Feature Channels: Quantum Mechanics

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.Postdoctoral researchers who are designated Truman and Hruby fellows experience Sandia National Laboratories differently from their peers.

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In AVS Quantum Science, scientists in Germany review research on gravitational wave detectors as a historical example of quantum technologies and examine the fundamental research on the connection between quantum physics and gravity. The team examined recent gravitational wave experiments, showing it is possible to shield large objects from strong influences from the thermal and seismic environment to allow them to evolve as one quantum object. This decoupling from the environment enables measurement sensitivities that would otherwise be impossible.

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Meta-devices using meta-surfaces composed of artificial nanostructures can manipulate the electromagnetic phase, polarization, and amplitude at will. The fundamental principle, design, fabrication, and applications of the novel optical meta-devices are reported in this talk.

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Researchers have found direct evidence of the existence of anyons, a quasiparticle first predicted in the 1970s. These particles behave in two-dimensional systems in ways very different from their three-dimensional quasiparticle cousins, fermions, and bosons. The results could help to improve the duration of coherence in future quantum computer qubits.

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Argonne National Laboratory will be participating in three new research projects with small businesses. These projects are part of $35 million in new funding from the Department of Energy to tap into the many talents within America's small businesses.

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With the insertion of a little math, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have shown that neuromorphic computers, which synthetically replicate the brain’s logic, can solve more complex problems than those posed by artificial intelligence and may even earn a place in high-performance computing.

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Don't miss these articles in our Staff Picks channel

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New generation of postdocs make important contributions to research in science and technology while solving problems for society.

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Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, can be made from many different technologies. One way to make a qubit is to trap a single neutral atom in place using a focused laser, a technique that won the Nobel Prize in 2018.

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Controlling the spin of a single unpaired electron is no easy task. In this research, scientists show that visible light can be used to influence a relative orientation of an unpaired electron in a molecule in a magnetic field. This process can potentially be applied across a class of small molecules and is an important step toward novel technologies such as quantum computers and quantum sensors.

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MIT joins Q-NEXT, a DOE national quantum research center, becoming its 25th institutional partner.

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In a result published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, scientists demonstrate a wide range of tunability in a family of qubits, an important step in designing custom qubits for specific applications. The Q-NEXT National QIS Research Center partially supported this result.

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The field of machine learning on quantum computers got a boost from new research removing a potential roadblock to the practical implementation of quantum neural networks.

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A collaboration between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Physics Division and Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division has yielded a new approach to quantum error mitigation - "noise estimation circuits" - that could help make quantum computing’s theoretical potential a reality.

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Berkeley Lab joins in broad federal effort to develop pathways for Puerto Rico to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050, microorganism discovered in spacecraft assembly facility named for Berkeley Lab microbiologist, discovering the "secret sauce" behind the exotic properties of a new quantum material

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Even the best laser has “quantum noise” that makes images from microscopy blurry and hides details. This results in measurements that are less precise than scientists need. Researchers have designed a new type of microscope that uses quantum squeezed light to reduce measurement uncertainty, enabling a 50 percent improvement in the sensitivity of a specific scientific measurement.

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Here are some of the latest articles we've posted in the Physical Science channel.

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Operating quantum technology in challenging environments, such as space, has moved a significant step forward after physicists working at the University of Sussex have developed a monitoring and control system blueprint for quantum devices and experiments.

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It is now exactly one hundred years ago that Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect.

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MITRE, MIT, and Sandia National Laboratories are collaborating on a moonshot effort to build a quantum computer and recently published experimental findings in Nature Photonics.

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A team of researchers at Argonne and the University of Chicago, including Q-NEXT collaborators, have maintained a qubit coherence time for a record five seconds. The qubits are made from silicon carbide, widely found in lightbulbs, electric vehicles and high voltage electronics.

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New research sheds light on the mechanism behind how a special quantum material, lanthanum strontium nickel oxide, transitions from an electrical insulator to a conductive metal. The mechanism is associated with atomic vibrations that trap electrons and thus impede electrical conduction. The results will help validate theoretical models of materials with strongly interacting electrons and contribute to the design of new materials.

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Scientists recently discovered novel quantum materials whose charge carriers exhibit ‘topological’ features that result in the charge’s transport not being affected by continuous transformations. Because of this “protection,” topological materials often show peculiar quantum states on their surfaces and edges. This study observed superconducting edge currents for what the researchers believe is the first time.

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Twelve years of intense work are now bearing fruit – researchers at Empa have developed unique carbon materials with quite astonishing, hitherto unattained electronic and magnetic properties, which one day could be used to build quantum computers with novel architectures. A million-dollar grant from the Werner Siemens Foundation for the next ten years now gives this visionary project an unusually long research horizon, greatly increasing the prospects for success.

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Scientists at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have demonstrated the feasibility of a new approach that moves trapped ion pairs through a single laser beam, potentially reducing power requirements and simplifying the system for creating entangled qubits.

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Three scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

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Quantum researchers at the University of Bristol have dramatically reduced the time to simulate an optical quantum computer, with a speedup of around one billion over previous approaches.

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Researchers in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands decided to explore two very different quantum problems: breaking the encryption of Bitcoin and simulating the molecule responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. In AVS Quantum Science, they describe a tool they created to determine how big a quantum computer needs to be to solve problems like these and how long it will take. "We explored how to best take advantage of [the] ability to connect distant qubits, with the aim of solving problems in less time with fewer qubits," said Mark Webber, of the University of Sussex.

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Phase transitions are everywhere, ranging from water boiling to snowflakes melting, and from magnetic transitions in solids to cosmological phase transitions in the early universe.

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A precision diagnostic developed at the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories is emerging as a gold standard for detecting and describing problems inside quantum computing hardware.

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Researchers are exploring chromium defects in silicon carbide as potential spin qubits. These spin qubits would be compatible with telecommunications optical fibers, making them potentially useful for optical fiber-based quantum networks. Researchers recently investigated new ways to make high-quality chromium defects in silicon carbide.

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Researchers at the University of Adelaide and their overseas partners have taken a key step in making quantum batteries a reality. They have successfully proved the concept of superabsorption, a crucial idea underpinning quantum batteries.

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German and Israeli physicists have devised an elegant experiment to answer which factors determine how fast a quantum computer can perform its calculations.

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Thirumalai “Venky” Venkatesan is an internationally noted leader in advanced technology innovation. As the director for the Center for Quantum Research and Technology at the University of Oklahoma, he praises the Sooner State for developing a completely new frontier in terms of economic growth. "We are investing in people who can transform both our technology and economic landscape,” he says.

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High-precision measurements have provided important clues about processes that impair the efficiency of superconductors. Future work building on this research could offer improvements in a range of superconductor devices, such quantum computers and sensitive particle detectors.

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A new kind of benchmark test, designed at Sandia National Laboratories, predicts how likely a quantum processor will run a specific program without errors, revealing the technology's true potential and limitations.

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Particles in quantum systems have many potential values, making them hard to simulate with a conventional computer. Researchers have proposed a new way to prepare energy states of a simulated quantum system using a quantum computer. Researchers first determine the energy state they are interested in creating. The quantum computer starts the system in a simplified state, then produces different combinations of how the variables evolve over time, then eliminates the energy states that don’t match researchers’ targets.

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Argonne scientist Laura Gagliardi has been elected to the Italian National Academy of Sciences.

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Flaws in diamonds — atomic defects where carbon is replaced by nitrogen or another element — may offer a close-to-perfect interface for quantum computing, a proposed communications exchange that promises to be faster and more secure than current methods.

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Researchers at Argonne and the University of Chicago have made a breakthrough that should help pave the way for greatly improved control over the formation of quantum bits or qubits, the basic unit of quantum information technology.

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Advancing quantum computing requires models that can solve challenging many-body problems quickly and accurately. This research proposes a new algorithm for performing quantum calculations on chemical systems using a mathematical tool called “connected moments.” This reduces the number of qubits needed to reach target levels of accuracy and could lead to advances in chemistry and applications in catalysis, biochemistry, and materials.

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A world-leading researcher in solid electrolytes and sophisticated electron microscopy methods received Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s top science honor for her work in developing new materials for batteries.

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Researchers in Finland have developed a circuit that produces the high-quality microwave signals required to control quantum computers while operating at temperatures near absolute zero. This is a key step towards moving the control system closer to the quantum processor, which may make it possible to greatly increase the number of qubits in the processor.

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Recent theoretical breakthroughs have settled two long-standing questions about the viability of simulating quantum systems on future quantum computers, overcoming challenges from complexity analyses to enable more advanced algorithms.

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Swati Singh, a University of Delaware assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded a five-year, $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development Award (NSF CAREER) to explore new methods for studying the dark sector

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A team led by Purdue University used the Advanced Photon Source to characterize a quantum material that mimics the neural behavior of sea slugs. This could be a first step toward more efficient artificial intelligence hardware.

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Columbia engineers invent “green” method that combines quantum mechanics with machine learning to accurately predict oxide reactions at high temperatures when no experimental data is available; could be used to design clean carbon-neutral processes for steel production and metal recycling.

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The University of Adelaide has today, Wednesday, 1 December, launched its Quantum Materials strategy with its focus on cutting-edge fundamental research and delivering new quantum-enabled technologies for a safer, wealthier and healthier world.

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Argonne is leading the way toward a quantum future, conducting cross-disciplinary research through its quantum initiative and via the collaborative center Q-NEXT.