A breakthrough discovery in quantum semantics.
Category: quantum physics – Page 67
Northwestern University engineers are the first to successfully demonstrate quantum teleportation over a fiber optic cable already carrying Internet traffic.
The discovery, published in the journal Optica, introduces the new possibility of combining quantum communication with existing Internet cables — greatly simplifying the infrastructure required for for advanced sensing technologies or quantum computing applications.
Some quantum fields that extend throughout all of space-time could be a rich resource of quantum entanglement that can be extracted forever.
The black hole information paradox has puzzled physicists for decades. New research shows how quantum connections in spacetime itself may resolve the paradox, and in the process leave behind a subtle signature in gravitational waves.
For a long time we thought black holes, as mysterious as they were, didn’t cause any trouble. Information can’t be created or destroyed, but when objects fall below the event horizons, the information they carry with them is forever locked from view. Crucially, it’s not destroyed, just hidden.
But then Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes aren’t entirely black. They emit a small amount of radiation and eventually evaporate, disappearing from the cosmic scene entirely. But that radiation doesn’t carry any information with it, which created the famous paradox: When the black hole dies, where does all its information go?
Grape pairs enhance magnetic fields, advancing compact, cost-effective quantum sensor technology.
In interesting research, insights from ordinary supermarket grapes led researchers to boost quantum sensor performance.
The study reveals that grape pairs generate localized magnetic field hotspots for microwaves, aiding compact and cost-effective quantum sensor development.
The Macquarie University team’s work in Sydney builds on viral videos of grapes producing plasma, glowing charged particles, in microwave ovens.
Quantum sensing is a rapidly developing field that utilizes the quantum states of particles, such as superposition, entanglement, and spin states, to detect changes in physical, chemical, or biological systems. A promising type of quantum nanosensor is nanodiamonds (NDs) equipped with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. These centers are created by replacing a carbon atom with nitrogen near a lattice vacancy in a diamond structure.
When excited by light, the NV centers emit photons that maintain stable spin information and are sensitive to external influences like magnetic fields, electric fields, and temperature. Changes in these spin states can be detected using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), which measures fluorescence changes under microwave radiation.
In a recent breakthrough, scientists from Okayama University in Japan developed nanodiamond sensors bright enough for bioimaging, with spin properties comparable to those of bulk diamonds. The study, published in ACS Nano, on 16 December 2024, was led by Research Professor Masazumi Fujiwara from Okayama University, in collaboration with Sumitomo Electric Company and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.
Macquarie University researchers have demonstrated how ordinary supermarket grapes can enhance the performance of quantum sensors, potentially leading to more efficient quantum technologies.
The study, published in Physical Review Applied on 20 December 2024, shows that pairs of grapes can create strong localized magnetic field hotspots of microwaves which are used in quantum sensing applications—a finding that could help develop more compact and cost-effective quantum devices.
“While previous studies looked at the electrical fields causing the plasma effect, we showed that grape pairs can also enhance magnetic fields, which are crucial for quantum sensing applications,” says lead author Ali Fawaz, a quantum physics Ph.D. candidate at Macquarie University.
Linköping University’s experiment confirms a key theoretical link between quantum mechanics and information theory, highlighting future implications for quantum technology and secure communication.
Researchers at Linköping University and their collaborators have successfully confirmed a decade-old theory linking the complementarity principle—a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics—with information theory. Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, provides valuable insights for understanding future quantum communication, metrology, and cryptography.
“Our results have no clear or direct application right now. It’s basic research that lays the foundation for future technologies in quantum information and quantum computers. There’s enormous potential for completely new discoveries in many different research fields,” says Guilherme B Xavier, researcher in quantum communication at Linköping University, Sweden.
Sometimes things are a little out of whack, and it turns out to be exactly what you need.
That was the case when orthoferrite crystals turned up at a Rice University laboratory slightly misaligned. Those crystals inadvertently became the basis of a discovery that should resonate with researchers studying spintronics-based quantum technology.
Rice physicist Junichiro Kono, alumnus Takuma Makihara and their collaborators found an orthoferrite material, in this case yttrium iron oxide, placed in a high magnetic field showed uniquely tunable, ultrastrong interactions between magnons in the crystal.
Have you ever thought that light might hold a key to life’s mysteries? One hundred years ago, Alexander Gurwitsch dared to propose that living cells emit faint ultraviolet light, invisible to the naked eye, to communicate with and stimulate one another.
It was an idea so ahead of its time that many dismissed it outright. Without a physical theory to back it up, his idea was relegated to the chronicles of history. Yet when I encountered his work, I couldn’t help but ask the question: What if the UV effect is quantum mechanical? Armed with modern quantum theory, I began to uncover a new quantum dimension to life itself.