Category Archives: Quantum Physics

Fri, 08/26/2022 - 10:53am | By: Josh Stricklin

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) continues to expand its online catalog with the addition of the Physics Master of Science degree. The addition of this program means USM offers a practical and accessible opportunity for students to continue their education in physics.

This program offers a unique opportunity to explore a variety of research topics. Dr. Michael Vera, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, says The Physics Masters program consists of courses in Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Physics and Electromagnetism as well as research opportunities in a variety of fields including computation, materials science, nuclear theory, optics and wave propagation.

These four core classes give students a shared knowledge in physics while allowing them to pursue their own interests within the field. And USMs online delivery gives students a unique chance to conduct their work at a distance while having regular access to the professors.

With its synchronous format, says Dr. Vera, the online option for the Physics Masters degree provides both the accessibility of remote delivery and the personal interaction of a traditional classroom. Students are able to ask questions, and benefit from the questions of other students, during live class sessions.

With a full spectrum of classes and strong computational focus, the Masters in Physics program at USM sets students up for a wide range of potential careers. While education and research labs are clear employers, graduates of the Physics program can find themselves in myriad fields ranging from modeling and software development to engineering or even financial modeling.

The online Physics Masters degree is an incredible opportunity for students, says Dr. Tom Hutchinson, Dean of Online Learning and Enrollment for the Office of Online Learning. Students can continue their education where they live, while taking advantage of USMs amazing faculty in real time. And because USM offers a wide range of research possibilities, students can do what they love in a field in which they have a genuine interest.

The online Physics MS is designed to help students achieve everything they can in their careers. This program admits students during the fall, spring, and summer semesters, and with USM's online delivery, students can finish school with a world of potential at their fingertips. Students looking to grow their knowledge in physics should visit the online Physics MS page.

See the original post here:

USM School of Mathematics and Natural Science adds a Physics Masters Degree to Online Learners - The University of Southern Mississippi

Compounding the danger is the lack of anyAI regulation. Instead, unaccountable technology conglomerates, such as Google and Meta, have assumed the roles of judge and jury in all things AI. They are silencing dissenting voices, including their own engineers who warn of the dangers.

The worlds failure to rein in the demon of AIor rather, the crude technologies masquerading as suchshould serve to be a profound warning. There is an even more powerful emerging technology with the potential to wreak havoc, especially if it is combined with AI:quantum computing. We urgently need to understand this technologys potential impact, regulate it, and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands before it is too late. The world must not repeat the mistakes it made by refusing to regulate AI.

Although still in its infancy, quantum computing operates on a very different basis from todays semiconductor-based computers. If thevarious projectsbeing pursued around the world succeed, these machines will be immensely powerful, performing tasks in seconds that would takeconventional computersmillions of years to conduct.

Because of the technologys immense power and revolutionary applications, quantum computing projects are likely part of defense and other government research already.

Semiconductors represent information as a series of 1s and 0sthats why we call it digital technology. Quantum computers, on the other hand, use a unit of computing called aqubit. A qubit can hold values of 1 and 0 simultaneously by incorporating a counterintuitive property in quantum physics called superposition. (If you find this confusing, youre in good companyit can be hard to grasp even for experienced engineers.) Thus, two qubits could represent the sequences 1-0, 1-1, 0-1, and 0-0, all in parallel and all at the same instant. That allows a vast increase in computing power, which grows exponentially with each additional qubit.

Quantum computing researchers at Duke observe tipping point

If quantum physics leaves the experimental stage and makes it into everyday applications, it will find many uses and change many aspects of life. With their power to quickly crunch immense amounts of data that would overwhelm any of todays systems,quantum computerscould potentially enable better weather forecasting, financial analysis, logistics planning, space research, and drug discovery. Some actors will very likely use them for nefarious purposes, compromising bank records, private communications, and passwords on every digital computer in the world. Todays cryptography encodes data in large combinations of numbers that are impossible to crack within a reasonable time using classic digital technology. But quantum computerstaking advantage of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition, entanglement, and uncertaintymay potentially be able to try out combinations so rapidly that they could crack encryptions by brute force almost instantaneously.

To be clear, quantum computing is still in an embryonic stagethough where, exactly, we can only guess. Because of the technologys immense potential power and revolutionary applications, quantum computing projects are likely part of defense and other government research already. This kind of research isshrouded in secrecy, and there are a lot of claims and speculation about milestones being reached. China, France, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada, and India are known to be pursuing projects. In the United States, contenders include IBM, Google, Intel, and Microsoft as well as various start-ups, defense contractors, and universities.

Despite the lack of publicity, there have been credible demonstrations of some basic applications, includingquantum sensorsable to detect and measure electromagnetic signals. One such sensor was used to precisely measureEarths magnetic fieldfrom the International Space Station.

IBM unveils roadmap for developing quantum-powered supercomputers

In another experiment, Dutch researchers teleported quantum information across a rudimentaryquantum communication network. Instead of using conventional optical fibers, the scientists used three small quantum processors to instantly transfer quantum bits from a sender to a receiver. These experiments havent shown practical applications yet, but they could lay the groundwork for a future quantum internet, where quantum data can be securely transported across a network of quantum computers faster than the speed of light. So far, thats only been possible in the realm of science fiction.

The Biden administration considers the risk of losing the quantum computing race imminent and dire enough that it issuedtwo presidential directivesin May: one to place theNational Quantum Initiativeadvisory committee directly under the authority of the White House and another to directgovernment agenciesto ensure U.S. leadership in quantum computing while mitigating the potential security risks quantum computing poses to cryptographic systems.

Experiments are also working tocombinequantum computing with AI to transcend traditional computers limits. Today, large machine-learning models take months to train on digital computers because of the vast number of calculations that must be performedOpenAIs GPT-3, for example, has 175 billion parameters. When these models grow into the trillions of parametersa requirement for todays dumb AI to become smartthey will take even longer to train. Quantum computers could greatly accelerate this process while also using less energy and space. In March 2020, Google launchedTensorFlowQuantum, one of the first quantum-AI hybrid platforms that takes the search for patterns and anomalies in huge amounts of data to the next level.Combined with quantum computing, AI could, in theory, lead to even more revolutionary outcomes than the AI sentience that critics have been warning about.

Quantum breakthrough? Duke, IonQ invent means to accelerate key quantum techniques

Given the potential scope and capabilities ofquantum technology, it is absolutely crucial not to repeat the mistakes made with AIwhere regulatory failure has given the world algorithmic bias that hypercharges human prejudices, social media that favors conspiracy theories, and attacks on the institutions of democracy fueled by AI-generated fake news and social media posts. The dangers lie in the machines ability to make decisions autonomously, with flaws in the computer code resulting in unanticipated, often detrimental, outcomes. In 2021, the quantum community issued acall for actionto urgently address these concerns. In addition, critical public and private intellectual property on quantum-enabling technologies must be protected fromtheft and abuseby the United States adversaries.

There are national defense issues involved as well. In security technology circles, the holy grail is whats called acryptanalytically relevant quantum computera system capable of breaking much of the public-key cryptography that digital systems around the world use, which would enable blockchain cracking, for example. Thats a very dangerous capability to have in the hands of an adversarial regime.

Experts warn thatChinaappears to have a lead in various areas of quantum technology, such as quantum networks and quantum processors. Two of the worlds most powerful quantum computers were beenbuilt in China, and as far back as 2017, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei built the worlds firstquantum communication networkusing advanced satellites. To be sure, these publicly disclosed projects are scientific machines to prove the concept, with relatively little bearing on the future viability of quantum computing. However, knowing that all governments are pursuing the technology simply to prevent an adversary from being first, these Chinese successes could well indicate an advantage over the United States and the rest of the West.

Beyond accelerating research, targeted controls on developers, users, and exports should therefore be implemented without delay. Patents, trade secrets, and relatedintellectual property rightsshould be tightly secureda return to the kind of technology control that was a major element of security policy during the Cold War. The revolutionary potential of quantum computing raises the risks associated withintellectual property theftby China and other countries to a new level.

Exec shares six predictions for quantum computing industry in 2022

Finally, to avoid theethical problemsthat went so horribly wrong with AI and machine learning, democratic nations need to institute controls that both correspond to the power of the technology as well as respect democratic values, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. Governments must urgently begin to think about regulations,standards, and responsible usesand learn from the way countries handled or mishandled other revolutionary technologies, including AI, nanotechnology, biotechnology, semiconductors, and nuclear fission. The United States and otherdemocratic nationsmust not make the same mistake they made with AIand prepare for tomorrows quantum era today.

About the authors

Vivek Wadhwais a columnist atForeign Policy, an entrepreneur, and the co-author ofFrom Incremental to Exponential: How Large Companies Can See the Future and Rethink Innovation.Twitter:@wadhwa

Mauritz Kopis a fellow and visiting scholar at Stanford University.Twitter:@MauritzKop

Duke Quantum Center officially opens, offering a look at computings future

View original post here:

Quantum computing is an even bigger threat than artificial intelligence - here's why - WRAL TechWire

For over a century, astronomers have known that the Universe has been expanding since the Big Bang. For the first 8 billion years, the expansion rate was relatively consistent since it was held back by the force of gravitation.

However, thanks to missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have since learned that roughly 5 billion years ago, the rate of expansion has been accelerating.

This led to the widely-accepted theory that a mysterious force is behind the expansion (known as Dark Energy), while some insist that the force of gravity may have changed over time.

This is a contentious hypothesis since it means that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (which has been validated nine ways from Sunday) is wrong.

But according to a new study by the international Dark Energy Survey (DES) Collaboration, the nature of gravity has remained the same throughout the entire history of the Universe.

These findings come shortly before two next-generation space telescopes (Nancy Grace Roman and Euclid) are sent to space to conduct even more precise measurements of gravity and its role in cosmic evolution.

The DES Collaboration comprises researchers from universities and institutes in the US, UK, Canada, Chile, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Italy, Australia, Norway, and Switzerland.

Their third-year findings were presented at the International Conference on Particle Physics and Cosmology (COSMO'22), which took place in Rio de Janeiro from August 22nd to 26th.

They were also shared in a paper titled "Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Constraints on extensions to Lambda CDM with weak lensing and galaxy clustering" that appeared in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review D.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which he finalized in 1915, describes how the curvature of spacetime is altered in the presence of gravity.

For over a century, this theory has accurately predicted almost everything in our Universe, from Mercury's orbit and gravitational lensing to the existence of black holes.

But between the 1960s and 1990s, two discrepancies were discovered that led astronomers to wonder if Einstein's theory was correct. First, astronomers noted that the gravitational effects of massive structures (like galaxies and galaxy clusters) did not accord with their observed mass.

This gave rise to the theory that space is filled with an invisible mass that interacts with 'normal' (aka. 'luminous' or visible) matter via gravity. Meanwhile, the observed expansion of the cosmos (and how it is subject to acceleration) gave rise to the theory of Dark Energy and the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (Lambda CDM) cosmological model.

Cold Dark Matter is an interpretation where this mass is composed of large, slow-moving particles while Lambda represents Dark Energy. In theory, these two forces constitute 95 percent of the total mass-energy content of the Universe, yet all attempts to find direct evidence of them have failed.

The only possible alternative is that Relativity needs to be modified to account for these discrepancies. To find out if that's the case, members of the DES used the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Telolo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to observe galaxies up to 5 billion light-years away.

They hoped to determine if gravity has varied over the past 5 billion years (since the acceleration began) or over cosmic distances. They also consulted data from other telescopes, including the ESA's Planck satellite, which has been mapping the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) since 2009.

They paid close attention to how the images they saw contained subtle distortions due to dark matter (gravitational lenses). As the first image released from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) illustrated, scientists can infer the strength of gravity by analyzing the extent to which a gravitational lens distorts spacetime.

So far, the DES Collaboration has measured the shapes of over 100 million galaxies, and the observations all match what General Relativity predicts. The good news is that Einstein's theory still holds, but this also means that the mystery of Dark Energy persists for the time being.

Luckily, astronomers will not have to wait long before new and more detailed data is available. First, there's the ESA's Euclid mission, slated for launch by 2023 at the latest. This mission will map the geometry of the Universe, looking 8 billion years into the past to measure the effects of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

By May 2027, it will be joined by NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will look back over 11 billion years. These will be the most detailed cosmological surveys ever conducted and are expected to provide the most compelling evidence for (or against) the Lambda-CDM model.

As study co-author Agns Fert, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher at JPL, said in a recent NASA press release:

"There is still room to challenge Einstein's theory of gravity, as measurements get more and more precise. But we still have so much to do before we're ready for Euclid and Roman. So it's essential we continue to collaborate with scientists around the world on this problem as we've done with the Dark Energy Survey."

In addition, observations provided by Webb of the earliest stars and galaxies in the Universe will allow astronomers to chart the evolution of the cosmos from its earliest periods. These efforts have the potential to answer some of the most pressing mysteries in the Universe.

These include how Relativity and the observed mass and expansion of the Universe coincide but could also provide insight into how gravity and the other fundamental forces of the Universe (as described by quantum mechanics) interact a Theory of Everything (ToE).

If there's one thing that characterizes the current era of astronomy, it is the way that long-term surveys and next-generation instruments are coming together to test what has been the stuff of theory until now.

The potential breakthroughs that these could lead to are sure to both delight and confound us. But ultimately, they will revolutionize the way we look at the Universe.

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

Go here to read the rest:

Gravity Has Stayed Constant For The Entire Age of The Universe, Study Finds - ScienceAlert

image:Bjrn Annby-Andersson view more

Credit: Image credit: Bjrn Annby-Andersson

As the size of modern technology shrinks down to the nanoscale, weird quantum effectssuch as quantum tunneling, superposition, and entanglementbecome prominent. This opens the door to a new era of quantum technologies, where quantum effects can be exploited. Many everyday technologies make use of feedback control routinely; an important example is the pacemaker, which must monitor the users heartbeat and apply electrical signals to control it, only when needed. But physicists do not yet have an equivalent understanding of feedback control at the quantum level. Now, FQXi-funded physicists have developed a master equation that will help engineers understand feedback at the quantum scale. Their results are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

It is vital to investigate how feedback control can be used in quantum technologies in order to develop efficient and fast methods for controlling quantum systems, so that they can be steered in real time and with high precision, says co-author Bjrn Annby-Andersson, a quantum physicist at Lund University, in Sweden.

An example of a crucial feedback-control process in quantum computing is quantum error correction. A quantum computer encodes information on physical qubits, which could be photons of light, or atoms, for instance. But the quantum properties of the qubits are fragile, so it is likely that the encoded information will be lost if the qubits are disturbed by vibrations or fluctuating electromagnetic fields. That means that physicists need to be able to detect and correct such errors, for instance by using feedback control. This error correction can be implemented by measuring the state of the qubits and, if a deviation from what is expected is detected, applying feedback to correct it.

It is vital to investigate how feedback control can be used in quantum technologies in order to develop efficient and fast methods for controlling quantum systems, so that they can be steered in real time and with high precision, says co-author Bjrn Annby-Andersson, a quantum physicist at Lund University, in Sweden.

But feedback control at the quantum level presents unique challenges, precisely because of the fragility physicists are trying to mitigate against. That delicate nature means that even the feedback process itself could destroy the system. It is necessary to only interact weakly with the measured system, preserving the properties we want to exploit, says Annby-Andersson.

It is thus important to develop a full theoretical understanding of quantum feedback control, to establish its fundamental limits. But most existing theoretical models of quantum feedback control require computer simulations, which typically only provide quantitative results for specific systems. It is difficult to draw general, qualitative conclusions, Annby-Andersson says. The few models that can provide qualitative understanding are only applicable on a narrow class of feedback controlled systemsthis type of feedback is typically referred to as linear feedback.

Pen and Paper

Annby-Andersson and his colleagues have now developed a master equation, called a Quantum Fokker-Planck equation, that enables physicists to track the evolution of any quantum system with feedback control over time. The equation can describe scenarios that go beyond linear feedback, says Annby-Andersson. In particular, the equation can be solved with pen and paper, rather than having to rely on computer simulations.

The team tested their equation by applying it to a simple feedback model. This confirmed that the equation provides physically sensible results and also demonstrated how energy can be harvested in microscopic systems, using feedback control. The equation is a promising starting point for future studies of how energy may be manipulated with the help of information on a microscopic level, says Annby-Andersson.

The analysis and related experiments are partially funded by a grant from the Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi. It is a great example of a successful collaboration between two different teams based at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at Lund University, says co-author and FQXi member Peter Samuelsson, a quantum physicist at Lund University.

The equation is a promising starting point for future studies of how energy may be manipulated with the help of information on a microscopic level, says Annby-Andersson.

The team is now investigating a system that makes use of feedback to manipulate energy in quantum dotstiny semiconducting crystals just billionths of a meter across. An important future direction is to use the equation as a tool for inventing novel feedback protocols that can be used for quantum technologies, says Annby-Andersson.

This work was partially supported through FQXi's Information as Fuel program.You can read more about the teams grant in the Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi article: Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel,by Colin Stuart.

Journal reference: Quantum Fokker-Planck Master Equation for Continuous Feedback Control

ABOUT US

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of science, particularly new frontiers in physics and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources. Visit fqxi.orgfor more information.

Physical Review Letters

Computational simulation/modeling

Not applicable

Quantum Fokker-Planck Master Equation for Continuous Feedback Control

25-Jul-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Visit link:

Master equation to boost quantum technologies - EurekAlert

Todays stories include Quantum Theory of Consciousness Challenged to Is Life on Earth the Standard Model for the Universe to The 50 Million-Year-Old Treasures of Fossil Lake, and much more.

What makes the human brain different? Yale study reveals clues What makes the human brain distinct from that of all other animals including even our closest primate relatives? In an analysis of cell types in the prefrontal cortex of four primate species, Yale researchers identified species-specific particularly human-specific features, they report Aug. 25 in the journal Science.

Seven Million Years Ago, the Oldest Known Early Human Was Already Walking, reports The Smithsonian. Analysis of a femur fossil indicates that a key species could already move somewhat like us.

Extraterrestrial Life Is Earth the Standard Model for the Universe? asks The Daily Galaxy. By the end of this century, says astrophysicist Martin Rees, we should be able to ask whether or not we live in a multiverse, and how much variety of the laws of physics its constituent universes display. The answer to this question, says Rees, will determine how we should interpret the biofriendly universe in which we live (sharing it with any aliens with whom we might one day make contact).

Unfathomable Abodes of Life? Water Worlds of the Milky WayBefore life appeared on land some 400 million years ago, all life on Earth including the mind evolved in the sea. Astronomers have recently conjectured that blue exoplanets with endless oceans may be orbiting many of the Milky Ways one trillion stars, reports The Daily Galaxy.

What Drives Galaxies? The Milky Ways Black Hole May Be the Key--What Drives Galaxies? The Milky Ways Black Hole May Be the Key. Supermassive black holes have come to the fore as engines of galactic evolution, but new observations of the Milky Way and its central hole dont yet hang together, reports Quanta.

Quantum theory of consciousness put in doubt by underground experiment, reports Physics World. A controversial theory put forward by physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff that posits consciousness to be a fundamentally quantum-mechanical phenomenon has been challenged by research looking at the role of gravity in the collapse of quantum wavefunctions.

How quantum physicists are looking for life on exoplanets, reports Northeastern University. News@Northeastern spoke to Gregory Fiete, a physics professor at Northeastern, about some of the broad applications of quantum research, from developing renewable energy sources and building more powerful computers, to advancing humanitys quest to discover life beyond the solar system.

The Plan to Look for Life on VenusWithout NASA--A private group of scientists and rocket engineers might be the first to find signs of extraterrestrial life on the second planet from the sun, reports The Daily Beast.

After Millennia of Agricultural Expansion, the World Has Passed Peak Agricultural Land, reports Dr. Hannah Ritchie for Singularity HubHumans have been reshaping the planets land for millennia by clearing wildlands to grow crops and raise livestock. As a result, humans have cleared one-third of the worlds forests and two-thirds of wild grasslands since the end of the last ice age.

The 50 Million-Year-Old Treasures of Fossil Lake In a forbidding Wyoming desert, scientists and fortune hunters search for the surprisingly intact remains of horses and other creatures that lived long ago, reports The Smithsonian..

Drought Exposes Dinosaur Tracks in Texas--The 113-million-year-old footprints were largely made by the carnivorous Acrocanthosaurus, reports The Smithsonian. A severe drought in Texas has revealed 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park. The prints are usually covered by the Paluxy Riverthe last time they were visible was in the year 2000, according to BBC News.

Doppelgngers Dont Just Look AlikeThey Also Share DNANew research finds genetic and lifestyle similarities between unrelated pairs of virtual twins, reports the Smithsonian. People with very similar faces also share many of the same genes and lifestyle traits, according to a new paper published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports.

Shape of human brain has barely changed in past 160,000 years An analysis of fossils suggests changes in the shape of the braincase during human evolution were linked to alterations in the face, rather than changes in the brain itself, reports New Scientist.

Humanity Is Woefully Unprepared for a Major Volcanic Eruption, reports Gizmodo. When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano erupted in Tonga on January 15, the result was devastation. The eruption literally blew up an island, caused mass flooding in the surrounding areas, coated whole communities in a thick layer of ash, and took out telecommunications for weeks. Yet in that eruption, we got lucky, according to a new commentary article .

Scientists discovered a 5 million-year-old time capsule buried in Antarctica--Its an ice core with bubbles containing remains of ancient Earth atmosphere, reports ZME Science.

When will Chinas population peak? It depends who you ask--Data show the country is facing a demographic crisis, with an aging population and young couples having fewer children, reports Nature.

MIT professor wrongfully accused of spying for China helps make a major discovery Gang Chen, who was cleared after a lengthy DOJ investigation, said he is stepping away from federally funded research because of anxieties around being racially profiled, reports NBC.

Reconstructing ice age diets reveals an unraveling web of lifeWhile about 6% of land mammals have gone extinct in that time, we estimate that more than 50% of mammal food web links have disappeared, said ecologist Evan Fricke, lead author of the study. And the mammals most likely to decline, both in the past and now, are key for mammal food web complexity, reports Rice University.

Why Thinking Hard Wears You OutConcentrating for long periods builds up chemicals that disrupt brain functioning, reports Scientific American.

Tiny Caribbean crustaceans and their bioluminescent mating displays are shining new light on evolution, reports Science. No bigger than a grain of sand, ostracods abound in fresh and saltwater. They are very cute but also sort of bizarrelike a cross between a crab and a tiny spaceship, says Timothy Fallon, an evolutionary biochemist at the University of California (UC), San Diego.

The Biggest Offshore Wind Farm in the World Will Be Fully Online This Month, reports Singularity Hub. A massive offshore wind project has been underway off the coast of England for over four years. Construction of Hornsea One started in January 2018, and generated its first power a year and a half later. Meanwhile, construction of neighboring Hornsea Two got underway, with that site first coming online last December.

Eye movements in REM sleep mimic gazes in the dream world, reports the University of California, San Francisco. When our eyes move during REM sleep, were gazing at things in the dream world our brains have created, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco. The findings shed light not only into how we dream, but also into how our imaginations work.

Curated by The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Read more:

What Makes the Human Brain Unique to How Quantum Physicists are Looking for Alien Life (Planet Earth Report) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries...

In some pockets of space, far beyond the limits of our observations, wrote cosmologist Dan Hooper at the University of Chicago in an email to The Daily Galaxy, referring to the theory of eternal inflation and the inflationary multiverse: the laws of physics could be very different from those we find in our local universe. Different forms of matter could exist, which experience different kinds of forces. In this sense, what we call the laws of physics, instead of being a universal fact of nature, could be an environmental fact, which varies from place to place, or from time to time.

I think I know how the universe was born, said Andrei Linde, Russian-American theoretical physicist and the Harald Trap Friis Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Linde is one of the main authors of the inflationary universe theory, as well as the theory of eternal inflation and inflationary multiverse.

According to quantum models, galaxies like the Milky Way grew from faint wrinkles in the fabric of spacetime. The density of matter in these wrinkles was slightly greater compared to surrounding areas and this difference was magnified during inflation, allowing them to attract even more matter. From these dense primordial seeds grew the cosmic structures we see today. Galaxies are children of random quantum fluctuations produced during the first 10-35 seconds after the birth of the universe, said Linde.

As a result, the universe becomes a multiverse, an eternally growing fractal consisting of exponentially many exponentially large parts, Linde wrote. These parts are so large that for all practical purposes they look like separate universes.

Late one summer night in 1981, while still a junior research fellow at Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, Andrei Linde was struck by a revelation. Unable to contain his excitement, he shook awake his wife, Renata Kallosh, and whispered to her in their native Russian, I think I know how the universe was born.

Kallosh, a theoretical physicist herself, muttered some encouraging words and fell back asleep. It wasnt until the next morning that I realized the full impact of what Andrei had told me, recalled Kallosh, now a professor of physics at the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Lindes nocturnal eureka moment had to do with a problem in cosmology that he and other theorists, including Stephen Hawking, had struggled with.

A year earlier, a 32-year-old postdoc at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory named Alan Guth shocked the physics community by proposing a bold modification to the Big Bang theory. According to Guths idea, which he called inflation, our universe erupted from a vacuum-like state and underwent a brief period of faster-than-light expansion. In less than a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, space-time doubled more than 60 times from a subatomic speck to a volume many times larger than the observable universe.

Guth envisioned the powerful repulsive force fueling the universes exponential growth as a field of energy flooding space. As the universe unfurled, this inflation field decayed, and its shed energy was transfigured into a fiery bloom of matter and radiation. This pivot, from nothing to something and timelessness to time, marked the beginning of the Big Bang. It also prompted Guth to famously quip that the inflationary universe was the ultimate free lunch.

As theories go, inflation was a beauty. It explained in one fell swoop why the universe is so large, why it was born hot, and why its structure appears to be so flat and uniform over vast distances. There was just one problem it didnt work.

To conclude the unpacking of space-time, Guth borrowed a trick from quantum mechanics called tunneling to allow his inflation field to randomly and instantly skip from a higher, less stable energy state to a lower one, thus bypassing a barrier that could not be scaled by classical physics.

But closer inspection revealed that quantum tunneling caused the inflation field to decay quickly and unevenly, resulting in a universe that was neither flat nor uniform. Aware of the fatal flaw in his theory, Guth wrote at the end of his paper on inflation: I am publishing this paper in the hope that it will encourage others to find some way to avoid the undesirable features of the inflationary scenario.

Linde Answers Guth

Guths plea was answered by Linde, who on that fateful summer night realized that inflation didnt require quantum tunneling to work. Instead, the inflation field could be modeled as a ball rolling down a hill of potential energy that had a very shallow, nearly flat slope. While the ball rolls lazily downhill, the universe is inflating, and as it nears the bottom, inflation slows further and eventually ends. This provided a graceful exit to the inflationary state that was lacking in Guths model and produced a cosmos like the one we observe. To distinguish it from Guths original model while still paying homage to it, Linde dubbed his model new inflation.

Models of Inflation Theory

By the time Linde and Kallosh moved to Stanford in 1990, experiments had begun to catch up with the theory. Space missions were finding temperature variations in the energetic afterglow of the Big Bang called the cosmic microwave background radiation that confirmed a startling prediction made by the latest inflationary models. These updated models went by various names chaotic inflation, eternal inflation, eternal chaotic inflation and many more but they all shared in common the graceful exit that Linde pioneered.

Quantum Fluctuation Fingerprints

Inflation predicted that these quantum fluctuations would leave imprints on the universes background radiation in the form of hotter and colder regions, and this is precisely what two experiments dubbed COBE and WMAP found. After the COBE and WMAP experiments, inflation started to become part of the standard model of cosmology, Shamit Kachru said.

Pocket Universes New Inflating Regions in the Universe

Linde and others later realized that the same quantum fluctuations that produced galaxies can give rise to new inflating regions in the universe. Even though inflation ended in our local cosmic neighborhood 13.8 billion years ago it can still continue in disconnected regions of space beyond the limits of our observable universe The consequence is an ever-expanding sea of inflating space-time dotted with pocket universes like our own where inflation has ceased.

As a result, the universe becomes a multiverse, an eternally growing fractal consisting of exponentially many exponentially large parts, Linde wrote. These parts are so large that for all practical purposes they look like separate universes.

Linde took the multiverse idea even further by proposing that each pocket universe could have differing properties, a conclusion that some string theorists were also reaching independently.

Its not that the laws of physics are different in each universe, but their realizations, Linde said. An analogy is the relationship between liquid water and ice. Theyre both H2O but realized differently.

Lindes multiverse is like a cosmic funhouse filled with reality-distorting mirrors. Some pocket universes are resplendent with life, while others were stillborn because they were cursed with too few (or too many) dimensions, or with physics incompatible with the formation of stars and galaxies. An infinite number are exact replicas of ours, but infinitely more are only near-replicas. Right now, there could be countless versions of you inhabiting worlds with histories divergent from ours in ways large and small. In an infinitely expanding multiverse, anything that can happen will happen.

The inflationary universe is not just the ultimate free lunch, its the only lunch where all possible dishes are served, Linde said.

While disturbing to some, this eternal aspect of inflation was just what a small group of string theorists were looking for to help explain a surprise discovery that was upending the physics world dark energy.

The Last Word -Brian Keating and Avi Loeb

When asked, will Lindes pocket universes be subject to the same laws of physics as our Universe, Brian Keating, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at University of California, San Diego, told The Daily Galaxy: No, not necessarily. Its not mandatory that the properties of space-time be consistent from universe to universe. Nor is it impossible that the laws of logic and mathematics be consistent throughout the universe. This has led some physicists such as Paul Steinhart claiming that the multiverse concept is not a self-consistent or proper subject with the traditions of the scientific method.

Not so certain of the existence of Lindes free lunch, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb told The Daily Galaxy: Advances in scientific knowledge are enabled by experimental tests of theoretical ideas. Physics is a dialogue with nature, not a monologue. I am eagerly waiting for a proposed experimental test of the multiverse idea.

Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research via Dan Hooper, Brian Keating, Avi Loeb and Stanford University

The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

Yes, sign me up for my free subscription.

Recent Galaxy Reports:

Avi Shporer,Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. AGoogle Scholar, Avi was formerly aNASA Sagan Fellowat the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Continue reading here:

Quantum Birth of the Universe (Weekend Feature) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

Protons may have more "charm" than we thought, new research suggests.

A proton is one of the subatomic particles that make up the nucleus of an atom. As small as protons are, they are composed of even tinier elementary particles (opens in new tab) known as quarks, which come in a variety of "flavors," or types: up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. Typically, a proton is thought to be made of two up quarks and one down quark.

But a new study finds it's more complicated than that. Protons can also contain a charm quark, an elementary particle that's 1.5 times the mass of the proton itself. Even weirder, when the proton does contain the charm quark, the heavy particle still only carries about half the proton's mass.

The finding all comes down to the probabilistic world of quantum physics (opens in new tab). Though the charm quark is heavy, the chance of it popping into existence in a proton is fairly small, so the high mass and small chance basically cancel each other out. Put another way, the full mass of the charm quark doesn't get taken up by the proton, even if the charm quark is there, Science News reported (opens in new tab).

Though protons are fundamental to the structure of atoms (opens in new tab) which make up all matter they're also very complicated. Physicists don't actually know protons' fundamental structure. Quantum physics holds that beyond the up and down quarks known to be present, other quarks might pop into protons now and then, Stefano Forte, a physicist at the University of Milan, told the podcast Nature Briefing (opens in new tab). Forte was a co-author of the new paper showing evidence for the charm quark in protons, published in the journal Nature (opens in new tab) Aug. 17.

There are six types of quarks. Three are heavier than protons and three are lighter than protons. The charm quark is the lightest of the heavy batch, so researchers wanted to start with that one to find out whether a proton could contain a quark heavier than itself. They did this by taking a new approach to 35 years of particle-smashing data.

Related: Why physicists are interested in the mysterious quirks of the heftiest quark (opens in new tab)

To learn about the structure of subatomic and elementary particles, researchers fling particles against each other at blistering speeds at particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest atom smasher, located near Geneva. Scientists with the nonprofit NNPDF collaboration gathered this particle-smashing data going back to the 1980s, including examples of experiments in which photons, electrons, muons, neutri (opens in new tab)nos and even other protons were crashed into protons. By looking at the debris from these collisions, researchers can reconstruct the original state of the particles.

In the new study, the scientists handed over all of this collision data to a machine-learning algorithm designed to look for patterns without any preconceived notions of how the structures might look. The algorithm returned possible structures and the likelihood that they might actually exist.

The study found a "small but not negligible" chance of finding a charm quark, Forte told Nature Briefing. The level of evidence wasn't high enough for the researchers to declare the undeniable discovery of the charm quark in protons, but the results are the "first solid evidence" that it can be there, Forte said.

The structure of the proton is important, Forte said, because to discover new elementary particles, physicists will have to uncover minuscule differences in what theories suggest and what's actually observed. This requires extremely precise measurements of subatomic structures.

For now, physicists still need more data on the elusive "charm" within a proton. Future experiments, such as the planned Electron-Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, may help, Tim Hobbs, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, told Science News.

Originally published on Live Science.

See more here:

Weird quantum experiment shows protons have more 'charm' than we thought - Space.com

Some of the worlds brightest minds are gathering at a hotel conference centre in Vancouver this week to try to solve a question that has baffled physicists for decades.

The two pillars of modern physics the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity have been used respectively to describe how matter behaves, as well as space, time and gravity.

The problem is that the theories dont appear to be compatible, said Peter Galison, a professor in history of science and physics at Harvard University.

These theories cant just harmoniously live in splendid isolation, one from the other. We know our account of the world is inadequate until we figure out how to make them play nicely together, he said in an interview after giving a talk on how black holes fit into the equation.

Story continues below advertisement

Galison is among several leading thinkers who arrived at the Quantum Gravity Conference for the launch a new global research collaborative known as the Quantum Gravity Institute in Vancouver.

While speakers at the conference are primarily scientists, including Nobel laureates Jim Peebles, Sir Roger Penrose and Kip Thorne, those behind the institute come from less likely fields.

The Quantum Gravity Society represents a group of business, technology and community leaders. Founding members include Frank Giustra of Fiore Group, Terry Hui of Concord Pacific, Paul Lee and Moe Kermani of Vanedge Capital and Markus Frind of Frind Estate Winery. They are joined by physicists Penrose, Abhay Ashtekar, Philip Stamp, Bill Unruh and Birgitta Whaley.

During a panel discussion, Lee said hes been asked several times why Vancouver would host such an event or institute.

Why Vancouver? Because we can, Lee said.

Hui, who studied physics as part of his undergraduate degree, said organizing the conference and launching the institute felt like fulfilling a childhood dream.

Story continues below advertisement

I left the field to pursue other things, you know, he said in an interview.

How do I put this? he said, before likening it to being a guy who never made the high school hockey team getting to hang out in the Canucks locker room.

Hui said he wanted to help and saw his role as philanthropic, adding he believed it would benefit Vancouver economically.

As a non-local and the founder of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard, Galison said hes happy to see more interdisciplinary support for exploring some of the biggest questions in science. He called the conference an interesting event for bringing together people in technology and venture capitalism with scientists from varied fields. The launch of the institute is also meaningful, he said.

Its also a kickoff event for something much bigger and longer-lasting.

As for the central question of the conference, Galison said its an opportunity to explore where the theories overlap and where they dont from different angles.

One place they intersect is clearly at the beginning of the universe, early cosmology, because when energy is incredibly compressed, when you have enormous energy densities, youre at the limit where the bending of space and time creates so much energy that quantum effects come into play, he said.

Story continues below advertisement

The theory of quantum mechanics, introduced in the 1920s, entered a world already shaken by Albert Einsteins theory of relativity, which inspired responses not just from scientists but from poets and philosophers, he said.

That these things are not compatible is really unnerving, Galison said.

Cracking the code for why isnt something that will happen in a moment, a week or a year, he said.

Theres a tremendous amount of work, he said. Its more like building a cathedral than throwing up a bicycle shed.

2022 The Canadian Press

Original post:

Physicists and business figures gather in Vancouver to crack theory of everything - Global News

We know that the universe is expanding, and our understanding of nature based on general relativity and the Standard Model of elementary particles is consistent with this observation. However, these theories of particles and their interactions break down when we try to apply them to the physical phenomena that occurred in the first moments following the Big Bang preventing us from reaching a complete understanding of the evolution of the universe.

Our theories fail because the temperature and density of matter just after the Big Bang were so high that a concept called quantum gravity is required to describe the physical processes that took place. The problem is that this theory requires a unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics. Though this has not yet been fully understood, there are some viable candidates for a theory of quantum gravity, such as string theory.

To address the problem of unknown quantum gravitational effects in the early universe, a team of theoretical physicists from Japan applied a string theory-inspired technique known as holographic duality. This allowed them to perform calculations using familiar methods of elementary particle physics rather than an impossibly complex computation usually required in quantum gravity applications.

The most difficult problem one encounters on the way to finding a correct theory of quantum gravity is a lack of experimental data. Fundamental interactions are usually studied with elementary particle accelerators, which smash together beams of particles moving at velocities close to the speed of light. From the velocities of the particles born in these collisions and the angles at which they leave, scientists can extract valuable information about their fundamental interactions.

The key issue here is that the gravitational effects in most elementary particle interactions are negligible (though not under the extreme conditions in the early universe!), and they cannot be measured using modern accelerators. For example, the gravitational attraction between two electrons is more than 42 orders of magnitude weaker than the electromagnetic repulsion between them. Because of this, studies of quantum gravity have so far been only theoretical.

For decades, the most promising approach to quantum gravity has been string theory, the main postulate of which is that elementary particles are not point-like, but are tiny, oscillating strings. Unique vibrational modes of these strings gives rise to a different elementary particle, such as electrons, quarks, and yet-to-be observed gravitons, which should mediate gravitational interactions similar to how photons mediate electromagnetic interactions.

Unfortunately, our current understanding of string theory is incomplete and doesnt allow us to study many quantum gravitational effects quantitatively.

Although string theory has not yet reached its full potential, research in this area has led to the development of many theoretical tools that can be used outside of it. The most radical and powerful, although not fully proven, is known as holographic duality or correspondence.

The holographic hypothesis claims that events inside a region of space that involve quantum gravity and are described by string theory can also be described by a gravity-free quantum theory defined on the surface of that region. The latter theory is sufficiently easier to deal with, and we have learned much about theories of this type by studying electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions.

The existence of this duality means that for every measurable quantity in quantum gravitational theory there must be an analogue in the gravity-free alternative. The validity of holographic duality has been verified by hundreds of research papers through direct calculations of various quantities on both sides of the duality.

Since 1997, when the first version of holographic correspondence was proposed by Juan Maldacena, many more pairs of theories connected by this equivalence have been discovered and analyzed, but the rule that a higher-dimensional space includes gravity and a lower-dimensional one does not always remains satisfied.

Some of these theories of quantum gravity are known to be related to string theory, whereas the connection between the rest with strings has not yet been uncovered but is usually believed to exist.

An unfortunate feature of the holographic approach in studying quantum gravity in the real world is that in most known examples of the duality, the higher-dimensional theory mathematically describes quantum gravity in what is called anti-de Sitter space, which doesnt look like our expanding universe, and whose geometry corresponds to what mathematicians call de Sitter space.

The remarkable achievement of the new study is that the authors were able to find a non-gravitational theory equivalent to quantum gravity in a universe that is quite similar to our own. The most important difference is that it has only three dimensions two spatial directions and one time unlike our own universe, which is four-dimensional (three space dimensions and one time dimension).

Gravity in three dimensions is much simpler than in four, said Tadashi Takayanagi, a professor at the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics and one of the authors of the study. However, we believe the basic mechanism of how the holography works in de Sitter space should not depend on the dimension.

The new theory is proposed as an equivalent to quantum gravity in a lower-dimensional expanding universe defined in one spatial and one temporal dimension, known as the Wess-Zumino-Witten model.

Although the three-dimensional universe they deal with is not exactly like ours, the authors think that their work is an important step towards understanding quantum gravity in the real world.

Since we do not know at all the basic mechanisms of how the holography in de Sitter spaces works, it is useful to start with constructing the most simple example, as we did in this work, said Takayanagi. At the same time, this helps us to verify whether a holographic duality exists for de Sitter spaces or not. Moreover, in our simple mode, we can take into account quantum corrections [to general relativity].

As is usual in this branch of theoretical physics, the scientists havent proven the duality because to do so, they would have to compute all possible physical quantities on both sides of the correspondence and compare the results. Instead, they computed some, and found an exact match from which they concluded that their guess was correct.

Most of the authors calculations ignored quantum effects on the gravitational side of duality and taking them into account will be the course of future work. If the scientists are successful in this, they plan to generalize their results and apply them to our four-dimensional universe.

If we can understand this question from our three-dimensional example, we hopewe can generalize the results to higher dimensions and finally challenge theproblem of explaining the emergence of our four-dimensional universe, concluded Takayanagi.

Reference: Yasuaki Hikida, et al., CFT duals of three-dimensional de Sitter gravity, Journal of High Energy Physics, (2022). DOI: 10.1007/JHEP05(2022)129

Image Credit: Johnson Martin Pixabay

Go here to see the original:

String theory used to describe the expanding universe - Advanced Science News

Of all the pricing games on the iconic television showThe Price Is Right, perhaps the most exciting of all isPlinko. Contestants play an initial pricing game to obtain up to 5 round, flat disksknown as Plinko chipswhich they then press flat against a pegboard wherever they choose, releasing it whenever they like. One-at-a-time, the Plinko chips cascade down the board, bouncing off of the pegs and moving horizontally as well as vertically, until they emerge at the bottom of the board, landing in one of the prize (or no prize) slots.

Quite notably, contestants who drop a chip that happens to land in the maximum prize slot, always found in the direct center of the board, often try to repeat the exact same drop with whatever remaining disks they possess. Despite their best efforts, however, and the fact that the initial positioning of the disks might be virtually identical, the ultimate paths the disks wind up traversing are almost never identical. Surprisingly, this game is a perfect illustration of chaos theory and helps explain the second law of thermodynamics in understandable terms. Heres the science behind it.

Trajectories of a particle in a box (also called an infinite square well) in classical mechanics (A) and quantum mechanics (B-F). In (A), the particle moves at constant velocity, bouncing back and forth. In (B-F), wavefunction solutions to the Time-Dependent Schrodinger Equation are shown for the same geometry and potential. The horizontal axis is position, the vertical axis is the real part (blue) or imaginary part (red) of the wavefunction. These stationary (B, C, D) and non-stationary (E, F) states only yield probabilities for the particle, rather than definitive answers for where it will be at a particular time.

At a fundamental level, the Universe is quantum mechanical in nature, full of an inherent indeterminism and uncertainty. If you take a particle like an electron, you might think to ask questions like:

Theyre all reasonable questions, and wed expect that theyd all have definitive answers.

But what actually transpires is so bizarre that its enormously unsettling, even to physicists whove spent their lifetimes studying it. If you make a measurement to precisely answer Where is this electron? you become more uncertain about its momentum: how fast and in what direction it moves. If you measure the momentum instead, you become more uncertain about its position. And because you need to know both momentum and position to predict where it will arrive with any certainty in the future, you can only predict a probability distribution for its future position. Youll need a measurement at that future time to determine where it actually is.

In Newtonian (or Einsteinian) mechanics, a system will evolve over time according to completely deterministic equations, which should mean that if you can know the initial conditions (like positions and momenta) for everything in your system, you should be able to evolve it, with no errors, arbitrarily forward in time. In practice, due to the inability to know the initial conditions to truly arbitrary precisions, this is not true.

Perhaps for Plinko, however, this quantum mechanical weirdness shouldnt matter. Quantum physics might have a fundamental indeterminism and uncertainty inherent to it, but for large-scale, macroscopic systems, Newtonian physics ought to be perfectly sufficient. Unlike the quantum mechanical equations that govern reality at a fundamental level, Newtonian physics is completely deterministic.

Travel the Universe with astrophysicist Ethan Siegel. Subscribers will get the newsletter every Saturday. All aboard!

According to Newtons laws of motionwhich can all be derived fromF= ma(force equals mass times acceleration)if you know the initial conditions, like position and momentum, you should be able to know exactly where your object is and what motion it will possess at any point in the future. The equationF= matells you what happens a moment later, and once that moment has elapsed, that same equation tells you what happens after the next moment has passed.

Any object for which quantum effects can be neglected obeys these rules, and Newtonian physics tells us how that object will continuously evolve over time.

However, even with perfectly deterministic equations,theres a limit to how well we can predict a Newtonian system. If this surprises you, know that youre not alone; most of the leading physicists who worked on Newtonian systems thought that there would be no such limit at all. In 1814, mathematician Pierre Laplace wrote a treatise entitled, A philosophical essay on probabilities, where he predicted that once we gained enough information to determine the state of the Universe at any moment in time, we could successfully use the laws of physics to predict the entire future of everything absolutely: with no uncertainty at all. In Laplaces own words:

An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.

A chaotic system is one where extraordinarily slight changes in initial conditions (blue and yellow) lead to similar behavior for a while, but that behavior then diverges after a relatively short amount of time.

And yet, the need to invoke probabilities in making predictions about the future doesnt necessarily stem from either ignorance (imperfect knowledge about the Universe) or from quantum phenomena (like Heisenbergs uncertainty principle), but rather arises as a cause of the classical phenomenon: chaos. No matter how well you know the initial conditions of your system, deterministic equationslike Newtons laws of motiondont always lead to a deterministic Universe.

This was first discovered back in the early 1960s, when Edward Lorenz, a meteorology professor at MIT, attempted to use a mainframe computer to help arrive at an accurate weather forecast. By using what he believed was a solid weather model, a complete set of measurable data (temperature, pressure, wind conditions, etc.), and an arbitrarily powerful computer, he attempted to predict weather conditions far into the future. He constructed a set of equations, programmed them into his computer, and waited for the results.

Then he re-entered the data, and ran the program for longer.

Two systems starting from an identical configuration, but with imperceptibly small differences in initial conditions (smaller than a single atom), will keep to the same behavior for a while, but over time, chaos will cause them to diverge. After enough time has gone by, their behavior will appear completely unrelated to one another.

Surprisingly, the second time he ran the program, the results diverged at one point by a very slight amount, and then diverged thereafter very quickly. The two systems, beyond that point, behaved as though they were entirely unrelated to one another, with their conditions evolving chaotically with respect to one another.

Eventually, Lorenz found the culprit: when Lorenz re-entered the data the second time,he used the computers printout from the first runfor the input parameters, which was rounded off after a finite number of decimal places. That tiny difference in initial conditions might have only corresponded to the width of an atom or less, but that was enough to dramatically alter the outcome, particularly if you time-evolved your system far enough into the future.

Small, imperceptible differences in the initial conditions led to dramatically different outcomes, a phenomenon colloquially known as the Butterfly Effect. Even in completely deterministic systems, chaos arises.

A scaled-down, casino-esque version of the game of Plinko, where instead of chips falling down a Plinko board, coins fall, with varying rewards available depending on where the coins land.

All of this brings us back to the Plinko board. Although there are many version of the game available, including at amusement parks and casinos, theyre all based on the idea of a Galton Board, where objects bounce one way or the other down an obstacle-filled ramp. The actual board used on The Price Is Right has somewhere around 1314 different vertical levels of pegs for each Plinko chip to potentially bounce off of. If youre aiming for the central spot, there are a lot of strategies you can employ, including:

Every time your chip hits a peg on the way down, it has the potential to knock you one-or-more spaces to either side, but every interaction is purely classical: governed by Newtons deterministic laws. If you could stumble upon a path that caused your chip to land exactly where you desired, then in theory, if you could recreate the initial conditions precisely enoughdown to the micron, the nanometer, or even the atomperhaps, even with 13 or 14 bounces, you might wind up with an identical-enough outcome, winning the big prize as a result.

But if you were to expand your Plinko board, the effects of chaos would become unavoidable. If the board were longer and had dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of rows, youd quickly run into a situation where even two drops that were identical to within the Planck lengththefundamental quantum limit at which distances make sensein our Universeyoud start to see the behavior of two dropped Plinko chips diverging after a certain point.

In addition, widening the Plinko board allows for a greater number of possible outcomes, causing the distribution of final states to be greatly spread out. Put simply, the longer and wider the Plinko board is, the greater the odds of not only unequal outcomes, but of having unequal outcomes that display an enormous-magnitude difference between two dropped Plinko chips.

Even with down-to-the-atom initial precisions, three dropped Plinko chips with the same initial conditions (red, green, blue) will lead to vastly different outcomes by the end, so long as the variations are large enough, the number of steps to your Plinko board is great enough, and the number of possible outcomes is sufficiently large. With those conditions, chaotic outcomes are inevitable.

This doesnt just apply to Plinko, of course, but to any system with a large number of interactions: either discrete (like collisions) or continuous (such as from multiple gravitational forces acting simultaneously). If you take a system of air molecules where one side of a box is hot and the other side is cold, and you remove a divider between them, collisions between those molecules will spontaneously occur, causing the particles to exchange energy and momenta. Even in a small box, there would be more than 1020 particles; in short order, the entire box will have the same temperature, and will never separate into a hot side and a cold side again.

Even in space, justthree point masses is enough to fundamentally introduce chaos. Three massive black holes, bound within distances the scale of the planets in our Solar System, will evolve chaotically no matter how precisely their initial conditions are replicated. The fact that theres a cutoff in how small distances can get and still make senseagain, the Planck lengthensures that arbitrary accuracies on long-enough timescales can never be ensured.

By considering the evolution and details of a system with as few as three particles, scientists have been able to show that a fundamental time irreversibility arises in these systems under realistic physical conditions that the Universe is very likely to obey. If you cannot calculate distances meaningfully to arbitrary precisions, you cannot avoid chaos.

The key takeaway of chaos is this: even when your equations are perfectly deterministic, you cannot know the initial conditions to arbitrary sensitivities. Even placing a Plinko chip on the board and releasing it with down-to-the-atom precision wont be enough, with a large enough Plinko board, to guarantee that multiple chips would ever take identical paths. In fact, with a sufficiently large board, you can all but guarantee that no matter how many Plinko chips you dropped, youd never arrive at two truly identical paths. Eventually, theyd all diverge.

Minuscule variationsthe presence of air molecules moving from the hosts announcing, temperature variations arising from the contestants breath, vibrations from the studio audience propagating into the pegs, etc.introduce enough uncertainty so that, far enough down the line, these systems are effectively impossible to predict. Along with quantum randomness, this effective classical randomness prevents us from knowing the outcome of a complex system, no matter how much initial information we possess. Asphysicist Paul Halpern so eloquently put it, God plays dice in more ways thanone.

More here:

To understand chaos theory, play a game of Plinko - Big Think