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"Solid" light reveals new insights about quantum mechanics
Researchers at Princeton University have devised a method for giving light the properties of liquids and solids, with huge potential ramifications in the study of quantum mechanics and other areas of physics (Image: Shutterstock)
Scientists have been observing the wave-particle duality of light for centuries, but never has light been seen to behave like matter. Until now, that is. Researchers at Princeton University have devised a method for giving light the properties of liquids and solids, with huge potential ramifications in the study of quantum mechanics and other areas of physics.
They are not, we should be clear, actually transforming light into a crystal, or any other form of matter – though turning light into matter and binding its photons together to form simple molecules are both being explored elsewhere. Rather, the research involved locking individual photons together in a lattice – what the researchers describe as "macroscopic quantum self-trapping" – such that they become like a solid or fluid object.
"Here we set up a situation where light effectively behaves like a particle in the sense that two photons can interact very strongly," said researcher Hakan Türeci, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Princeton. "In one mode of operation, light sloshes back and forth like a liquid; in the other, it freezes."
The researchers constructed a small device made of superconducting materials that contain 100 billion atoms. These atoms were engineered to act together as a single unit, or an artificial atom. The artificial atom was then placed close to a superconducting wire carrying photons, whereupon the photons became entangled (linked or correlated, without necessarily being physically connected) such that they began exhibiting the properties of atoms.
The "self-trapped" photons oscillated uniformly before enough had escaped that they reached a critical point, which saw them behave like liquid or freeze like a solid (Image: Princeton University)
Unlike atoms, photons do not normally interact with each other, but here they oscillated almost uniformly and at a critical point, as some photons leaked out into the surrounding environment, these oscillations began to produce quantum divergent behavior. The photons, in other words, could be in two states at once: a liquid and a solid. (Much like the famous Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment, in which a cat in a box is simultaneously both alive and dead.)
The current device has only two sites where light can be entangled with the artificial atom, but the researchers plan on scaling it up to allow more interactions and thus more complex systems – from a simple molecule to entire materials. They hope to then use this technique of solidifying light to study dissipation and decoherence from quantum systems – to simulate subatomic behavior, essentially, with tools developed for quantum computing.
Large numbers of particles are usually modeled statistically under the assumption that there's no interaction between particles and the system is at equilibrium. But, as the researchers note in their popular summary, "the world around us is rarely in equilibrium." The solidified light, by contrast, provides opportunities to observe such systems just as they diverge from equilibrium.
The researchers also hope to make the frozen light behave like more exotic forms of matter (like superfluids) and to mimic materials that have never been observed in nature (only hypothesized by physicists), perhaps leading to the development of room-temperature superconductors and other world-changing hypothetical materials that could have especially-dramatic consequences in computing, power generation, electronic storage, and many other areas.
"There is a lot of new physics that can be done even with these small systems," said James Raftery, a co-author on the study. "But as we scale up, we will be able to tackle some really interesting questions."
The research is described in a paper published in the journal Physical Review X.
Source: Princeton University
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/solid-light-quantum-mechanics/33865/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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