A team of physicists led by University of Rochester professor Regina Demina has made a groundbreaking discovery in the realm of quantum entanglement, an enigmatic phenomenon famously referred to by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance.” Quantum entanglement involves the interlinked behavior of tiny particles that, once having interacted, can influence each other … Read more
Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems in human health, drug discovery, and artificial intelligence millions of times faster than some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. A network of quantum computers could advance these discoveries even faster. But before that can happen, the computer industry will need a reliable way to string together … Read more
One of the biggest challenges in quantum technology and quantum sensing is “noise”–seemingly random environmental disturbances that can disrupt the delicate quantum states of qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information. Looking deeper at this issue, JILA Associate Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics Assistant Professor Shuo Sun collaborated with Andrés Montoya-Castillo, Assistant Professor … Read more
Vortices are a common physical phenomenon. You find them in the structure of galaxies, tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as in a cup of tea, or water as it drains from the bathtub. Normally, vortices are formed when very fast-flowing air, water or another substance encounters an area with a slower flow. They are characterized … Read more
Quantum computers hold the promise of solving extremely complex problems rapidly—tasks that could take the world’s most powerful supercomputers decades to crack. However, achieving such performance requires building a system with millions of interconnected qubits. The creation and control of such vast numbers of qubits in a hardware architecture is a formidable challenge that scientists … Read more
UNSW quantum engineers have developed a new amplifier that could help other scientists search for elusive dark matter particles. Imagine throwing a ball. You’d expect science to be able to work out its exact speed and location at any given moment, right? Well, the theory of quantum mechanics says you can’t actually know both with … Read more
Researchers at the University of Bristol have made an important breakthrough in scaling quantum technology by integrating the world’s tiniest quantum light detector onto a silicon chip. The paper, “A Bi-CMOS electronic photonic integrated circuit quantum light detector,” was published in Science Advances. A critical moment in unlocking the information age was when scientists and engineers … Read more
Scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst have adapted a device called a microwave circulator for use in quantum computers, allowing them for the first time to precisely tune the exact degree of nonreciprocity between a qubit, the fundamental unit of quantum computing, and a microwave-resonant cavity. The ability to precisely tune the degree … Read more
Bartosz Regula, from the RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing, and Ludovico Lami, from the University of Amsterdam, have unveiled a groundbreaking discovery regarding the elusive nature of quantum entanglement. Their findings, rooted in probabilistic calculations, shed light on a long-hypothesized rule of entropy governing quantum entanglement, a phenomenon central to the potential power of future … Read more
The fragile qubits that make up quantum computers offer a powerful computational tool, yet also present a conundrum: How can engineers create practical, workable quantum systems out of bits that are so easily disturbed—and wiped of data—by tiny changes in their environment? Engineers have long struggled with how to make quantum computers less error-prone, often … Read more
Physicists have been hoping for this moment for a long time: For many years, scientists all around the world have been searching for a very specific state of thorium atomic nuclei that promises revolutionary technological applications. It could be used, for example, to build a nuclear clock that could measure time more precisely than the … Read more
Entanglement is a fascinating phenomenon in the realm of quantum physics, where particles at the atomic level exhibit correlations that defy classical explanations. This unique aspect of quantum mechanics plays a pivotal role in understanding the behavior of quantum systems, particularly in the context of quantum computing. Quantum entanglement refers to the intricate correlation between … Read more
The concept of “coupled oscillations” may not immediately ring a bell, but these phenomena are ubiquitous in nature, manifesting in a variety of systems from mechanical structures to atomic bonds and gravitational interactions. Coupled harmonic oscillators, describing the interactions between masses and springs, serve as a foundational model in science and engineering, offering insights into … Read more
Quantum physics requires high-precision sensing techniques to delve deeper into the microscopic properties of materials. From the analog quantum processors that have emerged recently, quantum-gas microscopes have proven to be powerful tools for understanding quantum systems at the atomic level. These devices produce images of quantum gases with very high resolution: They allow individual atoms … Read more
Chasing ever-higher qubit counts in near-term quantum computers constantly demands new feats of engineering. Among the troublesome hurdles of this scaling-up race is refining how qubits are measured. Devices called parametric amplifiers are traditionally used to do these measurements. But as the name suggests, the device amplifies weak signals picked up from the qubits to … Read more
In principle, one shouldn’t compare apples to oranges. However, in topology, which is a branch of mathematics, one must do just that. Apples and oranges, it turns out, are said to be topologically the same since they both lack a hole—in contrast to doughnuts or coffee cups, for instance, which both have one (the handle … Read more
Electron spin states can now be probed at much higher resolution and more efficiently, opening new opportunities in materials analysis and data processing technologies. Researchers Koichiro Yaji and Shunsuke Tsuda at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan have developed an improved type of microscope that can visualize key aspects of electron spin states … Read more
Researchers have produced, stored, and retrieved quantum information for the first time, a critical step in quantum networking. The ability to share quantum information is crucial for developing quantum networks for distributed computing and secure communication. Quantum computing will be useful for solving some important types of problems, such as optimizing financial risk, decrypting data, … Read more
Experimental and theoretical physicists from the Würzburg Institute for Topological Insulators have observed a re-entrant quantum Hall effect in a mercury telluride device and have identified it as a signature of parity anomaly. Topological insulators are materials that can conduct electricity, but only on their surface or edges. No current flows inside them. They are … Read more
Weak fluctuations in superconductivity, a precursor phenomenon to superconductivity, have been successfully detected by a research group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). This breakthrough was achieved by measuring the thermoelectric effect in superconductors over a wide range of magnetic fields and over a wide range of temperatures, from much higher than the superconducting transition … Read more