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Latest Research on Quantum Computing

Posted by Hemos on from the and-the-up-quark-returns-a-0 dept.

zeristor writes "The The Economist is running a story about the latest progress in Quantum computing. It seems that what has been glossed over in Physics as a minor detail, the decoherence of the superposition of states, is actually quite fundamental to Quantum computing. The decoherence can be measured by something called the Loschmidt echo (is this esoteric or am I just thick? This sounds like a bad episode of Star Trek.) Also goes on to explain how entanglement can be prolonged. All in all very interesting developments."

4 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Gnarly, d00d! by jo42 · · Score: 4, Funny


    Why don't you send me a quantum echo from the future when this is all running nicely...

    1. Re:Gnarly, d00d! by Muhammar · · Score: 2, Funny

      The Loschmidt echo is what you hear in the state of decoherence. Typicaly it is similar to human voice (quite like yours, but very remote and slow)saying "and make it double, will you"

      --
      I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
  2. Re:What, no Duke Nukem Forever joke? by tillerman35 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The article itself provides all required humor:

    ...bang-bang pulses, at regular intervals can serve not only to suppress decoherence, but also to maintain entanglement...

    ...spontaneous emission, another bizarre quantum effect...

    Of course, most physicists know they need only refer to their email in-boxes to find several offers for products which claim to help maintain entanglement, suppress decoherence, avoid spontaneous emission, and increase their ability to perform bang-bang pulses at regular intervals. Available for immediate shipping from a Canadian pharmacy near you.

  3. Re:This is both a FP and not a FP by 09za+ · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought this was old news... American computer company(Alientel) supposedly created a storage device based on (I think) the same principle. Something like 12terrasomething. I found this after typing a google search for "Microsoft back engineering alien technology". I did as a joke but what I found was boyh credible and frightening. The guy who founded the company says he learned the concept from a drawing that NONE of the scientists at Bell knew anything about(he worked there at the time..1940's/50's). He says the first microchips were back engineered from debris that was snatched up by the Air Force at Roswell. He went on to create his own computer company which is now called Alientel. The funniest part is He says that those microchips were originally a weapon... that sends out DTE's (Disease Tranfer Emissions..or something like that) It was kinda funny and scary because I think the "Transfer Capacitor" as he called it, was just waiting for methods of manipulating electron orbits to further develop. If I got tricked by this guys story, I'd still have to tip my hat to him..it was an incredible read.