PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Making memories: Practical quantum computing moves closer to reality

2013-06-19
(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of Sydney and Dartmouth College have developed a new way to design quantum memory, bringing quantum computers a step closer to reality. The results will appear June 19 in the journal Nature Communications.

Quantum computing may revolutionize information processing, by providing a means to solve problems too complex for traditional computers, with applications in code breaking, materials science and physics. But figuring out how to engineer such a machine, including vital subsystems like quantum memory, remains elusive.

In the worldwide drive to build a useful quantum computer, the simple-sounding task of effectively preserving quantum information in a quantum memory is a major challenge. The same physics that makes quantum computers potentially powerful also makes them likely to experience errors, even when quantum information is just being stored idly in memory. Keeping quantum information "alive" for long periods, while remaining accessible to the computer, is a key problem.

The Sydney-Dartmouth team's results demonstrate a path to what is considered a holy grail in the research community: storing quantum states with high fidelity for exceptionally long times, even hours according to their calculations. Today, most quantum states survive for tiny fractions of a second.

"Our new approach allows us to simultaneously achieve very low error rates and very long storage times," said co-senior author Dr. Michael J. Biercuk, director of the Quantum Control Laboratory in the University of Sydney's School of Physics and ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems. "But our work also addresses a vital practical issue – providing small access latencies, enabling on-demand retrieval with only a short time lag to extract stored information."

The team's new method is based on techniques to build in error resilience at the level of the quantum memory hardware, said Dartmouth Physics Professor Lorenza Viola, a co-senior author who is leading the quantum control theory effort and the Quantum Information Initiative at Dartmouth.

"We've now developed the quantum 'firmware' appropriate to control a practically useful quantum memory," added Biercuk. "But vitally, we've shown that with our approach a user may guarantee that error never grows beyond a certain level even after very long times, so long as certain constraints are met. The conditions we establish for the memory to function as advertised then inform system engineers how they can construct an efficient and effective quantum memory. Our method even incorporates a wide variety of realistic experimental imperfections."

### The study was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, National Science Foundation, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, and ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems.

Broadcast studios Dartmouth has TV and radio studios available for interviews. For more information, visit: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/radio-tv-studios/


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Detour ahead: Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climes

2013-06-19
In spite of considerable human development, the southeastern United States region could provide some of the Western Hemisphere's more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals, birds and amphibians on their way to cooler environments in a warming world, according to new research led by the University of Washington. The region is among half a dozen areas that could experience heavier traffic compared with the average species-movement across the Western Hemisphere in response to a warming climate. The estimate in southeastern states, for example, is up to 2.5 times the average ...

Validating maps of the brain's resting state

2013-06-19
Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world has become the focus of considerable research in recent years. One of the potential benefits of these studies could be definitive diagnoses of mental health disorders ranging from bipolar to post-traumatic stress disorders. For the last decade, neuroscientists have been using the non-invasive brain-mapping technique functional called magnetic resonance imaging or ...

Laughing gas does not increase heart attacks

2013-06-19
Nitrous oxide — best known as laughing gas — is one of the world's oldest and most widely used anesthetics. Despite its popularity, however, experts have questioned its impact on the risk of a heart attack during surgery or soon afterward. But those fears are unfounded, a new study indicates. The findings by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will appear in the July issue of the journal Anesthesiology. "It's been known for quite a while that laughing gas inactivates vitamin B12 and, by doing so, increases blood levels of the amino acid ...

What do memories look like?

2013-06-19
Oscar Wilde called memory "the diary that we all carry about with us." Now a team of scientists has developed a way to see where and how that diary is written. The team, led by Don Arnold and Richard Roberts of USC, engineered microscopic probes that light up synapses in a living neuron in real time by attaching fluorescent markers onto synaptic proteins – all without affecting the neuron's ability to function. The fluorescent markers allow scientists to see live excitatory and inhibitory synapses for the first time – and, importantly, how they change as new memories ...

Unusual supernova is doubly unusual for being perfectly normal

2013-06-19
August, 2011, saw the dazzling appearance of the closest and brightest Type Ia supernova since Type Ia's were established as "standard candles" for measuring the expansion of the universe. The brilliant visitor, labeled SN 2011fe, was caught by the Palomar Transient Factory less than 12 hours after it exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy in the Big Dipper. Easy to see through binoculars, 2011fe was soon dubbed the Backyard Supernova. Major astronomical studies from the ground and from space followed close on its heels, recording its luminosity and colors as it rapidly brightened ...

Sound waves precisely position nanowires

2013-06-19
The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits. "There are ways to create these devices with lithography, but it is very hard to create patterns below 50 nanometers using lithography," said Tony Jun Huang, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State. "It is rather simple ...

The contribution of particulate matter to forest decline

2013-06-19
Air pollution is related to forest decline and also appears to attack the protecting wax on tree leaves and needles. Bonn University scientists have now discovered a responsible mechanism: particulate matter salt compounds that become deliquescent because of humidity and form a wick-like structure that removes water from leaves and promotes dehydration. These results are published in "Environmental Pollution". Nature conservationists call it "lingering illness", and the latest report on the North-Rhine Westphalian forest conditions confirms ongoing damage. Bonn University ...

Distracted walking: injuries soar for pedestrians on phones

2013-06-19
COLUMBUS, Ohio – More than 1,500 pedestrians were estimated to be treated in emergency rooms in 2010 for injuries related to using a cell phone while walking, according to a new nationwide study. The number of such injuries has more than doubled since 2005, even though the total number of pedestrian injuries dropped during that time. And researchers believe that the actual number of injured pedestrians is actually much higher than these results suggest. "If current trends continue, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cell phones ...

'Ugly' finding: Unattractive workers suffer more

2013-06-19
EAST LANSING, Mich.-— People who are considered unattractive are more likely to be belittled and bullied in the workplace, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by a Michigan State University business scholar. "Frankly, it's an ugly finding," said Brent Scott, associate professor of management and lead investigator on the study. "Although we like to think we're professional and mature in the workplace, it can be just like high school in many ways." While plenty of research has found that attractive students tend to be more popular in school, the study is the ...

New research backs theory that genetic 'switches' play big role in human evolution

2013-06-19
ITHACA, N.Y. – A Cornell University study offers further proof that the divergence of humans from chimpanzees some 4 million to 6 million years ago was profoundly influenced by mutations to DNA sequences that play roles in turning genes on and off. The study, published June 9 in Nature Genetics, provides evidence for a 40-year-old hypothesis that regulation of genes must play an important role in evolution since there is little difference between humans and chimps in the proteins produced by genes. Indeed, human and chimpanzee proteins are more than 99 percent identical. The ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

What’s behind the enormous increase in early-onset gastrointestinal cancers?

Pharmacogenomics expert advances precision medicine for bipolar disorder

Brazilian researcher explores centenarian stem cells for aging insights

Dr. Xuyu Qian's breakthrough analysis of 18 million brain cells advances understanding of human brain development

Gene networks decode human brain architecture from health to glioma

How artificial light at night damages brain health and metabolism

For ultrasound, ultra-strength not always a good thing

Matching your workouts to your personality could make exercising more enjoyable and give you better results

Study shows people perceive biodiversity

Personality type can predict which forms of exercise people enjoy

People can accurately judge biodiversity through sight and sound

People diagnosed with dementia are living longer, global study shows

When domesticated rabbits go feral, new morphologies emerge

Rain events could cause major failure of Waikīkī storm drainage by 2050

Breakthrough in upconversion luminescence research: Uncovering the energy back transfer mechanism

Hidden role of 'cell protector' opens cancer treatment possibilities

How plants build the microbiome they need to survive in a tough environment

Depression due to politics and its quiet danger to democracy addressed in new book 'The Sad Citizen'

International experts and patients unite to help ensure all patients are fully informed before consenting to new surgical procedures

Melting glaciers could trigger more explosive eruptions globally, finds research

Nearly half of U.S. grandchildren live within 10 miles of a grandparent

Study demonstrates low-cost method to remove CO₂ from air using cold temperatures, common materials

Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) welcomes 13 students to prestigious Summer Fellowship program

Mass timber could elevate hospital construction

A nuanced model of soil moisture illuminates plant behavior and climate patterns

$2.6 million NIH grant backs search for genetic cure in deadly heart disease

Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program changed drastically when anxiety was added as a qualifying condition

1 in 5 overweight adults could be reclassified with obesity according to new framework

Findings of study on how illegally manufactured fentanyl enters U.S. contradict common assumptions, undermining efforts to control supply

Satellite observations provide insight into post-wildfire forest recovery

[Press-News.org] Making memories: Practical quantum computing moves closer to reality