Latest Quantum mechanics Stories

Ground-breaking experiments in Switzerland question Universe's building blocksResearchers used Einstein's famous E=mc2 equation and the Large Hadron Collider to recreate a miniature version of the event at the origins of our Universe, and the first findings from their work were published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Dr. Andreas Warburton of McGill's Department of Physics made leading contributions to the analysis of data from the experiment, known as "ATLAS," meaning the...

An important step "“"“ one that is essential to the ultimate construction of a quantum computer "“"“ was taken for the first time by physicists at UC Santa Barbara. The discovery is published in the current issue of the journal Nature.The research involves the entanglement of three quantum bits of information, or qubits. Before now, entanglement research in the solid state has only been developed with two qubits. The UCSB finding comes from a collaboration of the research groups of...

Atoms are proxies for electrons in ultracold optical emulatorA Rice University-led team of physicists is reporting the first success in a three-year effort to build a precision simulator for superconductors using a grid of intersecting laser beams and ultracold atomic gas.The research appears this week in the journal Nature. Using lithium atoms cooled to within a few billionths of a degree of absolute zero and loaded into optical tubes, the researchers created a precise analog of a...

The rules that govern the world of the very small, quantum mechanics, are known for being bizarre. One of the strangest tenets is something called quantum entanglement, in which two or more objects (such as particles of light, called photons) become inextricably linked, so that measuring certain properties of one object reveals information about the other(s), even if they are separated by thousands of miles. Einstein found the consequences of entanglement so unpalatable he famously dubbed it...

Entanglement is a fascinating property connecting quantum systems. Albert Einstein called it the "spooky action at a distance". This bizarre coupling can link particles, even if they are located on opposite sides of the galaxy. The strength of their connections is behind the promising quantum computers, the dream machines capable of quick and efficient computations.The team lead by Rainer Blatt at the Institute of Experimental Physics of the University of Innsbruck has been working...

Ever since audiences heard Goldfinger utter the famous line, "No, Mr. Bond; I expect you to die," as a laser beam inched its way toward James Bond and threatened to cut him in half, lasers have been thought of as white-hot beams of intensely focused energy capable of burning through anything in their path.Now a team of Yale physicists has used lasers for a completely different purpose, employing them to cool molecules down to temperatures near what's known as absolute zero, about -460 degrees...

Team successfully decoupled a single quantum spin from its surroundingsFinding ways to control matter at the level of single atoms and electrons fascinates many scientists and engineers because the ability to manipulate single charges and single magnetic moments (spins) may help researchers penetrate deep into the mysteries of quantum mechanics and modern solid-state physics. It may also allow development of new, highly sensitive magnetometers with nanometer resolution, single-spin...

An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol has developed a new approach to quantum computing that could soon be used to perform complex calculations that cannot be done by today's computers.Scientists from Bristol's Centre for Quantum Photonics have developed a silicon chip that could be used to perform complex calculations and simulations using quantum particles in the near future. The researchers believe that their device represents a new route to a...

Tokyo, Sept 10, 2010 - (JCN Newswire) - Institute for Nano Quantum Information Electronics, The University of Tokyo (Director: Yasuhiko Arakawa), Fujitsu Laboratories Limited, and NEC Corporation today announced that they have achieved quantum cryptographic key distribution(1) at a world-record distance of 50 km using transmission from a single-photon emitter(2). This result was the product of the three-way collaboration between the University of Tokyo, Fujitsu,...

A simple device measures the quantum noise of vacuum fluctuations and generates true random numbersBehind every coincidence lies a plan - in the world of classical physics, at least. In principle, every event, including the fall of dice or the outcome of a game of roulette, can be explained in mathematical terms. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen have constructed a device that works on the principle of true randomness. With the help of quantum...