Quantum Physics – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Dec 22
2023

First AI Images Extracted From Human Brain Revealed

A group of researchers in Japan have found yet another interesting way to use AI technology. In a recent research project led by a team from the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) and Osaka University, they were able to translate human brain activity to depict mental images of objects, animals, and landscapes. They released pictures from the research, and the results are pretty astounding.

One of the images that the AI technology was able to decode from the brain activity was a vivid depiction of a leopard with detailed features like spots, ears, and more. Another image depicted an airplane. While we have previously had technology that is able to recreate images from brain activity, this is one of the very few studies that were able to make these mental images visible.

Of these previous studies, the images that could be decoded were fairly limited into several categories, like human faces, letters, and numbers. This new AI brain-decoding technology seems to be able to decode a much broader spectrum of images from the human mind. As the researchers in the study point out, “visualizing mental imagery for arbitrary natural images stands as a significant milestone.”

Dec 22
2023

Researchers take a different approach with measurement-based quantum computing

The race to develop quantum computers has really heated up over the past few years. State-of-the-art systems can now run simple algorithms using dozens of qubits—or quantum bits—which are the building blocks of quantum computers.

Dec 22
2023

What can my homemade quantum computer do?

This video was supported by Screen Australia and Google through the Skip Ahead initiative. Part 1 is here: https://youtu.be/muoIG732fQA?si=_vFy9siMqkOdO1xVf y…

Dec 22
2023

The tangled state of quantum hypothesis testing

Quantum hypothesis testing—the task of distinguishing quantum states—enjoys surprisingly deep connections with the theory of entanglement. Recent findings have reopened the biggest questions in hypothesis testing and reversible entanglement manipulation.

Dec 22
2023

An advanced computational tool for understanding quantum materials

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME), Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia have developed a new computational tool to describe how the atoms within quantum materials behave when they absorb and emit light.

The tool will be released as part of the open-source software package WEST, developed within the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) by a team led by Prof. Marco Govoni, and it helps scientists better understand and engineer new materials for quantum technologies.

“What we’ve done is broaden the ability of scientists to study these materials for quantum technologies,” said Giulia Galli, Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and senior author of the paper, published in Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. “We can now study systems and properties that were really not accessible, on a large scale, in the past.”

Dec 22
2023

Quantum battery technology works by breaking causality

Future batteries could charge up by relying on a quantum effect known as indefinite causal order, whereby the laws of cause and effect are scrambled and power can move through the system quicker.

Dec 22
2023

S41467-020–14454-2.Pdf

Training deep quantum neural networks.

Shared with Dropbox.

Dec 21
2023

QEDMA as an enabler for quantum computing

Dec 21
2023

IBM debuts next-gen quantum processor and IBM quantum system two, extends roadmap to advance quantum utility

At the annual IBM Quantum Summit in New York, IBM debuted IBM Quantum Heron, the first in a new series of utility-scale quantum processors with an architecture engineered over the past four years to deliver IBM’s highest performance metrics and lowest error rates of any IBM Quantum processor to date.

IBM also unveiled IBM Quantum System Two, the company’s first modular quantum computer and cornerstone of IBM’s quantum-centric supercomputing architecture. The first IBM Quantum System Two, located in Yorktown Heights, New York, has begun operations with three IBM Heron processors and supporting control electronics.

With this critical foundation now in place, along with other breakthroughs in quantum hardware, theory, and software, the company is extending its IBM Quantum Development Roadmap to 2033 with new targets to significantly advance the quality of gate operations. Doing so would increase the size of quantum circuits able to be run and help to realize the full potential of quantum computing at scale.

Dec 21
2023

Utility-Scale Quantum Program Advances Toward Prototyping

DARPA’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program seeks to determine whether an underexplored approach to quantum computing can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning its computational value exceeds its cost — faster than conventional predictions.

In the initial phase, each company presented a design concept describing their plans to create a utility-scale quantum computer. In the follow-on phase, selected performers aim to take their concepts to the next level. Now, US2QC’s key goal centers on developing and defending a system design for a fault-tolerant prototype, a smaller-scale quantum computer demonstrating that a utility-scale quantum computer can be constructed as designed and operated as intended.

This prototype system design will identify all required components and sub-systems and establish their minimum performance requirements. A DARPA-led government test and evaluation team consisting of technical experts will evaluate design viability.