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Category: quantum physics – Page 760

It From Bit — Entropic Gravity For Pedestrians

Two and a half months since Erik Verlinde submitted his entropic gravity paper, and all of physics and cosmology has turned into entropy. Well, I am exaggerating a bit, and perhaps more than just a bit. Yet, fact is that within two weeks of Erik’s publication a steady stream of ‘entropic everything’ papers has developed at a rate of close to one paper per day. Gravity, Einstein’s equations, cosmic expansion, dark energy, primordial inflation, dark mass: it’s all entropic. Chaos rules. Entropy is king!

Or is it?

Could it be that an ‘entropic bandwagon’ has started rolling? Is this all not just a fad appealing to scientist tired of string theory? What is this elusive entropic force anyway? Do these folks really believe bits of information attract each other?

Squeeze leads to stellar-mass black hole collision precision

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found a way to better detect all collisions of stellar-mass black holes in the universe.

Stellar-mass black holes are formed by the gravitational collapse of a star. Their collisions are some of the most violent events in the universe, creating or ripples in space-time.

These ripples are miniscule and detected using laser interferometers. Until now, many signals have been drowned out by so-called on the pushing the mirrors of the laser interferometer around—making the measurements fuzzy or imprecise.

Sean Carroll: Quantum Mechanics and the Many-Worlds Interpretation

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at Caltech and Santa Fe Institute specializing in quantum mechanics, arrow of time, cosmology, and gravitation. He is the author of several popular books including his latest on quantum mechanics (Something Deeply Hidden) and is a host of a great podcast called Mindscape. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.

This is the second time Sean has been on the podcast. You can watch the first time here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NJrvyRo0c

INFO:
Podcast website:
https://lexfridman.com/ai
iTunes:
https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify:
https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS:
https://lexfridman.com/category/ai/feed/
Full episodes playlist:

Clips playlist:

EPISODE LINKS:
Something Deeply Hidden: https://amzn.to/2C5h40V
Sean’s twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll
Sean’s website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/
Mindscape podcast: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/

OUTLINE:
0:00 — Introduction
1:23 — Capacity of human mind to understand physics.
10:49 — Perception vs reality
12:29 — Conservation of momentum
17:20 — Difference between math and physics.
20:10 — Why is our world so compressable.
22:53 — What would Newton think of quantum mechanics.
25:44 — What is quantum mechanics?
27:54 — What is an atom?
30:34 — What is the wave function?
32:30 — What is quantum entanglement?
35:19 — What is Hilbert space?
37:32 — What is entropy?
39:31 — Infinity
42:43 — Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
1:01:13 — Quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime.
1:08:34 — Our branch of reality in many-worlds interpretation.
1:10:40 — Time travel
1:12:54 — Arrow of time
1:16:18 — What is fundamental in physics.
1:16:58 — Quantum computers
1:17:42 — Experimental validation of many-worlds and emergent spacetime.
1:19:53 — Quantum mechanics and the human mind.
1:21:51 — Mindscape podcast

CONNECT:

Continue reading “Sean Carroll: Quantum Mechanics and the Many-Worlds Interpretation” | >

The Race For Quantum Supremacy I VICE on HBO

Computer giants are racing to build the first quantum computer, a device with millions of times more processing strength than all the computers currently on Earth combined. This technology will harness the unusual laws of quantum mechanics to bring unimaginable advances in fields like materials science and medicine, but could also pose the greatest threat to cybersecurity yet. VICE’s Taylor Wilson meets the scientists at the cutting edge of this new age of computing.

Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com

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Evading Heisenberg isn’t easy

EPFL researchers, with colleagues at the University of Cambridge and IBM Research-Zurich, unravel novel dynamics in the interaction between light and mechanical motion with significant implications for quantum measurements designed to evade the influence of the detector in the notorious ‘back action limit’ problem.

The limits of classical measurements of mechanical motion have been pushed beyond expectations in recent years, e.g. in the first direct observation of , which were manifested as tiny displacements of mirrors in kilometer-scale optical interferometers. On the microscopic scale, atomic- and magnetic-resonance force microscopes can now reveal the atomic structure of materials and even sense the spins of single atoms.

But the that we can achieve using purely conventional means is limited. For example, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in implies the presence of “measurement backaction”: the exact knowledge of the location of a particle invariably destroys any knowledge of its momentum, and thus of predicting any of its future locations.

Scientists Predict Quantum Jumps, Turning Physics on Its Head

In 1935, physicist Erwin Schrödinger concocted a thought experiment to illustrate a pair of strange quantum physics phenomena: superposition and unpredictability.

The experiment became known as Schrödinger’s cat, and for more than 80 years, it’s served as a cornerstone of quantum physics. But in a newly published study, a team of Yale scientists essentially destroys the premise at the center of the experiment — groundbreaking work that could finally allow researchers to develop useful quantum computers.

Researchers create quantum chip 1,000 times smaller than current setups

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a quantum communication chip that is 1,000 times smaller than current quantum setups, but offers the same superior security quantum technology is known for.

Most leading security standards used in secure communication methods—from withdrawing cash from the ATM to purchasing goods online on the smartphone—does not leverage quantum technology. The electronic transmission of the personal identification number (PIN) or password can be intercepted, posing a .

Roughly three millimeters in size, the tiny chip uses quantum communication algorithms to provide enhanced security compared to existing standards. It does this by integrating passwords within the information that is being delivered, forming a secure quantum key. After the information is received, it is destroyed along with the key, making it an extremely secure form of communication.

Faster, More Secure Communications Using Structured Light in Quantum Protocols

Structured light is a fancy way to describe patterns or pictures of light, but deservedly so as it promises future communications that will be both faster and more secure.

Quantum mechanics has come a long way during the past 100 years but still has a long way to go. In AVS Quantum Science, from AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa review the progress being made in using structured light in quantum protocols to create a larger encoding alphabet, stronger security and better resistance to noise.

“What we really want is to do quantum mechanics with patterns of light,” said author Andrew Forbes. “By this, we mean that light comes in a variety of patterns that can be made unique — like our faces.”

Hard as ceramic, tough as steel: Newly discovered connection could help design of nextgen alloys

A new way to calculate the interaction between a metal and its alloying material could speed the hunt for a new material that combines the hardness of ceramic with the resilience of metal.

The discovery, made by engineers at the University of Michigan, identifies two aspects of this interaction that can accurately predict how a particular alloy will behave—and with fewer demanding, from-scratch quantum mechanical calculations.

“Our findings may enable the use of machine learning algorithms for alloy design, potentially accelerating the search for better alloys that could be used in turbine engines and nuclear reactors,” said Liang Qi, assistant professor of materials science and engineering who led the research.

Researchers uncover an anomaly in the electromagnetic duality of Maxwell Theory

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI) and Tohoku University in Japan have recently identified an anomaly in the electromagnetic duality of Maxwell Theory. This anomaly, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could play an important role in the consistency of string theory.

The recent study is a collaboration between Yuji Tachikawa and Kazuya Yonekura, two string theorists, and Chang-Tse Hsieh, a condensed matter theorist. Although the study started off as an investigation into string theory, it also has implications for other areas of physics.

In current physics theory, classical electromagnetism is described by Maxwell’s equations, which were first introduced by physicist James Clerk Maxwell around 1865. Objects governed by these equations include electric and magnetic fields, electrically charged particles (e.g., electrons and protons), and magnetic monopoles (i.e. hypothetical particles carrying single magnetic poles).