In this Q&A, Particle Physics and Astrophysics Professor Lance Dixon of Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explains one approach to developing such a theory, called quantum gravity.
In 1655 the English mathematician John Wallis published a book in which he derived a formula for pi as the product of an infinite series of ratios. Now researchers from the University of Rochester, in a surprise discovery, have found the same formula in quantum mechanical calculations of the energy levels of a hydrogen atom. The researchers report their findings in the Journal of Mathematical Physics.
"God does not play dice," Albert Einstein once quipped. A study published in Nature gives the strongest refutation to date of Albert Einstein's principle of "local realism," which says that the universe obeys laws, not chance, and that there is no communication faster than light.
If you take certain atoms and make them almost as cold as they possibly can be, the atoms will fuse into a collective low-energy quantum state called a Bose-Einstein condensate. In 1968 physicist Herbert Fröhlich predicted that a similar process at a much higher temperature could concentrate all of the vibrational energy in a biological protein into its lowest-frequency vibrational mode. Now scientists in Sweden and Germany have the first experimental evidence of such so-called Fröhlich condensation. They report their results in the journal Structural Dynamics.
A team of scientists from the University of Chicago and the Pennsylvania State University have accidentally discovered a new way of using light to draw and erase quantum-mechanical circuits in a unique class of materials called topological insulators.
Quasiparticles are central to energy applications but can be difficult to detect. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have seen evidence of quasiparticles called negative trions forming and fading in an ultrathin layer of semiconducting material.
A group of researchers in Japan is exploring the behavior of a certain type of SET (single-electron transistor) made from two quantum dots, which are bits of material so small they start to exhibit quantum properties. The group has produced a detailed analysis of the electrical characteristics of the so-called double-quantum-dot SETs, which could help researchers design better devices to manipulate single electrons. They report their findings in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Physicists have wondered in recent years if they could control how atoms interact using light. Now they know that they can, by demonstrating games of quantum billiards with unusual new rules.
A new trend taking shape in psychological science not only uses quantum physics to explain humans’ (sometimes) paradoxical thinking, but may also help researchers resolve certain contradictions among the results of previous psychological studies.
Researchers from the University of Southampton have demonstrated for the first time a new laser cooling method, based upon the interference of matter waves, that could be used to cool molecules.
An international team of scientists, including Dr Luca Sapienza from the University of Southampton, have developed a new technique for finding quantum dots.
University of Chicago researchers have made a crucial step toward nuclear spintronic technologies. They have gotten nuclear spins to line themselves up in a consistent, controllable way, and they have done it using a high-performance material that is practical, convenient, and inexpensive.
Scientists built nanoscale mirrors to trap light around atoms inside of diamond crystals. The mirrored cavities allow light to bounce back and forth up to 10,000 times, enhancing the normally weak interaction between light and the electronic spin states in the atoms. As a result, a 200-microsecond spin-coherence time was produced. The enhanced interactions and extended spin-coherence times are essential steps toward realizing quantum computing systems to solve some problems faster than conventional systems.
A quantum mechanical transport phenomenon demonstrated for the first time in synthetic, atomically-thin layered material at room temperature could lead to novel nanoelectronic circuits and devices, according to researchers at Penn State and three other U.S. and international universities.
Quantum dots promise an astounding range of applications, if scientists can conquer their annoying habit of blinking. Researchers computing at NERSC recently ran simulations that offer new insights into the problem.
A team of scientists have taken quantum teleportation – a method of communicating information from one location to another without having to physically move it – to a higher level by using certain high-dimensional states (which they dubbed “donut” states) for teleportation. Stony Brook University physicist Tzu-Chieh Wei, PhD, and colleagues nationally demonstrated that their method works, is more reliable than previous teleportation schemes, and could be a stepping stone toward building a quantum communications network. Their findings appear in Nature Communications.
JQI physicists, led by Trey Porto, are interested in quantum magnetic ordering, which is believed to be intimately related to high-temperature superconductivity and also has significance in other massively connected quantum systems. Recently, the group studied the magnetic and motional dynamics of atoms in a specially designed laser-based lattice that looks like a checkerboard. Their work was published in the journal Science.
Only recently has nanotechnology made it possible to reach the scale required to test the theoretical model known as the Tomonaga-Luttinger theory. Now, a team of researchers has succeeded in conducting experiments with the smallest channel yet.
In a paper appearing this week in the Journal of Applied Physics, a team of researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute and Honeywell International have demonstrated a new device that allows more electrodes to be placed on a chip -- an important step that could help increase qubit densities and bring us one step closer to a quantum computer that can simulate molecules or perform other algorithms of interest.
Amherst College professor David S. Hall and a team of collaborators have experimentally identified a pointlike monopole in a quantum field for the first time. The discovery gives scientists insight into the monopole magnet, an elementary particle that they believe exists but have not yet seen.
Thermal imaging, microscopy and ultra-trace sensing could take a quantum leap with a technique developed by researchers at ORNL.
UIC researchers created an electromechanical device—a humidity sensor—on a bacterial spore. They call it NERD, for Nano-Electro-Robotic Device. The report is online at Scientific Reports, a Nature open access journal.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory watched nanoscale semiconductor crystals expand and shrink in response to powerful pulses of laser light. This ultrafast “breathing” provides new insight about how such tiny structures change shape as they start to melt – information that can help guide researchers in tailoring their use for a range of applications.
In the quantum world, the future predicts the past. Playing a guessing game with a superconducting circuit called a qubit, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis has discovered a way to narrow the odds of correctly guessing the state of a two-state system. By combining information about the qubit's evolution after a target time with information about its evolution up to that time, the lab was able to narrow the odds from 50-50 to 90-10.
Constructing tiny "mirrors" to trap light increases the efficiency with which photons can pick up and transmit information about electronic spin states--which is essential for scaling up quantum memories for functional quantum computing systems and networks.
University of Chicago scientists have experimentally observed for the first time a phenomenon in ultracold, three-atom molecules predicted by Russian theoretical physicsist Vitaly Efimov in 1970.
Berkeley Lab’s quantum dots have not only found their way into tablets, computer screens, and TVs, they are also used in biological and medical imaging tools, and now Paul Alivisatos’ lab is exploring them for solar cell as well as brain imaging applications.
A team of researchers has taken a major step forward in effectively enhancing the fluorescent light emission of diamond nitrogen vacancy centers – a key step to using the atom-sized defects in future quantum computers. The technique, described in the journal Applied Physics Letters hinges on the very precise positioning of NV centers within a structure called a photonic cavity that can boost the light signal from the defect.
Berkeley Lab researchers used an electric field to reverse the magnetization direction in a multiferroic spintronic device at room temperature, a demonstration that points a new way towards spintronics and smaller, faster and cheaper methods of storing and processing data.
Researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology have made new compact, high-value resistors for nanoscale quantum circuits. The resistors could speed the development of quantum devices for computing and fundamental physics research.
When atoms smash inside Brookhaven Lab's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), they melt and form a friction-free “perfect” liquid. What would happen if you stirred this melted matter inside a teacup?
A new theory of quantum mechanics was developed by Bill Poirier, a Texas Tech University chemical physicist. The theory discusses parallel worlds' existence and the quantum effects observed in nature.
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