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New Micro-Ring Resonator Creates Quantum Entanglement On a Silicon Chip

Zothecula writes: The quantum entanglement of particles, such as photons, is a prerequisite for the new and future technologies of quantum computing, telecommunications, and cyber security. Real-world applications that take advantage of this technology, however, will not be fully realized until devices that produce such quantum states leave the realms of the laboratory and are made both small and energy efficient enough to be embedded in electronic equipment. In this vein, European scientists (abstract) have created and installed a tiny "ring-resonator" on a microchip that is claimed to produce copious numbers of entangled photons while using very little power to do so.

58 comments

  1. Hmmm .... by gstoddart · · Score: 1, Insightful

    With which I will do ... what, exactly?

    "Our device is capable of emitting light with striking quantum mechanical properties never observed in an integrated source," said Bajoni. "The rate at which the entangled photons are generated is unprecedented for a silicon integrated source, and comparable with that available from bulk crystals that must be pumped by very strong lasers."

    As usual, every story to do with quantum anything is pretty much gibberish to the layperson.

    Sounds like a quantum mood ring, but I have no idea.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Hmmm .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of all the stories and thing said about quantum computers, especially with the amount of poorly written stuff out there, that is the sentence you highlight when talking about gibberish?

    2. Re:Hmmm .... by gstoddart · · Score: 1, Funny

      f all the stories and thing said about quantum computers, especially with the amount of poorly written stuff out there, that is the sentence you highlight when talking about gibberish?

      LOL ... honestly, it's as good as any as far as I'm concerned.

      It sounds like something out of a mission statement generator ... we've created light with minty and peaty overtones, which exemplify the highest moral standard.

      I simply have no idea of WTF it's telling me.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Hmmm .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Seriously? That sentence is just of the form, "The rate we made foo is much faster than before when using a silicon circuit, when previously you could only make them that fast using [some large setup]". There is no special quantum mechanics knowledge needed to understand that sentence, and it is on part with a bunch of other advances over the last several decades of moving things to integrated circuits: "The accuracy of the gyroscope is much better than previous silicon versions, and we can now do on a chip what could previously only be done with a large laser ring gyroscope," "We can no make accelerometers on integrated silicon chips that have reliability and sensitivity only previously possible with larger mechanical or optical systems," etc.

    4. Re:Hmmm .... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Entangled photons are used to create quantum macrame.

    5. Re:Hmmm .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quantum key distribution, cryptography, optical telecommunication. This is actually quite a big deal, wait till it becomes mass produces.

  2. so quantum entanglement is like a beard? by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    Sometimes I have to use my beard like a food filter. I guess you could consider it a quantum entanglement device in large scale.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  3. "Ring Resonator" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh really?

    1. Re:"Ring Resonator" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      BAH.
      This is nothing new.
      Tesla built a cock ring resonator in 1919 that almost shook his apartment building to pieces before he smashed it.
      This quantum entanglement angle is blatant buzzword bingoism.

  4. removing the speed of light barrier by WamBamBoozle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Entanglement communicates state by some mechanism that has no measurable latency. Making a computing device based on entanglement would be amazing.

    1. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Przemo-c · · Score: 1

      but the information must be corelated with the first mesured to transfer information. So the whole communication proces has a latency just like any other. It might be able to make communication tamper proof but definetly won tspeed it up.

    2. Re: removing the speed of light barrier by MichaelMacDonald · · Score: 1

      Yep, now imagine that combined with entangled nanobots connecting themselves to neurons. The possibilities really become endless, and space travel becomes simple, and death loses it's sting. If it works :/.

    3. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by IAMBatman · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q... that doesn't work.

    4. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anon-Admin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Entanglement communicates state by some mechanism that has no measurable latency.

      The two wave forms are entangled below the plank layer, thus being outside of standard space time you see no measurable latency.

      Maybe we need to coin a phrase for this area blow the plank layer and outside space time. I say we call it subspace, seems to fit. :P

    5. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you actually undertstand the page that you linked to, perhaps you would be so kind as to translate it into english so a humble bugger like me can understand it? At least the bit which explains why instantaneous "transmission" of quantum state does not equate to instantaneous transmission of information?

    6. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Princeofcups · · Score: 1

      Entanglement communicates state by some mechanism that has no measurable latency. Making a computing device based on entanglement would be amazing.

      Sorry, information cannot travel faster than the speed of light based on physics as we know it.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    7. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by DogDude · · Score: 1

      Sorry, information cannot travel faster than the speed of light based on physics as we know it.

      Maybe as YOU know it, but you don't understand quantum physics.

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      I don't respond to AC's.
    8. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by DogDude · · Score: 2

      No, there's no correlation. It's the same object.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    9. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like a hard link?

      Sorry, there is no car analogy for this...

    10. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Essentially, you cannot control the outcome of how the entanglement works. You just know it's the same on both sides.

      Basically, a random event happens simultaneously on both sides, but it's still random. the example of Alice and Bob both pressing simulteneiously buttons, and always pressing the same one is illustrating this principal as I read it.

      Note, how I read it as a layman, so not really answering from the authority you want.

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    11. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think information travels faster than light in quantum mechanics, either you don't understand the definition of information within the physics context, don't understand quantum mechanics, or both. This isn't some subtle shortcoming, but means you're falling short of even the Wikipedia intro level to quantum mechanics, let alone the level of actually going through a textbook on the subject (although it becomes nearly trivial to demonstrate once you get to a course that intros bra-ket notation).

    12. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't know why this got modded insightful. Maybe funny would be appropriate, but otherwise it is just word salad. I don't normally like calling one out on spelling, but spelling it plank instead of Planck tends to be a subtle hint too...

      But entanglement has nothing to do with Planck scale in quantum mechanics, and "below the Planck layer" is meaningless. Unless you literally mean "below the plank layer" and are talking about an experiment setup below the floorboards.

    13. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anon-Admin · · Score: 1

      I wrote it to be funny and I am aware that it is Planck.

      I am just as surprised as you that it is rated "insightful." I expected it to be rated Funny.

    14. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Entanglement communicates state by some mechanism that has no measurable latency. Making a computing device based on entanglement would be amazing.

      Sorry, that doesn't happen because information doesn't transfer faster than the speed of light.

      What happens Is you have two entangled particles. If you measure the state of one, the other one flips to the opposite state instantaneously.

      However, you cannot control what you measure. Perhaps you were measuring if the particle was up spin or down spin. Well, you measure it, and find it up spin. The only information you have is you know the other one is down spin.

      The other side measuring will find yes, it's down spin (if they measure it after you) but they only know that means your particle is up-spin.

      You have no idea what it means - it's not like you can say "if you measure up-spin on your particle, I won" then send the particles on their way, because the result of the measurement is non-deterministic. If you won, your measurement will produce a 50-50 chance it will measure as down-spin for you. For all you know, you run the measurement and it comes up as up-spin.

      No real information has been transferred because you cannot control the result of the measurement.

    15. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      when you mesure the firs object thesecond onedetermines its spin instanenously. But you dont know what spin either of thos particlewill have. you just know they will be oposite . how can you communicate anything when you dont know what mesurement you will get. Only afterwards you can verify via (regular communication) that the particlesin dfact hadtheopposite spins but you cant use that information.

    16. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by nichogenius · · Score: 3, Informative

      You still can't beat the speed of light barrier. Entanglement is disrupted as soon as soon as you observe it. This means that just by reading your 1 bit inter-galactic text message, the link between the two breaks. All you know for sure is that the bit you got is the opposite of the bit the other end got. As you can't manipulate the outcome of either entangled particle without disrupting the entanglement, you can't pass any non-random information.

      This is a rough example of how it would work. Before you leave on your inter-galactic flight, you take a quarter with you. This is no ordinary quarter... it's actually an exact match and entangled (coupled) with a quarter that you are leaving at home with a friend. When you finally decide to communicate with your magic quarter, all you have to do is flip it. If you get heads, then you know for sure that your friend back at home got tails and visa-versa. The problem is, once you flip the quarter, the entanglement is lost and now it's back to a regular quarter. Another problem is that you have no way of knowing when or if your buddy back at home flipped his quarter, you just know that when he did/does, he will get the opposite result as you.

      The best you could do with this is to coordinate random number generation across light years. Just remember, for every bit of data you want to 'coordinate' with someone remotely, that's one entangled particle that you have to observe, breaking the entanglement and thereby spending it.

      The concept of entanglement is cool, but it's not THAT cool. Sorry. Also, Einstein never really accepted that any form of communication happens between entangled particles. He just figured that during the process of entanglement, the two had to be completely isolated from the surrounding universe and kept that way until it was time to observe them. He figured it was more like writing a yes and a no on two different pieces of paper, randomizing them, separating them, then reading them. He didn't believe the pieces of paper would actually coordinate with each other to display the opposite of it's counterpart, just that they were in a mutually exclusive state to begin with and kept isolated enough that their mutually exclusive state would persist.

    17. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, I've read up elsewhere, and I think I understand the issue now, but I'm still not sure that the quantum non-locality article was directly addressing it.
      As I now understand it, if you have two entangled electrons for example, the spin of those electrons is in an indefinite state until you measure it, then it collapses into a definite state. Because of the entanglement, when one of the electrons' spin state is measured, the spin state the other entangled electron will take when it's state is measured is instantaneously determined. But that's the key problem; if I collapse my electron to a definite state, the state your electron will take when you measure it is set, but you don't know when to measure your electron's state, and you don't know if the state it takes when you do measure it is due to the entanglement or not, so therefore no actual information has been passed.

    18. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by blue+trane · · Score: 1

      Once you measure your particle, you know what the other side will see. That is information. You can predict their reaction, and prepare your own actions accordingly. You know more, instantaneously, about something happening far away (potentially). Information entropy has been reduced, faster than the speed of light would otherwise allow.

    19. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're usage of "information" doesn't match information used in physics, and is much less useful. What you call information traveling instantly, is no different than if you wrote instructions to a friend/coworker to be carrier out upon arrival at a distant place, and then claiming the information of what they did got to you before they did it. Entanglement is more complicated, because you don't instantly know the state of the other particle, you only know of a particular correlation, and it depends on what measurement the other person makes. There are setups where they have a choice in what measurement they make, and while some you can predict the result based on your measurement, others you can't (however you could have if you made a different choice with your measurement).

    20. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Bonobo_Unknown · · Score: 1

      It's like a coin after being tossed; when you see what's face up you know what's face down, there is no communication between the two sides. It's just that in the QM case the two sides might be light years apart.

      --
      We don't believe in radical loony monotheistic religions from the middle east -- we're Christians.
    21. Re: removing the speed of light barrier by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      Yep, now imagine that combined with entangled nanobots connecting themselves to neurons. The possibilities really become endless, and space travel becomes simple, and death loses it's sting. If it works :/.

      wut? "Entangled nanobots connecting themselves to neurons"

      What the fuck is an "entangled nanobot". Where talking about photons here, not goddamn miniature optimus primes.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    22. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like a hard link?

      Sorry, there is no car analogy for this...

      There is a Cheech and Chong analogy, fortunately.. "The Corsican Brothers", and of course the Alexander Dumas novel it is based upon.

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087042/

    23. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by topology · · Score: 1

      That is the best analogy I've come across for the situation. Well Done!

    24. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by nichogenius · · Score: 1

      At the risk of igniting the classic spooky-action-at-a-distance debate, communication in some sense may be taking place between the two particles, even separated by light years. Einstein's view is that both particles' states were pre-determined, you just had no way of knowing which one was which until you looked at one of them.

      The modern quantum mechanics theory is that neither state is determined (think Schrodinger's cat). If you observe one particle, you force it to settle to a state and also force its twin several light years away to assume the opposite state.

      So to say that there is no communication between the two isn't certain. My personal theory is that once you observe one particle, the universe splits into two separate realities. One reality where your coin is heads and your friend's is tails, and one reality where your coin is tails and your friend's is heads. Notice, there are only two possible outcomes here, not four as any statistician would argue... this is simply because a universe with two entangled particles having the same state is impossible and is thus excluded.

    25. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coin analogies are really common for entanglement, and quickly convey the idea of a simple correlated measurement, but also teach most people that entanglement is done by hidden variables. There are more interesting situations where people with each half of an entangled pair can measure for different things.

    26. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by Bonobo_Unknown · · Score: 1

      My personal theory is that once you observe one particle, the universe splits into two separate realities.

      I love this idea, thanks for replying, I'll be thinking about that all day :)

      --
      We don't believe in radical loony monotheistic religions from the middle east -- we're Christians.
    27. Re:removing the speed of light barrier by blue+trane · · Score: 1

      If you write a program, you have certain expectations about the hardware that executes it. Isn't that information? You write a program, you can predict what it will do when run. If that doesn't fit the physics definition of information, then the physics definition is not very expressive.

      Alice has a particle entangled with Bob's. Alice measures hers. She now knows, immediately, what Bob will see when he measures his. She can prepare accordingly.

      If Alice knows Bob will launch a missile, say, when he measures a 1, Alice can prepare for the missile launch as soon as she measures her particle. There may be some uncertainty, but it is less than if there weren't any shared entangled particles. Information has been gained, faster than the speed of light.

      If physics defines that gain away, it fails to describe nature very well.

  5. My takeaway from this... by DaRanged · · Score: 0

    Someone figured out how to quantum fart on a microchip?

  6. House of cards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...quantum computing, telecommunications, and cyber security."

    Bullshit. Bullshit. DING!!! Cyber security. Now, what happens when we have this whole quantum cyber security system in place, and somebody figures out how to hack it? The entire infrastructure becomes useless. You can claim it is "unhackable", because it is quantum, but that is just the laws of physics as we know them now. The flaw in the idea of security is the same flaw that exists in inflation. It can't go on forever. One day the whole house of cards is going to come tumbling down. And, when it does, it is going to take everyone with it.

  7. Not an Ansible by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

    I thought that quantum entanglement couldn't transfer coherent communication since it is basically randomized and useful information transfer between particles was impossible.

    1. Re:Not an Ansible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, but it turns out transferring a random sequence is actually useful. Short version: use the random sequence as a one-time pad to encrypt the signal you are sending over a conventional channel.

    2. Re:Not an Ansible by DogDude · · Score: 1

      No, once you have two entangled photons, they're in perfect sync because they're the same particle. Not at all random.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    3. Re:Not an Ansible by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

      By random I actually meant unintelligible or unknowable since the result would have no possible way to interpret it.

    4. Re:Not an Ansible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are in the same shared state, but are not the same particle. You can entangle different particles, e.g. the state of an electron and a photon. It is still clear they are separate particles and will behave differently, but still have some correlated aspect due to the entanglement. Additionally, correlated behavior does not mean in perfect sync, as a lot of entangled states involve two particles having opposite properties. And actions that change the state in a way that can't preserve the shared state will break the entanglement.

    5. Re:Not an Ansible by DogDude · · Score: 1

      Oh, then I need to do some more reading. I thought they were the same particle, just in different place at the same time.

      --
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    6. Re:Not an Ansible by topology · · Score: 1

      Thanks for pointing that out.

  8. What are scientists thinking of? by colordotmatrix · · Score: 1

    copious, entangled......
    What exactly is on these scientists minds when they come up with their descriptions?

    Do their mothers know?
    :-)

  9. Are you Shor? by ememisya · · Score: 1

    Well, there goes RSA.

  10. Re There goes RSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and pretty much any pure algorithm's domain when its range can be determined. (Physical security = best security)

    1. Re:Re There goes RSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does that mean? What's a "pure" algorithm supposed to be?

      In any case we have many crypto algorithms which, as far as we (the public) know, will be just as secure against quantum computer based attacks as they are against conventional computer attacks. E.g. all the stuff based on hard lattice problems. RSA and Cramer-Shoup might be out but it's not like we don't have lots of other stuff in the pipeline which is steadly approaching practical efficiency.

      Also AFAIK quantum computers aren't going to help too much in attacking block ciphers, stream ciphers or cryptographic hash functions. so... i basically don't know you meant by "pure" algorithms but i have a feeling that however u define it will most likely not make that statement true.

      But hey, maybe i'm wrong. surprise me!

  11. 2 entangled photons on same chip == useless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the entangled photons were far apart, THEN we have secure communications.
    IOW: What you do to one happens to the other (similar to this idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corsican_Brothers )

    Oh, there both on the same chip?
    Neat but useless unless you can separate the 2.

  12. Quick summary by DogDude · · Score: 1

    Quantum physics has proven (over a century) that photons can be entangled, meaning that two completely different photons, in different places, can instantly influence each other. Instant is a whole lot faster than electrons can move.

    Also, re encryption. When photons are entangled, it can also be looked at as the same photon at two different places at one time, so there is no transfer of information at all because the data is being transmitted to and from the same photon.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:Quick summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      (over a century)

      It was only 80 years ago that the EPR paradox was put forward, and not much more was done until Bell's theory work in the 60s and experiments in the 70s where it was experimentally demonstrated.

      Instant is a whole lot faster than electrons can move.

      You can entangle electrons too... but the limitations of what is actually done instantly is already pointed out by other comments, and probably will many time more with further comments (as happens with every single story involving entanglement on /., since a large number of comments still get it wrong, so the same corrections get posted again and again).

  13. Thats so spooky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Can't wait for my "spooky modem" with secure point to point 0 latency communication to anywhere in the 'verse.

  14. Exciting by zipz0p · · Score: 1

    This is actually pretty cool, mostly because it's an efficient source of photon pairs. The time-energy entanglement means that photons with particular energies always come out at particular relative times (that is, pairs of photons are produced by splitting one higher energy photon into two lower energy photons, which are emitted at the same time). Photon pairs like this can be used to do quantum key distribution, a secure method of distributing encryption keys, or, with a memory and some clever entanglement swapping protocols, the entanglement resource could be transported over long distances to do true quantum communication, where measurement in one place guarantees a result at the other place, and anyone listening in will destroy the communication channel.

  15. Not enough information by ITRambo · · Score: 2

    The linked article states "As photons exited the resonator, the researchers were able to observe that a remarkably high percentage of them exhibited the telltale characteristics of entanglement. ". What number constitutes "remarkably high"? There is no value in the article as there is nothing to be learned other then the researchers are likely looking for more grant money to continue their quest to a "really remarkably high" percentage of something that has "characteristics of entanglement". What are the specifics that lead them to believe that? Is it cold fusion level science?. I see this as useless.

    1. Re:Not enough information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no value in the article as there is nothing to be learned other then the researchers are likely looking for more grant money to continue their quest to a "really remarkably high" percentage of something that has "characteristics of entanglement".

      Table 1 of the article has rates and visibilities at different power levels, and is about 90% across the board. Or did you only look at the PR piece? And you know that those PR pieces don't get submitted for grant proposals right? Lists of published journal articles get submitted with grant proposals, along with a detail proposal on a level targeted to peers in the field, because they get reviewed by scientists. Fishing for funding through half-assed PR pieces does squat, unless you expect some crazy millionaire to throw money at things that catch his interest.

  16. Good for Quantum Cryptography not Computing by quax · · Score: 1

    A better source for entangled photon pairs will come in handy for Quantum Cryptography, but Quantum Computing requires many entangled qubits.

    There is no indication how these resonators could produce more than pair-wise entanglement, after all this is very different from the Josephson junction loops that D-Wave and the future Google chip are build on. These allow an arbitrary coupling via the magnetic flux (only restricted by the chip's geometry).

    Regrettably, this just yet another poorly written pop-science article not informed by any actual knowledge of quantum information science. If I had a cent for each of them I'd be rich by now.