Archive for the ‘quantum physics’ category: Page 636
May 31, 2018
A Forgotten Element Could Help Us Redefine The Way We Measure Time
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, satellites
A rare earth element that doesn’t get much mention could become the key to upgrading atomic clocks to become even more accurate. This could help us explore space and track satellites, and even keep the world’s time zones in sync.
Atomic clocks use the oscillations of atoms under laser fire as a measurement of time, in the same way a grandfather clock uses the swing of a pendulum. They can lose less than a second over 50 million years, depending on the elements used — but scientists want even greater accuracy.
That’s where lutetium (Lu) comes in. It offers both a higher level of stability and a higher degree of precision than the caesium or rubidium of today’s atomic clocks, according to a team of researchers from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) in Singapore.
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May 29, 2018
Time crystals could be the miracle quantum computing needs
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: computing, quantum physics
The mind boggling discovery that time crystals were real happened just last year, and already scientists are demonstrating possible uses for them, including their potential to revolutionize quantum computer systems.
May 27, 2018
Physicists invent flux capacitor to break time-reversal symmetry
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: computing, quantum physics
Physicists have invented a flux capacitor and, while it might not run a ‘Back to the Future’ inspired time machine, they say it will have important applications in communication technology and quantum computing.
The team from The University of Queensland, RMIT University and ETH Zurich have proposed a device which uses the quantum tunnelling of magnetic flux around a capacitor which they say can break time-reversal symmetry.
UQ Professor Tom Stace said the research proposed a new generation of electronic circulators – devices that control the direction in which microwave signals move.
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May 27, 2018
NASA’s ‘Impossible’ EmDrive Engine Tested—Here Are the Results
Posted by Andreas M. Hein in categories: quantum physics, space travel
“The ‘thrust’ is not coming from the EmDrive, but from some electromagnetic interaction,” the team reports in a proceeding for a recent conference on space propulsion.
The first independent tests of the EmDrive suggest there’s a mundane explanation for the wildly controversial device.
May 24, 2018
Using the K computer, scientists predict exotic “di-Omega” particle
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: computing, cosmology, mathematics, particle physics, quantum physics
Based on complex simulations of quantum chromodynamics performed using the K computer, one of the most powerful computers in the world, the HAL QCD Collaboration, made up of scientists from the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science and the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) program, together with colleagues from a number of universities, have predicted a new type of “dibaryon”—a particle that contains six quarks instead of the usual three. Studying how these elements form could help scientists understand the interactions among elementary particles in extreme environments such as the interiors of neutron stars or the early universe moments after the Big Bang.
Particles known as “baryons”—principally protons and neutrons—are composed of three quarks bound tightly together, with their charge depending on the “color” of the quarks that make them up. A dibaryon is essentially a system with two baryons. There is one known dibaryon in nature—deuteron, a deuterium (or heavy-hydrogen) nucleus that contains a proton and a neutron that are very lightly bound. Scientists have long wondered whether there could be other types of dibaryons. Despite searches, no other dibaryon has been found.
The group, in work published in Physical Review Letters, has now used powerful theoretical and computational tools to predict the existence of a “most strange” dibaryon, made up of two “Omega baryons” that contain three strange quarks each. They named it “di-Omega”. The group also suggested a way to look for these strange particles through experiments with heavy ion collisions planned in Europe and Japan.
May 22, 2018
Quantum dots made from tea leaves lay waste to lung cancer cells
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: health, quantum physics, solar power, sustainability
Full of antioxidants and vitamins, tea is pretty good for you, and green tea extracts have even been used as effective carriers for cancer drugs. New research led by Swansea University has found a novel way to wring more health benefits out of the stuff, by making quantum dots from tea leaves and using them to slow the growth of lung cancer cells.
Quantum dots are semiconductor particles so small they exhibit strange electrical and optical properties, such as the ability to fluoresce in different colors, or help with certain chemical reactions. Their glowing properties mean they’re showing up in TVs and solar cells, and in medical applications as biomarkers to help doctors precisely locate tumors. They’re also being used to treat cancer, fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria and convert CO2 into liquid fuels.
The problem is, manufacturing them can be a costly and complicated process, and the end results can be toxic. So the Swansea team, along with researchers from Bharathiar University and K. S. Rangasamy College of Technology, set about making quantum dots out of humble tea leaves.
May 21, 2018
How NASA Will Unlock the Secrets of Quantum Mechanics Aboard the ISS
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, space
An Antares rocket launched from Virginia before sunrise this morning and is on its way to the International Space Station. Its 7,400 pounds of cargo include an experiment that will chill atoms to just about absolute zero—colder than the vacuum of space itself.
The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is set to create Bose-Einstein condensates on board the ISS. But what’s a Bose-Einstein condensate? And why make it in space?
“Essentially, it’s going to allow us to do different kinds of things than we’d be able to do on Earth,” Gretchen Campbell, co-director of the University of Maryland’s Joint Quantum Institute, told Gizmodo.
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May 21, 2018
A German Team Is Now Trying to Make the ‘Impossible’ EmDrive Engine
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: quantum physics, space travel
German physicists launched the SpaceDrive project to explore possible sources of error in EmDrive experiments. Their first experiment identified a possible source of false positives in past successful EmDrive tests.
May 19, 2018
Google, Alibaba Spar Over Timeline for ‘Quantum Supremacy’
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: computing, quantum physics
Google says it expects to reach an important milestone for quantum computing this year. Not so fast, says Alibaba.