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Wonder Material Graphene Just Broke Another Major Record in Physics

Graphene is a special material. Among its many talents, it can act as a superconductor, generate a super-rare form of magnetism, and unlock entirely new quantum states.

Now graphene has another amazing credit: it can record levels of magnetoresistance without a need to push the temperature down towards absolute zero.

High magnetoresistance – a material’s ability to change its electrical resistance in response to a magnetic field – is relatively rare, yet materials that can shift their properties in this fashion are useful in computers, cars, and medical equipment.

Quantum computing will do ‘astonishing things’ once operating above zero degrees

Author and Wordsmith Kel Richards says Quantum computing will do “astonishing things” but the current problem is trying to make them operate at a higher temperature than “below zero centigrade”.

“Quantum computing is apparently … amazingly fast and will do all kinds of astonishing things … the problem at the moment is they have to operate below zero centigrade, otherwise they don’t work, so they’re trying to work out how you can make these really tiny, really fast computers operate at room temperature,” Mr Richards said.

“There is work to be done and if Australia could be in the front of this … brilliant for us.”

Quantum Computing Supremacy Unleashed: AI Chatbots Are Doomed

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become commonplace, and quantum computing is set to alter the landscape radically. The potential of quantum computers to process vast amounts of data at unprecedented speeds could render existing AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, obsolete.

The intricacies of quantum computing intertwine with understanding the evolution of artificial intelligence. This journey reveals the convergence of two transformative technologies, uncovers challenges, opens opportunities, and underscores the vital role of safeguarding innovations through patent law.

Artificial intelligence has surged forward in recent years, developing sophisticated AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Quantum Entanglement Takes Navigation Sensors to New Heights

The mysterious phenomenon of “spooky action at a distance,” which once troubled Einstein, could soon become as commonplace as the gyroscopes used to measure acceleration in smartphones.

A recent study in Nature Photonics.

<em>Nature Photonics</em> is a prestigious, peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by the Nature Publishing Group. Launched in January 2007, the journal focuses on the field of photonics, which includes research into the science and technology of light generation, manipulation, and detection. Its content ranges from fundamental research to applied science, covering topics such as lasers, optical devices, photonics materials, and photonics for energy. In addition to research papers, <em>Nature Photonics</em> also publishes reviews, news, and commentary on significant developments in the photonics field. It is a highly respected publication and is widely read by researchers, academics, and professionals in the photonics and related fields.

Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level?

Perpetual motion machines are impossible, at least in our everyday world. But down at the level of quantum mechanics, the laws of thermodynamics don’t always apply in quite the same way. In 2021, after years of effort, physicists successfully demonstrated the reality of a “time crystal,” a new state of matter that is both stable and ever-changing without any input of energy. In this episode, Steven Strogatz discusses time crystals and their significance with the theoretical physicist Vedika Khemani of Stanford University, who co-discovered that they were possible and then helped to create one on a quantum computing platform.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn or your favorite podcasting app, or you can stream it from Quanta.

Quantum Mechanics Effect Appears To Prove We Are Not Living In A Simulation

From René Descartes to the Wachowskis (directors of the Matrix trilogy, amongst others) to Elon Musk, many have envisioned that our existence is just part of the scheme of a superior intelligence and our lives are merely part of a simulated reality. There’s obviously no evidence for it and there are actually many arguments against it, and now researchers think they have found a physical property that occurs in metals that cannot be simulated, telling us once and for all that our lives, good or bad, are actually real.

Quantum Supremacy

We’re hearing this week from two very different parts of the string theory community that quantum supremacy (quantum computers doing better than classical computers) is the answer to the challenges the subject has faced.

New Scientist has an article Quantum computers could simulate a black hole in the next decade which tells us that “Understanding the interactions between quantum physics and gravity within a black hole is one of the thorniest problems in physics, but quantum computers could soon offer an answer.” The article is about this preprint from Juan Maldacena which discusses numerical simulations in a version of the BFSS matrix model, a 1996 proposal for a definition of M-theory that never worked out. Maldacena points to this recent Monte-Carlo calculation, which claims to get results consistent with expectations from duality with supergravity.

Maldacena’s proposal is basically for a variant of the wormhole publicity stunt: he argues that if you have a large enough quantum computer, you can do a better calculation than the recent Monte-Carlo. In principle you could look for quasi-normal modes in the data, and then you would have created not a wormhole but a black hole and be doing “quantum gravity in the laboratory”.

Imperfection is not a problem for artificial synapses

Using a strategy that mimics the encoding of information in our brains, a trio of researchers in China has proposed a new platform for artificial intelligence (AI) that could be far more robust than existing architectures. The approach, which has yet to be implemented in the lab, exploits the inevitable non-uniformity of artificial neurons that are a result of defects in real magnetic materials.

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The research was done by Zhe Yuan, Ya Qiao and Yajun Zhang at the Center for Advanced Quantum Studies and Department of Physics at Beijing Normal University.