The world is a cluttered, noisy place, and the ability to effectively focus is a valuable skill. For example, at a bustling party, the clatter of cutlery, the conversations, the music, the scratching of your shirt tag and almost everything else must fade into the background for you to focus on finding familiar faces or giving the person next to you your undivided attention.
A breakthrough in theoretical physics is an important step toward predicting the behavior of the fundamental matter of which our world is built. It can be used to calculate systems of enormous quantities of quantum particles, a feat thought impossible before.
Quantum electronics represents a significant departure from conventional electronics. In traditional systems, memory is stored in binary digits. In contrast, quantum electronics utilizes qubits for storage, which can assume various forms, including electrons trapped in nanostructures known as quantum dots. Nonetheless, the ability to transmit information beyond the adjacent quantum dot poses a substantial challenge, thereby limiting the design possibilities for qubits.
Now, in a study recently published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo are solving this problem: they developed a new technology for transmitting quantum information over perhaps tens to a hundred micrometers. This advance could improve the functionality of upcoming quantum electronics.
Scientists used a technique called ‘active syndrome extraction’ to build four logical qubits from 30 physical ones and run 14,000 experiments without detecting a single error.
A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
As the efforts towards the realization of powerful quantum computers and quantum simulators continue, there is a parallel program aimed at attaining the quantum analog to the classical internet.
One of the most fundamental interactions in physics is that of electrons and light. In an experiment at Goethe University Frankfurt, scientists have now managed to observe what is known as the Kapitza-Dirac effect for the first time in full temporal resolution. This effect was first postulated more than 90 years ago, but only now are its finest details coming to light.
Self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) represent a three-dimensional confined nanostructure with discrete energy levels, which are similar to atoms. They are capable of producing highly efficient and indistinguishable single photons on demand and are important for exploring fundamental quantum physics and various applications in quantum information technologies. Leveraging traditional semiconductor processes, this material system also offers a natural integration-compatible and scalable platform.
Machine learning revolutionizes secure quantum communication, pushing its boundaries to unprecedented frontiers.
Researchers at Fudan University in China have recently been trying to identify new promising quantum anomalous Hall insulators. Their latest paper, published in Physical Review Letters, outlines the unique characteristics of monolayer V2MX4, which could belong to a new family of quantum anomalous Hall insulators.
“Finding intrinsic quantum anomalous Hall materials is an important goal in topological material research,” Jing Wang, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org. “After we predicted MnBi2Te4, a paradigm example of magnetic topological insulator and exhibiting quantum anomalous Hall effect in odd layer, we have been thinking about finding new intrinsic quantum anomalous Hall insulator with large gap.”
Large-gap quantum anomalous Hall insulator materials exhibit a quantum anomalous Hall effect with a relatively large energy gap between the valence and conduction band. These materials should exhibit a synergy between two seemingly conflicting properties, namely spin-orbit coupling and ferromagnetism.