Category Archives: Quantum Computing

Video: The Future of Quantum Computing with IBM – insideHPC

Dario Gil from IBM Research

In this video, Dario Gil from IBM shares results from the IBM Quantum Challenge and describes how you can access and program quantum computers on the IBM Cloud today.

From May 4-8, we invited people from around the world to participate in the IBM Quantum Challengeon the IBM Cloud. We devised the Challenge as a global event to celebrateour fourth anniversary of having a real quantum computer on the cloud. Over those four days 1,745people from45countries came together to solve four problems ranging from introductory topics in quantum computing, to understanding how to mitigate noise in a real system, to learning about historic work inquantum cryptography, to seeing how close they could come to the best optimization result for a quantum circuit.

Those working in the Challenge joined all those who regularly make use of the 18quantum computing systems that IBM has on the cloud, includingthe 10 open systemsand the advanced machines available within theIBM Q Network. During the 96 hours of the Challenge, the total use of the 18 IBM Quantum systems on the IBM Cloud exceeded 1 billion circuits a day. Together, we made history every day the cloud users of the IBM Quantum systems made and then extended what can absolutely be called a world record in computing.

Every day we extend the science of quantum computing and advance engineering to build more powerful devices and systems. Weve put new two new systems on the cloud in the last month, and so our fleet of quantum systems on the cloud is getting bigger and better. Well be extending this cloud infrastructure later this year by installing quantum systems inGermanyand inJapan. Weve also gone more and more digital with our users with videos, online education, social media, Slack community discussions, and, of course, the Challenge.

Dr. Dario Gil is the Director of IBM Research, one of the worlds largest and most influential corporate research labs. IBM Research is a global organization with over 3,000 researchers at 12 laboratories on six continents advancing the future of computing. Dr. Gil leads innovation efforts at IBM, directing research strategies in Quantum, AI, Hybrid Cloud, Security, Industry Solutions, and Semiconductors and Systems. Dr. Gil is the 12th Director in its 74-year history. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Gil served as Chief Operating Officer of IBM Research and the Vice President of AI and Quantum Computing, areas in which he continues to have broad responsibilities across IBM. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud. An advocate of collaborative research models, he co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a pioneering industrial-academic laboratory with a portfolio of more than 50 projects focused on advancing fundamental AI research to the broad benefit of industry and society.

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Video: The Future of Quantum Computing with IBM - insideHPC

IonQ CEO Peter Chapman on how quantum computing will change the future of AI – VentureBeat

Businesses eager to embrace cutting-edge technology are exploring quantum computing, which depends on qubits to perform computations that would be much more difficult, or simply not feasible, on classical computers. The ultimate goals are quantum advantage, the inflection point when quantum computers begin to solve useful problems. While that is a long way off (if it can even be achieved), the potential is massive. Applications include everything from cryptography and optimization to machine learning and materials science.

As quantum computing startup IonQ has described it, quantum computing is a marathon, not a sprint. We had the pleasure of interviewing IonQ CEO Peter Chapman last month to discuss a variety of topics. Among other questions, we asked Chapman about quantum computings future impact on AI and ML.

The conversation quickly turned to Strong AI, or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which does not yet exist. Strong AI is the idea that a machine could one day understand or learn any intellectual task that a human can.

AI in the Strong AI sense, that I have more of an opinion [about], just because I have more experience in that personally, Chapman told VentureBeat. And there was a really interesting paper that just recently came out talking about how to use a quantum computer to infer the meaning of words in NLP. And I do think that those kinds of things for Strong AI look quite promising. Its actually one of the reasons I joined IonQ. Its because I think that does have some sort of application.

In a follow-up email, Chapman expanded on his thoughts. For decades, it was believed that the brains computational capacity lay in the neuron as a minimal unit, he wrote. Early efforts by many tried to find a solution using artificial neurons linked together in artificial neural networks with very limited success. This approach was fueled by the thought that the brain is an electrical computer, similar to a classical computer.

However, since then, I believe we now know the brain is not an electrical computer, but an electrochemical one, he added. Sadly, todays computers do not have the processing power to be able to simulate the chemical interactions across discrete parts of the neuron, such as the dendrites, the axon, and the synapse. And even with Moores law, they wont next year or even after a million years.

Chapman then quoted Richard Feynman, who famously said Nature isnt classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, youd better make it quantum mechanical. And by golly, its a wonderful problem because it doesnt look so easy.

Similarly, its likely Strong AI isnt classical, its quantum mechanical as well, Chapman said.

One of IonQs competitors, D-Wave, argues that quantum computing and machine learning are extremely well matched. Chapman is still on the fence.

I havent spent enough time to really understand it, he admitted. There clearly [are] a lot of people who think that ML and quantum have an overlap. Certainly, if you think of 85% of all ML produces a decision tree, and the depth of that decision tree could easily be optimized with a quantum computer. Clearly, there [are] lots of people that think that generation of the decision tree could be optimized with a quantum computer. Honestly, I dont know if thats the case or not. I think its still a little early for machine learning, but there clearly [are] so many people that are working on it. Its hard to imagine it doesnt have [an] application.

Chapman continued in a later email: ML has intimate ties to optimization: Many learning problems are formulated as minimization of some loss function on a training set of examples. Generally, Universal Quantum Computers excel at these kinds of problems.

He listed three improvements in ML that quantum computing will likely allow:

Whether Strong AI or ML, IonQ isnt particularly interested in either. The company leaves that to its customers and future partners.

Theres so much to be to be done in a quantum, Chapman said. From education at one end all the way to the quantum computer itself. I think some of our competitors have taken on lots of the entire problem set. We at IonQ are just focused on producing the worlds best quantum computer for them. We think thats a large enough task for a little company like us to handle.

So, for the moment were kind of happy to let everyone else work on different problems, he added. We just dont have extra bandwidth or resources to put into working on machine learning algorithms. And luckily, there [are] lots of other companies that think that there [are] applications there. Well partner with them in the sense that well provide the hardware that their algorithms will run on. But were not in the ML business, per se.

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IonQ CEO Peter Chapman on how quantum computing will change the future of AI - VentureBeat

Topological Quantum Computing Market Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast to 2026 – Cole of Duty

IonQ

Moreover, the Topological Quantum Computing report offers a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape in terms of regions and the major service providers are also highlighted along with attributes of the market overview, business strategies, financials, developments pertaining as well as the product portfolio of the Topological Quantum Computing market. Likewise, this report comprises significant data about market segmentation on the basis of type, application, and regional landscape. The Topological Quantum Computing market report also provides a brief analysis of the market opportunities and challenges faced by the leading service provides. This report is specially designed to know accurate market insights and market status.

By Regions:

* North America (The US, Canada, and Mexico)

* Europe (Germany, France, the UK, and Rest of the World)

* Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia Pacific)

* Latin America (Brazil and Rest of Latin America.)

* Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, , South Africa, and Rest of Middle East & Africa)

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Table of Content

1 Introduction of Topological Quantum Computing Market

1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions

2 Executive Summary

3 Research Methodology

3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources

4 Topological Quantum Computing Market Outlook

4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis

5 Topological Quantum Computing Market, By Deployment Model

5.1 Overview

6 Topological Quantum Computing Market, By Solution

6.1 Overview

7 Topological Quantum Computing Market, By Vertical

7.1 Overview

8 Topological Quantum Computing Market, By Geography

8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East

9 Topological Quantum Computing Market Competitive Landscape

9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies

10 Company Profiles

10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments

11 Appendix

11.1 Related Research

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Topological Quantum Computing Market Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast to 2026 - Cole of Duty

Daily AI Roundup: The Coolest Things on Earth Today – AiThority

Todays Daily AI Roundup covers the latest Artificial Intelligence announcements on AI capabilities, AI mobility products, Robotic Service, Technology from FortressIQ (Computer Vision), LogMeIn (Security), MAXIMUS (Govtech), Atos (Quantum Computing), Microsoft Azure (Security) and Pulse Secure (IT And DevOps).

FortressIQ, the company delivering human-level observability into the processes behind every strategic business initiative, today announced it has received $30 million in series Bfundingled byM12, Microsofts venture fund, and Tiger Global Management, with participation from earlier investors Boldstart Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

LogMeIn Inc., a leading provider of solutions for the work-from-anywhere era, has launched Remote Deployment for GoToMyPC enabling IT administrators and business professionals to remotely deploy, install, and configure GoToMyPC remote access software across any number of computers simultaneously.

Leading Government Technology (Govtech) platform MAXIMUS has announced a strategic partnership with Genesys. As part of the agreement, the two tech companies would join forces to offer the MAXIMUS Genesys Engagement Platform (Engagement Platform), a unique cloud-based citizen journey solution authorized as per the US FedRAMP guidelines.

Atos, a global leader indigital transformation, announced that it has sold its Atos Quantum Learning Machine (QLM), the worlds highest-performing commercially available quantum simulator, through its APAC distributor Intelligent Wave Inc. (IWI), in Japan. This is the first QLM that Atos has sold in Japan.

Cyber Risk Aware announced that its leading enterprise security awareness platform is now exclusively available to MS Azure LSPs and MSPs. At a time when businesses and individuals are more vulnerable to cyber attacks, many working remotely in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic, MSPs and LSPs reselling MS Azure, Teams and Security solutions are experiencing even greater demand from clients needing more extensive enterprise cyber risk protection.

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of software-defined Secure Access solutions, announced its new suite of secure access solutions for hybrid IT that provides organizations a simplified, modular and integrated approach to modernize access productivity, management andZero Trust control.

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Daily AI Roundup: The Coolest Things on Earth Today - AiThority

New Tool Could Pave the Way for Future Insights in Quantum Chemistry – AZoQuantum

Written by AZoQuantumMay 13 2020

The amount of energy needed to make or disintegrate a molecule can now be calculated more accurately than traditional methods using a new machine learning tool. Although the new tool can only deal with simple molecules at present, it opens the door to gain future insights into quantum chemistry.

Using machine learning to solve the fundamental equations governing quantum chemistry has been an open problem for several years, and theres a lot of excitement around it right now.

Giuseppe Carleo, Research Scientist, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute

Carleo, who is the co-creator of the tool, added that better insights into the formation and degradation of molecules could expose the inner workings of the chemical reactions crucial to life.

Carleo and his colleagues Kenny Choo from the University of Zurich and Antonio Mezzacapo from the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, published their study in Nature Communications on May 12th, 2020.

The tool developed by the researchers predicts the energy required to put together or break apart a molecule, for example, ammonia or water. For this calculation, it is necessary to determine the electronic structure of the molecule, which comprises the collective behavior of the electrons binding the molecule together.

The electronic structure of a molecule is complex to find and requires determining all the possible states the electrons in the molecule could be in, along with the probability of each state.

Electrons interact and entangle quantum mechanically with each other. Therefore, researchers cannot treat them individually. More electrons lead to more entanglements, and thus the problem turns exponentially more challenging.

There are no exact solutions for molecules that are more complex compared to the two electrons found in a pair of hydrogen atoms. Even approximations are not so accurate when more than a few electrons are involved.

One of the difficulties is that the electronic structure of a molecule includes states for an infinite number of orbitals that move further away from the atoms. Moreover, it is not easy to differentiate one electron from another, and the same state cannot be occupied by two electrons. The latter rule is the result of exchange symmetry, which governs the consequences when identical particles change states.

Mezzacapo and the team at IBM Quantum devised a technique for reducing the number of orbitals considered and enforcing exchange symmetry. This technique is based on approaches developed for quantum computing applications and renders the problem more analogous to scenarios in which electrons are restricted to predefined locations, for example, in a rigid lattice.

The problem was made more manageable by the similarity to rigid lattices. Earlier, Carleo trained neural networks to remodel the behavior of electrons restricted to the sites of a lattice.

The researchers could propose solutions to Mezzacapos compacted problems by extending those techniques. The neural network developed by the team calculates the probability for each state. This probability can be used to predict the energy of a specific state. The molecule is the most stable in the lowest energy level, also called the equilibrium energy.

Thanks to the innovations of the researchers, the electronic structure of a basic molecule can be calculated quickly and easily. To demonstrate the accuracy of their approaches, the researchers estimated the amount of energy required to break a real-world molecule and its bonds.

The researchers performed calculations for lithium hydride (LiH), dihydrogen (H2), water (H2O), ammonia (NH3), dinitrogen (N2), and diatomic carbon (C2). The researchers estimates for all the molecules were found to be highly accurate even in ranges where current methods struggle.

The aim of the researchers is to handle larger and more complex molecules by employing more advanced neural networks. One objective is to tackle chemicals such as those found in the nitrogen cycle, where nitrogen-based molecules are made and broken by biological processes to render them usable for life.

We want this to be a tool that could be used by chemists to process these problems.

Giuseppe Carleo, Research Scientist, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute

Carleo, Choo, and Mezzacapo are not the only researchers seeking to use machine learning to handle problems in quantum chemistry. In September 2019, they first presented their study on arXiv.org. In the same month, a research group in Germany and another one at Googles DeepMind in London reported their studies that involved using machine learning to reconstruct the electronic structure of molecules.

The other two groups made use of a similar method that does not constrain the number of orbitals considered. However, this inclusiveness is more computationally laborious, a disadvantage that will only worsen when more complex molecules are involved.

Using the same computational resources, the method employed by Carleo, Choo, and Mezzacapo produces higher accuracy; however, the simplifications performed to achieve this accuracy could lead to biases.

Overall, its a trade-off between bias and accuracy, and its unclear which of the two approaches has more potential for the future. Only time will tell us which of these approaches can be scaled up to the challenging open problems in chemistry.

Giuseppe Carleo, Research Scientist, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute

Choo, K., et al. (2020) Fermionic neural-network states for ab-initio electronic structure. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15724-9.

Source: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/

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New Tool Could Pave the Way for Future Insights in Quantum Chemistry - AZoQuantum

Research Fellow in Geometric Topology job with UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS | 206608 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Research Fellow in Geometric Topology, Topological Quantum Field Theory and Applications to Quantum Computing

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in at least one of the following areas: geometric topology, topological quantum field theory, lattice and string-net models for topological phases, or higher gauge theory? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading research intensive universities?

We are looking for a post-doctoral Research Fellow to work on the Leverhulme Trust funded research project, Emergent physics from lattice models of higher gauge theory. You will contribute to our project aim, which is to investigate the different types of point-like and loop/string-like topologically excited states arising in higher gauge theory lattice models for (3+1)-dimensional topological phases of matter. A central topic of this project concerns analysing the behaviour of higher gauge theory loop excitations when they move in three-dimensional space, braid and interact, and explore applications to topological quantum computing and to knot theory in four dimensions.

You will have a PhD in algebra, low dimensional topology, topological quantum field theory, mathematical models of topological phases of matter, topological quantum computing, or a closely allied discipline, alongside experience in geometric topology or topological quantum field theory. You will also have the ability to design, execute and write up research independently, and a developing track record of peer reviewed publications in international journals.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr Joo Faria Martins, Lecturer in AlgebraTel: +44 (0)113 343 4433 oremail:J.FariaMartins@leeds.ac.uk

OR

Professor Paul Purdon Martin, School of MathematicsTel: +44 (0)113 343 7787 oremail:P.P.Martin@leeds.ac.uk

Further information

The Schools in the Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences are proud to have been awarded the Athena SWANBronzeorSilverAward from the Equality Challenge Unit, the national body that promotes equality in the higher education sector. Ourequality and inclusion webpageprovides more information.

Location:Leeds - Main CampusFaculty/Service:Faculty of Engineering & Physical SciencesSchool/Institute:School of MathematicsCategory:ResearchGrade:Grade 7Salary:33,797 to 40,322 p.a.Working Time:37.5 hours per weekPost Type:Full TimeContractType:Fixed Term (6 months, available from 01/06/2020 (due to grant funding))ClosingDate:Wednesday 10 June 2020InterviewDate:To be confirmedReference:EPSMA1017Downloads:CandidateBrief

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Research Fellow in Geometric Topology job with UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS | 206608 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Archer to work alongside IBM in progressing quantum computing – ZDNet

Archer CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair and quantum technology manager Dr. Martin Fuechsle

Archer Materials has announced a new agreement with IBM which it hopes will advance quantum computing and progress work towards solutions for the greater adoption of the technology.

Joining the IBM Q Network, Archer will gain access to IBM's quantum computing expertise and resources, seeing the Sydney-based company use IBM's open-source software framework, Qiskit.

See also: Australia's ambitious plan to win the quantum race

Archer is the first Australian company that develops a quantum computing processor and hardware to join the IBM Q Network. The IBM Q Network provides access to the company's experts, developer tools, and cloud-based quantum systems through IBM Q Cloud.

"We are the first Australian company building a quantum chip to join into the global IBM Q Network as an ecosystem partner, a group of the very best organisations at the forefront of quantum computing." Archer CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair said.

"Ultimately, we want Australian businesses and consumers to be one of the first beneficiaries of this exciting technology, and now that we are collaborating with IBM, it greatly increases our chances of success".

Archer is advancing the commercial readiness of its12CQ qubit processor chip technology towards a minimum viable product.

"We look forward to working with IBM and members of the network to address the most fundamental challenges to the wide-scale adoption of quantum computing, using our potentially complementary technologies as starting points," Choucair added.

In November, Archer said it was continuing to inch towards its goal of creating a room temperature quantum computer, announcing at the time it had assembled a three qubit array.

The company said it has placed three isolated qubits on a silicon wafer with metallic control electrodes being used for measurement. Archer has previously told ZDNet it conducts measurements by doing magnetic fields sweeps at microwave frequencies.

"The arrangement of the qubits was repeatable and reproducible, thereby allowing Archer to quickly build and test working prototypes of quantum information processing devices incorporating a number of qubits; individual qubits; or a combination of both, which is necessary to meet Archer's aim of building a chip for a practical quantum computer," the company said.

In August, the company said it hadassembled its first room-temperature quantum bit.

Archer is building chip prototypes at the Research and Prototype Foundry out of the University of Sydney's AU$150 million Sydney Nanoscience Hub.

2020s are the decade of commercial quantum computing, says IBM

IBM spent a great deal of time showing off its quantum-computing achievements at CES, but the technology is still in its very early stages.

What is quantum computing? Understanding the how, why and when of quantum computers

There are working machines today that perform some small part of what a full quantum computer may eventually do. But what are the real-world applications for quantum computing?

Quantum computing has arrived, but we still don't really know what to do with it

Even for a technology that makes a virtue of uncertainty, where quantum goes next is something of a mystery.

Quantum computing: Myths v. Realities (TechRepublic)

Futurist Isaac Arthur explains why quantum computing is a lot more complicated than classical computing.

Link:
Archer to work alongside IBM in progressing quantum computing - ZDNet

A Discovery That Long Eluded Physicists: Superconductivity to the Edge – SciTechDaily

Researchers at Princeton have discovered superconducting currents traveling along the outer edges of a superconductor with topological properties, suggesting a route to topological superconductivity that could be useful in future quantum computers. The superconductivity is represented by the black center of the diagram indicating no resistance to the current flow. The jagged pattern indicates the oscillation of the superconductivity which varies with the strength of an applied magnetic field. Credit: Stephan Kim, Princeton University

Princeton researchers detect a supercurrent a current flowing without energy loss at the edge of a superconductor with a topological twist.

A discovery that long eluded physicists has been detected in a laboratory at Princeton. A team of physicists detected superconducting currents the flow of electrons without wasting energy along the exterior edge of a superconducting material. The finding was published May 1 in the journal Science.

The superconductor that the researchers studied is also a topological semi-metal, a material that comes with its own unusual electronic properties. The finding suggests ways to unlock a new era of topological superconductivity that could have value for quantum computing.

To our knowledge, this is the first observation of an edge supercurrent in any superconductor, said Nai Phuan Ong, Princetons Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and the senior author on the study.

Our motivating question was, what happens when the interior of the material is not an insulator but a superconductor? Ong said. What novel features arise when superconductivity occurs in a topological material?

Although conventional superconductors already enjoy widespread usage in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and long-distance transmission lines, new types of superconductivity could unleash the ability to move beyond the limitations of our familiar technologies.

Researchers at Princeton and elsewhere have been exploring the connections between superconductivity and topological insulators materials whose non-conformist electronic behaviors were the subject of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics for F. Duncan Haldane, Princetons Sherman Fairchild University Professor of Physics.

Topological insulators are crystals that have an insulating interior and a conducting surface, like a brownie wrapped in tin foil. In conducting materials, electrons can hop from atom to atom, allowing electric current to flow. Insulators are materials in which the electrons are stuck and cannot move. Yet curiously, topological insulators allow the movement of electrons on their surface but not in their interior.

To explore superconductivity in topological materials, the researchers turned to a crystalline material called molybdenum ditelluride, which has topological properties and is also a superconductor once the temperature dips below a frigid 100 milliKelvin, which is -459 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most of the experiments done so far have involved trying to inject superconductivity into topological materials by putting the one material in close proximity to the other, said Stephan Kim, a graduate student in electrical engineering, who conducted many of the experiments. What is different about our measurement is we did not inject superconductivity and yet we were able to show the signatures of edge states.

The team first grew crystals in the laboratory and then cooled them down to a temperature where superconductivity occurs. They then applied a weak magnetic field while measuring the current flow through the crystal. They observed that a quantity called the critical current displays oscillations, which appear as a saw-tooth pattern, as the magnetic field is increased.

Both the height of the oscillations and the frequency of the oscillations fit with predictions of how these fluctuations arise from the quantum behavior of electrons confined to the edges of the materials.

When we finished the data analysis for the first sample, I looked at my computer screen and could not believe my eyes, the oscillations we observed were just so beautiful and yet so mysterious, said Wudi Wang, who as first author led the study and earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 2019. Its like a puzzle that started to reveal itself and is waiting to be solved. Later, as we collected more data from different samples, I was surprisedat how perfectly the data fit together.

Researchers have long known that superconductivity arises when electrons, which normally move about randomly, bind into twos to form Cooper pairs, which in a sense dance to the same beat. A rough analogy is a billion couples executing the same tightly scripted dance choreography, Ong said.

The script the electrons are following is called the superconductors wave function, which may be regarded roughly as a ribbon stretched along the length of the superconducting wire, Ong said. A slight twist of the wave function compels all Cooper pairs in a long wire to move with the same velocity as a superfluid in other words acting like a single collection rather than like individual particles that flows without producing heating.

If there are no twists along the ribbon, Ong said, the Cooper pairs are stationary and no current flows. If the researchers expose the superconductor to a weak magnetic field, this adds an additional contribution to the twisting that the researchers call the magnetic flux, which, for very small particles such as electrons, follows the rules of quantum mechanics.

The researchers anticipated that these two contributors to the number of twists, the superfluid velocity and the magnetic flux, work together to maintain the number of twists as an exact integer, a whole number such as 2, 3 or 4 rather than a 3.2 or a 3.7. They predicted that as the magnetic flux increases smoothly, the superfluid velocity would increase in a saw-tooth pattern as the superfluid velocity adjusts to cancel the extra .2 or add .3 to get an exact number of twists.

The team measured the superfluid current as they varied the magnetic flux and found that indeed the saw-tooth pattern was visible.

In molybdenum ditelluride and other so-called Weyl semimetals, this Cooper-pairing of electrons in the bulk appears to induce a similar pairing on the edges.

The researchers noted that the reason why the edge supercurrent remains independent of the bulk supercurrent is currently not well understood. Ong compared the electrons moving collectively, also called condensates, to puddles of liquid.

From classical expectations, one would expect two fluid puddles that are in direct contact to merge into one, Ong said. Yet the experiment shows that the edge condensates remain distinct from that in the bulk of the crystal.

The research team speculates that the mechanism that keeps the two condensates from mixing is the topological protection inherited from the protected edge states in molybdenum ditelluride. The group hopes to apply the same experimental technique to search for edge supercurrents in other unconventional superconductors.

There are probably scores of them out there, Ong said.

Reference: Evidence for an edge supercurrent in the Weyl superconductor MoTe2 by Wudi Wang, Stephan Kim, Minhao Liu, F. A. Cevallos, Robert. J. Cava and Nai Phuan Ong, 1 May 2020, Science.DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw9270

Funding: The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office (W911NF-16-1-0116). The dilution refrigerator experiments were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE- SC0017863). N.P.O. and R.J.C. acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative through grants GBMF4539 (N.P.O.) and GBMF-4412 (R.J.C.). The growth and characterization of crystals were performed by F.A.C. and R.J.C., with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF MRSEC grant DMR 1420541).

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A Discovery That Long Eluded Physicists: Superconductivity to the Edge - SciTechDaily

Physicists Criticize Stephen Wolfram’s ‘Theory of Everything’ – Scientific American

Stephen Wolfram blames himself for not changing the face of physics sooner.

I do fault myself for not having done this 20 years ago, the physicist turned software entrepreneur says. To be fair, I also fault some people in the physics community for trying to prevent it happening 20 years ago. They were successful. Back in 2002, after years of labor, Wolfram self-published A New Kind of Science, a 1,200-page magnum opus detailing the general idea that nature runs on ultrasimple computational rules. The book was an instant best seller and received glowing reviews: the New York Times called it a first-class intellectual thrill. But Wolframs arguments found few converts among scientists. Their work carried on, and he went back to running his software company Wolfram Research. And that is where things remaineduntil last month, when, accompanied by breathless press coverage (and a 448-page preprint paper), Wolfram announced a possible path to the fundamental theory of physics based on his unconventional ideas. Once again, physicists are unconvincedin no small part, they say, because existing theories do a better job than his model.

At its heart, Wolframs new approach is a computational picture of the cosmosone where the fundamental rules that the universe obeys resemble lines of computer code. This code acts on a graph, a network of points with connections between them, that grows and changes as the digital logic of the code clicks forward, one step at a time. According to Wolfram, this graph is the fundamental stuff of the universe. From the humble beginning of a small graph and a short set of rules, fabulously complex structures can rapidly appear. Even when the underlying rules for a system are extremely simple, the behavior of the system as a whole can be essentially arbitrarily rich and complex, he wrote in a blog post summarizing the idea. And this got me thinking: Could the universe work this way? Wolfram and his collaborator Jonathan Gorard, a physics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge and a consultant at Wolfram Research, found that this kind of model could reproduce some of the aspects of quantum theory and Einsteins general theory of relativity, the two fundamental pillars of modern physics.

But Wolframs models ability to incorporate currently accepted physics is not necessarily that impressive. Its this sort of infinitely flexible philosophy where, regardless of what anyone said was true about physics, they could then assert, Oh, yeah, you could graft something like that onto our model, says Scott Aaronson, a quantum computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

When asked about such criticisms, Gorard agreesto a point. Were just kind of fitting things, he says. But we're only doing that so we can actually go and do a systematized search for specific rules that fit those of our universe.

Wolfram and Gorard have not yet found any computational rules meeting those requirements, however. And without those rules, they cannot make any definite, concrete new predictions that could be experimentally tested. Indeed, according to critics, Wolframs model has yet to even reproduce the most basic quantitative predictions of conventional physics. The experimental predictions of [quantum physics and general relativity] have been confirmed to many decimal placesin some cases, to a precision of one part in [10 billion], says Daniel Harlow, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So far I see no indication that this could be done using the simple kinds of [computational rules] advocated by Wolfram. The successes he claims are, at best, qualitative. Further, even that qualitative success is limited: There are crucial features of modern physics missing from the model. And the parts of physics that it can qualitatively reproduce are mostly there because Wolfram and his colleagues put them in to begin with. This arrangement is akin to announcing, If we suppose that a rabbit was coming out of the hat, then remarkably, this rabbit would be coming out of the hat, Aaronson says. And then [going] on and on about how remarkable it is.

Unsurprisingly, Wolfram disagrees. He claims that his model has replicated most of fundamental physics already. From an extremely simple model, were able to reproduce special relativity, general relativity and the core results of quantum mechanics, he says, which, of course, are what have led to so many precise quantitative predictions of physics over the past century.

Even Wolframs critics acknowledge he is right about at least one thing: it is genuinely interesting that simple computational rules can lead to such complex phenomena. But, they hasten to add, that is hardly an original discovery. The idea goes back long before Wolfram, Harlow says. He cites the work of computing pioneers Alan Turing in the 1930s and John von Neumann in the 1950s, as well as that of mathematician John Conway in the early 1970s. (Conway, a professor at Princeton University, died of COVID-19 last month.) To the contrary, Wolfram insists that he was the first to discover that virtually boundless complexity could arise from simple rules in the 1980s. John von Neumann, he absolutely didnt see this, Wolfram says. John Conway, same thing.

Born in London in 1959, Wolfram was a child prodigy who studied at Eton College and the University of Oxford before earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology in 1979at the age of 20. After his Ph.D., Caltech promptly hired Wolfram to work alongside his mentors, including physicist Richard Feynman. I dont know of any others in this field that have the wide range of understanding of Dr. Wolfram, Feynman wrote in a letter recommending him for the first ever round of MacArthur genius grants in 1981. He seems to have worked on everything and has some original or careful judgement on any topic. Wolfram won the grantat age 21, making him among the youngest ever to receive the awardand became a faculty member at Caltech and then a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. While at the latter, he became interested in simple computational systems and then moved to the University of Illinois in 1986 to start a research center to study the emergence of complex phenomena. In 1987 he founded Wolfram Research, and shortly after he left academia altogether. The software companys flagship product, Mathematica, is a powerful and impressive piece of mathematics software that has sold millions of copies and is today nearly ubiquitous in physics and mathematics departments worldwide.

Then, in the 1990s, Wolfram decided to go back to scientific researchbut without the support and input provided by a traditional research environment. By his own account, he sequestered himself for about a decade, putting together what would eventually become A New Kind of Science with the assistance of a small army of his employees.

Upon the release of the book, the media was ensorcelled by the romantic image of the heroic outsider returning from the wilderness to single-handedly change all of science. Wired dubbed Wolfram the man who cracked the code to everything on its cover. Wolfram has earned some bragging rights, the New York Times proclaimed. No one has contributed more seminally to this new way of thinking about the world. Yet then, as now, researchers largely ignored and derided his work. Theres a tradition of scientists approaching senility to come up with grand, improbable theories, the late physicist Freeman Dyson told Newsweek back in 2002. Wolfram is unusual in that hes doing this in his 40s.

Wolframs story is exactly the sort that many people want to hear, because it matches the familiar beats of dramatic tales from science history that they already know: the lone genius (usually white and male), laboring in obscurity and rejected by the establishment, emerges from isolation, triumphantly grasping a piece of the Truth. But that is rarelyif everhow scientific discovery actually unfolds. There are examples from the history of science that superficially fit this image: Think of Albert Einstein toiling away on relativity as an obscure Swiss patent clerk at the turn of the 20th century. Or, for a more recent example, consider mathematician Andrew Wiles working in his attic for years to prove Fermats last theorem before finally announcing his success in 1995. But portraying those discoveries as the work of a solo genius, romantic as it is, belies the real working process of science. Science is a group effort. Einstein was in close contact with researchers of his day, and Wiless work followed a path laid out by other mathematicians just a few years before he got started. Both of them were active, regular participants in the wider scientific community. And even so, they remain exceptions to the rule. Most major scientific breakthroughs are far more collaborativequantum physics, for example, was developed slowly over a quarter-century by dozens of physicists around the world.

I think the popular notion that physicists are all in search of the eureka moment in which they will discover the theory of everything is an unfortunate one, says Katie Mack, a cosmologist at North Carolina State University. We do want to find better, more complete theories. But the way we go about that is to test and refine our models, look for inconsistencies and incrementally work our way toward better, more complete models.

Most scientists would readily tell you that their discipline isand always has beena collaborative, communal process. Nobody can revolutionize a scientific field without first getting the critical appraisal and eventual validation of their peers. Today this requirement is performed through peer reviewa process Wolframs critics say he has circumvented with his announcement. Certainly theres no reason that Wolfram and his colleagues should be able to bypass formal peer review, Mack says. And they definitely have a much better chance of getting useful feedback from the physics community if they publish their results in a format we actually have the tools to deal with.

Mack is not alone in her concerns. Its hard to expect physicists to comb through hundreds of pages of a new theory out of the blue, with no buildup in the form of papers, seminars and conference presentations, says Sean Carroll, a physicist at Caltech. Personally, I feel it would be more effective to write short papers addressing specific problems with this kind of approach rather than proclaiming a breakthrough without much vetting.

So why did Wolfram announce his ideas this way? Why not go the traditional route? I don't really believe in anonymous peer review, he says. I think its corrupt. Its all a giant story of somewhat corrupt gaming, I would say. I think its sort of inevitable that happens with these very large systems. Its a pity.

So what are Wolframs goals? He says he wants the attention and feedback of the physics community. But his unconventional approachsoliciting public comments on an exceedingly long paperalmost ensures it shall remain obscure. Wolfram says he wants physicists respect. The ones consulted for this story said gaining it would require him to recognize and engage with the prior work of others in the scientific community.

And when provided with some of the responses from other physicists regarding his work, Wolfram is singularly unenthused. Im disappointed by the naivete of the questions that youre communicating, he grumbles. I deserve better.

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Physicists Criticize Stephen Wolfram's 'Theory of Everything' - Scientific American

Virtual ICM Seminar: ‘HPC Simulations of the Early Universe’ – HPCwire

May 5, 2020 The Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM) at the University of Warsaw invites enthusiasts of HPC and all people interested in challenging topics in Computer and Computational Science to the ICM Seminar in Computer and Computational Science that will be held on May 7, 2020 (16:00 CEST). The event is free.

On May 7, Simon Mutch, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in Three-Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) and a Research Data Specialist in the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform (MDAP) based at the University of Melbourne, will present a lecture titled, HPC Simulations of the early Universe.

The lecture will dive into understanding the formation and evolution of the first galaxies in the Universe is a vital piece of the puzzle in understanding how all galaxies, including our own Milky Way, came to be. It is also a key aim of major forthcoming international facilities such as the Square Kilometre Array and James Webb Space Telescope. In order to maximise what we can learn from observations made by these facilities, we need to be able to accurately simulate the early Universe and model how galaxies affected and interacted with their environments.

To register, visit https://supercomputingfrontiers.eu/2020/tickets/neijis7eekieshee/

ICM Seminars is an extension of the international Supercomputing Frontiers Europe conference, which took place March 23-25th in virtual space.

The digital edition of SCFE gathered of the order of 1000 participants we want to continue this formula ofOpen Sciencemeetings despite the pandemic and use this forum to present the results of the most current research in the areas of HPC, AI, quantum computing, Big Data, IoT, computer and data networks and many others, says Dr. Marek Michalewicz, chair of the Organising Committee, SCFE2020 and ICM Seminars in Computer and Computational Science.

Registrationfor all weekly events is free. The ICM Seminars began with an inaugural lecture on April 1st by Scott Aronson, David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas. Aronson led the presentation titled Quantum Computational Supremacy and Its Applications.

For more information, visithttps://supercomputingfrontiers.eu/2020/seminars/

About the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw (UW)

Established by a resolution of the Senate of the University of Warsaw dated 29 June 1993, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw, is one of the top HPC centres in Poland. ICM is engaged in serving the needs of a large community of computational researchers in Poland through provision of HPC and grid resources, storage, networking and expertise. It has always been an active research centre with high quality research contributions in computer and computational science, numerical weather prediction, visualisation, materials engineering, digital repositories, social network analysis and other areas.

Source: ICM UW

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Virtual ICM Seminar: 'HPC Simulations of the Early Universe' - HPCwire