Feature Channels: Quantum Mechanics

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ORNL aids St. Jude’s brain development research with software to speed processing of microscopy images; bottleneck to breakdown lignin for biofuels may occur at plant cell wall surface; predicting how ecosystems respond to environmental change could be more precise through new process method; through quantum mechanical squeezing, researchers designed new concept to increase resolution of atomic force microscopy

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Physicists at the University of California, Irvine and elsewhere have fabricated new two-dimensional materials with breakthrough electrical and magnetic attributes that could make them building blocks of future quantum computers and other advanced electronics.

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Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new method to extract the static and dynamic structure of complex chemical systems. In this context, “structure” doesn’t just mean the 3-D arrangement of atoms that make up a molecule, but rather time-dependent quantum-mechanical degrees of freedom that dictate the optical, chemical and physical properties of the system. They discuss their work in this week’s The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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The text on this screen may appear stable enough, but every molecule, atom, and electron in it is in constant motion. The laws of quantum physics require that on the atomic scale nothing is ever truly at rest. Nano-sized motion also keeps us warm, cooks our food, lights our smartphones, and enables all of our senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.

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Indistinguishable photons are critical for quantum information processing, and a group of researchers in Japan is tapping nitrogen impurity centers found within gallium arsenide to generate them -- making a significant contribution toward realizing a large number of indistinguishable single-photon sources.

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Researchers from Canada, the U.K. and Germany have developed a new experimental technique to take 3-D images of molecules in action. This tool can help scientists better understand the quantum mechanics underlying bigger and more complex molecules. They describe their work in this week’s The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Our understanding of the world is mostly built on basic perceptions, such as that events follow each other in a well-defined order. Such definite orders are required in the macroscopic world, for which the laws of classical physics apply. However, in the quantum world orders can be ‘scrambled’. It is possible for different orders of quantum operations to coexist in a superposition. The current work by a team of physicists from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences is the first experimental quantification of such a superposition. It will be published in an upcoming issue of "Science Advances".

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A unique institute is being formed to develop and investigate the forward-thinking ideas of eminent British physicist Sir Roger Penrose. To be based in San Diego, California, with collaborations in London and Oxford in the UK, and Tucson, Arizona, the Institute will examine the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity and the possible implications on our understanding of consciousness.

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Hans Georg Dehmelt, Nobel physics laureate and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, died in Seattle on March 7, 2017 at age 94. Dehmelt was a celebrated scientist who developed methods to isolate atoms and subatomic particles and measure their fundamental properties with high accuracy.

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Vanderbilt University chemists collaborated in research that ‘squashes’ the shape of nanoparticles to create inexpensive lasers that continuously emit light in a customizable rainbow of colors.

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When measuring time, we normally assume that clocks do not affect space and time, and that time can be measured with infinite accuracy at nearby points in space. However, combining quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of general relativity theoretical physicists from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have demonstrated a fundamental limitation for our ability to measure time. The more precise a given clock is, the more it "blurs" the flow of time measured by neighbouring clocks. As a consequence, the time shown by the clocks is no longer well defined. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

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For the first time, scientists have measured quantum criticality by developing a thin membrane suspended in air by very narrow bridges, thereby forming a "nano-trampoline". This enabled specific heat measurements of thin films through a quantum phase transition from a superconducting state to an electrically insulating state close to absolute zero temperatures.

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Using a Bose-Einstein condensate composed of millions of sodium atoms, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have observed a sharp magnetically-induced quantum phase transition where they expect to find entangled atomic pairs. The work moves scientists closer to an elusive entangled state that would have potential sensing and computing applications beyond its basic science interests.

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Researchers have set a new record in the transfer of information via superdense coding, a process by which the properties of particles like photons, protons and electrons are used to store as much information as possible.

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Click here to go directly to the Physics News Source Sponsored by AIP.

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In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory reports the discovery of a new type of quantum phase transition. This unique transition happens at an elastic quantum critical point, or QCP, where the phase transition isn’t driven by thermal energy but instead by the quantum fluctuations of the atoms themselves.

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Could adding defects make a good material better? Scientists have found that linear defects in a promising thin film create one-atom-thick metallic wires. These wires cross the otherwise intact material, offering a way to channel electrons and photons, tiny packets of light

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Scientists discovered a new kind of water molecule whose shape has been altered to conform to the symmetry of the environment in which it is trapped.

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An international collaboration between physicists at the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, McGill University, and the University of Konstanz recently demonstrated a new framework for faster control of a quantum bit. First published online Nov. 28, 2016, in Nature Physics, their experiments on a single electron in a diamond chip could create quantum devices that are less to prone to errors when operated at high speeds.

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Neutron scattering studies of a rare earth metal oxide have identified fundamental pieces to the quantum spin liquid puzzle, revealing a better understanding of how and why these materials exhibit exotic behaviors such as failing to fully freeze when exposed to sub-zero temperatures. In a paper published in Nature Physics, a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutrons to examine the origins of unusual magnetic behavior in a rare earth–based metal oxide, ytterbium-magnesium-gallium-tetraoxide (YbMgGaO4). The material, discovered in 2015, is known to have strange magnetic properties, putting it in a unique category of materials classified as quantum spin liquids.

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Little is rarer than an observable quantum spin liquid, but now, tests reveal that a synthetic crystal with ytterbium as its base may house one at near absolute zero. It joins an extremely short list of materials believed house myriads of particles joined together in an observable vast, shared entanglement, or "spooky action at a distance."

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Experiments using laser light and pieces of gray material the size of fingernail clippings may offer clues to a fundamental scientific riddle: What is the relationship between the everyday world of classical physics and the hidden quantum realm that obeys entirely different rules?

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Majorana fermions are particles that could potentially be used as information units for a quantum computer. An experiment by physicists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Basel’s Department of Physics has confirmed their theory that Majorana fermions can be generated and measured on a superconductor at the end of wires made from single iron atoms. The researchers also succeeded in observing the wave properties of Majoranas and, therefore, in making the interior of a Majorana visible for the first time. The results were published in the Nature journal npj Quantum Information.

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Rapid advances in computing constantly translate into new technologies in our everyday lives. The same is true for high-energy physics.

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The American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics this month awarded the 2017 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical  Physics to Carl M. Bender of Washington University in St. Louis. Here he explains the work that won the prize

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Sandia researchers have demonstrated for the first time on a single chip, all the components needed to create a quantum bridge to link quantum computers together

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Scientists have, for the first time, identified a method of visualising the quantum behaviour of electrons on a surface. The findings present a promising step forward towards being able to manipulate and control the behaviour of high energy, or ‘hot’, electrons.

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Researchers observed, for the first time, an exotic 3-D racetrack for electrons in ultrathin slices of a crystal they made at Berkeley Lab.

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Researchers at Aalto University have demonstrated the suitability of microwave signals in the coding of information for quantum computing. Previous development of the field has been focusing on optical systems.

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New research suggests that it is possible to create a new form of light by binding light to a single electron, combining the properties of both.

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Researchers at the University of Oxford have achieved a quantum logic gate with record-breaking 99.9% precision, reaching the benchmark required theoretically to build a quantum computer.

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New research, using computer models of wave chaos, has shown that three-dimensional tangled vortex filaments can in fact be knotted in many highly complex ways.

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No single assessment tool is able to consistently determine driving ability in people with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, a St. Michael's Hospital research review has found.

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Physicists from New Zealand's University of Otago have used steerable 'optical tweezers' to split minute clouds of ultracold atoms and slowly smash them together to directly observe a key theoretical principle of quantum mechanics.

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Nearly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, nanowires can only be understood with quantum mechanics. Using quantum models, physicists from Michigan Technological University have figured out what drives the efficiency of a silicon-germanium (Si-Ge) core-shell nanowire transistor.

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Bowtie-shaped nanostructures may advance the development of quantum devices

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Elementary particles are the fundamental buildings blocks of matter, and their properties are described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN in 2012 constitutes a further step towards the confirmation of the Standard Model. However, many aspects of this theory are still not understood because their complexity makes it hard to investigate them with classical computers. Quantum computers may provide a way to overcome this obstacle as they can simulate certain aspects of elementary particle physics in a well-controlled quantum system. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now done exactly that: In an international first, Rainer Blatt's and Peter Zoller's research teams have simulated lattice gauge theories in a quantum computer. They describe their work in the journal Nature.

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Scientists can now identify the exact location of a single atom in a silicon crystal, a discovery that is key for greater accuracy in tomorrow's silicon based quantum computers.

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You can't sign up for the quantum internet just yet, but researchers have reported a major experimental milestone towards building a global quantum network - and it's happening in space.

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A group of scientists from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; the University of California, Santa Barbara; Sandia National Laboratories and Harvard University were able to fabricate tiny lasers directly on silicon -- a huge breakthrough for the semiconductor industry and well beyond. For more than 30 years, the crystal lattice of silicon and of typical laser materials could not match up, making it impossible to integrate the two materials -- until now.

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Dartmouth College researchers have discovered a method to design faster pulses, offering a new way to accurately control quantum systems.

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Characterization of high-quality material reveals important details relevant to next generation nanoelectronic devices.

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When current comes in discrete packages: Viennese scientists unravel the quantum properties of the carbon material graphene.

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A New Amp for 5G Cell Phones, New Ultrasound Method to Analyze Cancer Cells, Synthetic Heart Valves, Discovery of Rules for CRISPR Advance Metabolic Engineering and more in the Engineering News Source

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Theoretical chemists at Princeton University have pioneered a strategy for modeling quantum friction, or how a particle's environment drags on it, a vexing problem in quantum mechanics since the birth of the field. The study was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

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Major Leap Toward a 'Perfect' Quantum Metamaterial, Seismic Response of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete. and more in the Material Science Channel

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