Lifeboat Foundation

Quantum physicists have developed a new type of optical atomic clock, using quantum entanglement among strontium atoms to achieve unprecedented precision.

This breakthrough could significantly impact quantum computing and precision sensing, although it currently operates effectively for only milliseconds.

Quantum Advances in Timekeeping.

Researchers have made significant advancements in quantum computing, focusing on photonic-measurement-based quantum computation.

Their study introduces a scalable and resource-efficient method that uses high-dimensional spatial encoding to generate large cluster states. This breakthrough could accelerate the development of faster, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Overcoming Quantum Computing Challenges

But you might notice that something is missing: this radiation doesn’t seem to encode, in any way, knowledge of the information that went into the creation of the black hole in the first place. Somewhere along the way, information was destroyed. That’s the key puzzle behind the black hole information paradox. No one seriously disputes the initial setup of the puzzle: that information exists, and that the information (and entropy) does in fact go into the black hole both when it’s first created and also as it grows. What is up for debate, and what in fact is the big question behind the information paradox, is whether that information comes back out again or not.

The way we calculate what comes out of a black hole via Hawking radiation, despite the fact that Hawking radiation has been around for a full half century as of 2024, hasn’t changed all that much over the past 50 years. What we do is assume the curvature of space from general relativity: the fabric of space is curved by the presence of matter and energy, and general relativity tells us exactly by how much.

We then perform our quantum field theory calculations in that curved space, detailing the radiation that comes out as a result. That’s where we learn that the radiation has the temperature, spectrum, entropy, and other properties we know that it possesses, including the fact that it doesn’t appear to encode that initial information when the radiation comes out.

In the quantum world, materials called “altermagnets” behave in unique ways that could pave the way for new technologies.

This unique magnetism makes altermagnets highly promising for the development of new spintronic and electronic devices. It also opens new possibilities for the study of topological materials (i.e., systems with unique electronic properties originating from their electronic structure’s topology).

Researchers at Stony Brook University carried out a study aimed at better understanding the nonlinear response of planar altermagnets. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, reports the observation of a non-linear response in these materials derived from their quantum geometry.

Continue reading “Physicists reveal nonlinear transport induced by quantum geometry in planar altermagnets” »

A mathematical proof shows that some quantum states can resist nature’s tendency to disorder – but only under very specific conditions.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Experiments on Google’s 67-qubit Sycamore processor showed operations entering a new “weak noise phase” in which calculations were complex enough to outperform supercomputers, based on benchmark testing.

Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time.

A black hole analog could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing.

Using a chain of atoms in single-file to simulate the event horizon of a black hole, a team of physicists in 2022 observed the equivalent of what we call Hawking radiation – particles born from disturbances in the quantum fluctuations caused by the black hole’s break in spacetime.

This, they say, could help resolve the tension between two currently irreconcilable frameworks for describing the Universe: the general theory of relativity, which describes the behavior of gravity as a continuous field known as spacetime; and quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of discrete particles using the mathematics of probability.

Essentia Foundation’s Hans Busstra visited Vienna to attend a conference on the foundations of quantum mechanics, and interview physicists on the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics. In this essay, he argues that what is called ‘experimental metaphysics’ might be at the heart of future progress in physics, and that philosophy and physics are moving closer together.