Tag Archives: quantum physics

Physics: A smaller proton, a big challenge

The proton is one of the fundamental components of the atom. For a long time scientists have believed it to be 0.8768 femtometers in size (a femtometer is one quadrillionth of a meter). Now, it looks like they may have been wrong, the size is 0.84184 femtometers. In a way, the discrepancy is very small…as [...]
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Quantum dots do it: The dark pulse laser

Lasers come in many variations of light: Red, blue, infrared, ultraviolet and so on. Now there is a laser that produces non-light – the dark pulse laser. Developed by a joint project of the National Institute of Standards (NIST, USA) and Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA, University of Colorado, USA), the dark pulse laser [...]
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A first: Spintronics made visible

It’s an important emerging field, spintronics; though it’s not too well known. It’s based on a quantum property of electrons – they spin. Some electrons spin ‘up,’ some spin ‘down’ and if you can get a device to read that state of up or down, that’s the basis for many kinds of electronics. This includes [...]
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Quantum physics (like life?) in higher temperature entanglement

It’s been ‘common knowledge’ in the physics community that experiments with quantum entanglement, that weird state where two objects share the same existence, can only take place at extremely low temperatures – roughly a maximum of 4 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero. (That’s about -457F or –272C.) It therefore gives physicists something like what Americans [...]
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Update: Quantum photosynthesis

Just to underline the post Quantum mechanics in photosynthesis, oh my. there’s another take on the interpretation and significance of the research at Cosmic Variance. Here’s a sample: We can think about this in terms of Feynman’s way of talking about quantum mechanics: rather than a particle taking a unique path between two points, as [...]
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A Golden Ratio found. A clue to quantum symmetry?

There is probably nothing that makes mathematicians and physicists happier than discovering that untidy models resolve into harmonies and order. This may be especially true for the often described as ‘bizarre’ world of quantum physics. Take a ‘chain’ of cobalt niobate atoms – like a magnetic bar one atom wide. Cool the chain to near [...]
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A two-qubit computer

Another step on the way to developing a quantum computer was recently taken with the demonstration of a two-qubit computing processor (previously, one-qubit processors). Much more work will be needed to reduce the error rate of such processors, and eventually to be able to link them together to solve larger (and more interesting) calculation problems, [...]
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