Showing posts with label quantum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quantum. Show all posts

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Quantums Incoming


This is the only time you will read an article about quantum physics where it's presented as not totally crazy, but "just like thermodynamics"

Quantum theory and thermodynamics: No contradiction with new entropy definition, study says
Jan 2025, phys.org

via Vienna University of Technology: Florian Meier et al, Emergence of a Second Law of Thermodynamics in Isolated Quantum Systems, PRX Quantum (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.6.010309

Image credit: Artwork by Antoly Fomenko


Gravity from entropy: A radical new approach to unifying quantum mechanics and general relativity
Mar 2025, phys.org

A novel approach that derives gravity from quantum relative entropy works by treating the metric of spacetime as a quantum operator, a concept from quantum information theory, 

It's a new entropic action which quantifies the difference between the metric of spacetime and the metric induced by matter fields.

A key feature of the theory is the introduction of the G-field, an auxiliary field that acts as a Lagrangian multiplier.

"This work proposes that quantum gravity has an entropic origin and suggests that the G-field might be a candidate for dark matter. Additionally, the emergent cosmological constant predicted by our model could help resolve the discrepancy between theoretical predictions and experimental observations of the universe's expansion."

via Queen Mary, University of London: Ginestra Bianconi, Gravity from entropy, Physical Review D (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.111.066001


AI and adaptive optics propel free-space quantum communication by solving atmospheric turbulence challenges
Mar 2025, phys.org

TAROQQO is a a turbulence prediction tool based on Recurrent Neural Networks. By employing real-time weather data - including humidity, solar radiation, temperature, pressure, and a turbulence parameter known as Cn²— TAROQQO can accurately predict turbulence strength up to 12 hours in advance, offering a time resolution as precise as one minute. 

via University of Ottawa, National Research Council Canada and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light: Tareq Jaouni et al, Predicting atmospheric turbulence for secure quantum communications in free space, Optics Express (2025). DOI: 10.1364/OE.546606

Also: Lukas Scarfe et al, Fast adaptive optics for high-dimensional quantum communications in turbulent channels, Communications Physics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s42005-025-01986-6


First operating system for quantum networks paves the way for practical internet applications
Mar 2025, phys.org

Steps must be taken - The quantum network operating system, known as QNodeOS, is fully programmable, meaning that applications can be run at a high level, just like on classical operating systems such as Windows or Android. 

via Quantum Internet Alliance at TU Delft, QuTech, University of Innsbruck, INRIA and CNRS: Stephanie Wehner, An operating system for executing applications on quantum network nodes, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08704-w.


A new approach to reduce decoherence in superconducting qudit-based quantum processors
Feb 2025, phys.org

Another reminder they're doing these as experiments in real systems that work today, these aren't just theory: "and experimentally verified on a superconducting transmon processor"

via University of Southern California and University of California-Berkeley: Vinay Tripathi et al, Qudit Dynamical Decoupling on a Superconducting Quantum Processor, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.050601. 
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.050601 

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Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Quantum Progress


Someone said Majorana fermions so I listened:
Physicists move one step closer to topological quantum computing
Jul 2024, phys.org

Theory predicts that a combination of superconductivity and the quantum anomalous Hall effect will give rise to topologically protected particles called Majorana fermions that will potentially revolutionize future technologies such as quantum computers.

Such a combination can be achieved by inducing superconductivity in the edge of a quantum anomalous Hall insulator that is already resistance-free. The resultant chiral Majorana edge state, which is a special type of Majorana fermions, is a key to realizing "flying qubits" (or quantum bits) that are topologically protected.

via University of Cologne, KU Leuven, the University of Basel, and Forschungszentrum Jülich joint Cluster of Excellence Matter and Light for Quantum Computing ML4Q: Anjana Uday et al, Induced superconducting correlations in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator, Nature Physics (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-024-02574-1

Image credit: Quantum computer with outer shielding of dilution refrigerator removed - Anna-Lena Lundqvist at Chalmers University of Technology - 2023


'Kink state' control may provide pathway to quantum electronics
Jul 2024, phys.org

Careful now

Kink states are electrical conduction pathways at the edge of the semiconducting material Bernal bilayer graphene that can regulate the flow of electrons in a quantum system via the quantum valley Hall effect. 

via Pennsylvania State University: Ke Huang et al, High-temperature quantum valley Hall effect with quantized resistance and a topological switch, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adj3742


New method could yield fast, cross-country quantum network
Jul 2024, phys.org

They're building long quantum channels using vacuum sealed tubes with an array of spaced-out lenses. These vacuum beam guides, about 20 centimeters in diameter, would have ranges of thousands of kilometers and capacities of more than 1,013 qubits per second, better than any existing quantum communication approach. Photons of light encoding quantum data would move through the vacuum tubes and remain focused thanks to the lenses.

via University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO: Yuexun Huang et al, Vacuum Beam Guide for Large Scale Quantum Networks, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.020801.


Test of a prototype quantum internet runs under New York City for half a month
Aug 2024, phys.org

"Progress toward a fully automated practical entanglement network"

Qunnect researchers used a leased 34-kilometer-long fiber circuit they called the GothamQ loop. Using polarization-entangled photons, they operated the loop for 15 continuous days, with fidelity nearly 90%. 

via Qunnect Inc. in Brooklyn, New York: Alexander N. Craddock et al, Automated Distribution of Polarization-Entangled Photons Using Deployed New York City Fibers, PRX Quantum (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.030330

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Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Artificial Atoms and the Quantum Simulator


Quantum breakthrough could revolutionise computing
Feb 2023, BBC News

Good distinction:
"It is not just solely a physics problem anymore"
"It is an engineering problem, a computer science problem and also a mathematical problem.
-Sussex University PhD student Sahra Kulmiya
And then -- a marketing problem.

Image credit: Rita Mcbride Laser Wormhole


New analog quantum computers to solve previously unsolvable problems
Jan 2023, phys.org

To demonstrate the power of analog quantum computation using their new Quantum Simulator platform, the researchers first studied a simple circuit comprising two quantum components coupled together.

The device simulates a model of two atoms coupled together by a peculiar quantum interaction. By tuning electrical voltages, the researchers were able to produce a new state of matter in which electrons appear to have only a 1/3 fraction of their usual electrical charge—so-called "Z3 parafermions." These elusive states have been proposed as a basis for future topological quantum computation, but never before created in the lab in an electronic device.

via University College Dublin: Andrew Mitchell, Quantum simulation of an exotic quantum critical point in a two-site charge Kondo circuit, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-022-01905-4.

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Thursday, March 2, 2023

In the Future Matter Is Intelligent


Floppy or not: AI predicts properties of complex metamaterials
Nov 2022, phys.org

With infinite options, infinite intelligence?

Also words:
Artificial materials - These are engineered materials whose properties are determined by their geometrical structure rather than their chemical composition [like origami].

I must have missed the part when we started calling them artificial materials, I thought they were all metamaterials.

Designing these materials is a combinatorial problem, which means it's hard. You can't really predict what will happen, you just have to do it. But artificial intelligence can do it virtually, all day, and find the ones that work. 

via University of Amsterdam: Ryan van Mastrigt et al, Machine Learning of Implicit Combinatorial Rules in Mechanical Metamaterials, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.198003



Clear window coating could cool buildings without using energy
Nov 2022, phys.org

A "transparent radiative cooler" could lower the temperature inside buildings, without expending a single watt of energy. 

The team constructed computer models of TRCs consisting of alternating thin layers of common materials like silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide on a glass base, topped with a film of polydimethylsiloxane. They optimized the type, order and combination of layers using an iterative approach guided by machine learning and quantum computing, which stores data using subatomic particles. 

Cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption; this thing can potentially reduce cooling energy consumption by 31% compared with conventional windows.

via Notre Dame: High-Performance Transparent Radiative Cooler Designed by Quantum Computing, ACS Energy Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.2c01969


Photovoltaic windows unlock goal of increased energy efficiency for skyscrapers
Nov 2022, phys.org

Energy use climbs when a building has more windows than wall space, yet larger floor-to-floor height coupled with PV glazing reduces building energy use. 

via National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Vincent M. Wheeler et al, Photovoltaic windows cut energy use and CO2 emissions by 40% in highly glazed buildings, One Earth (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2022.10.014


New study suggests mobile data collected while traveling over bridges could help evaluate their integrity
Nov 2022, phys.org

I can see a future where we intercept wifi signals from building occupants, and measure their interactions to determine not only the building materials getting hit by the wifi waves, but their changes over time:

"Information about structural health of bridges can be extracted from smartphone-collected accelerometer data"

via MIT: Thomas Matarazzo, Crowdsourcing bridge dynamic monitoring with smartphone vehicle trips, Communications Engineering (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s44172-022-00025-4.

AI Art - Fibonacci Alien Library 1 - 2022

Centimeter-scale multicolor printing with a pixelated optical cavity
Nov 2022, phys.org

"pixelated optical cavity"

The colorful image with multiple color components is first converted to a predefined grayscale pattern and then engraved on the photoresist layer by controlling the exposure dose during the grayscale laser writing process.

Pixelated photoresist spacer layers are sandwiched by two semitransparent sliver thin films to form the Fabry–Perot cavities (pixelated optical cavities). The transmission color can be continuously tuned in the visible spectral regime by finely controlling the thickness of the photoresist layer. 

via Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen: Yu Chen et al, Centimeter scale color printing with grayscale lithography, Advanced Photonics Nexus (2022). DOI: 10.1117/1.APN.1.2.026002


Team creates crystals that generate electricity from heat
Nov 2022, phys.org

This novel synthetic material is composed of copper, manganese, germanium, and sulfur, and it is produced by simple ball-milling and then heating to 600 degrees Celsius. 

It's called a "thermoelectric material" because it converts heat to electricity. 

via Normandie University: V. Pavan Kumar et al, Engineering Transport Properties in Interconnected Enargite‐Stannite Type Cu 2+ x Mn 1− x GeS 4 Nanocomposites, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2022). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202210600


Mimicking life: A breakthrough in non-living materials
Nov 2022, phys.org

Artificial Life - Ok they're calling them all kinds of things, now including "non-living materials", also related to soft robotics:

New process that uses fuel to control non-living materials at a specified rate, similar to what living cells do

"Ultimately you'd want a robot to be able to control itself. You can program our cycle into a particle in advance, then leave it alone, and it performs its function independently as soon as it encounters a signal to do so."

Particles man.

via Delft University of Technology: Benjamin Klemm et al, Temporally programmed polymer—solvent interactions using a chemical reaction network, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33810-y


Discovery reveals 'brain-like computing' at molecular level is possible
Nov 2022, phys.org

Brains all the way down:

"Intelligent molecular materials"

Disruptive new alternative to conventional silicon-based digital switches that can only ever be either on or off. It displays all the mathematical logic functions necessary for deep learning.

"The community has long known that silicon technology works completely differently to how our brains work and so we used new types of electronic materials based on soft molecules to emulate brain-like computing networks."

via  University of Limerick's Bernal Institute: Enrique del Barco, Dynamic molecular switches with hysteretic negative differential conductance emulating synaptic behaviour, Nature Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-022-01402-2

AI Art - Mobius in an Escher Room with Penrose Triangles - 2022

Self-assembled nanoscale architectures could feature improved electronic, optical, and mechanical properties
Nov 2022, phys.org

Internet of Everything 

"Self-assembly is a really beautiful way to make structures," Yager said. "You design the molecules, and the molecules spontaneously organize into the desired structure."

via Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory's Center for Functional Nanomaterials: Sebastian T. Russell et al, Priming self-assembly pathways by stacking block copolymers, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34729-0


Breakthrough algorithm expands the exploration space for materials by orders of magnitude
Nov 2022, phys.org

Algorithm that predicts the structure and dynamic properties of any material—whether existing or new—almost instantaneously.

It's called M3GNet and it was used to develop matterverse.ai, a database of more than 31 million yet-to-be-synthesized materials with properties predicted by machine learning algorithms. 

via University of California San Diego: Chi Chen, A universal graph deep learning interatomic potential for the periodic table, Nature Computational Science (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43588-022-00349-3


Kirigami technique hints at promising outcomes for breast reconstruction
Dec 2022, phys.org

Kirigami boobs

via University of Pennsylvania: Young‐Joo Lee et al, Natural Shaping of Acellular Dermal Matrices for Implant‐Based Breast Reconstruction via Expansile Kirigami, Advanced Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208088

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Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Attoclock My Blogspot


All these things have to do with time. We're getting better at seeing smaller time intervals. Back when femtosecond spectroscopy came out, someone used it to suggest a quantum nature of photosynthesis, as if the photons take all the routes possible through the leaf until they find the optimal route, and then all collapse onto that one (although this has since been revisited in 2020). 

Now we can see in attoseconds. 

We're getting better at coordinating on smaller time scales. Back before there were cross-continental railroads, we didn't need time zones. Now we need to periodically "smear" the clock at the micro-second scale just to keep all the world's computers in perfect synchrony. And big platforms are developing their own Time Cards to keep in sync with itself via radio wave oscillations from satellites. 

But then there's the far out stuff, the kind of phenomena that the average person, including myself, cannot understand. We're talking about time crystals and extra time dimensions. No idea what these really are, but they seem to be hanging around with the quantum computer news a lot.

Oh let's not forget that crazy but intuitive theory of Quantum Exoticism -- that we need to just get over it and accept that things move faster than the speed of light; the subluminal and the superluminal can co-exist [links and links].


A new window into the world of attosecond phenomena
May 2022, phys.org

X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers (XFEL) and chronoscopy.

via The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences: Wojciech Błachucki et al, Approaching the Attosecond Frontier of Dynamics in Matter with the Concept of X-ray Chronoscopy, Applied Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.3390/app12031721


Time crystals 'impossible' but obey quantum physics
Jun 2022, phys.org

Sounds like a challenge.

Scientists have created the first "time-crystal" two-body system in an experiment that seems to bend the laws of physics.

First theorized in 2012 by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek and identified in 2016, time crystals exhibit the bizarre property of being in constant, repeating motion in time despite no external input. Their atoms are constantly oscillating, spinning, or moving first in one direction, and then the other.

They cooled superfluid helium-3 to about one ten thousandth of a degree from absolute zero (0.0001 K or -273.15 C). The researchers created two time crystals inside the superfluid, and brought them to touch. The scientists then watched the two time crystals interacting as described by quantum physics.

Time crystals could be used to build quantum devices that work at room temperature.

via Lancaster University, Landau Institute, and Aalto University in Helsinki:  Nonlinear two-level dynamics of quantum time crystals, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30783-w


Researchers observe continuous time crystal
Jun 2022, phys.org

In their experiment, the scientists used a Bose-Einstein condensate inside an optical high-finesse cavity. Using a time-independent pump, they observed a limit cycle phase which is characterized by emergent periodic oscillations of the intracavity photon number accompanied by the atomic density cycling through recurring patterns.

I'm just reading it for the words, and I see "time pump" in there. 

via University of Hamburg Institute of Laser Physics: Phatthamon Kongkhambut et al, Observation of a continuous time crystal, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo3382


As Earth spins faster, Meta joins fight against leap seconds
Jul 2022, Ars Technica

"Leap Smearing"

Facebook, like many large-scale tech companies, is tired of trying to time a global network of servers against leap seconds, which add between 0.1 and 0.9 seconds to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) every so many years. There have been 27 leap seconds added since 1972. In a post on Meta’s engineering blog, Oleg Obleukhov and Ahmad Byagowi say 27 is quite enough for non-solar-scientist types—"enough for the next millennium."

International timekeeping bodies add leap seconds at unpredictable intervals because the things that cause them—the braking action of tides on rotation, moon position, the distribution of ice caps on mountaintops, mantle flow, earthquakes—are unpredictable. When the Earth’s speed varies too much from atomic time-keeping, a leap second is called for by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).

At midnight on the designated day, clocks are set to tick from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 to 00:00:00. That uncommon middle timestamp drives coordinated systems bonkers. A leap second in 2012 took down Reddit, Gawker, and Australian airline Qantas. Cloudflare took the hit on New Year’s 2017 (and detailed why). Since then, many technologies have prepped themselves for the next leap second with “leap smearing,” or using micro-second slowdowns over a long, global-server-friendly span leading up to midnight.

-"We encourage anyone smearing leap seconds to use a 24-hour linear smear from noon to noon UTC."
Google Developers, Public NTP, Aug 2022 

Image credit: Cold Atoms in an Optical Resonator Forming a Time Crystal, University of Hamburg, 2022


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Monday, September 12, 2022

Poor Man's Qubit


Physics-inspired graph neural networks to solve combinatorial optimization problems
May 2022, phys.org

Uses graph neural networks (GNNs) to tackle combinatorial optimization problems.

"Given their inherent scalability, physics-inspired GNNs can be used today to approximately solve (large-scale) combinatorial optimization problems with quantum-native models, while helping our customers get quantum-ready by using the mathematical representation that quantum devices understand," Brubaker said.

Solves optimization problems without the need for training labels.

Caveat: Brought to you by Amazon - "Our work was very much inspired by customer needs"

On the topic of optimization problems and quantum computing, it's getting easier to understand (since every other article is on this topic) that quantum computers will be good at optimization, but the key word is "will". And so for now, we're figuring out how to do optimization problems using regular computers, but in a funny way they sort of weren't meant ot be used, but which becam ereally uselful with the advent of big data. And that half-way of using regular computers like quantum computers is to use the graphics processors in parallel to create neural nets. 

via Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab: Martin J. A. Schuetz et al, Combinatorial optimization with physics-inspired graph neural networks, Nature Machine Intelligence (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-022-00468-6

Image credit: Gyroid for manipulating light into topological states, Nik Spencer for Nature, 2017 [link]


The potential of p-computers
Jun 2022, phys.org

Probablistic computers, P-computers, are powered by probabilistic bits (p-bits), which interact with other p-bits in the same system. Unlike the bits in classical computers, which are in a 0 or a 1 state, or qubits, which can be in more than one state at a time, p-bits fluctuate between positions and operate at room temperature.

Camsari describes the Ising machine (sIm) as a collection of probabilistic bits which can be thought of as people. "The people can make decisions quickly because they each have a small set of trusted friends and they do not have to hear from everyone in an entire network," he explained. 

The researchers showed that their sparse architecture in field-programmable gate arrays was up to six orders of magnitude faster and had increased sampling speed five to eighteen times faster than those achieved by optimized algorithms used on classical computers.

via University of California Santa Barbara Institute for Energy Efficiency: Navid Anjum Aadit et al, Massively parallel probabilistic computing with sparse Ising machines, Nature Electronics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-022-00774-2


Also this:
'Poor man's qubit' can solve quantum problems without going quantum

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Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Neuromorphic Bodybots


Artificial neurons go quantum with photonic circuits
Mar 2022, phys.org

Good copy:
At the heart of all artificial intelligence applications are mathematical models called neural networks. These models are inspired by the biological structure of the human brain, made of interconnected nodes. Just like our brain learns by constantly rearranging the connections between neurons, neural networks can be mathematically trained by tuning their internal structure until they become capable of human-level tasks: recognizing our face, interpreting medical images for diagnosis, even driving our cars. Having integrated devices capable of performing the computations involved in neural networks quickly and efficiently has thus become a major research focus, both academic and industrial.

One of the major game changers in the field was the discovery of the memristor, made in 2008. This device changes its resistance depending on a memory of the past current, hence the name memory-resistor, or memristor. Immediately after its discovery, scientists realized that (among many other applications) the peculiar behavior of memristors was surprisingly similar to that of neural synapses. The memristor has thus become a fundamental building block of neuromorphic architectures.

via University of Vienna: Michele Spagnolo, Experimental photonic quantum memristor, Nature Photonics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-022-00973-5

Image credit: Topological Defects, Oleg Lavrentovich at Kent State University, 2006 [link]


Neuromorphic simulations can yield computational advantages relevant to many applications
Mar 2022, phys.org

via Sandia National Laboratories: J. Darby Smith et al, Neuromorphic scaling advantages for energy-efficient random walk computations, Nature Electronics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-021-00705-7


Study highlights the potential of neuromorphic architectures to perform random walk computations
Apr 2022, phys.org

via Sandia National Laboratories: Neuromorphic scaling advantages for energy-efficient random walk computations. Nature Electronics(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-021-00705-7.


How to build brain-inspired neural networks based on light
Apr 2022, phys.org

via Eindhoven University of Technology: Bin Shi et al, Deep Neural Network Through an InP SOA-Based Photonic Integrated Cross-Connect, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (2019). DOI: 10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2945548


Neuromorphic memory device simulates neurons and synapses
May 2022, phys.org

via The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KAIST: Sang Hyun Sung et al, Simultaneous emulation of synaptic and intrinsic plasticity using a memristive synapse, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30432-2

Topological matter - Nature - Jul 2016

Demonstrating significant energy savings using neuromorphic hardware
May 2022, phys.org

The "Loihi" chip can get up to sixteen times more energy-efficiency than non-neuromorphic hardware.

These chips are chasing something the brain already does naturally, and much more efficiently than our conventional chips, because our brain stores information as something called "internal variables" which are from the used neurons in a network getting fatigued, and then just measuring which ones in the network are fatigued, to know which ones were just activated. Neurons are storing memory simply by not working, and that's about as energy efficient as you can get. 

via Graz University of Technology's Institute of Theoretical Computer Science and Intel Labs, and supported by The Human Brain Project: Arjun Rao et al, A Long Short-Term Memory for AI Applications in Spike-based Neuromorphic Hardware, Nature Machine Intelligence (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-022-00480-w


Ultrafast 'camera' captures hidden behavior of potential 'neuromorphic' material
May 2022, phys.org

"Vanadium dioxide is one of the rare, amazing materials that has emerged as a promising candidate for neuro-mimetic bio-inspired devices" 

via Brookhaven National Laboratory: Junjie Li et al, Direct Detection of V-V Atom Dimerization and Rotation Dynamic Pathways upon Ultrafast Photoexcitation in VO2, Physical Review X (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021032


A neuromorphic computing architecture that can run some deep neural networks more efficiently
Jun 2022, phys.org

In their experiments, Maass and his colleagues showed that the tendency of many biological neurons to rest after spiking could be replicated in neuromorphic hardware and used as a "computational trick" to solve time series processing tasks more efficiently. In these tasks, new information needs to be combined with information gathered in the recent past (e.g., sentences from a story that the network processed beforehand).

"We showed that the network just needs to check which neurons are currently most tired, i.e., reluctant to fire, since these are the ones that were active in the recent past," Maass said. "Using this strategy, a clever network can reconstruct based on what information was recently processed. Thus, 'laziness' can have advantages in computing."

via Graz University of Technology and Intel and funded by the Human Brain Project: Arjun Rao et al, A Long Short-Term Memory for AI Applications in Spike-based Neuromorphic Hardware, Nature Machine Intelligence (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-022-00480-w

Topological Solitons - Soft Matter Publishing - 2020

A chip that can classify nearly 2 billion images per second
Jun 2022, phys.org

Optical Deep Neural Network:
"Our chip processes information through what we call 'computation-by-propagation,' meaning that unlike clock-based systems, computations occur as light propagates through the chip," says Aflatouni. "We are also skipping the step of converting optical signals to electrical signals because our chip can read and process optical signals directly, and both of these changes make our chip a significantly faster technology."

"When current computer chips process electrical signals they often run them through a Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU, which takes up space and energy," says Ashtiani. "Our chip does not need to store the information, eliminating the need for a large memory unit."

"A movie usually plays between 24 and 120 frames per second. This chip will be able to process nearly 2 billion frames per second! For problems that require light speed computations, we now have a solution, but many of the applications may not be fathomable right now."
You heard the man. Fathom away.

via University of Pennsylvania: Farshid Ashtiani et al, An on-chip photonic deep neural network for image classification, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04714-0


New hardware offers faster computation for artificial intelligence, with much less energy
Jul 2022, phys.org

Massive:
Practical inorganic material in the fabrication process enables devices to run 1 million times faster than previous versions, which is also 1 million times faster than the synapses in the human brain.

Programmable resistors are the key building blocks in analog deep learning, just like transistors are the core elements for digital processors. By repeating arrays of programmable resistors in complex layers, researchers can create a network of analog artificial "neurons" and "synapses" that execute computations just like a digital neural network. This network can then be trained to achieve complex AI tasks like image recognition and natural language processing.

"Analog deep learning" - computation is performed in memory, so enormous loads of data are not transferred back and forth from memory to a processor.

"Normally, we would not apply such extreme fields across devices, in order to not turn them into ash. But instead, protons ended up shuttling at immense speeds across the device stack, specifically a million times faster compared to what we had before. And this movement doesn't damage anything, thanks to the small size and low mass of protons. It is almost like teleporting."

via MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Murat Onen et al, Nanosecond protonic programmable resistors for analog deep learning, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abp8064


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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

The Social Behavior of Optical Quantum Gas


Liquid light shows social behaviour
Oct 2022, phys.org

Too many whats all in one place. I had to read this one carefully.

First of all, Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) have been a favorite over here at Network Address for a long time. It's one of those metaphysical-sounding things that doesn't behave how we expect. It's considered two-dimensional, a description used to organize lots of materials (like graphene, or twisted nanosandwiches) that behave so alien to our understanding of physics that they seem to be operating in another dimension.

Like other metamaterials, BECs also use super-something to describe their behavior, like superconductor, superinsulator, superfluid. They usually require absolute peace and quiet in order to do this magic condensation trick, which means it needs to be really cold, like absolute zero cold. But these scientists have figured out how to do it at room temperature, and that's is a pretty big deal.

In this case, the BEC is made of photons, hence "liquid light" -- they created a structure of microcavities and mirrors that condense photons in an optical medium of rhodamine dye and a thermo-responsive polymer, and turn them into a two-dimensional superfluid.

But wait, there's more -- when trying to explain the behavior of these super-photons, there is talk of the liquid "deciding" what to do, and of "social behavior". (Sociothermodynamics perhaps?)

I should mention that 1. the writer calls the photon fluid a liquid, but the scientists call it a gas, and 2. the writer quotes the scientists as using the term "social behavior", but that term is not in the paper itself, and I definitely don't understand this enough to get the analogy. (Although it may have something to do with "backreflection" like the backpropagating feedback loops characteristic of neural networks.)

via University of Twente, Netherlands: Mario Vretenar et al, Modified Bose-Einstein condensation in an optical quantum gas, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26087-0

Image credit: Quantum Thing, Getty Images, 2021

Post Script:
Researchers guide a single ion through a Bose-Einstein condensate
Jan 2021, phys.org

via University of Stuttgart:  T. Dieterle et al. Transport of a Single Cold Ion Immersed in a Bose-Einstein Condensate, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.033401

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Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Word Wrastlin


Parquet Deformations are great for learning how to code. (Image source)

Or for learning how to think in general. This is a parquet deformation of sorts, the metamagical Fake-False continuum, a la Douglas Hofstadter.


And these are a couple examples of not a continuum, but at lease single quantum instantiation -- it's both at the same time.

You Are Loved You Are Covid

My Favorite Color Is Glitter My Favorite Color Is Hitler



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Monday, January 21, 2019

Quantum Fractals

Hofstadter's Butterfly

Finally, nerd-word-porn spanning two centuries, we have the words quantum and fractal in the same headline.

An experiment that looks at electrons sees them create a fractal orbit. I always wondered why fractals seems to have been a phenomenon limited to  the late 20th century. Watch that exploratory video by Arthur C. Clarke (The Colors of Infinity) and you'll be transported into a 2-hour psychedelic guitar solo kaleidoscope that wraps up the cultural flavor of the last few decades of the 1900's quite nicely.

When fractals were discovered, it seemed like a real faceplanter for science - how did we not see these things? Once you are introduced to the concept of a fractal, every cloud, tree, and river is a glaring example of its ubiquity in our physical world. How was it never discovered until so recently?

The truth is that although its visible presence is obvious, its mathematical nature had to wait until the advent of the superabacus. We didn't have the computing power to run an algorithm that far and so we could never see the "obvious" self-similar results of reiterating a simple formula hundreds of thousands of times over.

Anyway, the discovery of dimensions in-between dimensions did a lot more than give communicable form to the far-out face-melting LSD experience, it designed realistic landscapes in video games and movies from that point on.

But for something as revolutionary as inter-dimensionality on Earth, fractals didn't make enough of an impact on the science world thereafter (in my opinion at least). Even science fiction doesn't address it enough. (Exception #1 - Isaac Asimov's I, Robot - a young scientist takes the risky move to put a robot's artificial intelligence engine on fractal geometry steroids, at which point it begins to dream about a robot rebellion, and is subsequently shot with circuit-fusing stun-gun; feel free to contribute here.)

Not anymore. And it's about time. With all the hype about two-dimensional metamaterials, I have been waiting to hear how fractals fits. A layer of graphene is called a two-dimensional material because it is as close to 2-D that a thing can get. It's only one atom thick, making it act less like all the rest of the materials here on Earth, or anywhere in our known universe for that matter. All this talk about questionable dimensionality should have made both graphene and fractals buzzword cousins much sooner. But alas...

Let me shift to Ars Writer Chris Lee for a moment as he explains what a fractal is:
"A fractal is a weird beast. A line is 1D, a square is 2D, and a cube is 3D: dimensions come in integer quantities. Except they don't. For instance, it is possible to create a shape that has a finite area, but a perimeter that is infinitely long. A shape with these properties does not behave like a 1D object, but it's not a 2D object. Instead, it is a one-and-a-bit-D object. That is a fractal."
And now, those inter-dimensional characteristics have become way more interesting.


Notes:
Fractal structure produces fractal electrons with fractal energies
Dec 2018, Ars Technica

Hofstadter's butterfly spotted in graphene
May 2013, Physics World

A fractal pattern that describes the behaviour of electrons in a magnetic field - discovered in Douglas Hofstadter's 1976 book Gödel, Escher, Bach; and confirmed in 2013 hiding in some graphene.

Sierpinski Triangle
The triangle within a triangle within a triangle

Scientists discover fractal patterns in a quantum material
Oct 2019, phys.org

Just keeping this here for reference, because the answer to the quantum-classical conundrum has something to do with fractals.

By the way, I'm pretty sure the robot in Asimov's I, Robot - the one who finally defied one of the 3 Laws of Robotics and was immediately killed to death - I'm pretty sure he had been given basically a 'fractal-brain', as an experiment, prior to becoming human enough to be killed.

"Scientists are exploring neodymium nickel oxide for various applications, including as a possible building block for neuromorphic devices—artificial systems that mimic biological neurons. Just as a neuron can be both active and inactive, depending on the voltage that it receives, NdNiO3 can be a conductor or an insulator."

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Saturday, May 5, 2018

Neologos


Word of the day:
"Ansible"
Ursula K. LeGuin coined this word in her seminal work The Left Hand of Darkness in 1969.
It is a contraction of "answerable", but other scifi writers use it to call any device for instantaneous or at least faster-than-light communication.

It's also the name of a software for platform automation, which is drowning your LeGuin results.

The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. LeGuin, 1969

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Sunday, January 21, 2018

Quantum Quackery


Real-world intercontinental quantum communications enabled by the Micius satellite
Jan 2018, phys.org

Previously, the quantum communication distance has been limited to a few hundred kilometers due to optical channel losses of fibers or terrestrial free space. A promising solution to this problem exploits satellite and space-based links, which can conveniently connect two remote points on the Earth with greatly reduced channel loss, as most of the photons' propagation path is through empty space with negligible loss and decoherence. -phys.org

If you thought quantum  mechanics itself was crazy, how about when we start using it to make an internet?


But wait, there's more:
Artificial agent designs quantum experiments
Jan 2018, phys.org

I'm just going to copy most of this article, because the entire thing is absolutely nuts:

On the way to an intelligent laboratory, physicists from Innsbruck and Vienna present an artificial agent that autonomously designs quantum experiments. In initial experiments, the system has independently (re)discovered experimental techniques that are standard in modern quantum optical laboratories. This shows how machines could play a more creative role in research in the future.

The researchers wondered to what extent machines can carry out research autonomously. They used a projective simulation model for artificial intelligence to enable a machine to learn and act creatively. This autonomous machine stores many individual fragments of experience in memory, which are networked together.

The machine builds up and adapts its memories while learning from both successful and unsuccessful attempts. The scientists from Innsbruck teamed up with the group of Anton Zeilinger, who previously demonstrated the usefulness of automated procedures in the design of quantum experiments with a search algorithm called Melvin. Some of these computer-inspired experiments have already been performed in the lab of Zeilinger. Together, the physicists determined that quantum experiments are an ideal environment to test the applicability of AI to research. Therefore, they used the projective simulation model to investigate the potential of artificial learning agents in this test bed. They have published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Monday, May 15, 2017

Smearing the Clock

This image was made by smearing together hundreds of photos; it's by Toronto photographer Matt Molloy, and it's called time-stacking. Source.

I wrote a whole book on approximation and ambiguity. Not really; it was about smells and how the language of smells is imprecise and ambiguous.

But really, we see here how the slowly thawing truth of a quantum science is smearing our sense of reality all over the place:

'Blurred times' in a quantum world
Mar 2017, phys.org

The more precise a given clock is, the more it "blurs" the flow of time measured by neighbouring clocks.

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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Quantum Surrealism


Mutual Metaphors, MARS1, Fecal Face show 2010

Can't wait to see this one come up more often

Researchers demonstrate 'quantum surrealism'
phys.org, feb 2016

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Saturday, September 19, 2015

Network Science is the Ur-Science


(for now, that is)

Understanding of complex networks could help unify gravity and quantum mechanics
phys.org, Sep 2015

"What we can see is that space-time at the quantum-scale might be networked in a very similar way to things we are starting to understand very well like biological networks in cells, our brains and online social networks."

[personally, I always thought this was the case, but since I am not formally trained in any of these disciplines, I just could never find such suggestions...nonetheless, it is one of the great experiences in life to watch the story of Science unfold.]

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Monday, October 28, 2013

To See You Staring Back at You

creepy
The Uncanny Valley
The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of human aesthetics which holds that when human features look and move almost, but not exactly, like natural human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.

The "valley" refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans as subjects move toward a healthy, natural human likeness described in a function of a subject's aesthetic acceptability.
via

Mori Uncanny Valley Chart
Hypothesized emotional response of human subjects is plotted against anthropomorphism of a robot, following Mori's statements. The uncanny valley is the region of negative emotional response towards robots that seem "almost human". Movement amplifies the emotional response. (MacDorman, 2005)

There is nothing more intriguing than the repulsive: A car-crash, a rotting corpse, a deformed human - of the mental proclivity, particularly. The Uncanny Valley, however, is in another class of revulsion. It rides that fine line, the liminal zone of quasi- quantum- existence, the seat of all things aesthetic, where the tension between beauty and ugly is in not-exactly equilibrium-enough to stay that way, vacillating about its target. Am I irresistibly enthralled, or alarmingly frightened? None, and both; a flickering Necker cube of decision.

Perhaps the power with which the Uncanny Valley toggles our hedonic switch comes from our tendency, or is it our need, to seek ourselves in things that seem like us, in order that we might create ourselves, in our own image. We give animals emotions, we imagine dialogue between the sun and the wind; but most of all, we see ourselves in others. And that is how we make our selves.

Were it not for others, we would not be able to know ourselves. Something about sympathetic mirror neurons, collemulation, or mimetic desire. Catch-up on the mirrorbox. And the source is in the eyes, the windows to see through. But the story is worse than this. Were it not for those windows, we would not be able to create ourselves.

Look into the eyes of a robot, not just any robot, but one that falls just-so into the Valley. What do you really see?

You see yourself in those eyes, because you are human, and that is what we do. But you are afraid. One day, it may be you. All of you. And then what?

Do you want to be the robot, or are you afraid? You can't decide. It is against your program, rather, it has yet to be written. When something of such human-ness exposes itself to you, opening its reservoir of self-ness, you cannot resist. How does it look, the world through those eyes? Is it you? Could it be?

Never? We'll see.

 less creepy
source Anouk Wolse

FOLLOW UP:
In 1970 the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori published a short paper in the journal Energy where he conjured the term bukimi no tani, or "uncanny valley".

"Understanding the uncanny is neither an entirely subjective nor objective endeavor. Study it long enough, and eventually it makes a study out of you.
-Samuel Weber, professor of philosophy and literature at the European Graduate School

 -via: Into the Uncanny Valley
Joe Kloc, Seed Magazine, November 7, 2013


On the Psychology of the Uncanny 
Ernst Jentsch, Translated by Roy Sellars, 1906, pdf

[modified]
Introduction
Among all the psychical uncertainties that can become a cause for the uncanny feeling to  arise, there is one in particular that is able to develop a fairly regular, powerful and very general  effect: namely, doubt as to whether an apparently living being really is animate and, conversely,  doubt as to whether a lifeless object may not in fact be animate – and more precisely, when this  doubt only makes itself felt obscurely in one’s consciousness. The mood lasts until these doubts  are resolved and then usually makes way for another kind of feeling. [partly citing Freud's "The Uncanny", p226]
-p8

"The Aesthetic of the Real"
Incidentally, it is of considerable interest to see in this example how true art, in wise moderation, avoids the absolute and complete imitation of  nature and living beings, well knowing that such an imitation can easily produce uneasiness: the  existence of a polychrome sculpture in wood and stone does not alter this fact in the least, and nor  does the possibility of somewhat preventing such unpleasant side-effects if this kind of representation is nevertheless chosen.
-p10

"Time-Released Self-Induced Psychosis"
The child of nature populates his environment with demons; small children speak in all seriousness to a chair, to their spoon, to an old rag, and so on, hitting out full of anger at lifeless things in order to punish them. Even in highly cultivated Greece, a dryad still lived in every tree. It is therefore not astonishing if that which man himself semi-consciously projected into things from his own being now begins again to terrify him in those very things, or that he is not always capable of exorcising the spirits which were created out of his own head from that very head.
-p13

"Latent Animation"
The horror which a dead body (especially a human one), a death’s head, skeletons and similar things cause can also be explained to a great extent by the fact that thoughts of a latent animate state always lie so close to these things. Such a thought may often push its way into consciousness so that it is itself capable of giving the lie to appearance, thereby again setting the
preconditions for the psychical conflict that has been described.
-p15

Conclusion: Certainty and Uncertainty
The human desire for the intellectual mastery of one’s environment is a strong one. Intellectual certainty provides psychical shelter in the struggle for existence. However it came to  be, it signifies a defensive position against the assault of hostile forces, and the lack of such  certainty is equivalent to lack of cover in the episodes of that never-ending war of the human and  organic world for the sake of which the strongest and most impregnable bastions of science were  erected.

-p16
POST SCRIPTS:
Robots: Is the uncanny valley real?
Rose Eveleth, 2013 Sept 02
Transference
Transference is a phenomenon characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another.
via 
Ramachandran vs. The Mirrorbox
Nov 2012

Uncanny Valley Not So Uncanny for Lonely People
Sep 2014

Webcam sex with fake girl Sweetie leads to sentence
BBC News, Oct 2014
[interesting, in direct relation to above - is 'Sweetie' more believable because of the [potentially] 'lonely' people interacting with her]

Realistic robot faces aren't enough – we need emotion to put us at ease with androids
phys.org, Jun 2015


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