classical theories can explain. Achieving distributed entanglement between physically separated qubits (quantum bits) could enable future advances, such as scalable quantum computers and quantum networks.

To entangle distant qubits, earlier attempts have relied on two protocols. In one approach, a single, actively controlled photon is sent from one qubit to the other. In the second approach, each qubit emits a photon that must be matched to produce entanglement. While the second method earned the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, it requires many repeated measurements and post-selection and still does not always yield entanglement.

New atomic trap boosts quantum performance by using surface forces

Researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have developed a new method for trapping and controlling atoms near an ultrathin glass fiber. This has significantly improved the atoms’ ability to store quantum information—an important step forward for future quantum technologies.

Trapping and controlling atoms is one of the technical foundations for using their quantum-mechanical properties—for example, for secure communication in quantum networks or quantum computing. Many novel quantum devices rely on interconnecting atoms using light. For example, atoms are trapped and held near tiny light-guiding structures to enable efficient communication between quantum particles. Until now, multiple laser beams were required to keep the atoms in place within such nanophotonic systems.

Researchers define new frontier in quantum materials

Researchers at City College of New York physicist Vinod M. Menon’s Laboratory for Nano and Micro Photonics (LaNMP) have outlined an emerging frontier in quantum materials: atomically thin systems in which light, magnetism and electric charge are strongly intertwined. This rapidly evolving field could enable next-generation optoelectronic and quantum technologies leveraging the coupled dynamics of light, charge and spin.

A review article in Nature Materials titled “Excitons in van der Waals magnetic materials” surveys recent advances by the CCNY team in layered magnetic semiconductors, where light-generated electronic excitations known as excitons interact with magnetic order and spin waves known as magnons.

Excitons form when light excites an electron within a material, leaving behind a positively charged “hole.” The electron and hole remain bound together as a neutral but optically active particle. Magnons, by contrast, are collective ripples in a material’s magnetic order.

Direct observation of spontaneous magnon coherence at room temperature

Researchers at RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau have achieved a key experimental breakthrough: For the first time, the spontaneous macroscopic coherence of magnons—the quantized excitations of magnetic materials—has been directly observed. These experiments confirm a central prediction of the theory of magnon Bose-Einstein condensates. Eventually, these findings could open new avenues for signal processing, sensing technologies and information processing. The study has been published in Nature Physics.

The three classical states of matter—solid, liquid and gas—are everyday phenomena. However, additional states exist, including plasma and the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In a BEC, a large number of quantum particles no longer behave independently but instead collectively occupy a single macroscopic quantum state.

BECs were originally observed in ultracold atomic gases near absolute zero temperature. Twenty years ago, however, researchers demonstrated that a comparable phase transition can also occur in magnetic solids—notably at room temperature. The corresponding study was carried out by the Department of Physics of TU Kaiserslautern (now RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau), in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Münster, Oakland and Kyiv.