Physicists Discover the Secret of Quantum Remote Control Teleportation is one of the more extraordinary phenomena in the quantum world. It allows a quantum object, such as a photon or electron, to travel from one location to another without passing through the space in between. Teleportation is a standard procedure in any decent quantum mechanics laboratory. If that sounds exotic, you ain’t seen nothing yet; teleportation is about to get a whole lot weirder. That will allow them to manipulate one quantum particle while watching the effects occur in another particle elsewhere. The basic set up is a straightforward extension of traditional teleportation. In mathematical terms, both particles are described by a single wave function. Teleportation occurs when the first of these entangled particles interacts with another quantum particle, let’s call it X. The trick that physicists have perfected is to arrange this interaction so that the second entangled particle ends up in the same state as the quantum particle called X.
How Matter Lost Its Mojo You’re sitting here, reading this article. Maybe it’s a hard copy, or an e-book on a tablet computer or e-reader. It doesn’t matter. But what is matter, exactly? Let’s make our question a little more focused. To understand what a cube of ice is made of, we need to draw on the learning acquired by the chemists. The mystery of the combining volumes of hydrogen and oxygen gas to produce water was resolved when it was realized that hydrogen and oxygen are both diatomic gases, H2 and O2. This partly answers our first question. About 99 percent of the masses of the proton and neutron seem to be unaccounted for. It so happens that our cube of ice weighs about 18 grams, which means that it represents a mole of water, more or less. But, of course, we can go further. Hydrogen still has only one (its nucleus consists of a single proton—no neutrons). Also in Physics Why Physicists Make Up Stories in the Dark By Philip Ball For centuries, scientists studied light to comprehend the visible world. No.
icists build quantum refrigerator based on four quantum dots (Phys.org) —With the goal of understanding the relation between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, physicists have recently been investigating the fundamental limits of the smallest possible quantum refrigerator. As a refrigerator, the device must be able to transfer heat from one reservoir to another. In a new study, physicists have proposed a quantum refrigerator consisting of just four quantum dots, each in contact with a thermal reservoir. They theoretically show that this system can extract heat from the coldest reservoir and cool the nearby quantum dot, making it one of the smallest quantum refrigerators proposed to date. The physicists, Davide Venturelli, Rosario Fazio, and Vittorio Giovannetti at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, have published their paper on the minimal quantum refrigerator in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters. The proposed system consists of four quantum arranged in a square configuration, which the researchers call a "quadridot."
World's fastest camera freezes time at 10 trillion frames per second What happens when a new technology is so precise that it operates on a scale beyond our characterization capabilities? For example, the lasers used at INRS produce ultrashort pulses in the femtosecond range (10-15 s), which is far too short to visualize. Although some measurements are possible, nothing beats a clear image, says INRS professor and ultrafast imaging specialist Jinyang Liang. In recent years, the junction between innovations in non-linear optics and imaging has opened the door for new and highly efficient methods for microscopic analysis of dynamic phenomena in biology and physics. Using current imaging techniques, measurements taken with ultrashort laser pulses must be repeated many times, which is appropriate for some types of inert samples, but impossible for other more fragile ones. Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) was a good starting point. Explore further: Physicists produce extremely short and specifically shaped electron pulses for materials studies
eufisica - Two papers investigate the #thermodynamics of Storing lightning inside thunder: Researchers are turning optical data into readable soundwaves Researchers at the University of Sydney have dramatically slowed digital information carried as light waves by transferring the data into sound waves in an integrated circuit, or microchip. It is the first time this has been achieved. Transferring information from the optical to acoustic domain and back again inside a chip is critical for the development of photonic integrated circuits: microchips that use light instead of electrons to manage data. These chips are being developed for use in telecommunications, optical fibre networks and cloud computing data centres where traditional electronic devices are susceptible to electromagnetic interference, produce too much heat or use too much energy. "The information in our chip in acoustic form travels at a velocity five orders of magnitude slower than in the optical domain," said Dr Birgit Stiller, research fellow at the University of Sydney and supervisor of the project. "It is like the difference between thunder and lightning," she said.
Researchers discover quantum algorithm that could improve stealth fighter design (Phys.org) —Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have devised a quantum algorithm for solving big linear systems of equations. Furthermore, they say the algorithm could be used to calculate complex measurements such as radar cross sections, an ability integral to the development of radar stealth technology, among many other applications. Their research is reported in the June 18 issue of Physical Review Letters. The field of quantum computing is still relatively young. While several few-qubit systems have been built, a full-scale quantum computer is still years away. Theoretical breakthroughs in quantum algorithm design are few and far between. "But it didn't quite deliver; based on their process, no one could figure out how to get a useful answer out of the computer," explains APL's David Clader, who, along with Bryan Jacobs and Chad Sprouse, wrote "Preconditioned Quantum Linear System Algorithm."
Carbon dating reveals earliest origins of zero symbol Image copyright Bodleian Libraries Carbon dating shows an ancient Indian manuscript has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol. The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought. It means the document, held in Oxford, has an earlier zero symbol than a temple in Gwailor, India. The finding is of "vital importance" to the history of mathematics, Richard Ovenden from Bodleian Libraries said. The zero symbol evolved from a dot used in ancient India and can be seen throughout the Bakhshali manuscript. The dot originally indicated orders of magnitude in a number system and eventually evolved to have a hollow centre, the Bodleian Libraries said. Earlier research had dated the Bakhshali manuscript to the 8th and 12th Century, but now carbon dating has shown it to be centuries older.
icists create lightning in the race to develop quantum technology microchip (Phys.org) —Physicists at the University of Sussex have invented a powerful new microchip capable of holding the voltage equivalent to a micronscale bolt of lightning that could be the key for developing next-generation, super-fast quantum computers. Quantum technology may well revolutionise the way we use technology in a way similar to the emergence of what are now referred to as "classical" computers. Through having immense processing power, super-fast computers could solve, in a matter of minutes, certain mathematical problems that would take the world's current fastest computer 10,000 years to achieve. But the challenge for researchers has been in how to harness the ions (charged atoms) that can store the immense amount of memory required to build quantum technology devices. And creating microchips powerful enough to provide a backbone for such technologies has been a field of intense research The researchers created the microchip as part of a collaboration with Prof.
The clock that cost its inventor millions One of the world's first digital clocks, which was made by a man in his shed, has been sold at auction. Thomas Bromley, an engineer and amateur inventor, created his Digitron Electric Clock in 1961 at his home in Hull. He held the patent to the design for three years but chose not to renew it - potentially costing him millions of pounds. The prototype was sold for £460 to a UK buyer when it went under the hammer in Beverley, East Yorkshire. Image copyright Bromley family Auctioneer John Hawley said Bromley had received an award at the Salon des Inventors in Brussels in 1964 for his prototype and would have been a multimillionaire had he renewed his patent. A year after the patent ran out, the Japanese started manufacturing "virtually an identical clock and sold it in many thousands", he said. Bromley's son, David, said the inventor received a commercial order to "make 20 by Christmas but he didn't have the facility to start manufacturing them". "He'd come out at nine or 10 o'clock at night.