In November, Quanta magazine published a feature on the detection of \u201cmagic\u201d top quarks at CERN\u2019s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This magic, they explained, is part of an interesting shift happening at the LHC as scientists realize how useful the facilities there can be for quantum computing. The collider\u2014which will be old enough to vote in September of this year\u2014is evolving to help quantum researchers with information studies, in addition to its stated goals in physics and cosmology.<\/p>\n
Under one enormous roof, the LHC facility includes the particle accelerator itself\u2014which is a ring 5.34 miles in diameter\u2014and four pitstops where particle detectors like ATLAS and CMS are set up to record collisions and particles. Each pitstop can host more than one ongoing experiment, and scientists from around the world sign up to use the facilities and data.<\/p>\n
ATLAS has made news, Quanta explained, because they\u2019ve been able to host and observe record-breaking quantum entanglements. Inside the LHC, researchers crash protons into each other and \u201cproduce, in their wreckage, a top quark and an anti-top quark, the heaviest known elementary particles,\u201d Shalma Wegsman wrote. Because they\u2019re so heavy, the top quark and anti-top quark take much longer than ordinary quarks to recombine, and in the meantime, the particles decay.<\/p>\n
This leaves a quantum stain, so to speak, which shows how the two particles were entangled. Researchers were able to show that the top quark and anti-top quark show a high amount of entanglement, which could make quantum computers faster than traditional computers.<\/p>\n
Quantum computing is built on the idea that quantum bits, or qubits, can be used in place of traditional computer bits as units of data. In theory, anything with an \u201con\u201d and \u201coff\u201d position can be turned into binary code for computer reasoning. That\u2019s because computer logic is just a series of physical gates, much like light switches. If two points connect, then the \u2018light\u2019 switches on, and the computer can create a different flow of information. Electrons or photons are strictly on or off, and are pushed to the highest possible speeds for those ons and offs.<\/p>\n
But quantum systems can exhibit more than just on and off because of their complex states. Scientists are excited to find the specific quantum setups that best highlight this advantage, because otherwise, there\u2019s no reason to use a costly, fussy quantum system that must be supercooled, contained by superconducting magnets, and so forth\u2014all requiring an enormous amount of energy. We\u2019re still waiting to fully convert the raw materials into practical machines that could lead to a quantum computing revolution.<\/p>\n
You Might Also Like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In November, Quanta magazine published a feature on the detection of \u201cmagic\u201d top quarks at CERN\u2019s Large Hadron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[155164,11448,2302,6111,26334,4342,90,14607,155165,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-421221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-elementary-particles","9":"tag-lhc","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-quanta-magazine","12":"tag-quantum-bits","13":"tag-quantum-computing","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-scientists","16":"tag-top-quarks","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}