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Researchers at Columbia University and University of California, San Diego, have introduced a novel “multi-messenger” approach to quantum physics that signifies a technological leap in how scientists can explore quantum materials.

The findings appear in a recent article published in Nature Materials, led by A. S. McLeod, postdoctoral researcher, Columbia Nano Initiative, with co-authors Dmitri Basov and A. J. Millis at Columbia and R.A. Averitt at UC San Diego.

“We have brought a technique from the inter-galactic scale down to the realm of the ultra-small,” said Basov, Higgins Professor of Physics and Director of the Energy Frontier Research Center at Columbia. Equipped with multi-modal nanoscience tools we can now routinely go places no one thought would be possible as recently as five years ago.”

Quantum computers, quantum cryptography and quantum (insert name here) are often in the news these days. Articles about them inevitably refer to entanglement, a property of quantum physics that makes all these magical devices possible.

Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance,” a name that has stuck and become increasingly popular. Beyond just building better quantum computers, understanding and harnessing entanglement is also useful in other ways.

Continue reading “Remote connections? Detangling entanglement in quantum physics” »

During one of these phase transitions (which happened when the universe was less than a second old), the axions of string theory didn’t appear as particles. Instead, they looked like loops and lines — a network of lightweight, nearly invisible strings crisscrossing the cosmos.

This hypothetical axiverse, filled with a variety of lightweight axion strings, is predicted by no other theory of physics but string theory. So, if we determine that we live in an axiverse, it would be a major boon for string theory.

How can we search for these axion strings? Models predict that axion strings have very low mass, so light won’t bump into an axion and bend, or axions likely wouldn’t mingle with other particles. There could be millions of axion strings floating through the Milky Way right now, and we wouldn’t see them.

Happy New year everyone! We wanted to give you an inside look as to what happens on our Dr. Joe live calls that take place once a month. Here’s a moment from our last Dr. Joe live call.

⁣ Some of the subjects Dr. Joe may address: latest scientific discoveries; health and wealth; love and relationships; neuroscience and epigenetics; happiness and vitality; the quantum model of reality; how you can make great and lasting changes in yourself and your life!⁣

⁣ With his vast experience and deepening knowledge of how each one of us can unlock unlimited abilities and transform our lives for the better, these classes offer you a unique opportunity to continually learn and interact with Dr. Joe! If you want to take it a step further in the work, Dr. Joe live is a great way to deepen your understanding, keep you plugged into the community and interact with Dr. Joe personally.⁣.

Does string theory offer an all-encompassing alternative to the Standard Model — or is this one-dimensional approach fraying at the edges?

The smallest-scale events have giant consequences, and quantum physics showed us how strange and varied those consequences can be in 2019.

The theoretical notion of a ‘quantum heat engine’ has been around for several decades. It was first introduced around sixty years ago by Scovil and Schulz-DuBois, two physicists at Bell Labs who drew an analogy between three-level masers and thermal machines.

As 2019 winds to a close, the journey towards fully realised quantum computing continues: physicists have been able to demonstrate quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time.

Put simply, this breakthrough means that information was passed between the chips not by physical electronic connections, but through quantum entanglement – by linking two particles across a gap using the principles of quantum physics.

We don’t yet understand everything about quantum entanglement (it’s the same phenomenon Albert Einstein famously called “spooky action”), but being able to use it to send information between computer chips is significant, even if so far we’re confined to a tightly controlled lab environment.

From the first black hole image to the first image of quantum entanglement, mankind achieved a lot in 2019!