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Category: quantum physics – Page 121

Physicists in Konstanz (Germany) have discovered a way to imprint a previously unseen geometrical form of chirality onto electrons. The electrons are shaped into chiral coils of mass and charge. Such engineered elementary particles may open new research avenues in fundamental physics and electron microscopy.

Have you ever placed the palm of your left hand on the back of your right hand, in such a way that all fingers point in the same direction? If you have, then you probably know that your left thumb will not touch its right counterpart. Neither rotations nor translations nor their combinations can turn a left hand into a right hand and vice versa. This feature is called chirality.

Scientists at the University of Konstanz have now succeeded to imprint such a three-dimensional chirality onto the wave function of a single electron. They used laser light to shape the electron’s matter wave into left-handed or right-handed coils of mass and charge. Such engineered elementary particles with chiral geometries other than their intrinsic spin have implications for fundamental physics but may also be useful for a range of applications, such as quantum optics, particle physics or electron microscopy.

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Wormholes, a captivating theoretical concept, offer a potential shortcut through space and time—a celestial tunnel connecting distant points through the intricate fabric of space-time. The inception of this idea dates all the way back to 1935 when Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen proposed the concept of a wormhole, also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, as a unique solution within the framework of Einstein’s General Relativity(GR). The hypothetical existence of wormholes carries profound implications for space travel, such as the ability to traverse vast cosmic distances in remarkably short durations, and exploring their properties and implications could provide important information about the structure of space-time itself.

Furthermore, being closely linked to other perplexing cosmic phenomena, such as black holes, dark matter, and the enigmatic event known as the Big Bang—the cosmic genesis that set our universe into motion—wormholes have the potential to provide insights into these cosmic puzzles and deepen our understanding of the origin of the universe. Additionally, investigating wormholes could help bridge the gap between GR and quantum mechanics, which is currently one of the most important problems in theoretical physics.

Inspired by this, a team of researchers, led by Dr. P.K. Sahoo in collaboration with Mr. Zinnat Hassan from the Department of Mathematics at the Hyderabad Campus of Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) Pilani, recently delved into the investigation of wormholes. They focused on the modified teleparallel gravity framework with conformal symmetry within the context of non-commutative geometry. The primary objective of their research was to shed light on the specific conditions required for the existence of wormholes within the above framework. “The study of wormholes within the context of f(Q) symmetric teleparallel gravity with conformal symmetry under non-commutative geometry represents a sophisticated and specialized area of research in the field of theoretical physics and cosmology,” says Dr. Sahoo. Their findings were published in volume 437 of the journal Annals of Physics in February 2022.

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The Standard Model of Particle Physics encapsulates nearly everything we know about the tiny quantum-scale particles that make up our everyday world. It is a remarkable achievement, but it’s also incomplete — rife with unanswered questions. To fill the gaps in our knowledge, and discover new laws of physics beyond the Standard Model, we must study the exotic phenomena and states of matter that don’t exist in our everyday world. These include the high-energy collisions of particles and nuclei that take place in the fiery heart of stars, in cosmic ray events occurring all across earth’s upper atmosphere, and in particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN or the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Computer simulations of fundamental physics processes play an essential role in this research, but many important questions require simulations that are much too complex for even the most powerful classical supercomputers. Now that utility-scale quantum computers have demonstrated the ability to simulate quantum systems at a scale beyond exact or “brute force” classical methods, researchers are exploring how these devices might help us run simulations and answer scientific questions that are inaccessible to classical computation. In two recent papers published in PRX Quantum (PRX)1 and Physical Review D (PRD)2, our research group did just that, developing scalable techniques for simulating the real-time dynamics of quantum-scale particles using the IBM® fleet of utility-scale, superconducting quantum computers.

The techniques we’ve developed could very well serve as the building blocks for future quantum computer simulations that are completely inaccessible to both exact and even approximate classical methods — simulations that would demonstrate what we call “quantum advantage” over all known classical techniques. Our results provide clear evidence that such simulations are potentially within reach of the quantum hardware we have today.

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CSIRO research, published as a letter in Physical Review Research journal, found for the first time that AI could help process and resolve quantum errors known as qubit noise, which are generated by the nature of quantum physics.

Overcoming these errors is widely considered the largest barrier to advanced quantum computers moving from experiment to tool.

In conventional computers, information is stored and processed in “bits,” which work on the principles of binary numbers. Each bit can represent either 0 or 1. But quantum computing devices are made up of quantum bits, or “qubits.”

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Entanglement, Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance,” today is THE tool of quantum information science. It is the essential resource for quantum computers and used to transmit quantum information in a future quantum network. But it is highly sensitive. It is therefore an enormous challenge to entangle resting quantum bits (qubits) with flying qubits in the form of photons “at the push of a button.”

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Neutrinos have a quantum mechanical property called “flavor.” This flavor can transform as neutrinos move through space. A major challenge is to keep track of both the physical movement of the neutrinos and their change of flavor in astrophysical systems such as core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. The complicated arrangement and large number of neutrinos in these systems make it nearly impossible to follow all or even a subset of the neutrinos.

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A Chinese research team has achieved a significant milestone in quantum computing by successfully building a device that can simulate the movement of electrons within a solid-state material.

This research, published in the journal Nature, showcases the potential of quantum computers to surpass even the most powerful supercomputers.

Understanding electron behavior is crucial for scientific advancements, particularly in the fields of magnetism and high-temperature superconducting materials. These materials could revolutionize electricity transmission and transportation, leading to significant energy savings and technological progress.

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However, a paper just published in Physical Review D by physicists from the University of Warsaw and the University of Oxford has shown that many of these prejudices were unfounded. Tachyons are not only not ruled out by the theory, but allow us to understand its causal structure better.

Motion at speeds beyond the of light is one of the most controversial issues in physics. Hypothetical particles that could move at superluminal speeds, called tachyons (from the Greek tachýs—fast, quick), are the “enfant terrible” of modern physics. Until recently, they were widely regarded as creations that do not fit into the .

At least three reasons for the non-existence of tachyons within were known so far. The first: the ground state of the tachyon field was supposed to be unstable, which would mean that such superluminal particles would form “avalanches.” The second: a change in the inertial observer was supposed to lead to a change in the number of particles observed in his reference system, yet the existence of, say, seven particles cannot depend on who is looking at them. The third reason: the energy of the superluminal particles could take on negative values.

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