Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: quantum physics – Page 370

Researchers have developed a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on integrated photonics that can transmit secure keys at unprecedented speeds. The proof-of-principle experiments represent an important step toward real-world application of this highly secure communication method.

QKD is a well-established method of providing secret keys for secure communication between distant parties. By using the quantum properties of light to generate secure random keys for encrypting and decrypting data, its security is based on the laws of physics, rather than computational complexity like today’s communication protocols.

“A key goal for QKD technology is the ability to simply integrate it into a real-world communications network,” said research team member Rebecka Sax from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “An important and necessary step toward this goal is the use of integrated photonics, which allows to be manufactured using the same semiconductor technology used to make silicon computer chips.”

Read more | >

Every color, every flash, every sunray exacts a toll on the light-sensitive tissues at the back of our eyes, producing toxic materials that risk damaging the very cells that allow us to see.

Thankfully, the pigment responsible for darkening our hair, skin, and eyes moonlights as a clean-up crew, mopping up one such dangerous compound before it accumulates into damaging clumps.

An investigation by researchers from the University of Tübingen in Germany and Yale University has revealed the removal process is somewhat unusual as far as biochemistry goes, relying upon a strange quirk of quantum-like behavior.

Read more | >

We’ve probably all heard the phrase you can’t make something from nothing. But in reality, the physics of our universe isn’t that cut and dry. In fact, scientists have spent decades trying to force matter from absolutely nothing. And now, they’ve managed to prove that a theory first shared 70 years ago was correct, and we really can create matter out of absolutely nothing.

The universe is made up of several conservation laws. These laws govern energy, charge, momentum, and so on down the list. In the quest to fully understand these laws, scientists have spent decades trying to figure out how to create matter – a feat that is far more complex than it even sounds. We’ve previously turned matter invisible, but creating it out of nothing is another thing altogether.

There are many theories on how to create matter from nothing – especially as quantum physicists have tried to better understand the Big Bang and what could have caused it. We know that colliding two particles in empty space can sometimes cause additional particles to emerge. There are even theories that a strong enough electromagnetic field could create matter and antimatter out of nothing itself.

Read more | >

Using a high-speed “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and cutting-edge quantum simulations, scientists have directly imaged a photochemical “transition state,” a specific configuration of a molecule’s atoms determining the chemical outcome, during a ring-opening reaction in the molecule α-terpinene. This is the first time that scientists have precisely tracked molecular structure through a photochemical ring-opening reaction, triggered when light energy is absorbed by a substance’s molecules.

The results, published in Nature Communications, could further our understanding of similar reactions with vital roles in chemistry, such as the production of vitamin D in our bodies.

Transition states generally occur in which are triggered not by light but by heat. They are like a point of no return for molecules involved in a chemical reaction: As the molecules gain the energy needed to fuel the reaction, they rearrange themselves into a fleeting configuration before they complete their transformation into new molecules.

Read more | >

Excitations in solids can also be represented mathematically as quasiparticles; for example, lattice vibrations that increase with temperature can be well described as phonons. Mathematically, also quasiparticles can be described that have never been observed in a material before. If such “theoretical” quasiparticles have interesting talents, then it is worth taking a closer look. Take fractons, for example.

Fractons are fractions of spin excitations and are not allowed to possess kinetic energy. As a consequence, they are completely stationary and immobile. This makes fractons new candidates for perfectly secure information storage. Especially since they can be moved under special conditions, namely piggyback on another quasiparticle.

“Fractons have emerged from a mathematical extension of quantum electrodynamics, in which electric fields are treated not as vectors but as tensors—completely detached from real materials,” explains Prof. Dr. Johannes Reuther, at the Freie Universität Berlin and at HZB.

Read more | >

Finding the best quantum computing stocks to buy is critical because this is clearly the next big industry.

Quantum computers promise to bring the power of quantum mechanics to bear in solving our most vexing problems. They may be capable of processing more data, faster, than any classical computer.

If all that happens, then quantum computing stocks may bring generational wealth to their investors.

Read more | >