Researchers Find New State of Matter, Claim It Could Aid Quantum Computing and Data Storage (nyu.edu) 19
"A team of physicists has uncovered a new state of matter -- a breakthrough that offers promise for increasing storage capabilities in electronic devices and enhancing quantum computing," according to an announcement from NYU:
"Our research has succeeded in revealing experimental evidence for a new state of matter -- topological superconductivity," says Javad Shabani, an assistant professor of physics at New York University. "This new topological state can be manipulated in ways that could both speed calculation in quantum computing and boost storage...."
In their research, Shabani and his colleagues analyzed a transition of quantum state from its conventional state to a new topological state, measuring the energy barrier between these states.... "The new discovery of topological superconductivity in a two-dimensional platform paves the way for building scalable topological qubits to not only store quantum information, but also to manipulate the quantum states that are free of error," observes Shabani.
The research was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defenseâ(TM)s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
In their research, Shabani and his colleagues analyzed a transition of quantum state from its conventional state to a new topological state, measuring the energy barrier between these states.... "The new discovery of topological superconductivity in a two-dimensional platform paves the way for building scalable topological qubits to not only store quantum information, but also to manipulate the quantum states that are free of error," observes Shabani.
The research was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defenseâ(TM)s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
In the year of our lord two thousand and nineteen (Score:1)
A story on Slashdot still has a character encoding error.
Re: In the year of our lord two thousand and ninet (Score:1)
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this site can't even handle apostrophe's next to other certain characters. Let's not make them run before they can stand up from a crawl.
workshop in 2017 (Score:3)
RCQM Spring Workshop "Topological superconductors: Materials, topological order, and quenched disorder"
So I'm not sure just how new this is.
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RCQM Spring Workshop
Did anybody attend? If nobody attended, we can't know that it actually happened, or even that anybody received information about it.
"to manipulate the quantum states that are free of error"
They just found a really expensive way to turn a quantum computer into a shitty classical computer. Maybe in a few decades they'll be able to attempt to build an 8 bit full adder out of it.
Heisenberg in 2017 (Score:2)
Did anybody attend? If nobody attended, we can't know that it actually happened, or even that anybody received information about it.
If anybody attended, the simple act of observing it would have messed it up. According to Heisenberg.
Re: (Score:2)
They did not need to come up with the idea, so much as agree to steal it from elsewhere. Why is it important because of conductive conduits, as super conductors, not their idea, they just in the most lame pathetic fashion imaginable collectively stole it (nice, really nicely done be proud).
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Did anybody attend? If nobody attended, we can't know that it actually happened, or even that anybody received information about it.
If anybody attended, the simple act of observing it would have messed it up. According to Heisenberg.
I do believe that was his joke, yes.
Confusion with calling them all states of matter. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Since Quantum researchers like things to sound big and exciting, maybe call them the Super States of matter :)
It is all they have to keep their fragile house of cards standing. They certainly have not delivered anything of actual worth in the quantum computing area and it is doubtful whether they ever will. Hence they have to hype every tiny advancement out of proportion, or the ones deciding about funding could notice that a massive breakthrough is the absolute minimum needed to ever get anything back on that investment.
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Old man yells at 2-D electron cloud.
Yo mama (Score:2, Offtopic)
How is this news now? (Score:2)
Come on. These lectures are 3-4 years old?
There are even papers observing it from 2017 so it doesn't seem like it was just confirmed either.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.051... [arxiv.org]
horrifying (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a professional condensed matter physicist.
This is interesting work. Topological control of electronic states is the current hot area of nanotechnology, my specialty.
This is also completely horrifying. Calling this a new state of matter is way beyond a reasonable amount of enthusiasm or hype. This is confusing, incorrect, and misleading to the public. No statement about a new form of matter appears in their (poorly written, jargon infested) research paper. This press release is clearly nothing more than an attempt on the part of the granting agency and university to artificially increase their reporting metrics and thereby increase their funding. It's an escalation in an already dangerously overheated grant funding market. The lack of accountability and seriousness here is appalling. This is... I'm sorry. I apologize on behalf of my field.
Please mod parent up - or rather: Remove the rest (Score:1)
I'm a professional condensed matter physicist.
This is interesting work. Topological control of electronic states is the current hot area of nanotechnology, my specialty.
This is also completely horrifying. Calling this a new state of matter is way beyond a reasonable amount of enthusiasm or hype. This is confusing, incorrect, and misleading to the public. No statement about a new form of matter appears in their (poorly written, jargon infested) research paper. This press release is clearly nothing more than an attempt on the part of the granting agency and university to artificially increase their reporting metrics and thereby increase their funding. It's an escalation in an already dangerously overheated grant funding market. The lack of accountability and seriousness here is appalling. This is... I'm sorry. I apologize on behalf of my field.
Dear moderators, this comment ("horrifying") was apparently written by someone knowledgeable in the relevant field. It is clear, points out the problems of the original press release / slashdot article and shows that quality control and basic knowledge about a field is certainly necessary before posting a story. To be blunt: The /. article should not have been posted without a huge caveat about apparent hyperbole or some simple basic research whether the claim about a new state of matter has any merrit at
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Not New (Score:1)