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Science Hardware Technology

Atomic Antennae Transmit Quantum Information 57

Posted by timothy from the quantumnal-equinox dept.
intellitech writes "The Austrian research group led by physicist Rainer Blatt suggests a fundamentally novel architecture for quantum computation. They have experimentally demonstrated quantum antennae, which enable the exchange of quantum information between two separate memory cells located on a computer chip. This offers new opportunities to build practical quantum computers."
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Atomic Antennae Transmit Quantum Information More

Atomic Antennae Transmit Quantum Information

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  • IEEE (Score:3)

    by Temujin_12 ( 832986 ) on Saturday February 26, 2011 @03:39PM (#35325880)

    IEEE 802.11q... 'nuff said.

    Wireless-Q has the defect that you can't broadcast your SSID since that your require devices to observe the signal first first before connecting, which would result in a quantum paradox.

    • Actaully the worse defect is the range is only 54 micrometers.

    • "since that your require devices to observe the signal first first before connecting, which would result in a quantum paradox."

      sounds a lot like this free-will / choice thing they go on about.

  • There hasn't, isn't, and to my mind never will be a practical quantum computer. Given the amount of time people have been failing at building one or even demonstrating that it should be possible, I'm not particularly uncertain about my opinion. Counterproof?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There hasn't, isn't, and to my mind never will be a practical quantum computer. Given the amount of time people have been failing at building one or even demonstrating that it should be possible, I'm not particularly uncertain about my opinion. Counterproof?

      Counter-proof:
      You, being human, have a long history of being wrong. It's probably the case that you're wrong again.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "There hasn't, isn't, and to my mind never will be a practical flying machine. Given the amount of time people have been failing at building one or even demonstrating that it should be possible, I'm not particularly uncertain about my opinion. Counterproof?"

      -random dude in ancient Greece

      • Concentrate a bit. [emergentchaos.com]

        Lots of people have said pigs don't fly and they still don't fly. We have good reason to think pigs won't fly, and there is good evidence that quantum computing won't reach the stage where it will be able to fulfil suggested applications.

        Do you have any evidence to the contrary, apart from smartass remarks at the level of rigour used to insist that proof of God's existence is only a matter of time?

        • So, what do you propose? That we just stop all research on quantum computers just because it is "highly unlikely" (in your opinion) that they would ever work? That really would be a self-fulfilling prophecy...

          • No. I think that, what with current security-obsessed Western governments, way too much money is being ploughed into fields which claim they might make or break security. Quantum computing and cryptography are two such fields.

            I have no problem with people continuing to study the subjects. I do have a problem with wild claims about the destination. I don't like that academia has fashionable subjects while people ignore the incremental steps which actually build the world. It creates a horrible misallocation

        • Since in reality, we are still missing the key parts of the quantum world and how it operates, it seems very odd to me to assume we can have good evidence quantum computing wont reach the level we one day hope. I am not saying we will, but the possibility is there(and therefor the research into it should continue). We simply dont know enough to say one way or the other but the research may give us that answer.

          And the flying machine comment seems rather appropriate. They didnt have the knowledge of aerodynam

          • u look at it in large enough timescales, it is possible to pigs to eventually fly, with evolution and all.

            Well, evolution and the horrible affront-to-God genetic experiments I'm doing in my basement. ;-P

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 517714 ( 762276 )
          I thought quantum computing would have to fulfill suggested applications before they were suggested.
    • When there is a quantum computer will you promise to never post on Slashdot again?
    • I am uncertain as to how you arrived at that conclusion.

  • arxiv link... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 26, 2011 @04:01PM (#35326040)

    http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3639 [arxiv.org]

  • Sooo.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Do we know if Schrodinger killed his cat or not?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That's the boring question. The interesting one is: does the cat know?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mangu ( 126918 )

        In a smooth and well calculated leap, the cat jumped upon the table and, after letting his body mold itself to the lumps in the most uncomfortable place, is looking at you with a bored expression in his half-closed eyes.

    • It depends. Murphy's law would suggest that his cat would do the inverse of what he wanted it to do, and if he didn't really care then it would remain in an indeterminate state.
  • they'll figure that entanglement shit out (how does it work anyway? ha! you can't explain that.), and all physicists will be in a world of pain. A world of pain I tell ya.
  • Paging Ravna Bergsndot, Ravna Bergsndot to the red courtesy ultrawave...
  • (we have to have our priorities in order)

  • "We implemented this new concept in a very simple way," explains Rainer Blatt. In a miniaturized ion trap a double-well potential was created, trapping the calcium ions. The two wells were separated by 54 micrometers. "By applying a voltage to the electrodes of the ion trap, we were able to match the oscillation frequencies of the ions," says Blatt.

    - then the Austrian with a thick New Jersey accent added: we just used a small ruler with 2 micrometer dividers, badabim badaboom, you know what I am saying? A couple of tweezers to catch the calcium ions and a miniature excavator to dig the wells. It's easy, anybody and their mother can do it. In fact my mother did it the other way in the kitchen. It's still oscillating.

    "This resulted in a coupling process and an energy exchange, which can be used to transmit quantum information." A direct coupling of two mechanical oscillations at the quantum level has never been demonstrated before. In addition, the scientists show that the coupling is amplified by using more ions in each well. "These additional ions function as antennas and increase the distance and speed of the transmission," says Rainer Blatt, who is excited about the new concept. This work constitutes a promising approach for building a fully functioning quantum computer.

    - Then the madly excited Dr. Blatt aded: -If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're go

  • Do I need a quantum-mechanical tinfoil hat, or will my regular one do?

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