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A new study published in Nature Communications delves into the manipulation of atomic-scale spin transitions using an external voltage, shedding light on the practical implementation of spin control at the nanoscale for quantum computing applications.

Spin transitions at the atomic scale involve changes in the orientation of an atom’s intrinsic angular momentum or spin. In the atomic context, spin transitions are typically associated with electron behavior.

In this study, the researchers focused on using electric fields to control the spin transitions. The foundation of their research was serendipitous and driven by curiosity.

In a new collaboration, two research groups, one led by Francesca Ferlaino and one by Markus Greiner, have joined force to develop an advanced quantum gas microscope for magnetic quantum matter. This state-of-the-art instrument reveals intricate dipolar quantum phases shaped by the interactions as reported in Nature.

Magnetic atoms are central to Ferlaino’s research on unexplored quantum matter. At both the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck, the experimental physicist and her team achieved the first Bose-Einstein condensate of erbium in 2012. In 2019, she led one of the teams observing for the first time supersolid states in ultracold quantum gases of magnetic atoms.

At Harvard University, German experimental physicist Markus Greiner is the pioneer of optical techniques allowing for the direct observation of individual atoms. Using high-resolution microscopy, the Harvard team has unveiled many exotic phenomena in strongly correlated ultracold atoms, as anti-ferromagnetic phases in 2017.

Physicists, building on Lev Landau’s theory of quasiparticles, used ultracold quantum gases to simulate electron behavior in solids. Their recent experiment revealed that these quasiparticles can have both attractive and repulsive interactions, underscoring the significance of quantum statistics.

An electron moving through a solid generates a polarization in its environment due to its electric charge. In his theoretical considerations, the Russian physicist Lev Landau extended the description of such particles by their interaction with the environment and spoke of quasiparticles. More than ten years ago, the team led by Rudolf Grimm at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQQOI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Innsbruck succeeded in generating such quasiparticles for both attractive and repulsive interactions with the environment.

For this purpose, the scientists use an ultracold quantum gas consisting of lithium and potassium atoms in a vacuum chamber. With the help of magnetic fields, they control the interactions between the particles, and by means of radio-frequency pulses push the potassium atoms into a state in which they attract or repel the lithium atoms surrounding them. In this way, the researchers simulate a complex state similar to the one produced in the solid state by a free electron.

The scale of quantum computers is growing quickly. In 2022, IBM took the top spot with its 433-qubit Osprey chip. Yesterday, Atom Computing announced they’ve one-upped IBM with a 1,180-qubit neutral atom quantum computer.

The new machine runs on a tiny grid of atoms held in place and manipulated by lasers in a vacuum chamber. The company’s first 100-qubit prototype was a 10-by-10 grid of strontium atoms. The new system is a 35-by-35 grid of ytterbium atoms (shown above). (The machine has space for 1,225 atoms, but Atom has so far run tests with 1,180.)

Quantum computing researchers are working on a range of qubits—the quantum equivalent of bits represented by transistors in traditional computing—including tiny superconducting loops of wire (Google and IBM), trapped ions (IonQ), and photons, among others. But Atom Computing and other companies, like QuEra, believe neutral atoms—that is, atoms with no electric charge—have greater potential to scale.

It’s not often an article makes me say “woah” out loud.

Scientists have created the world’s first nanophotonic electron accelerator, which speeds negatively charged particles with mini laser pulses and is small enough to fit on a coin.

Atom Computing has created the first quantum computer to surpass 1,000 qubits, which could improve the accuracy of the machines.

By Alex Wilkins

How many qubits do we have to have in a quantum computer and accessble to a wide market to trully have something scfi worthy?

Today, a startup called Atom Computing announced that it has been doing internal testing of a 1,180 qubit quantum computer and will be making it available to customers next year. The system represents a major step forward for the company, which had only built one prior system based on neutral atom qubits—a system that operated using only 100 qubits.

The error rate for individual qubit operations is high enough that it won’t be possible to run an algorithm that relies on the full qubit count without it failing due to an error. But it does back up the company’s claims that its technology can scale rapidly and provides a testbed for work on quantum error correction. And, for smaller algorithms, the company says it’ll simply run multiple instances in parallel to boost the chance of returning the right answer.

Continue reading “Atom Computing is the first to announce a 1,000+ qubit quantum computer” »

The neutrino, one of nature’s most elusive and least understood subatomic particles, rarely interacts with matter. That makes precision studies of the neutrino and its antimatter partner, the antineutrino, a challenge. The strongest emitters of neutrinos on Earth—nuclear reactors—play a key role in studying these particles. Researchers have designed the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment (PROSPECT) for detailed studies of electron antineutrinos coming from the core of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR).

Now the PROSPECT research collaboration has reported the most precise measurement ever of the energy spectrum of antineutrinos emitted from the fission of uranium-235 (U-235). These results provide scientists with new information about the nature of these particles.

PROSPECT’s collaborators represent more than 60 participants from 13 universities and four national laboratories. They built a novel antineutrino detector system and installed it with extensive, tailored shielding against background at the HFIR research reactor, a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research focuses on antineutrinos emerging from the fission of U-235. Produced by nuclear beta decay, antineutrinos are antimatter-particle counterparts to neutrinos.

When scientists measure a particle, it seems to collapse to one fixed state. Yet no one can be sure what’s causing collapse, also called reduction of the state. Some scientists and philosophers even think that wave function collapse is an elaborate illusion. This debate is called the measurement problem in quantum mechanics.

The measurement problem has led many physicists and philosophers to believe that a conscious observer is somehow acting on quantum particles. One proposal is that a conscious observer causes collapse. Another theory is that a conscious observer causes the universe to split apart, spiralling out alternate realities. These worlds would be parallel yet inaccessible to us so that we only ever see things in one single state in whatever possible world we’re stuck in. This is the Multiverse or Many Worlds theory. “The point of view that it is consciousness that reduces the state is really an absurdity,” says Penrose, adding that a belief in Many Worlds is a phase that every physicist, including himself, eventually outgrows. “I shouldn’t be so blunt because very distinguished people seem to have taken that view.” Penrose demurs. He politely but unequivocally waves off the idea that a conscious observer collapses wave functions by looking at them. Likewise, he dismisses the view that a conscious observer spins off near infinite universes with a glance. “That’s making consciousness do the job of collapsing the wave function without having a theory of consciousness,” says Penrose. “I’m turning it around and I’m saying whatever consciousness is, for quite different reasons, I think it does depend on the collapse of the wave function. On that physical process.”

What’s causing collapse? “It’s an objective phenomenon,” insists Penrose. He’s convinced this objective phenomenon has to be the fundamental force: gravity. Gravity is a central player in all of classical physics conspicuously missing from quantum mechanics.