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Category: quantum physics

Scientists found a way to cool quantum computers using noise

Quantum computers only work when they are kept extremely cold. The problem is that today’s cooling systems also create noise, which can interfere with the fragile quantum information they are supposed to protect. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now introduced a new type of minimal quantum “refrigerator” that turns this challenge into an advantage. Instead of fighting noise, the device partially relies on it to operate. The result is highly precise control over heat and energy flow, which could help make large scale quantum technology possible.

Quantum technology is widely expected to reshape major areas of society. Potential applications include drug discovery, artificial intelligence, logistics optimization, and secure communications. Despite this promise, serious technical barriers still stand in the way of real world use. One of the most difficult challenges is maintaining and controlling the delicate quantum states that make these systems work.

Sunlight-powered generation of correlated photon pairs

Pairs of correlated or entangled photons are a foundational resource in quantum optics. They are most commonly produced through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), a nonlinear optical process that typically relies on a stable, coherent laser to pump a nonlinear crystal. Because of this requirement, SPDC has long been viewed as impractical without laboratory-grade laser systems.

Recent studies have shown that fully coherent light is not strictly necessary: Partially coherent sources can also drive SPDC, with their coherence properties transferred to the generated photon pairs. This insight raises a natural and intriguing question—can sunlight, the most abundant natural light source, be used to generate correlated photon pairs?

Using sunlight for SPDC presents clear challenges. Sunlight collected from the ground is inherently unstable, with continuous changes in intensity, angle, and position that interfere with the precise illumination and photon detection required for SPDC experiments. At the same time, sunlight offers a compelling advantage: it removes dependence on lasers and external power sources, opening possibilities for photon-pair generation in remote or extreme environments.

New quantum algorithm solves “impossible” materials problem in seconds

A new quantum-inspired algorithm has cracked a problem so massive that conventional supercomputers struggle to even approach it. Researchers used the method to simulate extraordinarily complex quantum materials known as quasicrystals, opening the door to powerful new quantum devices and ultra-efficient electronics. The work could help scientists design advanced topological qubits and materials for future quantum computers.

Quobly Toolbox Explores Quantum Phase Estimation Pipeline With Tensor Networks

An international collaboration between a French quantum startup and a major Taiwanese electronics manufacturer has yielded a new open-source tool for exploring a critical area of quantum computing. Quobly and Taiwan’s Hon Hai Research Institute, the R&D arm of Foxconn, jointly released a numerical toolbox dedicated to the Quantum Phase Estimation (QPE) algorithm, described as a cornerstone of fault-tolerant quantum computing with major applications in quantum chemistry and materials science. While QPE’s theoretical benefits are understood, simulating its practical resource needs has proven difficult; the toolbox aims to bridge this gap by allowing researchers to explore implementations and their implications. The tool focuses on practical, interpretable numerical experiments, enabling full circuit executions for up to 20 qubits and circuits ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 gates on standard laptops.

Quantum Phase Estimation Toolbox for Molecular Systems

While the theoretical underpinnings of QPE are well established, simulating its practical demands has proven a significant hurdle, limiting exploration beyond simplified models. The toolbox addresses this gap by offering a platform for practical, interpretable numerical experiments, allowing scientists to investigate QPE implementations without requiring access to full-scale quantum hardware, which is currently unavailable. Built upon advanced tensor network techniques and the open-source quimb library, the toolbox facilitates the preparation of initial states using DMRG and matrix product states, and allows encoding of molecular Hamiltonians into quantum circuits through methods like trotterization and qubitization. Researchers can directly compare standard QPE with the single-ancilla Robust Phase Estimation (RPE) method, analyzing circuit depth, gate counts, and potential error sources.

String theory is uniquely derived from basic assumptions about the universe, physicists show

If you could take an apple and break it into smaller and smaller parts, you would find molecules, then atoms, followed by subatomic particles like protons and the quarks and gluons that make them up. You might think you hit the bottom, but, according to string theorists, if you keep going to even smaller scales—about a billion billion times smaller than a proton—you will find more: tiny vibrating strings.

Developed in the 1960s, string theory proposes that everything in the universe is made from invisible strings. The theory arose as a possible solution to the problem of “quantum gravity,” the quest to align quantum mechanics, which describes our world at the smallest scales, with the general theory of relativity, which explains how our universe works on the largest scales (and includes gravity). Researchers have tried to reconcile the two theories—asking, for example, how gravity behaves in the quantum realm—but their equations go berserk, or in mathematical terms, go to infinity.

String theory is a mathematical solution that tames the unruly infinities. It purports that all particles, including the graviton—the hypothetical particle believed to convey the force of gravity—are generated by very small vibrating strings. The math behind string theory requires the strings to vibrate in at least 10 dimensions, rather than the four we live in (three for space and one for time), which is one of the reasons some scientists are not convinced that string theory is correct. But perhaps the biggest challenge for the theory is the ultrahigh energies required for testing it: Such an experiment would require a particle collider the size of a galaxy.

String Theory Emerges from “Almost Nothing”

Developed in the 1960s, string theory proposes that everything in the universe is made from invisible strings. The theory arose as a possible solution to the problem of “quantum gravity,” the quest to align quantum mechanics, which describes our world at the smallest scales, with the general theory of relativity, which explains how our universe works on the largest scales (and includes gravity). Researchers have tried to reconcile the two theories—asking, for example, how gravity behaves in the quantum realm—but their equations go berserk, or in mathematical terms, go to infinity.

String theory is a mathematical solution that tames the unruly infinities. It purports that all particles, including the graviton—the hypothetical particle believed to convey the force of gravity—are generated by very small vibrating strings. The math behind string theory requires the strings to vibrate in at least 10 dimensions, rather than the four we live in (three for space and one for time), which is one of the reasons some scientists are not convinced that string theory is correct. But perhaps the biggest challenge for the theory is the ultrahigh energies required for testing it: Such an experiment would require a particle collider the size of a galaxy.

What is a physicist to do? One way they can probe the theory is to turn to a “bootstrap” approach, in which researchers start with certain assumptions they believe to be true about the universe, and then see what laws emerge out of those assumptions. In a new paper titled “Strings from Almost Nothing,” accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, Caltech researchers, and their colleagues at New York University and Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies in Barcelona, have done just that. From a couple of basic assumptions about how particles should scatter off one another at very high energies, they derived the elements of string theory.

This Physicist (Unexpectedly) Derived Gravity from Information

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What if gravity is just entropy in disguise? Professor Erik Verlinde joins me to argue that gravity isn’t a fundamental force—it’s thermodynamic, emerging from quantum information the way gas pressure emerges from molecules bouncing around. We explore why spacetime may be stitched together by entanglement, and how dark energy and dark matter both pop out automatically without extra particles or parameters. Verlinde explains why the cosmological constant problem is a red herring, and why there may be no final theory of physics. When asked where the universe comes from, his answer is one word: chaos.

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  • 00:00:00 — Thermodynamic Gravity and Information
  • 00:06:35 — Beyond Effective Field Theory
  • 00:13:08 — Turtles All The Way Down
  • 00:25:41 — Entropy as a Force
  • 00:36:31 — Entanglement and Spatial Connectivity
  • 00:47:31 — Deriving Inertia and F=ma
  • 00:56:41 — De Sitter Space Challenges
  • 01:02:01 — Dark Matter and Milgram
  • 01:11:51 — The Emergence of Time
  • 01:21:01 — Statistical Gravity Fluctuations
  • 01:27:01 — Quantum Computational Complexity
  • 01:36:01 — Physics Intuition and Mentorship
  • 01:47:31 — Beauty, Garbage, and Chaos

LINKS MENTIONED: Papers, books, websites:

Videos:

  • • A 2 Hour Deep Dive into Entropy
  • • The Mathematics of String Theory [Graduate…
  • • The Debate That Divides Physics: Is the Un…
  • • The Physicist Who Found Quantum Theory’s U…
  • • Retrocausality & The Transactional Interpr…
  • • The Physicist Who Proved Entropy = Gravity
  • • The Physicist Who Says Time Doesn’t Exist
  • • The Most Astonishing Theory of Black Holes
  • • The (Simple) Theory That Explains Everythi…
  • • The Crisis in String Theory is Worse Than…
  • • Dark Dimensions: NEW THEORY Unifying Dark…
  • • MIT Scientist’s Discovery: “Black Holes Mi…
  • • The Woman Who Broke Gravity | Claudia de Rham
  • • Solving the Problem of Consciousness | Ste…
  • • Frederic Schuller: The Physicist Who Deriv…
  • • The Loop Quantum Gravity Debacle: Carlo Ro…
  • • An (Elementary) Introduction to Quantum Co…
  • • Can Physics Explain Its Own Laws?
  • • The Nobel Laureate Who (Also) Says Quantum…
  • • This Cosmologist Discovered Something Stra…
  • • Michael Levin: Consciousness, Biology, Uni…

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LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9…

TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 — Thermodynamic Gravity and Information 00:06:35 — Beyond Effective Field Theory 00:13:08 — Turtles All The Way Down 00:25:41 — Entropy as a Force 00:36:31 — Entanglement and Spatial Connectivity 00:47:31 — Deriving Inertia and F=ma 00:56:41 — De Sitter Space Challenges 01:02:01 — Dark Matter and Milgram 01:11:51 — The Emergence of Time 01:21:01 — Statistical Gravity Fluctuations 01:27:01 — Quantum Computational Complexity 01:36:01 — Physics Intuition and Mentorship 01:47:31 — Beauty, Garbage, and Chaos.

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