For the first time, researchers are able to extend the lifetime of a quantum bit, or qubit, using error correction – an essential step to useful quantum computers.
Category: quantum physics – Page 935
Electron spin control: Levitated nanodiamond is research gem
I’m telling folks there is much to be learn in the usage of natural and synthetic resources especially around diamonds — Nanodiamonds Magic.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Researchers have demonstrated how to control the “electron spin” of a nanodiamond while it is levitated with lasers in a vacuum, an advance that could find applications in quantum information processing, sensors and studies into the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics.
Electrons can be thought of as having two distinct spin states, “up” or “down.” The researchers were able to detect and control the electron spin resonance, or its change from one state to the other.
“We’ve shown how to continuously flip the electron spin in a nanodiamond levitated in a vacuum and in the presence of different gases,” said Tongcang Li, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.
Quantum computers show potential to revolutionize chemistry
Like this feature on QC.
If you have trouble wrapping your mind around quantum physics, don’t worry — it’s even hard for supercomputers. The solution, according to researchers from Google, Harvard, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and others? Why, use a quantum computer, of course. The team accurately predicted chemical reaction rates using a supercooled quantum circuit, a result that could lead to improved solar cells, batteries, flexible electronics and much more.
Chemical reactions are inherently quantum themselves — the team actually used a quote from Richard Feynman saying “nature isn’t classical, dammit.” The problem is that “molecular systems form highly entangled quantum superposition states, which require many classical computing resources in order to represent sufficiently high precision,” according to the Google Research blog. Computing the lowest energy state for propane, a relatively simple molecule, takes around ten days, for instance. That figure is required in order to get the reaction rate.
That’s where the “Xmon” supercooled qubit quantum computing circuit (shown above) comes in. The device, known as a “variational quantum eigensolver (VQE)” is the quantum equivalent of a classic neural network. The difference is that you train a classical neural circuit (like Google’s DeepMind AI) to model classical data, and train the VQE to model quantum data. “The quantum advantage of VQE is that quantum bits can efficiently represent the molecular wave function, whereas exponentially many classical bits would be required.”
Post-Quantum Cryptography Aims To Fend Off Advanced Hack Attacks
Luv it; more believers.
Quantum computers promise to enable faster, far more complex calculations than today’s silicon chip-based computers. But they also raise the possibility that future computers could retroactively break the security of any digital communications that exist today, which is why Google is experimenting with something called “post-quantum cryptography.”
While quantum computer development remains in its early stages, some such computers are already in operation. In theory, future generations of quantum computers could “decrypt any Internet communication that was recorded today, and many types of information need to remain confidential for decades,” software engineer Matt Braithwaite wrote yesterday in a post on Google’s security blog. “Thus even the possibility of a future quantum computer is something that we should be thinking about today.”
Preventing potential nightmares for cryptographers and security organizations will require post-quantum cryptography, Braithwaite said. But Google is far from the only organization researching the possibilities.
Weird quantum effects travel over hundreds of miles
I shared this yesterday; however, another article with another spin (no pun intended)
Working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Fermilab physics laboratory in Illinois, a team of physicists studied the states of neutrinos, among the smallest components of an atom.
Neutrinos are pretty inert, passing straight through matter and rarely interacting with it and require extremely sensitive equipment to be picked up.
But in addition to this, they have another strange property: they exist in a number of states, called flavours.
Weird quantum effects stretch across hundreds of miles
Interesting study occurring on subatomic particles (aka neutrinos) in how they can be in superposition, without individual identities, when traveling hundreds of miles.
Now, MIT physicists have found that subatomic particles called neutrinos can be in superposition, without individual identities, when traveling hundreds of miles. Their results, to be published later this month in Physical Review Letters, represent the longest distance over which quantum mechanics has been tested to date.
A subatomic journey across state lines
The team analyzed data on the oscillations of neutrinos—subatomic particles that interact extremely weakly with matter, passing through our bodies by the billions per second without any effect. Neutrinos can oscillate, or change between several distinct “flavors,” as they travel through the universe at close to the speed of light.
New light harvesting potentials
By narrowing the bandgap of titania and graphene quantum dots.
Researchers have found a method of harvesting light.
Griffith University researchers have discovered significant new potentials for light harvesting through narrowing the bandgap of titania and graphene quantum dots.
The researchers for the first time have found a quantum-confined bandgap narrowing mechanism where UV absorption of the grapheme quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles can easily be extended into the visible light range.
Such a mechanism may allow the design of a new class of composite materials for light harvesting and optoelectronics.
The birth of quantum holography: Making holograms of single light particles!
Until quite recently, creating a hologram of a single photon was believed to be impossible due to fundamental laws of physics. However, scientists at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, have successfully applied concepts of classical holography to the world of quantum phenomena. A new measurement technique has enabled them to register the first ever hologram of a single light particle, thereby shedding new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Scientists at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, have created the first ever hologram of a single light particle. The spectacular experiment, reported in the journal Nature Photonics, was conducted by Dr. Radoslaw Chrapkiewicz and Michal Jachura under the supervision of Dr. Wojciech Wasilewski and Prof. Konrad Banaszek. Their successful registering of the hologram of a single photon heralds a new era in holography: quantum holography, which promises to offer a whole new perspective on quantum phenomena.
“We performed a relatively simple experiment to measure and view something incredibly difficult to observe: the shape of wavefronts of a single photon,” says Dr. Chrapkiewicz.
Research breakthrough towards ‘practical’ quantum computing future
This truly makes QC more practical on many fronts. First, no need for QC to reside in an “icebox” room/ environment. Second, with the recent findings on making quantum computing scalable; we now have a method in place to not make QC devices over heat as well. So, again another major step forward by Sydney and their partners in Switzerland and Germany.
http://www.itwire.com/development/73884-research-breakthroug…uture.html
A group of international researchers, including a leading research from the University of Sydney, has made a breakthrough discovery, making a conducting carbon material that they demonstrated could be used to perform quantum computing at room temperature, rather than near absolute zero (−273°C).
The collaboration involved a team co-led by Dr Mohammad Choucair – who recently finished a University of Sydney research fellowship in the university’s School of Chemistry – and collaborators in Switzerland and Germany.
The material produced by the researchers is simply created by burning naphthalene, the ashes form the carbon material.