<h2>Particle Shift</h2>
Get ready to get excited about excitons.
Excitons are quirky quasiparticles that exist only in semiconducting and insulating materials. Recently, a team of researchers in Lausanne, Switzerland discovered a way to control how <a href="https://actu.epfl.ch/news/epfl-uses-excitons-to-take-electronics-into-the-fu/">excitons flow</a>. Not only that, they also discovered new properties of the particles which they claim could lead to a new generation of electronic devices with transistors that lose less energy as heat. The results of their study were published this week in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-018-0325-y">Nature Photonics</a>.
<h2>The Buzz About Excitons</h2>
Excitons are created when electrons absorb light, moving to a <a href="https://electroiq.com/2018/07/epfl-uses-excitons-to-take-electronics-into-the-future/">higher &#8220;energy band&#8221;</a> and leaving behind an &#8220;electron hole&#8221; where the electron was previously. Because the electron has a negative charge and the hole has a positive charge, the two are bound together and become known as an exciton. They are particularly easy to manipulate in 2D materials, such as those with a basic structure only a few atoms thick like carbon.
The research team from the <a href="https://actu.epfl.ch/news/excitons-pave-the-way-to-more-efficient-electronic/">École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne</a> (EPFL) found that by using a laser to generate light and slightly shifting the position of a 2D material they could use excitons to change some of the properties of the light.
<h2>Next Level Computing</h2>
One property of excitons, their valley, relates to how much energy they have. By manipulating these valleys and properties of light we can code information on nanoscopic scales. The process, known as valleytronics, is very similar to the binary 1&#8217;s and 0&#8217;s that make up the basis of all computing.
“Our research showed that, by manipulating excitons, we had come upon a whole new approach to electronics,” said Andras Kis, who heads the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures at EPFL. “We are witnessing the emergence of a totally new field of study, the full scope of which we don’t yet know.”
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/epfd-ept010419.php">Excitons pave the way to more efficient electronics</a> [EurekAlert]
More on Advance Computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-biological-virus-computers">MIT Scientists Used a Biological Virus to Make Faster Computers</a>

Get ready to get excited about excitons. 

A physics breakthrough could lead to a new generation of advanced electronics

Excited About Excitons

A team of researchers claim excitons could lead to a new generation of electronic devices with transistors that lose less energy as heat.

A Physics Breakthrough Could Lead to a New Generation of Advanced Electronics

“We are witnessing the emergence of a totally new field of study."

<h2>Quantum Realm</h2>
If there&#8217;s one thing U.S. politicians can almost unanimously agree on, it&#8217;s apparently the importance of quantum computing.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-expected-to-pass-bill-spurring-quantum-computing-11545250595" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted 348-11</a> to pass the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6227" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Quantum Initiative Act</a>, a bill designed to streamline and accelerate the nation&#8217;s quantum computing efforts. The bill had already received unanimous approval in the Senate, and its next stop is the desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign the act into law.
If that happens, the U.S. will devote more than <a href="https://gizmodo.com/house-passes-bill-to-advance-quantum-science-in-the-u-s-1829060167" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.2 billion</a> to quantum computing research and development over the next five years.
<h2>Huge Benefits</h2>
Quantum computers harness characteristics unique to the subatomic world to process information more quickly than classical computers. The technology is still in its infancy, but researchers across the world are <a href="https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/09/01/quantum-race-united-states-must-compete/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racing</a> to develop usable quantum machines — for compelling reasons.
Quantum computing has the potential to improve a nation&#8217;s <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/quantum-computing-must-be-a-national-security-priority/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cybersecurity</a> and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/us-intelligence-quantum-computing-artificial-intelligence-national-security-threat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intelligence</a> operations, as well as boost its <a href="https://www.ida.org/idamedia/Corporate/Files/Publications/STPIPubs/2017/P-8567.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economy</a> through the development of new technologies. The first country to harness the power of quantum computing will have a huge advantage over others, and the National Quantum Initiative Act could help the U.S. be that nation.
<h2>The Particulars</h2>
Highlights of the quantum computing bill include the establishment of a National Quantum Initiative Program to advance the research and development of quantum computing in the U.S. over the next 10 years, as well as the creation of two to five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers within the Department of Energy. Each of those centers will receive $25 million in funding annually for the next five years to go toward conducting basic research.
The bill also establishes a National Quantum Coordination Office housed under the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and a National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee to advise the president on all things quantum computing.
The U.S. isn&#8217;t the only nation hoping to emerge as the world leader in quantum computing — <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-computing-china-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/a-new-breakthrough-in-quantum-computing-is-set-to-transform-our-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russia</a>, and several others are working toward the same goal — but the passage of this quantum computing bill could bolster the U.S.&#8217;s chances of reaching it first.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-expected-to-pass-bill-spurring-quantum-computing-11545250595" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Passes Bill to Create National Quantum Computing Program</a> [The Wall Street Journal]
More on quantum computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computer-first-practical" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The World’s First Practical Quantum Computer May Be Just Five Years Away</a>

The U.S. is ready to invest big in quantum computing.

Congress passes $1.2 billion quantum computing bill

Funding Secured

Congress has passed a $1.2 billion quantum computing bill designed to accelerate U.S. research into the nascent technology.

Congress Passes $1.2 Billion Quantum Computing Bill

Next stop: the desk of President Trump. 

<h2>A Secure Threat</h2>
Cracking today&#8217;s most secure encryption would either take a really long time or massive computing power.
But even the most secure data encryption algorithms could <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612509/quantum-computers-encryption-threat/">soon become ineffective</a> — and it&#8217;s all the fault of quantum computers.
<h2>Quantum Hackers</h2>
The age of quantum computing is almost upon us. In a matter of years, quantum computers could become far more powerful than the digital computers we use now.
Harnessing the power of quantum computers could undermine current encryption methods in a matter of days. At least, that&#8217;s according to a <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25196/quantum-computing-progress-and-prospects">new report</a> by experts at the U.S. National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Their fear: significant security loopholes could crop up if hackers get their hands on powerful quantum computers before quantum-proof encryption methods become mainstream. Even worse, they predict it could take decades for those quantum-proof systems to roll out across banks, hospitals and other institutions that you don&#8217;t want to get hacked.
<h2>Quantum for the Masses</h2>
But not all is lost. Startups like ISARA, a Canadian firm, are already working on encryption methods that are resistant to quantum hacking, the MIT Technology Review <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612509/quantum-computers-encryption-threat/">reports</a>.
That&#8217;s a good thing, because it&#8217;s better to be safe than sorry.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612509/quantum-computers-encryption-threat/">Quantum computers pose a security threat that we’re still totally unprepared for</a> [MIT Technology Review] 

More on quantum security: <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-video-secure-communication">Quantum Video Call Displays the Future of Secure Communication</a>

What could be a bigger security threat than today's hackers? Quantum hackers.

Researchers: quantum computers could become ultimate hacking tool

Quantum Hackers

According to a new report, it could take 20 years for quantum-safe encryption to become mainstream. And that's bad news.

Researchers: Quantum Computers Could Become Ultimate Hacking Tool

Luckily we're already working on a solution.

<h2>This Matters, We Promise</h2>
There are very few things in this world surrounded by more hype and confusion than quantum computers. Depending on who you ask, quantum computers will either solve every problem in the known world or never prove useful at all.
The problem is that the computers we already have and understand are pretty darn good at their jobs. But scientists finally found specific ways that quantum computers outperform them — and that could be a big deal in computer science.
<h2>Slow and Steady</h2>
In <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6412/308">research published today in the journal Science</a>, researchers from IBM and the Technical University of Munich detailed the type of problems for which quantum computers may be best suited.
Specifically, quantum computers will be able to solve complex linear algebra problems — that&#8217;s a type of math computer scientists use for the optimization problems at which AI excels — without engineers needing to ramp up the complexity of the computer’s circuitry. With old-school classical computers, more complex problems require more complex processors, but a quantum computer’s limited circuitry will be able to solve this type of problem even as it becomes more difficult, according to the paper.
<h2>But Really, This Matters</h2>
In an <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/10/quantum-advantage-2/">accompanying blog post</a>, IBM clarified why there was still so much confusion surrounding this new development. The short answer is that they haven’t really identified any specific problems that a quantum computer would be able to handle better than a classical one. But, IBM says that wasn’t the point.
Rather, they proved that such a problem exists. Claiming “hey, quantum computers will actually be good for something” may sound elementary but until this point, <a href="https://futurism.com/future-quantum-computer/">scientists weren’t actually sure</a> that was the case.
Even so, the IBM blog post — which suggests that quantum tech could boost artificial intelligence capabilities — sometimes sounds like a combination of dense engineering speak and hedging bets.
But until we actually <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computer-first-practical">get a useful quantum computer up and running</a>, we won’t know for sure.
READ MORE: Scientists Prove a Quantum Computing Advantage over Classical [<a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2018/10/quantum-advantage-2/">IBM</a>]
More on quantum computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computing-qa">Quantum Computing Is Going to Change the World. Here’s What This Means for You.</a>

IBM: quantum computers could be useful, but we don't know exactly how

What's the point

For a long time, we weren't sure whether quantum computers would actually serve a purpose. Now, IBM found something they're actually good at.

IBM: Quantum Computers Could Be Useful, But We Don’t Know Exactly How

One hope: that quantum tech will lead to better AI.

You&#8217;ve read the headlines: quantum computers are going to cure disease by discovering new pharmaceuticals! They&#8217;re going to pore through all the world&#8217;s data and find solutions to problems like poverty and inequality!
Alternatively, they might not do any of that. We&#8217;re really not sure what a quantum computer will even look like, but <a href="https://futurism.com/future-quantum-computer/">boy are we excited</a>.
It often feels like quantum computers are in their own quantum state — they&#8217;re revolutionizing the world, but are still a distant pipe dream.
<q class="pullquote">We&#8217;re really not sure what a quantum computer will even look like, but boy are we excited.</q>
Now, though, the National Science Foundation has plans to pluck quantum computers from the realm of the fantastic and drop them squarely in its research labs. And it’s willing to pay an awful lot to do so.
In August, the federal agency announced the <a href="https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/duke-lead-15-million-program-create-first-practical-quantum-computer">Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum co-design (STAQ) project</a>. Physicists, engineers, computer scientists, and other researchers from Duke and six other universities (including MIT and University of California-Berkeley) will band together to embark on the five-year, $15 million mission.
The goal is to create the world’s first practical quantum computer — one that goes beyond a proof-of-concept and actually outperforms the best classical computers out there — from the ground up.
A little background: there are <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/scientist-helping-bring-quantum-computers-market/">a few key differences</a> between a classical computer and a quantum computer. Where a classic computer uses bits that are either in a 0 or 1 state, quantum bits, or qubits, can also be both 1 and 0 at the same time. The quantum circuits <a href="https://futurism.com/physicists-invented-essential-component-needed-quantum-computers/">that use these qubits</a> to transfer information or carry out a calculation are called quantum logic gates; just as a classic circuit controls the flow of electricity within a computer’s circuitry, these gates steer the individual qubits via photons or trapped ions.
In order to develop quantum computers that are actually useful, scientists need to figure out how to improve both hardware we use to build the physical devices, and the software we run on them. That means figuring out how to build systems with more qubits that are less error-prone, and determining how to sort out the correct responses to our queries when we get lots of noise back with them. It&#8217;s likely that part of the answer is building automated tools that can optimize how certain algorithms are mapped onto the specific hardware, ultimately tackling both problems at once.
<figure id="attachment_138074" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-138074 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/09/quantum-computer2-1200x630.png" alt="" width="1200" height="630" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/fractal-render-3d-complexity-1240898/">TheDigitalArtist/Victor Tangermann</a></figcaption></figure>
To better understand what this program might produce, Futurism <a href="https://ece.duke.edu/faculty/kenneth-brown">caught up with Kenneth Brown</a>, the Duke University engineer in charge of STAQ. Here&#8217;s our conversation, which has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. We&#8217;ve supplemented Brown&#8217;s answers with hyperlinks.
Futurism: A lot of what we hear about quantum computing is very abstract and theoretical — there’s lots of research that might lead towards quantum computers, but doesn’t show any clear path on how to get there. What will your team be able to do that others haven’t been able to do in the past?
Kenneth Brown: I think it’s important to remember that quantum computers can be made out of <a href="https://futurism.com/silicon-quantum-computer-chip-design-actually-work/">a wide variety of things</a>. I usually make an analogy to classical computers. The first classical computers were just gears, pretty much because that was the best technology we had. And then there was this vacuum tube phase of classical computers that was quite useful and good. And then the first silicon transistor first appeared. And it’s important to remember that when the silicon transistor first appeared, it couldn’t quite compete with vacuum tubes. Sometimes I think people forget it was such an amazing discovery.
Quantum computing is the same thing. There are lots of ways to represent quantum information. Right now, the two technologies that have demonstrated the most useful applications are superconducting qubits and trapped ion qubits. They’re different and they have pluses and minuses, but in our group, we’ve been collectively focused on these trapped ion qubits.
With trapped ion qubits, what’s nice is that on a small scale of tens of ions, all the qubits are directly connected. That’s very different from a superconducting system of a solid-state system, in which you have to talk to the qubits that are nearby. So I think we have very concrete plans to get to 30, 32 qubits. That’s clear. We would like to extend that to something closer to 64 or so, and that is going to require some new research.
F: What makes this a “practical” computer compared to all of the other people working on quantum computers?
KB: I do think <a href="https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2018/03/06/google-reclaims-quantum-computer-crown-with-72-qubit-processor/">there are industrial efforts</a> pushing towards building exactly these practical devices. The thing which really distinguishes us is being on the academic side. I think it allows for more exploration, with the goal of making a device which enables people to test wildly different ideas on how the architecture should be and what applications should be on it, these sort of things.
Just to pick an example, <a href="https://futurism.com/ibm-announced-50-qubit-quantum-computer/">the guys at IBM</a> have their quantum device. I actually collaborate with them through other projects, and I think they’re pretty open. But right now, the way you interact with it, you’re already at a level of abstraction [in that people can ask things of the computer online but can&#8217;t change how it&#8217;s programmed]. If you were thinking about totally optimizing this thing, you can’t. They have a tradeoff: they have their computer totally open for access on the web, but to make it stable like that, you have to turn off some knobs. [The IBM computer, because it&#8217;s sequestered off and intended for many researchers to use, can&#8217;t be customized to do everything an individual might want it to.]
So our goal is to make a device reaching this practical scale where researchers can play with all the knobs.
F: How would quantum computing change things for the average person? 
KB: I think in the long term, quantum computing and communication will change how we deal with encoded information on the internet. In Google Chrome, in fact, you can already change your cryptography to a possible post-quantum cryptography setup.
The second thing is I think people don’t think about all the ways that molecular design impacts materials — from boring things like water bottles to fancy things like specific new medicines. So what’s interesting is if the quantum computer fulfills its promise to efficiently and accurately calculate those molecular properties, that could really <a href="https://futurism.com/future-quantum-computer/">change the materials and medicines</a> we see in the future.
But on what you’re going to do on your home computer, the way I think about it is most people use their computer to watch Netflix and occasionally write a letter or email or whatever. Those are not places where quantum computers really help you.
So it’s sort of funny — I don’t know what the user base would be. But when computers were first built, people had the same impression. They said that computers would just be for scientists doing lab work. And, clearly, that&#8217;s no longer the case.
F: What sort of person will be able to use a quantum computer? How do you train someone to use it, and what might the quantum computing degree of the future look like?
KB: When I try to explain quantum computing to someone, if they know the physics or chemistry of quantum mechanics, then I can usually start there to explain how to do the computing side. And the other side is also true: if people understand computing pretty well, I can explain the extra modules that quantum computing gives you.
In the future, we probably need people trained from both of those disciplines. We need people who have a physical sciences background who we get up to speed on the computer science side and the opposite.
The specific thing we’re going to try to do is have this quantum summer school, with the idea to bring in people from industry who are maybe excellent microwave engineers or software engineers, and try to give them enough tools so they can start to think about the extra rules you have to think about with quantum.
F: What sorts of new research will you need to sort out before this thing can be built? What will that take?
KB: We have some ideas. In a classic computer you work with voltage, but in quantum computing, I need to somehow carry information from one place to another. Do messenger qubits that carry information to other parts of the computer have to be the same type of qubit that the rest of the computer is made of? We&#8217;re not sure yet.
A common way to think about scaling up the complexity of quantum computers is called <a href="http://iontrap.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Architecture-for-a-large-scale-ion-trap-quantum-computer.pdf">the CCD architecture</a>. The idea is to shuttle manageable chains of ions from point to point. That’s one possibility.
There’s been some theoretical work looking at whether you can have photons interconnect between ion chains. The idea across all kinds of supercomputers is to use photons as these messenger qubits. And by doing that, you can basically have a bunch of small quantum computers wired up by all these photons that collectively act like a larger computer.
But that’s farther out. I think getting that to work at the bandwidth we need in the next five years would be pretty challenging. If it happens, that would be great, but it’s probably farther out.
F: Along the way, how will you know that you’re making tangible progress? Do you have benchmarks for knowing that you’re, say, halfway there? How can you test to know for sure that it’s working?
KB: On the hardware side, we can increase the number of qubits and get the gates [these are, if you recall, the things that move ions or photons to transfer information] better and call it tangible progress. We have a sense that we have to get, even though the number moves, somewhere above fifty qubits to have a fighting chance. [As of March, <a href="https://futurism.com/googles-new-quantum-processor/">Google holds the record</a> with a 72-qubit system]
At the same time, we’re going to take algorithms and applications that we know, and we’re going to map them onto the hardware. We’re going to try to optimize the algorithm as we map it in a way that makes the overall application less vulnerable to noise.
Before we run these applications, we have a rule of thumb about how often they should fail in tests and general use. But after this software optimization that my team is working on, ideally it will fail much less often. That helps us explore more in the algorithm space because it gives you confidence that you can push quantum computers towards more complicated systems. I think it’s important to note that we have the space to be very exploratory, to look at problems people aren’t thinking about.
F: What’s the worst misconception about quantum computers that you run into? What do people always seem to get wrong about them?
KB: The one misconception is that it’s magic. Quantum computers aren’t magic; they don’t allow you to solve all problems.
Here’s the thing — in classical computing, we have the sense that there are some problems that are easy and some problems which are really hard, which means we can’t solve them in <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolynomialTime.html">polynomial time</a> [a computer science term used to denote whether a computer is able to complete a task quickly].
It turns out we spend a lot of our computing power trying to solve the problems that we can’t solve in polynomial time, and we just have approximations.
Quantum computers do allow you to solve some of the problems which are intractable on a classic computer, but they don’t solve them all. Usually, the thing which drives me crazy is when a quantum computer article says they can solve all problems instantly because they do infinite parallel calculations at once.
I’m really excited for when we have large scale quantum computers. With some problems — the famous example is the <a href="http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/tsp/">Traveling Salesman Problem</a> — we know we can’t solve it for all possible routes of salesmen, but we have to solve it anyway. The classical computer does the best it can, and then when it blows it, nobody’s upset. You’re like, ‘oh okay, well it’s going to get it wrong some of the time.’
When we have large-scale quantum computers, we can test algorithms like that more accurately. We’ll know we can solve the classical problem, just occasionally the new computer gets bogged down.
I’m a big optimist. I guess that’s how you end up working this kind of field.
More on teams racing towards a quantum computer: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-developing-quantum-computers/">AI Will Lead the Charge Developing Quantum Computers</a>

A team of scientists has got five years and $15 million to get a working device.

The world's first practical quantum computer may be just five years away

Robots & Machines

A five-year project to build the world's first practical quantum computer just began. Futurism chatted with the lead engineer to learn how it'll happen.

The World’s First Practical Quantum Computer May Be Just Five Years Away

A practical quantum computer would leave your desktop in the dust.

QUANTUM CONTROL. If we want <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computing-qa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quantum computers</a> to become more sophisticated — which, yeah, we definitely do — we&#8217;ve got to be able to manipulate the quantum world. Programming a quantum computer means we need to be able to precisely arrange individual atoms, which isn&#8217;t all that easy. But now, researchers from the University of Paris-Saclay have figured out a better way to do just that.
They published a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0450-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> on the subject on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
THE NEXT DIMENSION. Right now, we can arrange atoms into various one- and two-dimensional arrays using optical tweezers, instruments that trap atoms in place using highly focused laser beams.
The French researchers figured out that they could reflect a laser off a spatial light modulator (a device that can make a light beam more or less intense) and then refocus it to produce three-dimensional arrays that could trap atoms.
Once they had their atomic arrays in place to act as a scaffolding, the researchers could put atoms in to populate them. “We initially randomly load and half-fill these traps with cold rubidium atoms,” the study&#8217;s lead author Daniel Barredo <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/engineered-atomic-arrays-for-quantum-computers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Physics World</a>.
The team then used optical tweezers to rearrange the atoms within the trap however they wanted, moving them from one spot in the array to another. Ultimately, the researchers were able to produce atomic arrays containing 72 atoms.
EXCITABLE ATOMS. Not only could the researchers arrange the atoms however they saw fit (how they saw fit was in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, because of course), they could even &#8220;entangle&#8221; pairs of atoms within the array. They just needed to zap each atom with a laser to excite one of its electrons (producing what&#8217;s called Rydberg excitation), and the atoms could then exchange spins.
“Arrays of neutral atoms excited to Rydberg states have recently emerged as a very promising platform for quantum simulations of large physical systems,” said Barredo. “Until now, however, the largest quantum simulations that could be performed using these systems involved around 50 qubits in 1D and 2D geometries.&#8221;
&#8220;Accessing the third dimension, as we have achieved in this work, not only allows these qubits to be scaled up (to 72 atoms in our case), it also opens the way to simulating more complex, real-world physical phenomena and materials.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/atomic-eiffel-tower-looms-over-quantum-computing-landscape/3009473.article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atomic Eiffel Tower Looms Over Quantum Computing Landscape</a> [Chemistry World]
More on quantum computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computing-qa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quantum Computing Is Going to Change the World. Here’s What This Means for You.</a>

That image of the Eiffel Tower isn't just a novelty.

It's now way easier to manipulate individual atoms in 3D

Researchers figure out a way to produce three-dimensional atomic arrays, which could prove incredibly useful for the creation of quantum computers.

It's Now Way Easier to Manipulate Individual Atoms in 3D

The technique could make quantum computers a whole lot more sophisticated.

It’s Now Way Easier to Manipulate Individual Atoms in 3D

Great Scott! A team of physicists just figured out how to make a flux capacitor.
No, it&#8217;s not a real-life version of what was in the &#8220;Back to the Future&#8221; franchise (reminder: in the movies, the flux capacitor is the plutonium-powered device that makes time travel possible). While the version proposed by these scientists won&#8217;t let you traipse through time, it could do something almost as cool: help usher in the <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/quantum-computing-may-unlock-the-nature-of-space-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quantum computing</a> era.
The Australian and Swiss physicists behind the invention published <a href="https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.213602" target="_blank" rel="noopener">their research</a> Monday in the journal Physical Review Letters.
What the heck is this flux capacitor, anyway? Let&#8217;s break it down. <a href="https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/everything-need-know-capacitors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Capacitors</a> are devices that store energy, and they&#8217;re pretty common in the world of electronics. Flux, meanwhile, is the amount of something moving across a certain area. So in a flux capacitor, microwaves are the something, and the channel they move across is a central capacitor.
Ironically, while Doc and Marty didn&#8217;t need roads where they were going, the best analogy for how the researchers&#8217; flux capacitor would work does involve traffic. The device forces microwaves to flow in just one direction around a center area, just like cars in a roundabout. This is pretty remarkable because it breaks something called <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-32899-5_16" target="_blank" rel="noopener">time-reversal symmetry</a> — a theoretical law of physics that states that, if you reversed time, you’d see whatever just happened, happen exactly in reverse, like a mirror image.
<figure id="attachment_131857" style="width: 580px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-131857 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/05/Roundabout-gifs.gif" alt="" width="580" height="449" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">In this analogy, the cars represent the microwave signals and the land they circle is the capacitor. Credit: <a href="http://pinavia.com/start.phtml">PINAVIA</a></figcaption></figure>
The researchers propose two designs for their flux capacitor. One does resemble the Y-shaped device used in the movies, but is much more complicated than &#8220;Back to the Future&#8221; made it seem.
&#8220;In it, quantum &#8216;tubes&#8217; of magnetic flux can move around a central capacitor by a process known as quantum tunneling, where they overcome classically insurmountable obstacles,&#8221; theoretical physicist Jared Cole, one of the researchers behind the proposal, said <a href="https://www.fleet.org.au/blog/physicists-invent-flux-capacitor-break-time-reversal-symmetry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a news release</a>.
We&#8217;ll take your word for it.
The flux capacitor itself may be complex, but it&#8217;s applications are clear. As the paper&#8217;s lead author, Clemens Mueller, noted in the news release, the device could help researchers precisely control signals, necessary to advance quantum computing. It could also help us improve the electronics we use today, everything from smartphones to radar systems.
So, sorry, this flux capacitor won&#8217;t give you the ability to travel back in time to bungle how your parents met, but did you really want to do that anyway? You could straight up erase yourself from existence! Much safer to leave the time travel to sci-fi and keep our eyes on the future.

Scientists made a real-life flux capacitor

Hard Science

We now have not one, but two potential designs for a flux capacitor. But no, sorry, it won't help you travel through time.

Scientists Made A Real-Life Flux Capacitor

It won't power your car as you travel through time, but it could help usher in the age of quantum computing.

Scientists Invented A Real-Life Flux Capacitor

Given all the buzz, you might be surprised you don&#8217;t have your very own quantum computer yet. The field of quantum computing — in which a processor <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computing-qa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">handles a range of inputs and outputs at once</a> — has pushed new bounds over the last few years. But quantum computers are still largely used for research. For users, the day in which quantum computers are ubiquitous, or even useful, has yet to arrive.
We still aren&#8217;t there yet. But today, we get a step closer — Google unveiled Bristlecone, its latest quantum processor, and its most powerful to date.
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Here&#8217;s what you need to know about Bristlecone.
<h2>It&#8217;s Packing A Lot of Qubits</h2>
Qubits, or quantum bits, are the basic units of information in a quantum processor. The more qubits a processor has, the more information it can process at once, and the more powerful it is overall.
<a href="https://futurism.com/ibm-announced-50-qubit-quantum-computer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBM recently produced a 50-qubit system</a>. But the Bristlecone trumps it with a whopping 72 qubits.
The various companies pursuing quantum hardware are always keen to brag about how many qubits their latest system possesses, and though that&#8217;s not the deciding factor of a quantum processor&#8217;s functionality, it&#8217;s definitely important.
<h2>It Needs To Make Fewer Errors</h2>
In spite of recent advances, today&#8217;s qubits are still unstable, and hardware needs to be sturdy to run them. Quantum computers need to keep their processors extremely cold and protect them from external shocks. Even accidental sounds can cause the computer to make mistakes.
To operate in even remotely real-world settings, quantum processors need to have an error rate of less than 0.5 percent for every two qubits. Google&#8217;s best has be 0.6 percent using its much smaller 9-qubit hardware. The blog post didn&#8217;t state Bristlecone&#8217;s error rate, but Google has made it clear that the company strives to improve upon its previous results. To drop the error rate for its high-qubit processor, engineers need to figure out how software, control electronics, and the processor itself can work alongside one another without causing errors.
<h2>It&#8217;s A Serious Push For Quantum Greatness</h2>
Researchers are working so hard to bring us quantum computers because they believe the devices will inevitably outperform classical supercomputers. The term &#8220;quantum supremacy&#8221; refers to the prospect of a quantum computer solving a problem that a classical system cannot. Some researchers suspect this could happen when <a href="https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2018/02/06/heres-why-100-qubit-quantum-computers-could-change-everything/">quantum computers reach 100 qubits</a>. When it does happen, quantum supremacy will be a &#8220;watershed moment&#8221; for the field, according to <a href="https://research.googleblog.com/2018/03/a-preview-of-bristlecone-googles-new.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google&#8217;s blog post on Bristlecone</a>.
Bristlecone doesn&#8217;t quite get us there. But the Google team is &#8220;cautiously optimistic&#8221; that the new processor could hasten the process. And the result will mean quantum computers could then become &#8220;functionally useful,&#8221; <a href="https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2018/03/06/google-reclaims-quantum-computer-crown-with-72-qubit-processor/">The Next Web writes</a>.

When a quantum computer outperforms a traditional computer, it will be a "watershed moment for our field."

3 things you need to know about Google's new quantum processor

Google has lifted the lid on its new quantum processor, Bristlecone. The project could play a key role in making quantum computers "functionally useful."

Three Things You Need to Know About Google's New Quantum Processor

Bristlecone's 72 qubits trump IBM's 50.

Three Things You Need to Know About Google’s New Quantum Processor

<h2>Strange Photons</h2>
Those of us who grew up watching Luke and Leia on screen have probably wondered at one point or another why we don&#8217;t have lightsabers. <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/michio-kaku-heres-why-we-can-never-fire-the-photon-torpedoes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The basic reason why</a> is because the photons that make up light do not interact with one another. Yet according to a new study <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6377/783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published in the journal </a><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6377/783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Science</a>, interacting photons can be created in the lab. Beyond sci-fi-inspired applications, this new development could also play a huge role in actualizing quantum computers.
<figure id="attachment_123514" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-123514 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/02/photon-1200x675.png" alt="Could quantum computers, or even lightsabers, work using entangled or interacting photons, like those observed in this recent study? Image Credit: GooKingSword / Pixabay" width="779" height="399" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Could quantum computers, or even lightsabers, work using entangled photons? Image Credit: GooKingSword / Pixabay</figcaption></figure>
Researchers observed groups of three photons not only interacting, but effectively combining to form a completely new type of photonic matter. This outcome essentially reveals a new form of light.
To make interacting photons, the team shone a weak laser through a cloud of cold rubidium atoms. Rather than emerging from this cloud separately, the photons within the laser merged bound in groups of three. This observation suggests a form of interaction and attraction — also known as entanglement — between photons.
Among the observations that the researchers made, they also noticed that the normally zero-mass photons had taken on a fraction of an electron&#8217;s mass when bound together. They were also traveling about 100,000 times slower than typical photons.
<h2>Next Stop: Quantum Computing</h2>
This work builds off <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/09/seeing-light-in-a-new-way/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the first-ever observation</a> of interacting photons, which this team documented in 2013. According to MIT physics professor Vladan Vuletic <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180215141713.htm">in a press release</a>: &#8220;The interaction of individual photons has been a very long dream for decades.&#8221; <figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/supercomputers-moores-law/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/03/supercomputer_home_v1-900x600.jpg" alt="Supercomputers: To Moore&#8217;s Law and Beyond" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/supercomputers-moores-law/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
The team believes that photon interactions could be manipulated in ways that make them an asset to <a href="https://futurism.com/physicists-quantum-entangle-silicon-devices-send-information-20-centimeter-distance/">quantum computing</a>. Entangled photons could be used to distribute information in a quantum system. Quantum computing carries information using bits that represent both a binary 0 and 1 simultaneously, which may be facilitated by closely entangled photons.
&#8220;Photons can travel very fast over long distances, and people have been using light to transmit information, such as in optical fibers,&#8221; Vuletic said in the press release. &#8220;If photons can influence one another, then if you can entangle these photons, and we&#8217;ve done that, you can use them to distribute quantum information in an interesting and useful way.&#8221;

The new type of light could help facilitate quantum computing.

Physicists have made the second-ever observation of interacting photons

A new study observes interacting photons in groups of three, which could potentially carry information in quantum computing applications.

Physicists Have Made the Second-Ever Observation of Interacting Photons

The discovery seemingly defies the laws of physics.

With <a href="https://futurism.com/17-qubit-chips-begins-quantum-revolution/?src=featured" target="_blank" rel="noopener">17-qubit chips</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/ibm-announced-50-qubit-quantum-computer/?src=featured" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBM&#8217;s 50-qubit computer</a>, quantum computing is coming — that much is undeniable. But if quantum computers are ever going to be used for more complex tasks, they&#8217;re going to need thousands — if not millions — of qubits. And we&#8217;re not quite there yet.
Whether the machines are primarily tasked with performing calculations or correcting incorrect information caused by external forces (which qubits are very sensitive to) practical quantum computers are going to require a lot of qubits. Therefore, we&#8217;ll need to manufacture processors capable of handling all the qubits needed for these machines to run. That&#8217;s the challenge a team of scientists from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands hopes they&#8217;ve found a solution to, by <a href="https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2018/tnw/programming-on-a-silicon-quantum-chip/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using silicon to make a programmable quantum processor</a>.
In their research, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25766.epdf?referrer_access_token=0sEU-P4UjGMC3jRZOIDPQ9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NBc1ym_5NUrSHaqkEiABr3mLoegTlpu2ReLqUzbGwESM6-VAPpobxcupieAaXlAsLq1XEG08MDaTsfADQ4yxo3NLQGtnzR7dhRqGwwyPyU9EnTQqAOotw-HNLXLaThusEokK1M5z9oCH10ls1KmeP9lAs9uJBfvqg2yFMqJTWCYg%3D%3D&amp;tracking_referrer=www.bbc.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published in the journal Nature</a>, the team describes how they controlled the spin of a single electron using microwave energy. In silicon, the electron would spin up and down simultaneously, effectively keeping it in place. Once this was achieved, the team linked two electrons together and programmed them to perform quantum algorithms. The data from the new processor matched the data from a traditional computer running the same algorithms.
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What&#8217;s most notable about the team&#8217;s research is that they successfully created a 2-qubit silicon-based quantum processor. It&#8217;s not all that surprising that it worked: silicon is a material the computer industry is already familiar with, as it&#8217;s readily used to manufacture <a href="https://futurism.com/silicon-quantum-computer-chip-design-actually-work/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">computer chips currently in use.</a>
&#8220;As we&#8217;ve seen in the computer industry, silicon works quite well in terms of scaling up using the fabrication methods used,&#8221; Dr. Tom Watson, one of the authors of the research, explained to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43065485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the </a><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43065485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>.
If Watson and his team can manage to link even more electrons successfully, it could lead to qubit processors that could be mass-produced, which would bring us one step closer to the quantum computers of the future.
Professor Lieven Vandersypen, another author of the research, <a href="https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2018/tnw/programming-on-a-silicon-quantum-chip/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is already looking ahead to such developments</a>. He told the BBC that next up, the team plans to &#8220;develop silicon quantum chips with more qubits, both in the Delft cleanrooms and in industrial cleanrooms with our partner Intel.&#8221;

"Silicon works quite well in terms of scaling up using the fabrication methods used."