Category Archives: Quantum Physics

Ideas53:59Perimeter Institute Conversations About Science and Identity

You may wonder what the bizarre subatomic world of quantum physics or the fates of distant stars have to do with our everyday lives.

But even the strangest aspects of the universe make us who and what we are. And who we are, and where we come, from shape what we know and how we know it.

Quantum physicistShohini Ghose at Wilfrid Laurier University, andMi'kmaqastrophysicist Hilding Neilson at Memorial University were interviewed for the Conversations at the Perimeter podcast, produced by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. They discussed the connections between identity and science.

Perimeter Institute's Lauren Hayward and Colin Hunter interviewed both scientists.

You wrote a really nice article for Morals and Machines, andthe theme was how quantum can help us go beyond the binary. So what are some of the the ways that we can learn about non-binary thinking inspired by quantum mechanics?

Well, everything in quantum mechanics is about letting go of specifics and precision. The idea that science and the way we think about science can impact society is not new. As our science evolves, our social thinking also evolves.

For example, the Industrial Revolution and thinking around possessions and mass marketing and scales of how we think about things, as well as knowing exactly one thing or another that has all absolutely shaped the way we behave socially. So to me, it feels like whether we like it or not, this whole new revolution with new quantum technologies that actually harnesses these stranger properties of quantum...all of that is based on quantum ideas. But now we're getting to the parts that we were kind of ignoring, like the uncertainty and entanglement.

Perhaps in society too, we will naturally start expanding our choices from right and wrong to a more broader spectrum and not just right or wrong, or any time we try to have polar opposite kind of thinking I think perhaps that we will start evolving and we will get to newer ways and new approaches which can influence so many aspects of our behaviour, whether we're choosing what we want to eat at a restaurant versus our politics and our policies, and so many, many aspects of our identities.

Ghose'sforthcoming book,Her Time, Her Space: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded theUniverse,will be published this fall.

Can you talk about whatastro-colonialismis?

When we talk about astronomy and science and space, wetalk about them in terms of a certain perspective, and that perspective tends to be Eurocentric.

So for instance,the constellations in the northern hemisphere, we have the Big Dipper or Ursa major. We have Cassiopeia, Cepheus, we have Draco, and they all come from this one historical context, largely Greek and Roman astronomy.

And the Greeks and Romans told great stories about these things. And as you travel through time, those constellations sort of get maintained through star maps and European courts. It became part of the navigation in the oceans when we had first colonization of the Americas and then the slave trade. And they kept existing until the 20th century when the International Astronomical Union formed, which was great. It was supporting astronomy worldwide, but at the time it was essentially a bunch of white dudes from Europe, and they formed a committee to simplify the night sky and have 88 constellations.

There are people around the world, whether it's in Asian countries, in Asian regions, in the North, Northern Europe, Indigenous peoples in the Americas, Indigenous peoples who have their own stories [their] own constellations. We don't see them anymore. I open a textbook. I see Ursa major I don't see my constellations from Mi'kmaq or Haudenosaunee constellations or Salish or Inuit constellations. That's erasing our stories, and that's colonialism.

Then we have the future of colonialism, which is going to space. The way we do space exploration and space settlement is the exact same narrative that we did when Canada, the U.S., was being settled the pioneer, the frontiersmanship, man versus nature element.

Tell us just a little bit about your own personal relationship with the night sky.

I'm Mi'kmaq from Newfoundland. And we didn't grow up in an Indigenous community because lost settlements were more spread out across the island. So I grew up basically in suburbia watching Mr. Dressup and MuchMusic. So I didn't really have a strong connection with my heritage and where I come from.

One of the best parts of the Western coastline other than Gros Morne and the skiing is the clear night skies, seeing the Milky Way and all the stars, meteor showers and you feel you see this blanket of stars, it feels like home.

Listen to both of these interviewswherever you get your favourite podcasts or click onthe play button above

*This episode was produced by Chris Wodskou.

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Scientists explore why identity and history matter in science - CBC.ca

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Moderna and IBM are teaming up to use generative artificial intelligence and quantum computing to advance mRNA technology, the development at the core of the company's blockbuster Covid vaccine, the companies announced Thursday.

"We are excited to partner with IBM to develop novel AI models to advance mRNA science, prepare ourselves for the era of quantum computing, and ready our business for these game-changing technologies," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna shares dipped slightly Thursday, while IBM's stock was about flat.

The companies said they signed an agreement for Moderna to access IBM's quantum computing systems. Those systems could help accelerate Moderna's discovery and creation of new messenger RNA vaccines and therapies, according to Dr. Dario Gil, director of IBM research.

IBM will also provide experts who can help Moderna scientists explore the use of quantum technologies, the companies added. Unlike traditional computers, which store information as either zeroes or ones, quantum computing hinges on quantum physics. That allows those systems to solve problems too complex for today's computers.

Under the deal, Moderna's scientists will also have access to IBM's generative AI model known as MoLFormer. Generative AI describes algorithms that can be used to create new content based on the data they have been trained on.

The companies said Moderna will use IBM's model to understand "the characteristics of potential mRNA medicines" and design a new class of vaccines and therapies.

The agreement comes as Moderna navigates its post-pandemic boom driven by its mRNA Covid vaccine.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company became a household name for its messenger RNA technology, which teaches human cells to produce a protein that initiates an immune response against a certain disease.

Moderna is trying to harness that technology to target other diseases as the world emerges from the pandemic and demand for blockbuster Covid vaccines and treatments slows.

The company is already working to develop a vaccine targeting respiratory syncytial virus and a shot that can target different types of cancer when combined with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda.

The new agreement also comes as IBM ramps up its investment in AI with new partnerships. Earlier this year, the Armonk, New York-based company announced a deal with NASA to help build AI foundation models to advance climate science.

Those efforts fall in line with a recent boom in AI, largely driven by the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The AI-powered chatbot answers questions in clear, concise prose, and immediately caused a sensation after its launch.

ChatGPT kicked off an AI arms race and prompted questions about the full extent of artificial intelligence's capabilities and risks.

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Moderna teams up with IBM to put A.I., quantum computing to work on mRNA technology used in vaccines - CNBC

By India Today Science Desk: The Centre on Wednesday approved the National Quantum Mission with an estimate of Rs 6,003 crore for eight years.

Announcing the decision, Science & Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said, "the decision is going to give India a quantum jump in the field."

India is going to be at par with six global countries researching quantum technology. Most countries are in the research and development phase. The US, China, France, Austria, and Finland are in the R&D stage and are yet to venture into the application stage of the technology, and India will be the latest entrant in the elite club.

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Quantum technology is a field of physics and engineering that studies and applies the principles of quantum mechanics to the development of new technologies. Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that describes the behavior of matter and energy at a microscopic scale, where the classical laws of physics do not apply.

Quantum technology includes various types of technologies, such as quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum sensing.

While the classical computer is transistor-based, quantum computers are going to work on atoms. Quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits) instead of classical bits to perform calculations. The advantage of quantum computing is that it can solve problems much faster with more authenticity.

Quantum technology offers unique security when it comes to encryption, making quantum communication hack-proof. Quantum communication is one of the safest ways of connecting two places with high levels of code and quantum cryptography that cannot be decrypted or broken by an external entity. If a hacker tries to crack the message in quantum communication, it changes its form in such a manner that would alert the sender and would cause the message to be altered or deleted.

Meanwhile, quantum sensing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to develop new types of sensors with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. These sensors can measure physical quantities, such as temperature, magnetic fields, and gravitational waves, with higher precision than classical sensors. This technology has vast utilisation in astronomy and astrophysics and in solving the riddles of the universe.

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As part of the National Quantum Mission, the center said that four thematic hubs will be established in different institutions across the country to boost research and development in the field. The mission will be led by the Department of Science & Technology under a mission director.

The Centre will form a mission secretariat which will have a governing body to steer the work under the leadership of scientists from the quantum field. The Mission Technology Research Council will work as a scientific advisory body for the governing body.

The center outlining the eight-year-long framework for the mission said that it will work at developing 20-50 qubit quantum computers and quantum communication over a distance of 2000 kilometers in the next three years.

Also Read | Starship Super Heavy launch tomorrow: How to watch Musk's Mars Vehicle lift-off?

"As technology is evolving, understanding is evolving and so are the applications. In the area of therapeutics, healthcare, and security the use is being realized," the minister added.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had in 2022 demonstrated satellite-based quantum communication when scientists from the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre and Physical Research Laboratory successfully conducted quantum entanglement, using real-time Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

"This is going to place India as a frontline nation when information & technology are concerned. This will have use beyond physical and engineering field and into healthcare and other fields as well," Dr. Singha added.

Also Read | Scientists are closer to finding solar systems that could have life

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Centre approves Rs 6,003 crore National Quantum Mission: What is it? - India Today

BUFFALO, N.Y. Moir patterns occur everywhere. They are created by layering two similar but not identical geometric designs. A common example is the pattern that sometimes emerges when viewing a chain-link fence through a second chain-link fence.

For more than 10 years, scientists have been experimenting with the moir pattern that emerges when a sheet of graphene is placed between two sheets of boron nitride. The resulting moir pattern has shown tantalizing effects that could vastly improve semiconductor chips that are used to power everything from computers to cars.

A new study led by University at Buffalo researchers, and published in Nature Communications, demonstrated that graphene can live up to its promise in this context.

Our recent work shows that this particular sandwich of graphene and boron nitride elicits properties that are suitable for use in new technological applications, said Jonathan Bird, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at UB. The research was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy and a MURI grant from Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Graphene is made of carbon, just like charcoal and diamonds. What distinguishes graphene is the way the carbon atoms are put together: they are linked in a hexagonal or honeycomb pattern. The resulting material is the thinnest material known to exist, so thin that scientists call it two-dimensional.

Left alone, graphene conducts electricity well too well, in fact, to be useful in microelectronic technology. But by sandwiching graphene between two layers of boron nitride, which also has a hexagonal pattern, a moir pattern results. The presence of this pattern is accompanied by dramatic changes in the properties of the graphene, essentially turning what would normally be a conducting material into one with (semiconductor-like) properties that are more amenable to use in advanced microelectronics.

This research establishes how the moir pattern in graphene can be adapted to use in technological applications such as new types of communication devices, lasers and light-emitting diodes. Our work demonstrated the viability of this approach, showing that the graphene/boron nitride sandwich that we are studying does indeed have the favorable properties needed for microelectronics, said Bird.

The semiconductor chips in question are essential not just in smartphones and medical devices but also in smart-home gadgets such as dishwashers, vacuums, and home-security systems. Modern technology relies on the semiconductor chips that form the heart of their systems and control their operation, said Bird. When you talk into your cell phone, its the chip that converts your voice to an electronic signal and transmits it to a tower.

The graphene/boron-nitride heterostructure appears to have properties that are amenable to engineering. Developing future technology based on these materials may depend on discovering and harnessing properties that allow for greater speed and functionality. Bird noted that there is typically a lag between a discovery, the excitement about a discovery, and realizing the promise of the discovery. Graphene so common that its in any note scribbled with pencil wasnt discovered until 2004.

Bird earned a PhD in physics, but he was drawn to electrical engineering because it allowed him to explore quantum physics through research on semiconductors. Quantum physics the kind of magical physics that occurs at the atomic scale, he explained can be observed through experiments using technology that explores material and processes at the atomic level.

We can get a system to respond to actions we take, and that response reflects details of the atomic and quantum nature of the system, he said. Graphene attracted his attention because it appeared to be a way to study quantum effects through work on semiconductors. At UB, he established a lab called NoMaD, where he, his colleagues, and their students study quantum phenomena occurring at the nanoscale. Graduates have gone on to careers at Intel and IBM as well as other universities.

In this research, Bird and his team have explored the properties of graphene within a certain limit that must be achieved to create new technologies. The semiconductor chip industry is a massive industry that continues to grow, demanding new materials, new ways to use existing materials, and a new workforce capable of developing both.

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A particular 'sandwich' of graphene and boron nitride may lead to ... - University at Buffalo

SEGMENT ONEGUEST: Dr. Hanna Terletska, an associate professor in theMTSUDepartment of Physics and AstronomyTOPIC: New Quantum Computing for Everyone course atMTSUthat is enabling access to quantum education inTennessee

Quantum technologies, including quantum computing, energy storage and transformation, and sensing, are based on quantum physics and materials and have transformative potential in various fields.

The United States government has identified quantum research and education as key tenets of science and technology, as outlined in the National Quantum Initiative Act, passed in 2018, and major U.S. federal science and research agencies are supporting this area of research.

"MTSUhas a unique opportunity to positions itself as a hub for quantum science and education in theMiddleTennesseeregion, with the potential to attract top talent toMTSU," Terletska says. The Quantum Science Initiative aligns perfectly withMTSU's ongoing efforts to maintain its R2 research status by growing and expanding in this strategically important research focus.

Terletska says building quantum-ready workforce is one of the critical challenges in U.S."

"Enabling access to quantum education is absolutely critical for U.S. quantum ready workforce development. There are more jobs available in quantum than ready to work experts in the field. Recognizing these needs in workforce and training opportunities, here atMTSUPhysics and Astronomy Department, we have piloted the first inTennesseeinterdisciplinary faculty-taught undergraduate Quantum Computing for Everyone course.

"This course is an entry level to the field of quantum computing, with low barriers to enter this new and exciting area for science. No previous knowledge of physics or advance mathematics is needed. Students learn basic quantum information concepts, like qubits, quantum gates, and then practice programming on IBM quantum computer. We also have invited speakers, actual quantum computer scientist and engineers giving talks to our students.

MTSUfaculty find that new course is an excellent way to increase interest in STEM and broaden participation.

Terletska says there are currently 17 students from Physics, Computer Science, Biology and Chemistry majors at different years of their college program: freshmen, juniors, seniors, graduate students, and a postdoctoral fellow.

Two faculty members, Ron Henderson and Neda Naseri, are also getting trained in this course.

Terletska believes that this newMTSUcourse is also an excellent way to bring women in quantum 35% of the students are female, and practically all of them got into the class after Quantum for All workshop that Terletska and Naseri ran at one of the fall 2022 semester WISTEM (Women In STEM) group meeting.

SEGMENT TWOGUEST: Kent Syler, political science professor and political analystTOPIC:Tennesseepolitics in the international spotlight following lawmaker expulsions

From MSNBC to Fox News and from The Tennessean to The Washington Post,Tennesseepolitics have been in the international spotlight following the expulsion of two young Black Democratic lawmakers from the General Assembly by the GOP supermajority and threat to expel a white female lawmaker who barely survived an expulsion vote following their disruptive protest about gun violence and liberal gun laws on the House floor following the tragic murders at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Sylers perspective has been sought out by media from all over the country, from The Washington Post to a Los Angeles radio station, as the Metro Nashville Council quickly moved recently to unanimously temporarily reinstate Rep. Justin Jones and the Shelby County Commission did the same on April 12 to Rep. Justin Pearson within a week of their ousters.

Both new young lawmakers captivated the nation by standing in the well of the House and firing back at GOP lawmakers during their expulsions with poise and wisdom beyond their years. They were joined by Rep. Gloria Johnson from Knoxville who believed in their cause and has stood with them throughout in solidarity, even saying that she believes she was spared because shes white and her two colleagues are Black.

And in a twist,MTSUeconomics professor and House Rep. Charlie Baum was the only GOP lawmaker who voted against expulsion of all three Democratic lawmakers.

Tennesseealso sits in the spotlight politically for other controversial legislation.

NBC News reported that a federal judge inTennesseerecently temporarily halted thestates new law that criminalizes some drag performances, hours before it was set to take effect. Judge Thomas Parker cited constitutional protections of freedom of speech in issuing a temporary restraining order.

IfTennesseewishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution, Parker wrote.

The Court finds that, as it stands, the record here suggests that when the legislature passed this Statute, it missed the mark, he wrote.

GOP Gov. Bill Lee signed the novel bill into law March 2.

SEGMENT THREEGUEST: Dr. Katie Schrodt, associate professor of literacy in the Department of Elementary and Special Education in theMTSUCollege of EducationTOPIC:MTSUeducation students, faculty put on periodic literacy, math events for local families

For literacy professorKatieSchrodt, promoting literacy extends beyond her classroom of future educators atMTSUsCollege of Education.

As literacy educators working in a teacher education program, one of our jobs is to promote literacy in our community by hosting family and community literacy events,Schrodtsaid. Along with our teacher education students, we help children gain access to books and reading resources that they may not have outside of the classroom.

The college partners with local school districtsRutherford County Schools,Murfreesboro City SchoolsandMaury County Schoolsto host around 15 literacy, math and combined literacy and math events a year. Education faculty and students fundraise and work with the nonprofitRead to Succeedto provide attending families with reading and math games and activities, snacks or dinner, take-home educational materials and free books.

At the most recent event atJohn Pittard Elementaryin Murfreesboro, over 100 families, around 275 children and their parents, showed up to take part.

The benefits of participating in family literacy programs and events are numerous, including improving comprehension, increasing vocabulary and improving foundational reading and writing skills,Schrodtsaid. Our event surveys indicate children were very excited about their books and opportunities to read and play with their parents, and parents said the events encouraged them to connect with their children through books.

Other education faculty involved in organizing these events includeNatalie Griffin,Bonnie Barksdale,Stacy Fields,Joan BoulwareandJeremy Winters. Faculty even landed a publication about their outreach work in a journal chartered by the International Literacy Association athttps://tinyurl.com/yv8hf3c8.

Read more:https://mtsunews.com/coe-literacy-math-nights-2023/

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Topics on the Monday Action Line: Quantum Computing, Political ... - Wgnsradio

Predicted over a century ago as monstrous concentrations of mass that torture the fabric of the Universe into traps of light and information, black holes are now established as objects of fact.

But might every distortion of light we now come across be a certified concentration of infinite density, or should we leave room for the possibility that other exotic breeds of cosmic oddity might look uncannily like a hole in space as well?

Using mathematical modeling preserved for string theory, a trio of physicists from Johns Hopkins University in the US found some objects that look like black holes from afar might be something else entirely up close: a new type of hypothetical exotic star called a topological soliton.

Given string theory is a hypothesis begging for a means to be tested, these strange objects exist only on paper, floating about in the realm of pure mathematics. At least, as far as we know. But even as a theoretical construct, they could help us one day distinguish the true black holes from impostors.

"How would you tell when you don't have a black hole? We don't have a good way to test that," says physicist Ibrahima Bah. "Studying hypothetical objects like topological solitons will help us figure that out."

Black holes are arguably the most mysterious known objects in the Universe. Heck, we didn't even have concrete confirmation of their existence until the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, less than 10 years ago. That's because black holes are so dense that their gravity warps the space-time around them to such a degree that, within a certain distance known as the event horizon, nothing in the Universe is fast enough to achieve escape velocity. Not even light in a vacuum.

This means that black holes emit no light we can currently detect, making them, well, invisible; and, since light is the main tool in our kit for understanding the Universe, we can really only learn about them by studying the space around them.

The black hole itself is mathematically described as a one-dimensional point of infinite density something which itself doesn't really equate anything meaningful in physics.

But we can also imagine other bizarre manifestations of physics behaving in a similar way. One example is boson stars, hypothetical objects that are transparent and therefore invisible, just like black holes.

Now, the small group led by physicist Pierre Heidmann has found that topological solitons represent another. These are sort of gravitational kinks in four-dimensional space-time predicted by string theory, in which the smallest elements of the Universe are not pixel-like points, but tiny vibrating strings.

From a distance, the area surrounding these kinks doesn't stand out as all that unusual. Up close, however, the topology of space is heavily distorted.

The team constructed their topological soliton mathematically, and then plugged their equations into simulations to see how it would behave. They overlaid the simulations over real pictures of space to get the most accurate understanding of how their construct would behave.

From a distance, the topological soliton looked exactly like a black hole, with light appearing to be swallowed.

At closer proximity, however, the topological soliton got weird. It didn't capture light as a black hole would at all, but scrambled it and re-emitted it.

"Light is strongly bent, but instead of being absorbed like it would in a black hole, it scatters in funky motions until at one point it comes back to you in a chaotic manner," Heidmann says. "You don't see a dark spot. You see a lot of blur, which means light is orbiting like crazy around this weird object."

String theory is an attempt to resolve a long and vexing tension in physics: between quantum mechanics, which describes how things behave on very small scales, and general relativity, which describes the larger scales. Quantum mechanics breaks down on relativity scales, and vice versa, which bothers physicists no end, because they should be able to play together nicely.

A unified theory of the two, what we call quantum gravity, has proven elusive. The topological soliton is the first string-theory based object that corresponds to the behavior of a black hole, demonstrating that quantum gravity objects can be used to describe real-world physics.

"These are the first simulations of astrophysically relevant string theory objects, since we can actually characterize the differences between a topological soliton and a black hole as if an observer was seeing them in the sky," Heidmann explains.

We don't expect to see them in the sky, obviously, but probing the possibilities could help scientists better understand the tension between quantum mechanics and general relativity, in the hope of one day bringing us to a resolution.

"It's the start of a wonderful research program," Bah says. "We hope in the future to be able to genuinely propose new types of ultracompact stars consisting of new kinds of matter from quantum gravity."

The research has been accepted in Physical Review D.

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This String Theory "Star" Looks And Acts Exactly Like a Black Hole - ScienceAlert

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For two decades, it was believed that a possible quantum spin liquid was discovered in a synthetically produced material. In this case, it would not follow the laws of classical physics even on a macroscopic level, but rather those of the quantum world. There is great hope in these materials: they would be suitable for applications in quantum entangled information transmission (quantum cryptography) or even quantum computation.

Now, however, researchers from TU Wien and Toho University in Japan have shown that the promising material, -(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3, is not the predicted quantum spin liquid, but a material that can be described using known concepts.

In their recent publication in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report how they investigated the mysterious quantum state by measuring the electrical resistance in -(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 as a function of temperature and pressure. In 2021, Andrej Pustogow from the Institute of Solid State Physics at TU Wien has already investigated the magnetic properties of this material.

"Phase diagrams are the language of physics," says Pustogow, leading author of the current study. If you understand this language, a quick glance at the diagram shows how the properties of a material change depending on temperature and pressure. Water, for example, becomes solid at a temperature of 0C and gaseous at 100C. If you now change the pressure, for example by heating water in a pressure cooker, the boiling point increases to over 100C.

In order to now find out how the supposed quantum spin liquidi.e., a liquid in which the spins of the electrons can rotate freely and are quantum entangledbehaves under pressure, the research team carried out systematic resistance measurements. "The special thing is that the very shape of the phase boundary gives deep insights into the physics of magnetic quantum fluctuations, which actually can't be measured with electrical resistance per se," says Pustogow. This was only made possible by a method that is unique worldwide, which the Japanese partners used to study the material. "So we make the impossible possible and follow the entropy footprints of the magnetic moments and thus gain new insights into a supposed quantum spin fluid," continues Pustogow. Prof. Andrej Pustogow. Credit: Vienna University of Technology

The researchers also found that the phase diagram of -(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 strongly resembles that of helium-3. Already back in the 1950s a Soviet researcher predicted that helium-3 behaves differently from conventional materials, turning from solid to liquid rather than from liquid to solid at low temperatures (of less than 0.3 Kelvin). Exactly the same effect occurs with electrons in solids when they freeze upon increasing temperature from a metallic state (mobile electrons) to a Mott insulator, in which the electrons are firmly bound to the atom and do not move.

This "Pomeranchuk effect," named after the researcher who predicted it, was also observed by the international research team in -(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3: At higher temperatures, the material initially shows insulating behavior with rigid electrons that melt into a liquid (metal) when it cools. Below 6 Kelvin, however, the electrons freeze again and lose their magnetic moments as well.

"Although -(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 itself is not a quantum spin liquid, our research provides important clues for further research into these materials. For example, our experiments help to better understand the mechanism of magnetoelastic coupling. If we succeed in controlling this effect, we may also be able to eventually realize a quantum spin liquid," Pustogow says.

More information: A. Pustogow et al, Chasing the spin gap through the phase diagram of a frustrated Mott insulator, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37491-z

Journal information: Nature Communications

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The quantum spin liquid that isn't one - Phys.org

Starting out his career as a stage actor, it was only in 2012 when South Korean actor Park Hae-soo got offered his first screen role in the TV series God of War. The actor was struggling to make a name for himself as he had been starring in minor supporting roles in different movies and TV shows here and there. What finally brought him recognition was his role in an extremely popular Korean series, Prison Playbook. This show gave Park the jump-start he needed.

Now, we all know him as Cho Sang-woo in Netflixs Squid Game and as Berlin in the South Korean remake of Money Heist. That said, Park has recently signed with a U.S. talent agency, so we can definitely expect to hear more from him. In the meantime, here are the actors best movies and TV shows so far.

Park's first-ever lead role, Prison Playbook is a South Korean drama revolving around the lives of different convicts in correctional facilities. Park plays the character of Kim Je-hyuk, a baseball player who gets a year of jail time after protecting his sister from an assault. The series quickly became a commercial hit and one of the highest-ranked k-dramas in South Korean cable history.

The show definitely needs more credit from public and international viewers, as its comedy and lightheartedness helps you relax after a stressful day. The slice of life concept makes you laugh, cry, and forget about your daily problems.

Related: Ha Seung Lees Best Movies and TV Shows, Ranked

Directed by Kim Do-hoon, Chimera is a k-drama starring Park, Lee Hee-joon, and Claudia Kim in the leading roles. It follows these three leading characters as they dig through different records from the past thirty years to find a culprit nicknamed the Chimera. Park plays the 35-year-old Cha Jae-hwan, who is a perfectionist homicide detective. The use of Greek mythology to walk us through the case makes the story unique, as well as really creative and different. As a viewer, you feel emotionally connected to it to the mystery and crime. It should definitely be more popular than it is now.

Inspired by a classic Joseon legend, The Legend of the Blue Sea is a South Korean series telling the love story between a con-artist, Heo Joon-jae, and a mermaid, Shim Cheong, who travels across the ocean to find him. Park does very well playing determined detectives, and this k-drama is no different.

We see the actor play a recurring role of Hong Dong-pyo, a modern day detective who is investigating Joon-jae's scams, but later sides with him. Even if you don't particularly enjoy watching series with multiple one-hour-plus-long episodes, this one will change your mind. It makes you feel different types of emotions, from happiness to anger to confusion.

Based on Mai Jia's 2007 novel, Feng Sheng, Phantom is a 2023 spy action film set in 1933 during the Japanese colonization of Korea. When an attempt to assassinate a Japanese official fails, the plot focuses on different suspects and their attempts to clear the suspicions shed on them. Park plays one of the Japanese officials named Kaito, who's in charge of the investigation to catch the anti-Japanese spy.

It's easy to love every little bit of the movie, from the cinematography to the soundtrack. Most of its plot revolves around a closed setting despite the large scale resistance movement, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in this case.

Starring Park, Seo Yea-ji, and Kim Sang-ho in the lead roles, By Quantum Physics A Nightlife Venture is a South Korean crime film. The story follows a club owner Lee Chan-woo, the club manager Seong Eun-yeong and a police reporter Park ki-hum. Park plays the character of Lee, a nightclub promoter, who gets involved in a fight against organized crime and corruption.

Although the story gets a little hard to follow, it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the leading stars. Park gets a chance to showcase his ability to play a more funny nonsense chatter character that's way different from his serious roles.

The Pirates is a South Korean period adventure film that follows a group of pirates and bandits who embark on a journey to catch a big whale that's swallowed their new Joseon Dynasty emperor. Park doesn't play the leading character in this one, but instead plays a supporting character named Hwang Joong-geun.

The pirates versus thieves dynamic combines comedy, action and fantasy and makes it all magically work. The humor works really well and the action sequences are nicely choreographed. All you need to do is allow yourself to enjoy the entertainment.

Related: Best Lee Dong-wook Movies and TV Shows, Ranked

Directed by Na Hyeon, Yaksha: Ruthless Operations is a spy action film, starring Sol Kyung-gu and Park Hae-soo in leading roles. The plot takes place in Chinese Shenyang, and revolves around a leader of an espionage agency's black ops team and a prosecutor who gets moved to a lower rank in the agency. Park plays the prosecutor Han Ji-hoon, who believes that justice should be served rightfully through law. If you want to spend your time with an action-packed spy thriller, then this is a very good first choice.

Based on true events, Narco-Saints also known as Suriname, is a Netflix show about an ordinary entrepreneur who's forced to join a mission to capture drug lords in South America. Park plays the character of Choi Chang-ho, the leader of National Intelligence Service's Branch in the Americas.

The series serves as a "play next" to Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. The cast they picked for the show has done an amazing job at always having you wait what happens next. It can easily be described as a next sensational hit from the South Korean industry.

The first South Korean movie having been screened in the Berlinale Special section, Time to Hunt is a dystopian action thriller. Set in a dystopian South Korea, it follows a group of friends who plan a huge heist, but instead find themselves hunted by a mysterious assassin. Park plays one of the friends and one of the main characters called Han.

Despite the movie's long run-time, the story doesn't get boring as the script wasn't meant to be deep and meaningful. Han's character feels very much like a South Korean John Wick and would easily be enjoyable to watch in a standalone movie.

Despite the mixed reactions this South Korean remake has received, you have to admit that Money Heist: Korea: Joint Economic Area has definitely brought something new to the story. As a second series in the Money Heist franchise, the show follows a group of thieves with different personalities led by an intelligent man nicknamed the Professor, as they overtake the mint of a unified Korea. Park plays the character of Berlin, who is a 41-year-old North Korean former prisoner of the Kaechon concentration camp. Due to his trauma, he's quick to resort to violence and threats.

We can't go without mentioning Squid Game when talking about Park Hae-soo. The survival drama took the world by storm upon its 2021 release on Netflix. It became Netflix's most-watched series, amassing 1.65 billion viewing hours during its first four weeks of launch. In the show, 456 players risk their lives playing children's games to win a huge financial prize. Cho Sang-woo is Park's complex character, who joins the game to escape the police. The extreme violence mixed with humor makes it hard to watch at times, but it shows just how far people are willing to go when they have nothing to lose.

Link:

Park Hae-soo's Best Movies and TV Shows, Ranked - MovieWeb

From black holes and Schrodingers cat to machines capable of teleporting information, quantum computings road from sci-fi to investable opportunity may be early stage but its potential to affect seismic change in products such as thematic ETFs should not be underestimated.

Physicist Richard Feynman famously said if you think you understand quantum mechanics, then you do not. This rings true for the study of subatomic behaviour that defies the laws of physics but even more so when trying to understand the machines harnessing this behaviour to revolutionise computing.

Exponentially scaling the processing power of classical computers will soon be impossible, with transistors in silicon chips already a thousandth of the diameter of a red blood cell. However, these computers rely on binary digits called bits ones and zeros as their units of information, whereas quantum devices rely on qubits which can be represented as ones, zeros or through superposition the ability to be in multiple things at once they can appear as a mix of the two simultaneously.

This article first appeared in ETF Insider, ETF Stream's monthly ETF magazine for professional investors in Europe. To read the full article,click here.

Excerpt from:

How quantum computing will disrupt thematic ETFs - ETF Stream

The 102-year-old Indian-American scientists work in statistics now propels the field of science right from data analytics to analysing data from Large Hadron Collider, the worlds most powerful accelerator that found the elusive God particle or the Higgs Boson a decade ago.

In fact when a cardiologist had a problem constructing the shape of the human left ventricle from a pair of X-ray projection images taken from two perpendicular camera sets it led to his extensive work on shape analysis.

When he was at Cambridge University, he was presented with the Jebel Moya problem. Skeletons from an ancient grave in Africa were brought back to the university and Rao analysed their measurements to determine their lives and relationship with neighbours. Thats when he introduced the concept of quadratic entropy, a general measure of diversity or non-homogeneity in a population.

For decades, his papers and works have helped scientists estimate results of experiments starting right from basic sciences like physics, chemistry and biology to artificial intelligence (AI), radar systems and many more that are to come.

After completing his high school education in Visakhapatnam, he obtained his Masters Degree in Mathematics from Andhra University in 1940. Later, he joined a masters programme at the Calcutta University in statistics which was newly instituted. Needless to say, he received the highest rank possible and a gold medal too.

Two years before India got its independence, he published a paper where he demonstrated three fundamental results Cramer-Rao lower bound, the Rao-Blackwell Theorem; and introduced differential geometric methods in statistical estimation. His third result formed the basis for a new interdisciplinary field - information geometry.

He went to Cambridge for a project and came back to work at the Indian Statistical Institute in the late 1940s. At the institute, he rose to the ranks of a director and quit in 1976. In 1978, he moved to the US as a university professor after retiring, and continues to the professor emeritus of statistics at Penn State.

So, to answer the question posed at the start of this piece thanks in large part to the efforts of Rao, statistics is used in everything from computer science, quantum physics, linguistics and sociology to economics.

Continued here:

Pride of India: Statistician CR Raos influence is widespread The Higgs Boson, shape of the heart, archaeolo - Business Insider India