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Category: quantum physics – Page 2

Quantum dots reveal entropy production, a key measure of nanoscale energy dissipation

In order to build the computers and devices of tomorrow, we have to understand how they use energy today. That’s harder than it sounds. Memory storage, information processing, and energy use in these technologies involve constant energy flow—systems never settle into thermodynamic balance. To complicate things further, one of the most precise ways to study these processes starts at the smallest scale: the quantum domain.

New Stanford research published in Nature Physics combines theory, experimentation, and machine learning to quantify energy costs during a non-equilibrium process with ultrahigh sensitivity. Researchers used extremely small nanocrystals called quantum dots, which have unique light-emitting properties that arise from quantum effects at the nanoscale.

They measured the entropy production of quantum dots—a quantity that describes how reversible a microscopic process is, and encodes information about memory, information loss, and energy costs. Such measurements can determine the ultimate speed limits for a device or how efficient it can be.

A Simple Chemical Tweak Unlocks One of Quantum Computing’s Holy Grails

Even supercomputers can stall out on problems where nature refuses to play by everyday rules. Predicting how complex molecules behave or testing the strength of modern encryption can demand calculations that grow too quickly for classical hardware to keep up. Quantum computers are designed to tackle that kind of complexity, but only if engineers can build systems that run with extremely low error rates.

One of the most promising routes to that reliability involves a rare class of materials called topological superconductors. In plain terms, these are superconductors that also have built-in “protected” quantum behavior, which researchers hope could help shield delicate quantum information from noise. The catch is that making materials with these properties is famously difficult.

Uncovering hidden quantum landscapes

Imagine trying to read Braille while wearing thick winter gloves; you might feel the general shape of the book, but the story remains a mystery. For decades, this has been the reality for physicists trying to “feel” the invisible energy landscapes that govern how electrons move in quantum materials. Now, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have taken the gloves off.

A single atomic defect acts as a new type of microscope to reveal the electrostatic potential landscape steering the behavior of electrons in quantum materials. (Image: Weizmann Institute of Science)

Quantum Teleportation Was Performed Over The Internet For The First Time

Scientists achieved the ‘impossible’ in 2024, teleporting a quantum state through more than 30 kilometers amid a torrent of internet traffic.

In 2024, a quantum state of light was successfully teleported through more than 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) of fiber optic cable amid a torrent of internet traffic – a feat of engineering once considered impossible.

The impressive demonstration by researchers in the US may not help you beam to work to beat the morning traffic, or download your favorite cat videos faster.

However, the ability to teleport quantum states through existing infrastructure represents a monumental step towards achieving a quantum-connected computing network, enhanced encryption, or powerful new methods of sensing.

Los Alamos Forms Quantum Computing-Focused Research Center

PRESS RELEASE — Los Alamos National Laboratory has formed the Center for Quantum Computing, which will bring together the Lab’s diverse quantum computing research capabilities. Headquartered in downtown Los Alamos, the Center for Quantum Computing will consolidate the Laboratory’s expertise in national security applications, quantum algorithms, quantum computer science and workforce development in a shared research space.

“This new center of excellence will bring together the Laboratory’s quantum computing research capabilities that support Department of Energy, Defense and New Mexico state initiatives to achieve a critical mass of expertise greater than the individual parts,” said Mark Chadwick, associate Laboratory director for Simulation, Computing and Theory. “This development highlights our commitment to supporting the next generation of U.S. scientific and technological innovation in quantum computing, especially as the technology can support key Los Alamos missions.”

The center will bring together as many as three dozen quantum researchers from across the Lab. The center’s formation occurs at a pivotal time for the development of quantum computing, as Lab researchers partner with private industry and on a number of state and federal quantum computing initiatives to bring this high-priority technology closer to fruition. Laboratory researchers may include those working with the DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, the DOE’s Quantum Science Center, the National Nuclear Security Administration Advanced Simulation and Computing program’s Beyond Moore’s Law project, and multiple Laboratory Directed Research and Development projects.

Why the Multiverse Is Real | Leonard Susskind

The multiverse is often dismissed as speculation — a science-fiction idea with no place in serious physics. But for many theoretical physicists, the multiverse is not a fantasy. It is a conclusion.

In this video, we explore why the multiverse may be real.

This is not an argument based on imagination or popularity. It is based on what happens when modern physics is taken seriously. Well-tested ideas like cosmic inflation, quantum mechanics, and high-energy theory naturally lead to a picture in which our universe is not unique.

Drawing on ideas associated with Leonard Susskind, this documentary explains how the multiverse emerges as a consequence, not as an assumption. In inflationary models, different regions of space stop inflating at different times, producing universes with different properties. In theories with many possible vacuum states, the laws of physics themselves can vary from one region to another.

This framework helps explain one of the deepest puzzles in physics: fine-tuning. The constants of nature appear precisely adjusted for the existence of complex structures and life. In a single-universe picture, this looks mysterious. In a multiverse, it becomes a selection effect — we observe this universe because only certain universes can be observed at all.

The multiverse raises uncomfortable questions. It challenges prediction, explanation, and even the traditional goals of science. But discomfort is not a reason to reject a theory. If the multiverse is real, physics must adapt.

Continue reading “Why the Multiverse Is Real | Leonard Susskind” | >

Physicists solve a quantum mystery that stumped scientists for decades

Physicists at Heidelberg University have developed a new theory that finally unites two long-standing and seemingly incompatible views of how exotic particles behave inside quantum matter. In some cases, an impurity moves through a sea of particles and forms a quasiparticle known as a Fermi polaron; in others, an extremely heavy impurity freezes in place and disrupts the entire system, destroying quasiparticles altogether. The new framework shows these are not opposing realities after all, revealing how even very heavy particles can make tiny movements that allow quasiparticles to emerge.

The Philosophy of Entropy: Order, Decay, and the Meaning of Equilibrium

Entropy is one of the most profound and misunderstood concepts in modern science — at once a physical quantity, a measure of uncertainty, and a metaphor for the passage of time itself. Entropy: The Order of Disorder explores this concept in its full philosophical and scientific depth, tracing its evolution from the thermodynamics of Clausius and Boltzmann to the cosmology of the expanding universe, the information theory of Shannon, and the paradoxes of quantum mechanics.

At the heart of this study lies a critical insight: entropy in its ideal form can exist only in a perfectly closed and isolated system — a condition that is impossible to realize, even for the universe itself. From this impossibility arises the central tension of modern thought: the laws that describe equilibrium govern a world that never rests.

Bridging physics, philosophy, and cosmology, this book examines entropy as a universal principle of transformation rather than decay. It situates the second law of thermodynamics within a broader intellectual landscape, connecting it to the philosophies of Heraclitus, Kant, Hegel, and Whitehead, and to contemporary discussions of information, complexity, and emergence.

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