The weird laws of quantum mechanics govern how molecules, atoms and smaller particles behave, but quantum phenomena sometimes “leak up” to macroscopic scales, researchers at the University of Illinois have found. They have demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to “tunnel” […]
Quantum theory says that quantum particles have wave-like properties and can exist in many places at once. Why the objects we see around us every day – in what physicists call the classical world – don’t behave this way despite being made of these very same quantum particles is a deep and fundamental question in […]
Using twin light beams and a technique known as four-wave mixing, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) and the University of Maryland have produced “quantum images,” pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are entangled. Entanglement, or what Einstein referred to as “spooky action at a distance,” means that changes in one image are […]
Scientists at Los Alamos have uncovered an intriguing quantum mechanical phenomenon while studying magnetic waves in barium copper silicate (a 2,500-year-old pigment known as Han purple). When newly grown crystals of the pigment were exposed to very high magnetic fields at very low temperatures; they entered a rarely observed state of matter. At the threshold […]
By combining quantum computation and quantum interrogation, scientists at the University of Illinois (UI) have demonstrated “counterfactual computation.” This intriguing application of quantum mechanics allows information about a problem’s answer to be inferred, although the quantum computer algorithm did not actually process the problem. The logic behind quantum coherence often deviates from intuitive reasoning, leading […]
Scientists in Athens, Ohio, have found a way in which they can make the artificial atoms known as quantum dots communicate with one another using light energy. The researchers that made the breakthrough believe it to be a crucial step toward making next generation quantum computers a reality. Quantum dots – also known as semiconductor […]
Physicists from Rice University are building a unique nano-probe that will hopefully enable them to “dial in” elusive quantum states called “quantum criticalities.” The probe, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will trap and tune a single electron and allow the researchers to manipulate “quantum critical points”, a phase transition produced […]
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute report that they were able to cool single rubidium atoms and “store” them for 17 seconds. The researchers, writing in Nature, said this was by far the longest storage time ever achieved in a strongly coupled resonator system. The ability to control single atoms in this way is a […]
Charge is a property of electrons most people are familiar with while another property, spin, is lesser known and typically the preserve of physicists. Electron spin occurs in one of two opposing directions – up or down – and biochemists want to start factoring electron spin into their computer simulations of biochemical reactions to make […]
The realm of quantum mechanics met the world of classical physics when an antenna-like sliver of silicon one-tenth the width of a human hair oscillated in a Boston University lab. With two sets of protrusions, much like the teeth from a two-sided comb, the antenna not only exhibits the first quantum nanomechanical motion but is […]
