Slashdot Mirror


Quantum Computing and Optically Controlled Electrons

eldavojohn writes "Researchers have released a new paper on quantum computing theorizing how to use optically controlled electrons to make an ultrafast quantum computer. From the article, "Scientists have designed a scheme to create one of the fastest quantum computers to date using light pulses to rotate electron spins, which serve as quantum bits. This technique improves the overall clock rate of the quantum computer, which could lead to the fastest potentially scalable quantum computing scheme of which the scientists are aware.""

20 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Ultrfast? by dotslashdot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ultrfast--so fast, there is no time for the "a". Either that, or the "a" is like Shroedinger's ct. What's the likelihood of tht?

    1. Re:Ultrfast? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ultrfast--so fast, there is no time for the "a". Either that, or the "a" is like Shroedinger's ct. What's the likelihood of tht? Well, way to change the word by measuring it. Could have been UltrEfast, UltrIfast, UltrOfast, etc. all at once! But nooooooooooooo, you had to go and find out it's actually "Ultrafast" way to ruin it for everyone. Well, at least you've provided us with other words that we might enjoy the duality of.

      Mmmmmm, that is some mutherfuckin fine duality.
    2. Re:Ultrfast? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ultrfast: fast enough to cause spontaneous vowel movements.

  2. Still too slow... by Var1abl3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sorry as I am not "up to speed" on my quantum computing but from TFA "In the article, we give the limit of about 100 GHz, which is assuming a very high magnetic field, which would require superconducting magnets to achieve. "

      and then...

    "Proper error correction may reduce the speed of the quantum computer to 1-10 MHz."
    I already have 3+ GHz machines so why would I want to have the cost of a superconduction magnet and the cooling that goes with it to get a machine that is slower than an Intel P?

    I am number two... sooo close... damn!!!!

    1. Re:Still too slow... by stevelinton · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because a quantum computer does fundamentally more at each clock.
      Factoring an 1000-bigt integer takes CPU centuries on modern procesors but would be just afew million operations for a quantum computer.

    2. Re:Still too slow... by Spikeles · · Score: 3, Informative

      You wouldn't want a quantum based computer unless you had some type of problem that could be broken down into appropriate search spaces that are compatible with quantum based computing. You won't be seeing massive speedups in Quake 4 with this, you won't see Windows Xp/Vista start up any faster, that's not how they work.

      --
      I don't need to test my programs.. I have an error correcting modem.
  3. Re:just imagine... by mr_mischief · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe the universe is just a Beowulf cluster of these.

    I mean, hell, we use light to transmit information. We use magnets to store and transmit information. We _are_ information stored in DNA. We're could be part of a big genetic algorithm that's been running for millions of years. Maybe Agent Smith was right. Maybe we _are_ a virus, but not in the sense written into the script for the movie The Matrix. Maybe us figuring out how to store and transmit information ever more efficiently by using ever-more basic building blocks of the universe is just like a virus figuring out the system it's inside and using that information for its own purposes.

    Then again, fuck it. I just wanna know if it'll run Supreme Commander at a decent speed.

  4. Did a similar thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    this summer...
    But different. I was working with electron spin resonance in solids. The set up used a superconducting magnet and a microwave source. We could actually measure absorption changes when the microwave energy matched the Zeeman split.
    There was even some talk about using the set up as a component for quantum computers.

    However, the people at the lab have started the discover that the primary relaxation method is fast phonon interactions. This must in fact be the case, otherwise the entire upper band would be overpopulated quicker than detectable. Anyway, as things stood, the materials we worked with proved to be ineffective as quantum switches. The spin property was far too transient.

  5. One of the fastest? by Jartan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did I miss something? To be one of the fastest that would imply a quantum computer already exists? If that's true why isn't everyone going nuts that the man will be able to read our encrypted email soon?

    1. Re:One of the fastest? by JustinRLynn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, in short they are going nuts because they simply can't do that. While quantum cryptographic analysis can break existing encryption methods that rely on factoring, new methods are being developed that are safe and secure. No system, however sophisticated, can crack the one time pad provided complete shannon security is maintained.

  6. Re:Wow by someone1234 · · Score: 2, Funny

    By the time this comes to life, real time 3d holo movie streams will be common.
    So yeah, we'll need the speed.

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  7. ... and the case of Missing Flux Capacitor by unity100 · · Score: 2, Funny

    - should have read this article's title. It looks more from a movie thats a crossover between Lex Luthor finally does the superman and Back to the College Dorm 2.7

  8. You are misunderstanding it by aepervius · · Score: 4, Informative

    Quantum Cryptography in that case is using the normal cryptographic method , just use a secure line to exchange the private key. But once the data are stored and the public key is known, it does not matter whether the private key has been transmitted on secure line or NOT. It is only a matter of cracking the crypto-algorithm itself which is then as weak against quantum computer factorisation. The only way to avoid that would be to get ride of public/private key system altogether, and use an OTP as key transmitted on a secure QC line.

    But in the very end, QC is only a way of transmission without eavesdropping. It is NOT an encryption algorithm.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  9. Just keep the cats out of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or at least don't look until they are safely back out..

    1. Re:Just keep the cats out of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      OK.
      It's complicated, but I think I get it:

          Any story that contains the word "quantum", you post anything containing the word "cat", and the Mods rate it +3 funny.

      Right.

  10. But will it run by AkumaReloaded · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But will it run the new 3d engine of Carmack?

    Seriously, if we ever get as far as a well working quantum computer it would have a huge impact. Imagine IBM super computers that are a hundred times faster then the ones they build now. I wonder what kind of impact it would have on research that needs to calculate lots of huge formulas.

  11. Don't get too excited... by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't get too excited-- most quantum computing ideas are rather far-fetched-- there are really hard roadblocks that are theoretically and practically very hard to solve. The basic one is you have to keep all the electrons from interacting in ANY WAY with the rest of the universes for a considerable length of time (on the quantum scale). The slightest interaction with anything else and the quantum magic goes *poof*.

  12. Quantum Computer by javalizard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The fully quantum computer probably won't ever exist. An operating system shouldn't be in a fuzzy state... ever. Imagine it, maybe i might be running Photoshop. Anywy, my point is that quntum computers will be auxiliary chips or, when the time comes, it will be in the form of a Quantum Processing Unit (QPU). It would be like the Floating Point Unit (FPU) or the Integer Unit (IU) in a processor. The various units DO run at different speeds. Some operations take 1 cycle and others upwrds of 5 or even 10 cycles. The QPU would just take 1000 cycles for one operation.

    The cycles in a QPU are deceptive because the amount of work it can do is enormous. Where it might take the IU one second to sort a list, it may take the QPU only milliseconds even at such reduced speeds.

    Lastly, the hard part isn't going to be creating the QPU... there are many vectors for its creation and we know we can do it, theoreticlly. The hard part is the programming language of such a unit. Because it's based in physics in the way that it is, it would take a VERY complex and mathematical language to create the instructions for such a unit. The next step to over come is that most programmers think linerly not quantumly. It's a complete mindset change and so finding programmers for such a unit would be extremely hard. Your average joe programmer wouldn't be able to program such a unit.

    There is a dump truck with a pdf white paper floting around on the series of tubes that tells the various qualities that such a quantum languge must possess but it doesn't define any language.

    Or maybe, quantumly, I'm wrong.

  13. We might make this work now by Steeltoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    this summer...
    But different. I was working with electron spin resonance in solids. The set up used a superconducting magnet and a microwave source. We could actually measure absorption changes when the microwave energy matched the Zeeman split.
    There was even some talk about using the set up as a component for quantum computers.

    However, the people at the lab have started the discover that the primary relaxation method is fast phonon interactions. This must in fact be the case, otherwise the entire upper band would be overpopulated quicker than detectable. Anyway, as things stood, the materials we worked with proved to be ineffective as quantum switches. The spin property was far too transient.


    In our tests, we have been working with another component. Preliminary tests found the electronic reflection change to be adequately measured within the interaction timeframe. Although none of our instruments were powerful enough to keep up with the fastest cycles, the information bits could be stored in cubic fashion, and then looked-up in strange cubit pairs after the fact. We theorize that a switch can be made, if only the energy is high enough to be reliably detected and stored.

    So if we can somehow correlate the high energy of the absorption and readability of the reflection, we can combine the power of the two methods to enhance eachother and cancel out the negative aspects, I think we can have something that will finally work! When properly set up, it should only be a matter of phase-adjusting the two polarities of the photon switches to be in exact oposition to eachother, while making sure no interference can be made across the photon shields. You may have to distort the angle by a tiny fraction due to stellar polarity in our locality, but that should be easy as pie once you have the two photon switches ready.

  14. Spin State Energy Differences? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is one of the two electron spin states in a higher energy state than the other? In other words, does an electron require more (or less) energy to switch from "UP" to "DOWN" than the reverse flip? Or are both spin energy states the same?

    If there is an energy difference, how big is it (minimum theoretical)? And how much is the minimum (theoretical) energy required to flip the state? I'm not talking about today's first generation flippers, which probably consume much more energy than is theoretically required. And I'm not talking about the typical processes for collecting electrons in one state, which merely sorts the existing electrons by their existing state, and doesn't actually flip them.

    --

    --
    make install -not war