Atomic Antennae Transmit Quantum Information 57
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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I may be showing my age but when I was young antennae was more or less universal, I prefer the usage you stated, but it depends on whom you ask. The biological appendages are always antennae, but the electronic device may be either according to some sources: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/antenna [macmillandictionary.com] http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/antenna [oxfordadva...ionary.com]
In a few years we can count on it becoming "antenna's"
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Well I guess I'm really showing my age. When I was young it was neither radio antennae nor radio antennas, it was radio aerials.
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No.
What about "no cloning"? (Score:2)
So without paying much attention to the article (in the grand tradition of slashdot!) this is a proof of the "ansibles" used in Ender's Game?
That's what I thought when I RTFA. At first sight, "the new technology offers the possibility to distribute entanglement" seems to violate the "no cloning" theorem [wikipedia.org], which is what impedes FTL quantum communications.
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IEEE (Score:3)
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.
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Re:IEEE (Score:4, Funny)
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"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.
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I'd get my head seriously looked at if that happened.
I would have thought that the post I replied to, why couldn't you superposition the SSID/s and probably get the right one depending on how you made the measurement/s.
IEEE 802.11q would be meta not relative.
quantum bla bla bla (Score:2)
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?
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No, the problem here is one of the probability of implementing a quantum algorithm with a sufficient number of qubits to be useful. Although I'm being flamebaity by whining about the number of failures (or, more precisely, highly overrated demonstrations), that's not really relevant. What's going wrong is people assuming some particular thing can be done just because it "would be cool" to actually implement all this fashionable research.
That the last 10 years have just about shown that 3x5=15 - although not
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The trouble lies more in the press releases about the research. I don't think any of the researchers have any illusions about what's needed for a functioning quantum computer or how long it will take the get there.
There are three reasons why people keep working towards building a quantum computer despite the huge effort that it requires:
1) A lot of new and interesting fundamental physics gets uncovered along the way.
2) The fundamentally increased scaling in computing power for a given number of bits is too
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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.
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If you're a stalker, I sincerely hope it's because you like the cock.
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"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
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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arxiv link... (Score:3, Informative)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3639 [arxiv.org]
Sooo.... (Score:1)
Do we know if Schrodinger killed his cat or not?
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That's the boring question. The interesting one is: does the cat know?
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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.
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Hoping that the next leap...would be the leap home!
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Well played, sir!
I too was thinking of Quantum Leap when I read the GP.
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Some day... (Score:2)
Quantum TORSIONAL antennae? (Score:2)
All very interesting but can we still play Quake? (Score:1)
Easy breezy (Score:2)
"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
tinfoil hat (Score:1)