Category Archives: Quantum Physics
Who You Really Are And Why It Matters | Practical Ethics – Practical Ethics
By Charles Foster
[This is a review of The Flip: Who you really are, and why it matters, by Jeffrey J. Kripal. Penguin, 2020]
A few years ago I dislocated my shoulder. I went off to hospital, and breathed nitrous oxide while they tried to put it back. Something very strange yet very common happened. I rose out of my body, and looked down at it. I could see the nurses centre parting and the top of my own bald head. I was aware of the pain in the shoulder, and regretted it, but it wasnt really my business.
My mind was hovering over the skull that encased my brain, and so it seemed ludicrous to say that mind and brain were identical. The experience ousted my residual materialism. Out went Aristotle: in came Plato. This change was a flip, as Kripal describes such events in this exhilarating, bold, timely, and profoundly important book.
Personal experience of this kind often produces tectonic philosophical conversions in professional philosophers and scientists. Mere reflection rarely does. This observation itself is likely to elicit howls of derision from the materialists. For them, to intrude oneself into an inquiry is necessarily to invalidate it. And of course the humanities are supremely to be mocked, for they are all to do with subjectivity.
This derision has a dated, desperate feel about it. Its the last gasp of a fundamentalism thats on the way out. In assessing the results of scientific experimentation one simply cant ignore the consciousness of the observer. The idea that one can goes back to Descartes, who split reality into two realms the mental and the material. Eighteenth century science, without any evidence whatever for the split, and ignoring an immense amount of evidence for its absence, then ignored the mental domain, and proceeded on the assumption that all that there was (or all that mattered) was a mechanical reality, unaffected by observation, and devoid of consciousness. The rules governing the operation of the machine were clear. Newton and others had defined them.
Thats where most scientists stand today at least in public, and if they want to get and keep tenure, and be published in the good journals. Newton has been joined on the pedestal by Darwin. Together they are omniscient.
There are some impressive things on the cv of post-eighteenth century science. It has made many cool gadgets, and some vindicated predictions. But its reputation depends on looking only at its successes, and ignoring the failures. Its easy to draw a neat straight line on a graph if you delete all the outliers.
Everyone knows that quantum mechanics and relativity are discordant with classical mechanics, but the significance of the discordance is not widely appreciated. Newton, after all, continues to calculate fairly accurately the momentum of car crashes and the orbits of planets.
The real significance of the difference lies in the role that each accords to the effect of the observer, and accordingly in the degree of certainty with which each says assertions about the natural world can be made. These issues were the subject of a famous debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. Einstein (despite his authorship of relativity) advocated the traditional view, inherited from Newtonian mechanics and embodied in the swaggering self-confidence of nineteenth-century science, that physics would eventually describe perfectly the weave of the world. This is the (essentially religious) belief thats voiced whenever one of sciences shortcomings is mentioned. Take consciousness, for instance. There has been no progress whatever in saying what it is, or in suggesting how it might be an emergent property of matter. Just give us time, comes the response. Our existing principles will do the job.
Youve misunderstood physics, Bohr told Einstein. Uncertainty doesnt denote an incomplete theory: it is part of the very structure of reality. Heisenberg had noted that there was no such thing as an objective real world whose smallest parts exist objectively in the same sense as stones or trees exist independently of whether we observe them
We now know that Bohr and Heisenberg were right, and Einstein was wrong at least in relation to fundamental particles. Relationship, and consequential indeterminacy, are basic constituents of the universe. Once particles have interrelated, their internal states correlate with one another, however widely separated in time or space the particles may be. Since all particles began life at or near the same place, at or near the same time, perhaps we can talk sensibly about the universe as one organism, each cell affecting the other. Many mystics many quantum physicists amongst them have spoken of the interconnection of things in terms of Mind.
There is obviously a relationship between brain and mind: between matter and consciousness. If a lorry rolls over my head it will affect my consciousness in some way. Mind, as Kripal puts it, is mattered. But this does not begin to exclude the possibility that matter is minded. William James put it beautifully: Human consciousness is a function of the brain, but function is not the same thing as production. Function can also denote transmission. A prism reflects light, but the light is not produced by the prism itself. Perhaps brains are like transmitters or receivers of mind. Perhaps they act like valves or filters, restricting the flow into us of data from an extravagantly minded world. It would make sense of much human experience not least the dramatic new perspectives (out of body experiences and near death experiences among them) that we get when the valve is compromised. Subjects who have had out of body experiences often report that they have had a 360 degree view of their own body. It sounds suspiciously as if theyve added another dimension to their perception; as if the brains usual and convenient (but mathematically nave) insistence on three spatial dimensions has been temporarily trumped.
The general materialistic framework of the sciences at the moment is not wrong, writes Kripal. It is simply half right. His book is a brilliantly successful attempt to demonstrate what might be added to our understanding of the universe and ourselves if we took seriously the insights of ordinary and extraordinary human experience. Those insights chime perfectly with Bohr and Heisenberg, and they suggest strongly that mindedness is fundamental to the cosmos, not some tangential, accidental, or recent emergent property of matter. They may indeed go further than that, and entail the conclusion that matter is an expression of some kind of cosmic Mind.
The equations of quantum physics are, for Kripal, a thrilling new genre of mystical literature. In the quantum world, matter is congealed energy, the division between space and time is illusory, and dark energy constitutes most of the universe. You can go seamlessly from those observations to the Tibetan Book of the Dead or the accounts of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Where does all this leave the humanities? If the best books on consciousness are written by physicists, does anyone who doesnt understand partial differential equations have anything to offer? Yes, says Kripal and this may be the main legacy of The Flip. The best defence advocates are those who acknowledge their clients shortcomings, and Kripal is merciless. Why, he asks, should anyone listen respectfully to a discipline whose central arguments often boil down to the claim that the only truth to have is that there is no truth? Quite right. But there is hope for non-scientific writers. The humanities, after all, have had consciousness as the, or a, central concern for thousands of years. And now their special subject is the main focus of research in the worlds best funded laboratories. Kripal proposes that we reimagine the humanities as the study of consciousness coded in culture. (Original emphasis). Thats a high calling.
An era can be considered over when its basic illusions have been exhausted, wrote Arthur Miller. The illusion of the adequacy of materialism as an explanation for the nature of the world is exhausted, and a new era of real science is surely about to begin an era in which all the available evidence is taken into account, and accordingly one that recognises that (in Kripals words) mind is an irreducible dimension or substrate of the natural world, indeed of the whole cosmos, and in which science and the humanities play a synergistic role in expounding the nature of that substrate. Kripals book will be seen as one of the foundational texts of that new synergy.
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Who You Really Are And Why It Matters | Practical Ethics - Practical Ethics
Improving LIDAR and GPS: Breaking Through the Resolution Barrier With Quantum-Limited Precision – SciTechDaily
Credit: Paderborn University, Besim Mazhiqi
Researchers at Paderborn University have developed a new method of distance measurement for systems such as GPS, which achieves more precise results than ever before. Using quantum physics, the team led by Leibniz Prize winner Professor Christine Silberhorn has successfully overcome the so-called resolution limit, which causes the noise we may see in photos, for example.
Their findings have just been published in the academic journal Physical Review X Quantum (PRX Quantum). In Physics, the publishers online magazine, the paper has also been highlighted with an expert Viewpoint an honor which is given to only certain selected publications.
Physicist Dr. Benjamin Brecht explains the problem of the resolution limit: In laser distance measurements a detector registers two light pulses of different intensities with a time difference. The more precise the time measurement is, the more accurately the distance can be determined. Providing the time separation between the pulses is greater than the length of the pulses, this works well.
Problems arise, however, as Brecht explains, if the pulses overlap: Then you can no longer measure the time difference using conventional methods. This is known as the resolution limit and is a well-known effect in photos. Very small structures or textures can no longer be resolved. Thats the same problem just with position rather than time.
A further challenge, according to Brecht, is to determine the different intensities of two light pulses, simultaneously with their time difference and the arrival time. But this is exactly what the researchers have managed to do with quantum-limited precision, adds Brecht. Working with partners from the Czech Republic and Spain, the Paderborn physicists were even able to measure these values when the pulses overlapped by 90 percent.
Brecht says: This is far beyond the resolution limit. The precision of the measurement is 10,000 times better. Using methods from quantum information theory, we can find new forms of measurement which overcome the limitations of established methods.
These findings could allow significant improvements in the future to the precision of applications such as LIDAR, a method of optical distance and speed measurement, and GPS. It will take some time, however, before this is ready for the market, points out Brecht.
Reference: Achieving the Ultimate Quantum Timing Resolution by Vahid Ansari, Benjamin Brecht, Jano Gil-Lopez, John M. Donohue, Jaroslav ehek, Zdenk Hradil, Luis L. Snchez-Soto and Christine Silberhorn, 4 January 2021, PRX Quantum.DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.010301
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Surprising Discovery of Unexpected Quantum Behavior in Insulators Suggests Existence of Entirely New Type of Particle – SciTechDaily
In a surprising discovery, Princeton physicists have observed an unexpected quantum behavior in an insulator made from a material called tungsten ditelluride. This phenomenon, known as quantum oscillation, is typically observed in metals rather than insulators, and its discovery offers new insights into our understanding of the quantum world. The findings also hint at the existence of an entirely new type of quantum particle.
The discovery challenges a long-held distinction between metals and insulators, because in the established quantum theory of materials, insulators were not thought to be able to experience quantum oscillations.
If our interpretations are correct, we are seeing a fundamentally new form of quantum matter, said Sanfeng Wu, assistant professor of physics at Princeton University and the senior author of a recent paper in Nature detailing this new discovery. We are now imagining a wholly new quantum world hidden in insulators. Its possible that we simply missed identifying them over the last several decades.
The observation of quantum oscillations has long been considered a hallmark of the difference between metals and insulators. In metals, electrons are highly mobile, and resistivity the resistance to electrical conduction is weak. Nearly a century ago, researchers observed that a magnetic field, coupled with very low temperatures, can cause electrons to shift from a classical state to a quantum state, causing oscillations in the metals resistivity. In insulators, by contrast, electrons cannot move and the materials have very high resistivity, so quantum oscillations of this sort are not expected to occur, no matter the strength of magnetic field applied.
The discovery was made when the researchers were studying a material called tungsten ditelluride, which they made into a two-dimensional material. They prepared the material by using standard scotch tape to increasingly exfoliate, or shave, the layers down to what is called a monolayer a single atom-thin layer. Thick tungsten ditelluride behaves like a metal. But once it is converted to a monolayer, it becomes a very strong insulator.
This material has a lot of special quantum properties, Wu said.
The researchers then set about measuring the resistivity of the monolayer tungsten ditelluride under magnetic fields. To their surprise, the resistivity of the insulator, despite being quite large, began to oscillate as the magnetic field was increased, indicating the shift into a quantum state. In effect, the material a very strong insulator was exhibiting the most remarkable quantum property of a metal.
This came as a complete surprise, Wu said. We asked ourselves, Whats going on here? We dont fully understand it yet.
Wu noted that there are no current theories to explain this phenomenon.
Nonetheless, Wu and his colleagues have put forward a provocative hypothesis a form of quantum matter that is neutrally charged. Because of very strong interactions, the electrons are organizing themselves to produce this new kind of quantum matter, Wu said.
But it is ultimately no longer the electrons that are oscillating, said Wu. Instead, the researchers believe that new particles, which they have dubbed neutral fermions, are born out of these strongly interacting electrons and are responsible for creating this highly remarkable quantum effect.
Fermions are a category of quantum particles that include electrons. In quantum materials, charged fermions can be negatively charged electrons or positively charged holes that are responsible for the electrical conduction. Namely, if the material is an electrical insulator, these charged fermions cant move freely. However, particles that are neutral that is, neither negatively nor positively charged are theoretically possible to be present and mobile in an insulator.
Our experimental results conflict with all existing theories based on charged fermions, said Pengjie Wang, co-first author on the paper and postdoctoral research associate, but could be explained in the presence of charge-neutral fermions.
The Princeton team plans further investigation into the quantum properties of tungsten ditelluride. They are particularly interested in discovering whether their hypothesis about the existence of a new quantum particle is valid.
This is only the starting point, Wu said. If were correct, future researchers will find other insulators with this surprising quantum property.
Despite the newness of the research and the tentative interpretation of the results, Wu speculated about how this phenomenon could be put to practical use.
Its possible that neutral fermions could be used in the future for encoding information that would be useful in quantum computing, he said. In the meantime, though, were still in the very early stages of understanding quantum phenomena like this, so fundamental discoveries have to be made.
Reference: Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator by Pengjie Wang, Guo Yu, Yanyu Jia, Michael Onyszczak, F. Alexandre Cevallos, Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Robert J. Cava, Leslie M. Schoop and Sanfeng Wu, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9
In addition to Wu and Wang, the team included co-first authors Guo Yu, a graduate student in electrical engineering, and Yanyu Jia, a graduate student in physics. Other key Princeton contributors were Leslie Schoop, assistant professor of chemistry; Robert Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry; Michael Onyszczak, a physics graduate student; and three former postdoctoral research associates: Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz and F. Alexandre Cevallos, who is also a 2018 Princeton Ph.D. alumnus. Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Material Science in Japan also contributed.
Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator, by Pengjie Wang, Guo Yu, Yanyu Jia, Michael Onyszczak, F. Alexandre Cevallos, Shiming Lei, Sebastian Klemenz, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Robert J. Cava, Leslie M. Schoop, and Sanfeng Wu, was published Jan. 4 in the journal Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03084-9).
This work was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Princeton University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1420541 and DMR-2011750) and a CAREER award (DMR-1942942). Early measurements were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by an NSF Cooperative Agreement (DMR-1644779), and the State of Florida. Additional support came from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (JPMXP0112101001), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences KAKENHI program (JP20H00354) and the Japan Science and Technology Agencys CREST program (JPMJCR15F3). Further support came from the U.S. Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative on Topological Insulators (W911NF1210461), the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation through a Beckman Young Investigator grant, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF9064).
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Amy Noelle Parks Brings The Romance of Math and Science To YA – The Nerd Daily
Guest post written by author Amy Noelle ParksAmy Noelle Parks is an associate professor at Michigan State University. When shes not using One Direction lyrics as a writing prompt, shes helping future teachers recover from the trauma of years of school mathematics. She lives in Michigan with her husband and two daughters. Her new novel, The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss, is out now.
I would love to say I wrote a YA romance about a math-loving girl so I could address the plight of women in STEM. After all, that sounds quite noble.
But the reality wasnt quite so high-minded. The simple truth is I think math and physics are sexy as hell.
I knowbelieve methat this is not a typical sort of kink. Lab-coat wearing scientists and absent-minded mathematicians dont really occupy the same prominent place in romance as vampires, athletes, or billionaires. In popular culture, the very idea of super smart scientists as love interests is often played for laughs (see The Big Bang Theory).
But I wanted to create a different kind of world, one where Evie, my teen mathematician, was sought after and where she was unapologetically drawn to brilliance. As Evies best friend Caleb notes, little cartoon birds circle Evies head when she watches physicist Max Tegmarks TED talks. (Im pretty sure the same thing happens to me.)
Writing The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss was such a joy. For the first time in my life, I was able to swirl together my passion for romance and my fascination with mathematics and physics. I could make Evie a girl navigating the interest of two boys and a shoe-in for a national math and physics competition. The love of her life could be devoted and emotionally intelligent and a coder. The boy who distracted her could look like a member of a boyband, but also be almost as good in physics as she was. And I could put them all in a STEM boarding school, so every single characterfrom Evies empathetic friend to Calebs ex-girlfriends to their irritating classmates all loved math and science. (The book is absolutely a contemporary rom-com, but I guess, all this makes it a little bit of a fantasy too.)
I knew all that math and physics wouldnt make for the easiest possible path toward publication, (YA romances about writers, readers, and booksellers seem to be a lot more in demand), but I really wanted to use this love story to help others feel that same wonder about math and physics that I do.
I still remember when, as a tween, I turned the page in A Wrinkle in Time to see that drawing of an ant crossing a fold in fabric, Madeleine LEngles model for what it would look like to tesser through spacecrossing vast distances armed with nothing more than the right equations.
My awe was equally great years later when I learned that a tesseract was not something LEngle invented for her fantasy, but an actual mathematical object. Because of this connection between fiction and math, the whole world suddenly seemed magical. My enduring love for A Wrinkle in Time is why Evie chooses Tesseract as her screen name for the anonymous online forum she joins. Caleb recognizes her persona immediately, but she is much slower to realize the true identity of Miloa screen name Caleb took from Norton Justers The Phantom Tollbooth (another mathy favorite of mine).
Ive always loved the way science fiction plays with big ideas and sends me out to read more about our universe, but I am also always disappointed with how little attention relationships get in those books. The short shift Meg and Calvins blossoming romance gets in A Wrinkle in Time is my only real criticism of LEngles story.
I wanted to write a book that gave readers big questions to think aboutlike whether we live in a computer simulation and what it means that mathematics suggests were in a multiverse with infinite versions of ourselves somewhere out therebut I also wanted to give readers lots and lots of kissing. Because heres the thing. There is nothing more fascinating than seeing two people fall in loveexcept maybe figuring out the laws of universe.
Combining love and mathematics is hardly a new idea. In the 1600s, John Donne wrote Valediction Forbidding Mourning for his wife, comparing her to the center of a compass that kept him steady when he had to travel far from home. The poem draws out the mathematical metaphor over multiple stanzas, ending with Thy firmness makes my circle just/And makes me end where I begun. In my book, Evie, who hates most poetry, grabs onto this math metaphor to describe her relationship with Caleb, all while denying that she is in love with him. (A truth her friend Bex sees long before Evie does.)
For his part, Caleb latches onto the idea of entangled particles as a metaphor for his relationship with Evie because however far apart they are, their connection can never be undone. The amazing thing about this statement is that its true.
Experiments in quantum physics have shown that when particles are entangled, changing one affects the other, even if theyre hundreds of miles apart. Einstein hated this. He called it spooky action at a distance to emphasize just how ridiculous it was to believe the mathematics that suggested it was true. But over the last few years, scientists in China and the Netherlands have separated pairs of entangled particles by hundreds and then thousands of kilometers and found that when one of the pair is measured, the other instantly changes.
How does this happen? We dont yet know.
For me, all this just cries out to be written into a love story. In many ways, the question at the heart of physics and at the heart of romance is the same: how does one person (or particle) become connected to another and what does it take to stay that way?
So dont be scared of the math and science in my book. Or in any other book. Youre not in school anymore. This isnt about reciting the times tables as fast as you can. When you begin to wrap your head around the real questions being asked, I think youll find that math can beautiful and intriguing and, dare I say iteven sexy.
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Amy Noelle Parks Brings The Romance of Math and Science To YA - The Nerd Daily
If Wormholes Are Lurking in Our Universe, This Is How We Could Find Them – ScienceAlert
Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries.
One was black holes, which were only unequivocally detected over the past few years. Another was "wormholes" bridges connecting different points in spacetime, in theory providing shortcuts for space travellers.
Wormholes are still in the realm of the imagination. But some scientists think we will soon be able to find them, too. Over the past few months, several new studies have suggested intriguing ways forward.
Black holes and wormholes are special types of solutions to Einstein's equations, arising when the structure of spacetime is strongly bent by gravity. For example, when matter is extremely dense, the fabric of spacetime can become so curved that not even light can escape. This is a black hole.
As the theory allows the fabric of spacetime to be stretched and bent, one can imagine all sorts of possible configurations.
In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen described how two sheets of spacetime can be joined together, creating a bridge between two universes. This is one kind of wormhole and since then many others have been imagined.
Some wormholes may be "traversable", meaning humans may be able to travel through them. For that though, they would need to be sufficiently large and kept open against the force of gravity, which tries to close them. To push spacetime outward in this way would require huge amounts of "negative energy".
Sounds like sci-fi? We know that negative energy exists, small amounts have already been produced in the lab. We also know that negative energy is behind the Universe's accelerated expansion.
So nature may have found a way to make wormholes.
How can we ever prove that wormholes exist? In a new paper, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Society, Russian astronomers suggest they may exist at the centre of some very bright galaxies, and propose some observations to find them.
This is based on what would happen if matter coming out of one side of the wormhole collided with matter that was falling in. The calculations show that the crash would result in a spectacular display of gamma rays that we could try to observe with telescopes.
This radiation could be the key to differentiating between a wormhole and a black hole, previously assumed to be indistinguishable from the outside. But black holes should produce fewer gamma rays and eject them in a jet, while radiation produced via a wormhole would be confined to a giant sphere.
Although the kind of wormhole considered in this study is traversable, it would not make for a pleasant trip. Because it would be so close to the centre of an active galaxy, the high temperatures would burn everything to a crisp.
But this wouldn't be the case for all wormholes, such as those further from the galactic centre.
The idea that galaxies can harbour wormholes at their centres is not new. Take the case of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. This was discovered by painstakingly tracking of the orbits of the stars near the black hole, a major achievement which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020.
But one recent paper has suggested this gravitational pull may instead be caused by a wormhole.
Unlike a black hole, a wormhole may "leak" some gravity from the objects located on the other side. This spooky gravitational action would add a tiny kick to the motions of stars near the galactic centre. According to this study, the specific effect should be measurable in observations in the near future, once the sensitivity of our instruments gets a little bit more advanced.
Coincidentally, yet another recent study has reported the discovery of some "odd radio circles" in the sky. These circles are strange because they are enormous and yet not associated with any visible object. For now, they defy any conventional explanation, so wormholes have been advanced as a possible cause.
Wormholes hold a strong grip on our collective imagination. In a way, they are a delightful form of escapism. Unlike black holes which are a bit frightening as they trap everything that ventures in, wormholes may allow us to travel to faraway places faster than the speed of light.
They may in fact even be time machines, providing a way to travel backwards as suggested by the late Stephen Hawking in his final book.
Wormholes also crop up in quantum physics, which rules the world of atoms and particles. According to quantum mechanics, particles can pop out of empty space, only to disappear a moment later.
This has been seen in countless experiments. And if particles can be created, why not wormholes?
Physicists believe wormholes may have formed in the early Universe from a foam of quantum particles popping in and out of existence. Some of these "primordial wormholes" may still be around today.
Recent experiments on "quantum teleportation" a "disembodied" transfer of quantum information from one location to another have turned out to work in an eerily similar way to two black holes connected through a wormhole.
These experiments appear to solve the "quantum information paradox", which suggests physical information could permanently disappear in a black hole. But they also reveal a deep connection between the notoriously incompatible theories of quantum physics and gravity with wormholes being relevant to both which may be instrumental in the construction of a "theory of everything".
The fact that wormholes play a role in these fascinating developments is unlikely to go unnoticed. We may not have seen them, but they could certainly be out there. They may even help us understand some of the deepest cosmic mysteries, such as whether our Universe is the only one.
Andreea Font, Senior Lecturer of Astrophysics, Liverpool John Moores University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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If Wormholes Are Lurking in Our Universe, This Is How We Could Find Them - ScienceAlert
New quantum technology projects to solve mysteries of the universe – Open Access Government
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is investing 31 million into seven projects to show how quantum technologies could solve some of the greatest mysteries of the universe such as dark matter and black holes.
A project led by the University of Nottingham aims to provide insights to the physics of the early universe and black holes that cannot be tested in a laboratory.
The team will use quantum simulators to simulate the conditions of the early universe and black holes with sufficient accuracy to confirm some of Einsteins predictions on general relativity.
A team led by Royal Holloway, University of London, will develop new quantum sensors which can be used to search for dark matter.
The projects are supported through the Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics programme, delivered by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of UKRIs Strategic Priorities Fund. The programme is part of the National Quantum Technologies Programme.
STFC is proud to support these projects that utilise cutting-edge quantum technologies for novel and exciting research into fundamental physics.
Major scientific discoveries often arise from the application of new technologies and techniques. With the application of emerging quantum technologies, I believe we have an opportunity to change the way we search for answers to some of the biggest mysteries of the universe.
These include exploring what dark matter is made of, finding the absolute mass of neutrinos and establishing how quantum mechanics fits with Einsteins theory of relativity.
I believe strongly that this exciting new research programme will enable the UK to take the lead in a new way of exploring profound questions in fundamental physics.
The National Quantum Technologies Programme has successfully accelerated the first wave of quantum technologies to a maturity where they can be used to make advances in both fundamental science and industrial applications.
The investments UKRI is making through the Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics programme allows us to bring together the expertise of EPSRC and STFC to apply the latest advances in quantum science and technology to explore, and answer, long-standing research questions in fundamental physics.
This is a hugely exciting programme and we look forward to delivering these projects and funding further work in this area as well as exploring opportunities for exploiting quantum technologies with other UKRI partners.
As we build back better from the pandemic, its critical that we throw our weight behind new transformative technologies that could help to unearth new scientific discoveries and cement the UKs status as a science superpower.
Todays funding will enable some of the UKs most ambitious quantum researchers to develop state of art technologies that could help us solve important unanswered questions about our universe, from proving Einsteins theory of relativity to understanding the mysterious behaviour of black holes.
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New quantum technology projects to solve mysteries of the universe - Open Access Government
Exploring the unanswered questions of our universe with quantum technologies – University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a key partner in three quantum technology projects awarded funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The funding is part of a 31 million investment to demonstrate how quantum technologies could solve some of the greatest mysteries in fundamental physics.
The projects are supported through the Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics programme, delivered by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of UKRIs Strategic Priorities Fund.
This is a new programme which aims to demonstrate how the application of quantum technologies will advance the understanding of fundamental physics questions. It is supported by the Quantum Technology Hubs comprising the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme
The three projects awarded funding are:
Searching for variations of fundamental constants of nature
QSNET is a multi-disciplinary consortium which aims to search for spatial and temporal variations of fundamental constants of nature, using a network of quantum clocks. Led by Dr Giovanni Barontini, from the University of Birmingham, and partnered with the National Physical Laboratory; Imperial College London; University of Sussex; Max Planck Institut fuer Kernphysik; Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt; Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica; University of Delaware; University of Tokyo and the Observatoire de Paris. The project, which has received 3.7 million in funding, is also linked to three of the Quantum Technology Hubs in the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.
QSNET proposes to build a national network of advanced atomic, molecular and highly-charged ion clocks. The network will achieve unprecedented sensitivities in testing variations of the fine structure constant and the electron-to-proton mass ratio. These are two of the parameters of the Standard Model of particle physics, which is the pillar of our understanding of the Universe, but that famously fails to describe 95% of its content: the so-called dark matter and dark energy. QSNET will test the fundamental assumption that the constants of the Standard Model are immutable, as this could be the key in solving the dark matter/dark energy enigma.
Investigating dark matter and detecting gravitational waves
The Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network (AION) is a consortium project comprising Imperial College London, Kings College London, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the University of Liverpool and the University of Birmingham.
This interdisciplinary team of academics will develop the science and technology to build and reap the scientific rewards from the first large-scale atom interferometer in the UK. This programme of research will enable a ground-breaking search for ultra-light dark matter and pave the way for the exploration of gravitational waves in a previously inaccessible frequency range, opening a new window on the mergers of massive black holes and novel physics in the early universe.
The University of Birmingham team, led by Dr Michael Holynski, Prof Kai Bongs, Dr Mehdi Langlois, Dr Samuel Lellouch, Sam Hedges and Dr Yeshpal Singh will bring their atom interferometry expertise to AION and focus on realising new levels of large momentum transfer to enable the exquisite sensitivity required to achieve the scientific goals of the project, while also providing leadership on the realisation of economic impact.
The AION project, which has been awarded 7.2 million in funding, will be linked to the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme through the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, led by the University of Birmingham, and project work will be undertaken at the Hubs Technology Transfer Centre. This will be an opportunity for matter-wave interferometry and strontium optical clocks technology to be developed with industry through to commercialisation.
Quantum-enhanced interferometry for new physics
The Quantum Interferometry (QI) collaboration aims to search for dark matter and for quantum aspects of space-time with quantum technologies. The international QI consortium, led by Cardiff, includes the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Strathclyde, and Warwick in the UK, MIT, Caltech, NIST, and Fermilab in the US, DESY and AEI Hannover in Germany.
QI will build four table-top experiments (two of them in Birmingham) to search for dark matter in the galactic halo, improve 100-m scale ALPS light-shining-through-the-wall experiment at DESY with novel single photon detectors, search for quantisation of space-time, and test models of semiclassical gravity. These experiments will allow us to explore new parameter spaces of photon dark matter interaction, and seek answers to the long-standing research question: How can gravity be united with the other fundamental forces?
The project is linked to two UK National Quantum Hubs and will apply state-of-the-art technologies, including optical cavities, quantum states of light, transition-edge sensors, and extreme-performance optical coatings, to a broad class of fundamental physics problems. Dr Vincent Boyer, Dr Haixing Miao and Dr Denis Martynov will be leading the 4 million-funded project from the University of Birmingham.Visit QI Labs for more information.
Professor Kai Bongs, Principal Investigator at the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, led by the University of Birmingham, says: The UK Governments investment in these projects enables us to draw together experts in quantum physics research to explore some of the key mysteries of our universe. These projects will allow us to build on the momentum already generated through the Quantum Technology Hubs and build a pipeline feeding novel technologies into the future multi-bn Quantum Technology economy.
Science Minister Amanda Solloway said:As we build back better from the pandemic, its critical that we throw our weight behind new transformative technologies, such as quantum, that could help to unearth new scientific discoveries and cement the UKs status as a science superpower.
Todays funding will enable Birminghams most ambitious quantum researchers to use the precision of atomic clocks to help solve important unanswered questions about our universe, such as detecting dark matter and understanding the 95% of unaccounted energy content of the universe.
Announcing the awards, Professor Mark Thomson, Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said: "STFC is proud to support these projects that utilise cutting-edge quantum technologies for novel and exciting research into fundamental physics.
Majorscientific discoveries often arise from the application of new technologies and techniques. With the application of emerging quantum technologies, I believe we have an opportunity to change the way we search for answers to some of the biggest mysteries of the universe.These include exploring what dark matter is made of, finding the absolute mass of neutrinos and establishing how quantum mechanics fits with Einsteins theory of relativity.
I believe strongly that this exciting new research programme will enable the UK to take the lead in a new way of exploring profound questions in fundamental physics.
For media enquiries please contact Beck Lockwood, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)781 3343348.
About the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing
The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing (led by the University of Birmingham) brings together experts from Physics and Engineering from the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Imperial, Nottingham, Southampton, Strathclyde and Sussex, NPL, the British Geological Survey and over 70 industry partners. The Hub has over 100 projects, valued at approximately 100 million, and has 17 patent applications.
The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing is part of the National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP), which was established in 2014 and has EPSRC, IUK, STFC, MOD, NPL, BEIS, and GCHQ as partners. Four Quantum Technology Hubs were set up at the outset, each focussing on specific application areas with anticipated societal and economic impact. The Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge (funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund) is part of the NQTP and was launched to accelerate the development of quantum enabled products and services, removing barriers to productivity and competitiveness. The NQTP is set to invest 1B of public and private sector funds over its ten-year lifetime.
About the University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the worlds top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.
About the Strategic Priorities Fund
The Strategic Priorities Fund is an 830 million investment in multi- and interdisciplinary research across 34 themes.It is funded through the governments National Productivity Investment Fund and managed by UK Research and Innovation.
The fund aims to:
About the National Quantum Technologies Programme
The National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP) was established in 2014 by the partners (EPSRC, STFC, IUK, Dstl, MoD, NPL, BEIS, GCHQ, NCSC2) to make the UK a global leader in the development and commercialisation of quantum technologies. World class research and dynamic innovation, as the Governments R&D Roadmap stresses, are part of an interconnected system. The NQTPs achievements to-date have been enabled by the coherent approach which brings this interconnected system together. NQTP has ambition to grow and evolve research and technology development activities within the programme to continue to ensure that the UK has a balanced portfolio, is flexible and open, so that promising quantum technologies continue to emerge.
The NQTP is set to invest 1billion of public and private sector funds over its ten-year lifetime.
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Wormholes may be lurking in the universe and new studies are proposing ways of finding them – The Conversation UK
Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries. One was black holes, which were only unequivocally detected over the past few years. Another was wormholes bridges connecting different points in spacetime, in theory providing shortcuts for space travellers.
Wormholes are still in the realm of the imagination. But some scientists think we will soon be able to find them, too. Over the past few months, several new studies have suggested intriguing ways forward.
Black holes and wormholes are special types of solutions to Einsteins equations, arising when the structure of spacetime is strongly bent by gravity. For example, when matter is extremely dense, the fabric of spacetime can become so curved that not even light can escape. This is a black hole.
As the theory allows the fabric of spacetime to be stretched and bent, one can imagine all sorts of possible configurations. In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen described how two sheets of spacetime can be joined together, creating a bridge between two universes. This is one kind of wormhole and since then many others have been imagined.
Some wormholes may be traversable, meaning humans may be able to travel through them. For that though, they would need to be sufficiently large and kept open against the force of gravity, which tries to close them. To push spacetime outward in this way would require huge amounts of negative energy.
Sounds like sci-fi? We know that negative energy exists, small amounts have already been produced in the lab. We also know that negative energy is behind the universes accelerated expansion. So nature may have found a way to make wormholes.
How can we ever prove that wormholes exist? In a new paper, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Society, Russian astronomers suggest they may exist at the centre of some very bright galaxies, and propose some observations to find them. This is based on what would happen if matter coming out of one side of the wormhole collided with matter that was falling in. The calculations show that the crash would result in a spectacular display of gamma rays that we could try to observe with telescopes.
This radiation could be the key to differentiating between a wormhole and a black hole, previously assumed to be indistinguishable from the outside. But black holes should produce fewer gamma rays and eject them in a jet, while radiation produced via a wormhole would be confined to a giant sphere. Although the kind of wormhole considered in this study is traversable, it would not make for a pleasant trip. Because it would be so close to the centre of an active galaxy, the high temperatures would burn everything to a crisp. But this wouldnt be the case for all wormholes, such as those further from the galactic centre.
The idea that galaxies can harbour wormholes at their centres is not new. Take the case of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. This was discovered by painstakingly tracking of the orbits of the stars near the black hole, a major achievement which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020. But one recent paper has suggested this gravitational pull may instead be caused by a wormhole.
Unlike a black hole, a wormhole may leak some gravity from the objects located on the other side. This spooky gravitational action would add a tiny kick to the motions of stars near the galactic centre. According to this study, the specific effect should be measurable in observations in the near future, once the sensitivity of our instruments gets a little bit more advanced.
Coincidentally, yet another recent study has reported the discovery of some odd radio circles in the sky. These circles are strange because they are enormous and yet not associated with any visible object. For now, they defy any conventional explanation, so wormholes have been advanced as a possible cause.
Wormholes hold a strong grip on our collective imagination. In a way, they are a delightful form of escapism. Unlike black holes which are a bit frightening as they trap everything that ventures in, wormholes may allow us to travel to faraway places faster than the speed of light. They may in fact even be time machines, providing a way to travel backwards as suggested by the late Stephen Hawking in his final book.
Wormholes also crop up in quantum physics, which rules the world of atoms and particles. According to quantum mechanics, particles can pop out of empty space, only to disappear a moment later. This has been seen in countless experiments. And if particles can be created, why not wormholes? Physicists believe wormholes may have formed in the early universe from a foam of quantum particles popping in and out of existence. Some of these primordial wormholes may still be around today.
Recent experiments on quantum teleportation a disembodied transfer of quantum information from one location to another have turned out to work in an eerily similar way to two black holes connected through a wormhole. These experiments appear to solve the quantum information paradox, which suggests physical information could permanently disappear in a black hole. But they also reveal a deep connection between the notoriously incompatible theories of quantum physics and gravity with wormholes being relevant to both which may be instrumental in the construction of a theory of everything.
The fact that wormholes play a role in these fascinating developments is unlikely to go unnoticed. We may not have seen them, but they could certainly be out there. They may even help us understand some of the deepest cosmic mysteries, such as whether our universe is the only one.
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University of Sheffield to lead multi-million pound project which could open up a new frontier in physics – University of Sheffield News
A collaboration of scientists from across the UK are working on a new project to detect hidden particles, the discovery of which could open up a new frontier in fundamental physics.
The project, Quantum Sensing for the Hidden Sector (QSHS), is led by scientists at the University of Sheffield and involves the Universities of Cambridge, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oxford, Royal Holloway and University College London and the National Physical Laboratory.
Funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the project is the best supported and largest UK effort in hidden sector physics to date, and involves scientists from a range of disciplines within physics.
QSHS aims to solve some of the most fundamental mysteries in modern physics using new technologies being developed for the rapidly expanding field of quantum measurement science.
Working with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) collaboration in the US, but also developing pioneering quantum electronics and novel experiment designs in the UK. The group aims to shed new light on the particles of the hidden sector which could provide new insights into fundamental mysteries, most importantly the dark matter problem, which is the observation that galaxies and the observable Universe are heavier than their observed constituents - stars, planets, dust and gas.
The extra matter making up the difference could be made up wholly or partly of ultra-light particles, so-called hidden sector particles that have so far evaded detection. The signatures of these particles are signals so faint that the world's most sensitive measurement devices will be developed by our team for the search.
It's high risk, high reward science. You might see nothing or you might on the other hand make a massive discovery. Nobody knows which, but the discovery of hidden sector particles would open up a completely new frontier in fundamental physics.
Professor Ed Daw
Professor of dark matter and gravitational wave physics at the University of Sheffield
Professor Ed Daw, Professor of dark matter and gravitational wave physics at the University of Sheffield, and principal investigator for the project, said: Hidden sector particles, if they exist, may be the so-far unidentified dark matter, and may in addition solve important outstanding problems with the theory that we have developed governing quarks and the atomic nucleus. The hidden sector may even provide critical insights into the inflationary phase thought to occur very shortly after the big bang.
It's high risk, high reward science. You might see nothing or you might on the other hand make a massive discovery. Nobody knows which, but the discovery of hidden sector particles would open up a completely new frontier in fundamental physics. It would be like the invention of the particle beam accelerator, a whole new way of doing science.
Hidden sector particles may play other significant roles in physics, including in early Universe cosmology and the evolution of the Universe in the moments after it came into existence. We are excited to be embarking on this journey of discovery, and we hope the British public will share in this excitement as we start this research project.
The discovery of hidden sector particle dark matter would be a momentous event in fundamental physics. The dark matter problem is now over 50 years old, but in addition a new set of light particles would be bound to solve some of the persistent problems with the standard model of particle physics.
Professor Stafford Withington, Co-Investigator and Senior Project Scientist on QSHS from the University of Cambridge, said: In recent years, the UK has invested heavily in establishing the laboratory infrastructure needed to develop a new generation of ultra-low-noise electronics and associated control systems. The new electronics operate in a fundamentally different way to the conventional electronics with which we are all familiar. It exploits the mysterious behaviour of quantum mechanics to yield sensitivities that are limited only by the fluctuations inherent in the fundamental nature of space-time. The electronic devices are based on a range of superconducting materials, and work at temperatures of around 10mK, where thermal fluctuations are essentially eliminated.
The team will develop this technology to a high level of sophistication, and deploy it to search for the lowest-mass particles detected to date. These particles are predicted to exist theoretically, but have not yet been discovered experimentally. Our ability to probe the particulate nature of the physical world with sensitivities that push at the limits imposed by quantum uncertainty will open up a new frontier in physics.
This new window will allow physicists to to explore the nature of physical reality at the most fundamental level, and it is extremely exciting that the UK will be playing a major international role in this new generation of science.
The detection of these hidden particles requires technology of unprecedented sensitivity. The team are aiming to develop new and world-leading devices which could also be applied to make critical progress in other areas of physics such as quantum computing and quantum systems engineering.
The UK research team will form a collaboration with the US based ADMX collaboration, who operate the most sensitive detector for a particular variety of hidden sector particle, the axion.
The full QSHS team consists of The University of Sheffield (lead institution, principal investigator Prof. E Daw), University of Cambridge (co-I and senior project scientist Prof. Stafford Withington), Lancaster University (co-Is Prof. Yuri Pashkin, Dr. Ian Bailey, Dr. Ed Laird) The University of Liverpool (co-I DR. Ed Hardy), The National Physical Laboratory (co-Is Prof. Ling Hao, Prof. John Gallop), University of Oxford (co-Is Dr. Peter Leek, Prof. Gianluca Gregori, Prof. John March-Russell, Prof. Subir Sarkar, Dr. Boon-Kok Tan) , Royal Holloway - University of London (co-Is . Prof. Phil Meeson, Dr. Stephen West), and University College London (co-I Dr. Ed Romans).
With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the worlds leading universities.
A member of the UKs prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.
Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.
Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education.
Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.
Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.
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Raytheon UK part of team transforming the Royal Navy’s technology, training and learning solutions – PRNewswire
LONDON, Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Raytheon UK, a unit of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), alongside strategic partner Capita, received a contract award to provide the Royal Navy with transformative technology, training and learning solutions over the next 12 years.
The contract, which will be led by Capita, has an initial contract value of 200 million to Raytheon UK and will ensure the Royal Navy offers best-in-class training to all its service personnel. It will accelerate the use of new technology, processes and learning solutions, aligning with the Royal Navy's transformation agenda and positioning it to thrive in the 21st century.
"This announcement allows the team to begin efforts to transform the Royal Navy's training and learning solutions, and to modernise and transform the way training is delivered across the Armed Forces," said Jeff Lewis, chief executive of Raytheon UK. "Our extensive experience in leading large and complex transformative change programmes around the world will provide the Royal Navy with tailored, digitally enabled training, fit for the future."
Raytheon UK will play a key role in modernising and transforming the Royal Navy's training analysis, design, delivery, assurance, and management/support services, helping to make the UK Armed Forces more agile and adaptable than ever to tackle future challenges.
"We are committed to investing in the UK and helping to keep the country secure and our Armed Forces equipped with the best affordable sovereign solutions, creating highly skilled jobs across the UK," Lewis said. "We look forward to delivering these solutions to the Royal Navy over the coming years."
Rear Adm. Phil Hally MBE, the Royal Navy's director of people and training, said, "The award of this 12-year contract marks a major milestone for Navy transformation. It will see the modernisation of the RN training system at scale to deliver the operational capabilities of the future, unlock more opportunities for our people, and get better trained people to the frontline, quicker."
About Raytheon UKWith facilities in Broughton, Waddington, Glenrothes, Harlow, Gloucester and Manchester, Raytheon UK is invested in the British workforce and the development of UK technology. Across the country the company employs 1,700 people. As a prime contractor and major supplier to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, Raytheon UK continues to invest in research and development, supporting innovation and technological advances across the country.
Raytheon UK is a unit of Raytheon Technologies and sits within the Raytheon Intelligence & Space business.
About Raytheon TechnologiesRaytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. With four industry-leading businesses Collins Aerospace Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense the company delivers solutions that push the boundaries in avionics, cybersecurity, directed energy, electric propulsion, hypersonics, and quantum physics. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered inWaltham, Massachusetts.
Media ContactSen Sami+44 (0)1279 407600[emailprotected]
SOURCE Raytheon Technologies
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