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A Quantum Memory Storage Prototype
eldavojohn writes "An Australian National University project has completed a proof-of-concept storage unit that relies on bringing light to a standstill inside a crystal and then releasing it later for a read-once storage device. There are a few complexities to work out, such as the -270 degrees Celsius requirement to stop the light. And there is an interesting side effect noted by the team lead: 'We could entangle the quantum state of two memories, that is, two crystals. According to quantum mechanics, reading out one memory will instantly alter what is stored in the other, no matter how large the distance between them. According to relativity, the way time passes for one memory is affected by how it moves. With a good quantum memory, an experiment to measure how these fundamental effects interact could be as simple as putting one crystal in the back of my car and going for a drive.' Hopefully this will lead to a better understanding and simple testing of quantum entanglement."
On my computer I have two specific pictures in my library that I've been trying to work with for quite some time. One is a picture of a nice bowl of steaming hot grits. The other a picture of Natalie Portman. Now, is it to be understood that with this new memory crystal technology I could effectively entangle the two? Let me know when Best Buy has them!
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Spin of entangled particles only has a probability of collapsing into a specific state, i.e. information cannot be transfered.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
It does? It's pretty hard to get your head around. Using Bell's Theorem, it's possible to say that a unified theory cannot both be local and deterministic. That means you have to throw out one or the other. It also discounts hidden variables as an explanation for non-local effects (I think). So I suppose there's a good reason it's called "spooky"!
What do you mean by "simulation"? Simulating what? A real Universe? Which real Universe? And why isn't that real Universe this one, rather than this one being a simulation of a real Universe? The idea that it's a simulation is really the same as saying, "God does it".
Because you cannot both entangle the two photons and store information in them at the same time. Entangled quantum particles are by definition in a "superposition of states", which basically means that their values are essentially random when observed.
Storing information in a quantum particle requires observing it, to wrangle it into a desired non-random state. Observation destroys entanglement, because an observed particle is no longer in a superposition of states. Entangling quantum particles requires re-superposing their states. Creation of entanglement destroys information.
So, a pair of these quantum memory cells can store only one of the three following:
1> The same information
2> Unrelated information
3> Entanglement (which is unknown randomness that is correlated between the two cells)
The "spooky-action-at-a-distance" thing is in how the observations of separated but entangled quantum systems correlate. It's weirder than it seems on the surface -- read up on what a Bell Inequality is. That's where the strangeness is; because separate observation of entangled pairs of particles correlates more than is possible by the rules of classical physics and the rules of math and logic.
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