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Making Light (More) Solid
quant-guru writes "Man's domination of light continues. New Scientist is running a story that highlights recent theoretical proposals for a photonic insulator, an engineered material that could make photons solidify. From the article: "OK, it wouldn't be a material in the everyday sense of the word, like a solid you could touch, but it could behave like one in some important ways...photons interacting in a quantum material could give us insights into how real materials with quantum properties work." One proposal by Greetree et al. (Nature Physics) (preprint) imagines a device that will allow many photons to interact with each other simultaneously in diamond, with phases reminiscent of real materials (from superfluid to insulating). This could lead to novel devices based on quantum phenomena, for quantum communication or quantum computers as examples. Similar proposals were made concurrently by two other groups: Angelakis et al. and Hartmann et al. (Nature Physics) (preprint). University of Cambridge physicist Charlie Tahan has more information and links (with step-by-step pictures) on his site."
As if the sun didn't beat down hard enough on us already....
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
There are a lot of geeks who would want their own lightsaber
John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
Cool, but how will they shoehorn this into the lightsaber along with a suitable power supply? Could be kinda useful for holograms. If they could make so you could touch it, Holosex here we come.....
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
Ray guns? Light bombs? Light batteries?This discovery could be very enlightening.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
This stuff gets so mindboggligly far from normal materials, a non-expert like me has absolutely no chance of understanding what this could be used for. One of the links mentioned exploring quantum phenomena that would otherwise be impossible to experiment with - would that be the main use for this, um, stuff?
Am I the only one who thought of the Photon Torpedo?
They're treading dangerously into Piers Anthony territory here, and should back off a bit to the David Brin zone.
Man's domination of light continues.
perhaps it's, "Man plays right into light's devious snare"
Can it be like used for storing information. If it can then its gonna be really useful as it will probably achieve data densities never achieved before.
Did you know that by Heisenburg's uncertianty principle you are already in my pants?
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD