Detecting Quantum Foam

Ragetech writes: "According to this NY Times article Dr. Jack Ng, a physicist at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, has theorized that LIGO, the "Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, may be capable of detecting quantum foam. (free registration needed, yada yada)"

Link to the paper

[apsmith]

Here's the actual paper in Physical Review Letters:
[aps.org]
http://link.aps.org/abstract/prl/v86/p2946

The title is "From Computation to Black Holes and Space-Time Foam".

Physics News Update link

[apsmith]

Physics News Update also has an interesting discussion of this paper at http://www.aip.org/physnews/update/532-1.html [aip.org]. In the sense used by the author of this paper, a black hole is "the ultimate computer". The paper is in essence about the limits of computation!

Ng [...] finds [...] that the foaminess of spacetime leads to an uncertainty in timekeeping (the more accurate the clock, the shorter its lifetime) which in turn leads to a bound on information processing (speed and memory simultaneously) analogous to the Heisenberg bound on simultaneous measurement of momentum and position.

Re: Pronunciation?

[JoeGee]

This is Vietnamese name, pronounced "eng".

You must be one of the few people on /. who does not listen to TMBG [tmbg.com]. :) They do a song called "Ana Ng".

The real tongue twisters for most Westerners are the names that start with "ng", like Ngo. :)

Re: Pronunciation?

[JoeGee]

Hmmm. K. So Ng is just an abbreviation? For names like Ngo and Nguyen?

I stand corrected regarding the name, but it IS a sound used in Vietnamese to begin words. Which is not the case in English.

Pronounciation?

[FortKnox]

Dr. Jack Ng, a physicist at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill,

Dr. Ng?? How do you pronounce that??

Applications

[indole]

This is clearly another spectacular advance in the quantum computing field, as now we can adequatly clean the quantum monitor and quantum desktop without worrying about leaving streaks. Hoorah for technology!

Re:Pronounciation?

[DamienMcKenna]

It's the sound you mean when you're either kicked in the nugglies or you aren't careful when you fasten up.. then again most names can be taken funny, you just have to find the right incentive.

Re:Pronounciation?

[lucius]

Dr. Ng?? How do you pronounce that??

RTF Article

But Dr. Ng (pronounced ENG) has calculated...

Further reading

[Dancin_Santa]

For a book that can be understood by the layman, check out the various works of Michio Kaku.

Dancin Santa

Michio Kaku

[Metra]

This is very true. I suggest reading "Hyperspace". I'm currently in the middle of it, and it's awesome. It's all about combining the forces nature (gravity, electromagnetic, strong & weak nuclear forces) into one ultimately simple equation to define the entire universe. But they preopose that it's only possible in higher-dimensional space. Read it.