Foundation of green computing was laid as far back as 1992 with the launching of Energy Star program in the USA. The success of Energy Star motivated other countries to take up the subject for investigation and implementation.
Any technology that aspires to be nature-friendly ought to be green. Recognition of this fact has led to development of green generators, green automobiles, green energy, green chemistry as well as green computing. Green computing is a leap forward for information technology (IT), and more specifically for information and communication technology (ICT). Green computing has emerged as the next wave of ICT.
Motivation for the subject of green computing arose to protect environment against hazards generated at three different states of ICT, namely, information collection (by electronic devices), information processing (through algorithms and storage) and information transportation (through networking and communication).
Carbon dioxide accounts for about eighty per cent of global warming. As a rule of thumb, if world-wide increasing application of ICT is assumed to contribute at least twenty per cent towards carbon dioxide, ICT becomes responsible for sixteen per cent of global warming. This is undoubtedly a cause of concern. As per one research-based estimate, fifty billion devices like computers, mobile phones, sensors, actuators and robots shall connect to the Internet by this year’s end, creating even more havoc.
Of course different strategies would be needed to nudge ICT towards green computing, which is necessary to reduce the pollutants generated in collection, processing and transportation of the information. In today’s scenario, primary challenge in achieving green computing is to realise energy-efficient devices, energy-efficient processing and energy-efficient networking. Invariably, energy efficiency is required to address reduction in heat dissipation that is basically responsible for emission of carbon dioxide.
In case of electrical, electronic or computer systems, wasteful heat is generated due to thermal vibration of particles in the components. Therefore any brute attempt towards green initiative should have direct or indirect motivation to reduce this thermal vibration.
Reduced circuitry or a minimal system helps in reducing the number of vibrating particles.
Minimal circuit designs, which lead to technologies of very large scale integration (VLSI) or ultra large scale integration (ULSI), are now well-established technical solutions. These solutions meet the objectives of realising low cost and smaller-size systems. It was never thought these would also indirectly provide a solution for reducing particles in vibration.
In the process of minimisation, two more revolutionary technologies have emerged: molecular scale of electronics (MSE) and Quantum computing. It was the quest for an ever decreasing size, but more complex electronic components with high speed ability, which gave rise to MSE.
The concept that molecules may be designed to operate as a self-contained device was put forwarded by Carter. He proposed some molecular analogous of conventional electronic switches, gates and connections. Accordingly, an idea of a molecular P-N junction emerged. MSE is a simple interpolation of IC scaling.
Scaling is an attractive technology. Scaling of FET and MOS transistors is more rigorous and well defined than that of bipolar transistors. But there are problems in scaling of silicon technology. In scaling, while propagation delay should be minimum and packing density should be high, these should not be at the expense of the power dissipated. With these scaling rules in minds, scaling technology of silicon is reaching a limit.
Dr Barker reported that, “change, spin, conformation, colour, reactivity and lock-and-key recognition are just a few examples of molecular properties, which might be useful for representing and transforming logical information. To be useful, molecular scale logic will have to function close to the information theoretical limit of one bit on one carrier.
Experimental practicalities suggest that it will be too easy to construct regular molecular arrays, preferably by chemical and physical self-organisation. This suggests that the natural logic architectures should be cellular automata: regular arrays of locally connected finite state machines where the state of each molecule might be represented by colour or by conformation. Schemes such as spectral hole burning already exist for storing and retrieving information in molecular arrays using light. The general problem of interfacing to a molecular system remains problematic. Molecular structures may be the first to take practical advantages of novel logic concepts such as emergent computation and ‘floating architecture’ in which computation is viewed as a self-organising process in a fluid-like medium.”
Change is the only thing that is permanent in universe. In technology scenario, changes become inevitable means of evolution and revolution. In tune, a new generation of IT known as Quantum Computing (QC) has come up. Mechanical computing, electronic computing, quantum computing, DNA computing, cloud computing, chemical computing and bio computing are a few generation-wise migrations of information technology (IT).
In conventional computers we work with now, computing and processing of data is based on transistors’ on and off states as binary representation of ‘1’ or ‘0,’ or vice versa. In quantum computers, the basic principle is to use quantum properties to represent data. Here, computation and processing of data is made with quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition, parallelism and entanglement. Therefore, whereas in conventional computers data is represented by binary ‘bits,’ in quantum computers representation is done with ‘qubits’ (quantum bits).
Qubits are typically subatomic particles such as electrons and photons. Generating, processing and managing qubits is an engineering challenge. Superiority of quantum computing over classical computing is multi-fold. First, whereas in classical computing logical bits are represented by on and off states of transistors, in quantum computing qubits are harnessed by properties of subatomic particles. Size of quantum computers will thus be much smaller than that of present-day computers. Both MSE and QC are thus found to be indirect solutions for green computing.
At current state of technology march, Green ICT may be better looked at as a challenge to realise eco-friendly and environmentally-responsible solutions in order to reduce just not heat dissipation but also to maximise energy efficiency, recyclability and bio-degradability.
Fact is, fast-growing production of electrical, electronic and computing equipment has resulted in enormous increase of e-waste, and especially carbon dioxide, which is responsible for creating havoc in environment and for increasing pollution. As per a report published by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), e-waste has increased rapidly and reached a global high. Increasing trend of e-waste all over the world is shown in Fig. 1.
Many studies have established that computers and IT industries dissipate more energy than others. Impact of ICT industries on emission of carbon-dioxide is immense. As shown in Fig. 2, India is currently the third largest producer of carbon dioxide.
Urgent solutions required at the levels of hardware design management include minimal configuration, adoptive configuration, consolidation by virtualisation, algorithmic efficiency, optimal resource utilisation, optimal data centres, optimal link utilisation, limiting power by reducing cable length, minimising protocol overhead, protocol for compressed header, green networking, management of e-waste, air management and cooling management, among others. For ICT scientists and engineers, the challenge will be to design technology and algorithms to minimise particle vibration, travel path and heat loss due to input-output mismatch. Design, operational and transmission related thermal loss are core issues of ICT.
This makes production of Green ICT a great challenge, although, as parts of its implementation, energy- smart devices, sleep-mode devices, cluster computing, cloud computing, etc are already in place.
Foundation of green ICT was laid as far back as 1992 with the launching of Energy Star program in the USA. The success of Energy Star motivated other countries to take up the subject for investigation and implementation. Leading countries working on green ICT now include Japan, Australia, Canada and The European Union. Formalisation of green ICT is in fact due to standards proposed by IEEE who has formalised Green Ethernet and 802.3az-enabled devices for green ICT.
Green ICT is a clean-environment-based technology. However, fruitful realisation of green ICT is equally dependent upon awareness in society. Society needs to practice common ethics of ‘don’t keep computer on, when not needed,’ ‘don’t use Internet as a free tool, but as a valuable tool of necessity only,’ ‘don’t unnecessarily replace devices after devices just because you can afford to’ and so on. Without societal responsibility, technology alone cannot ensure achieving the objectives of green ICT.
Prof. Chandan Tilak Bhunia, PhD in computer engineering from Jadavpur University, is fellow of Computer Society of India, Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers, and Institution of Engineers (India)
Abhinandan Bhunia did B S in computer engineering from Drexel University, USA and MBA from University of Washington, USA


“Study by the University of Bonn could pave the way to new types of highly sensitive sensors
Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a gas of light particles that can be extremely compressed. Their results confirm the predictions of central theories of quantum physics. The findings could also point the way to new types of sensors that can measure minute forces. The study is published in the journal Science.
If you plug the outlet of an air pump with your finger, you can still push its piston down. The reason: Gases are fairly easy to compress - unlike liquids, for example. If the pump contained water instead of air, it would be essentially impossible to move the piston, even with the greatest effort.
Gases usually consist of atoms or molecules that swirl more or less quickly through space. It is quite similar with light: Its smallest building blocks are photons, which in some respect behave like particles. And these photons can also be treated as a gas, however, one that behaves somewhat unusually: You can compress it under certain conditions with almost no effort. At least that is what theory predicts.
Photons in the mirror box
Researchers from the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) at the University of Bonn have now demonstrated this very effect in experiments for the first time. “To do this, we stored light particles in a tiny box made of mirrors,” explains Dr. Julian Schmitt of the IAP, who is a principal investigator in the group of Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz. “The more photons we put in there, the denser the photon gas became.”
The rule is usually: The denser a gas, the harder it is to compress. This is also the case with the plugged air pump - at first the piston can be pushed down very easily, but at some point it can hardly be moved any further, even when applying a lot of force. The Bonn experiments were initially similar: The more photons they put into the mirror box, the more difficult it became to compress the gas.
However, the behavior changed abruptly at a certain point: As soon as the photon gas exceeded a specific density, it could suddenly be compressed with almost no resistance. “This effect results from the rules of quantum mechanics,” explains Schmitt, who is also an associate member of the Cluster of Excellence “Matter and Light for Quantum Computing” and project leader in the Transregio Collaborative Research Center 185. The reason: The light particles exhibit a “fuzziness” - in simple terms, their location is somewhat blurred. As they come very close to each other at high densities, the photons begin to overlap. Physicists then also speak of a “quantum degeneracy” of the gas. And it becomes much easier to compress such a quantum degenerate gas.
If the overlap is strong enough, the light particles fuse to form a kind of super-photon, a Bose-Einstein condensate. In very simplified terms, this process can be compared to the freezing of water: In a liquid state, the water molecules are disordered; then, at the freezing point, the first ice crystals form, which eventually merge into an extended, highly ordered ice layer. “Islands of order” are also formed just before the formation of the Bose-Einstein condensate, and they become larger and larger with the further addition of photons.
The condensate is formed only when these islands have grown so much that the order extends over the entire mirror box containing the photons. This can be compared to a lake on which independent ice floes have finally joined together to form a uniform surface. Naturally, this requires a much larger number of light particles in an extended box as compared to a small one. “We were able to demonstrate this relation in our experiments,” Schmitt points out.
To create a gas with variable particle number and well-defined temperature, the researchers use a “heat bath”: “We insert molecules into the mirror box that can absorb the photons,” Schmitt explains. “Subsequently, they emit new photons that on average possess the temperature of the molecules - in our case, just under 300 Kelvin, which is about room temperature.”
The researchers also had to overcome another obstacle: Photon gases are usually not uniformly dense - there are far more particles in some places than in others. This is due to the shape of the trap which they are usually contained in. “We took a different approach in our experiments,” says Erik Busley, first author of the publication. “We capture the photons in a flat-bottom mirror box that we created using a microstructuring method. This enabled us to create a homogeneous quantum gas of photons for the first time.”
In the future, the quantum-enhanced compressibility of the gas will enable research into novel sensors that could measure tiny forces. Besides technological prospects, the results are also of great interest for fundamental research.
The study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the collaborative research center TRR 185 “OSCAR – Open System Control of Atomic and Photonic Matter” and the cluster of excellence “Matter and Light for Quantum Computing (ML4Q)“, and by the European Union within the framework of the quantum flagship project “PhoQuS – Photons for Quantum Simulation”.
Publication: Erik Busley, Leon Espert Miranda, Andreas Redmann, Christian Kurtscheid, Kirankumar Karkihalli Umesh, Frank Vewinger, Martin Weitz and Julian Schmitt: Compressibility and the Equation of State of an Optical Quantum Gas in a Box; Science; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm2543”


The race to make good on quantum computing is well underway. Millions of dollars have been allocated to developing machines that could cause current computers to become obsolete. But, what is the difference between quantum and classical computing? This is a puzzle that is beginning to be unraveled.
A few months ago, IBM unveiled the first quantum computer, the Q System. For newcomers to this computing paradigm, IBM explained that the quantum computer could solve (much more quickly than traditional computers) a set of much more complex calculations. “Qubits” were discussed as units of value, outpacing the traditional bits of classical computing.
To understand how a quantum computer works, and the quantum mechanics on which it is based, we should look back to the beginning of the 20th century, when this physical theory was first raised. Among other subjects of study, quantum physics began with the study of an atom's particles and its electrons at a microscopic scale, something that had never been done before. Arnau Riera — doctor in theoretical physics; high school teacher; and advisor to Quantum, an exhibition hosted at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) — defines it as a conceptual change. "In the classical world, the properties of the systems that we study are well defined. In the quantum world, this isn’t the case: particles can have different values, they are not isolated objects, their states are diluted," he explains.
Quantum physics is so complex that even Richard Feyman, 1965 Nobel Laureate in Physics and one of the fathers of quantum computing in the 1980s famously said, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics”.
As the reality of a quantum computer comes closer, it is useful for us to understand both how one functions and how it’s different from a traditional computer. The first thing to bear in mind is that they use different basic units of data: 'bits' and 'qubits'. Every element of a classical computer is written in binary code (1s and 0s) and is translated into electricity: high voltage is represented by 1, and low voltage by 0. In quantum computing, qubits are the basic unit and their value can be 1, 0, or 1 and 0 simultaneously, overlapping (superposition) and intertwining (entanglement) according to the laws of physics. This means that qubits, as opposed to bits, can take on various values at one time and can perform calculations that a conventional computer cannot.
Juan José García Ripoll, researcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics within the Spanish National Research Council, provides more clues. "In classical computing we know how to solve problems thanks to computer language (AND, OR NOT) used when programming. Operations that are not feasible in bit computing can be performed with a quantum computer. In a quantum computer all the numbers and possibilities that can be created with N qubits are superimposed (if there are 3 qubits, there will be 8 simultaneous possible permutations.) With 1,000 qubits the exponential possibilities far exceed those that we have in classical computing”.
Currently, in contrast to classical computing, there are no quantum computing languages per se. Researchers work on developing algorithms (mathematical models that classical computers also work with) that can provide concrete solutions to the problems that are presented. "They work differently. A quantum computer isn't suitable for performing day-to-day tasks", Garcia Ripoll explains. "They don't have memory or a processor. We only have a group of qubits that we use to write information, and we work with those. There isn't an architecture as complicated as the architecture for a conventional computer. Today, quantum machines are primitive systems akin to a calculator at the turn of the last century, but their computing power for very specific problems is much greater than a traditional computer's. There is a dichotomy between what appears very simple and what it does, which is very powerful,” García Ripoll points out.
What is a quantum computer like and under what conditions does it work?
When IBM unveiled its quantum computer, many people were surprised by what it looked like. There were no screens, keyboards, or processors — computers elements we expect. In the photos there appears a bell-shaped machine covered in copper wires, then by a protective glass case. Only people who work with quantum computers and researchers can get close to this equipment. Researchers at CSIC use traditional computers and the cloud to interact with the quantum computers used for their research.
“What we have available are prototypes that are very sensitive; they experience errors. They are very complex technically because as soon as an external agent influences or interacts with a quantum system, the qubits register it and fall out of superposition”, explains Riera. Whereas, with a classical computer, if there is interference with the system, the system can correct itself and continue running. For the time being, this is not the case with quantum computers. "External disturbances force the system to define itself as 1 or 0, causing it to lose its quantum coherence. To avoid this kind of external ‘noise,’ the system has to be completely isolated: the atoms have to be very quiet, ensuring nothing makes them collide or interact with the surroundings. This kind of ‘still state’ requires exact temperatures and processes,” the doctor in theoretical physics explains. Quantum computers have to be at a temperature of -273 °C (-459 °F) with hardly any atmospheric pressure and isolated from Earth's magnetic field.
At the same time, information cannot be stored in a quantum computer because its operational window is very short. "It's computing time is finite: at some point the quantum properties of the computer are destroyed. They run for very short periods of time. We have to think about how to make the most of those timeframes and extract data in a very exact manner,” García Ripoll explains.
What can we do with a quantum computer?
Areas where quantum computing can deliver new applications and developments range from the pharmaceutical industry and medicine research, the creation of new materials, and even what is being called “quantum finance” — an area in which BBVA has already taken an interest. In this sector, we can use classical computing and mathematical algorithms to make predictions about the future risk of a portfolio or we can study the stock market during a window of time. But quantum computing opens a completely new range of options to be explored. "A quantum computer can create superposition with multiple probabilities that we cannot achieve today, let alone examine the features of those probabilities. With this type of application, the quantum computer will be much more efficient than a classical computer,” asserts García Ripoll.
Despite all the possibilities promised by quantum computing, we mustn't get ahead of ourselves, particularly in everyday life. We won't see massive improvements in speed when downloading videos; nor will video game players benefit from even better graphics cards. Researchers are working on algorithms and mathematical models so that in a near future tasks that take a long time today can be executed more efficiently. "Quantum computing is just getting started, we are very much in the early days," concludes Garcáa Ripoll.


Ultra-cold temperature physics opens way to understanding and applications
Researchers doing ultra-cold temperature physics may not have to wear parkas, but they are producing the coldest temperatures ever and exploring model quantum systems that might lead to more accurate clocks and gyroscopes, quantum computers and communications as well as a better understanding of quantum physics phenomena.
Nearly 80 years ago, Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted that gases of atoms cooled down very close to absolute zero would behave in unison. In 1995, three laboratories produced such Bose-Einstein condensates and opened the door for investigation of physical properties of atoms on a very cold scale.
David S. Weiss, associate professor of physics, Penn State, described recent research in one-dimensional quantum systems at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science today (Feb. 20) in Washington, D.C. “These ultra-cold atoms can act as model systems to help us understand other quantum systems,” says Weiss. “Their interactions can be calculated and controlled very accurately.”
In a Bose-Einstein condensate, alkali metal atoms are cooled using lasers and a form of evaporation until they are a hair above absolute zero. Bosons, a class of particles that prefer to share the same energy state, when cooled this cold, begin to act in unison. The atoms wave functions — the description of each atoms position and momentum – all become identical. Initially, Bose-Einstein condensates were confined in featureless magnetic traps, but researchers have taken the experiments further. “By putting Bose-condensed atoms into versatile light traps, we can make atomic wave functions exhibit remarkable behavior,” says Weiss. “Most known quantum phenomena can be studied clearly with ultra-cold atoms, and as yet unknown phenomena can be conceived and observed.”
The traps Weiss refers to are light traps created by lasers. By reflecting laser light back on itself, researchers create unmoving standing waves that, if created in a three-dimensional grid, can trap atoms. When this type of grid is superimposed over a Bose-Einstein condensate, the atoms segregate into individual traps, creating a matrix of tiny cells with ultra-cold atoms inside. Turning the lattice on and off can switch the system from a superfluid to something called a Mott insulator and back to a superfluid. Superfluids and Mott insulators have different quantum characteristics.
Weiss, who is using rubidium 87, takes the grid one step further and creates a one-dimensional Tonks-Girardeau gas. By constraining the grid in two directions so that movement is only possible in one dimension, as if the atom were on a wire, Weiss creates a system where the bosons – rubidium 87 atoms – act like fermions.
Fermions, unlike bosons, do not like to share energy states. Even near zero temperature, they avoid each other. In superconductivity, fermions act like bosons. In a Tonks-Girardeau gas, strongly interacting bosons act as non-interacting fermions. “A one-dimensional Tonks-Girardeau gas is one of very few many-particle systems that can be exactly solved mathematically,” says Weiss. “This was done in the 60s, but there had been no experimental system.”
Now, Weiss can experimentally verify the mathematical calculations. Using these techniques, researchers may be able to understand superconductivity better, form quantum molecules and perhaps eventually create quantum computers.
Along with rubidium, some other potential elements for Bose-Einstein condensates and ultra-cold quantum physics are sodium, cesium, lithium and ytterbium.
Weiss considers quantum computing a promising way to use ultra cold atoms. The atoms can act as quantum bits, or qubits, with internal sub-states functioning as the ubiquitous 0 and 1s of computing.
“However, quantum computers can only do a certain class of calculations, factoring large numbers for example,” says Weiss. “They might also be used to simulate other quantum mechanical systems, answering questions that are simply not answerable with any conceivable classic computer.”
Superfluid clouds of atoms and grid-constrained super cold atoms are not the only possibilities researchers are exploring in ultra cold quantum physics. Other related areas of research include lattices of atomic vortices, coherent quantum chemistry and atomic interferometry.
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Unraveling forces on cells with artificial cilia
Jaap den Toonder, Professor of Microsystems, is developing a completely new system to better understand the effect of forces and flows on cells and tissues. He is using a special laser to create artificial cilia, inspired by vibrating hairs that occur in nature. Den Toonder is receiving an ERC Advanced Grant of 3 million euros to carry out this research.
Almost every process in biology, from embryonic development to organ function and the incidence of disease, is based on biomechanical interactions between cells and their environment. If we understand these interactions, we can also better understand, for example, the spread of tumor cells or the brittleness of bones. The forces and flows between cells are often investigated by imitating fluid flows with valves and pumps, but this does not allow you to achieve the precision and control needed to make further steps in this research.
Vibrating hairs inspired Den Toonder to build a new system, with which you can precisely control and study these forces and flows in a laboratory environment. Vibrating hairs, or cilia, are ultra-thin microscopic hairs, which move tightly packed together like a crowd doing the 'wave' in a stadium. Cilia are found everywhere in nature, also in our human body where they play an important role. Their synchronized movement, for example, helps to remove mucus from the lungs and transport eggs from the ovaries to the uterus. By regulating how the fluid flows around an embryo, vibrating hairs even ensure that organs such as the heart develop on the correct side of the body.
Just like real cilia, the artificial hairs must, after an environmental signal, be able to initiate a flow in a fluid or exert mechanical forces on their environment. Then they must be able to detect the forces of reaction from the environment. And all in the same hair. Den Toonder: "The cilia we want to build consist of flexible polymers with magnetic nanoparticles. By activating them with an electromagnet, we can make the hairs move locally exactly as we want them to. This enables us to generate a flow in the surrounding fluid or forces on cells that we grow in the vicinity of the vibrating hairs. We then want to measure the biomechanical response of the cells very accurately."
The cilia that Den Toonder wants to build are only ten micrometers long and no thicker than one micrometer. He also wants to place the hairs very close to each other and give them just the right flexibility to be easily moved by the magnetic fields.
To build them, Den Toonder needs a brand new laser with a small focal point and ultra-short pulses. The laser inscribes very precise structures on a micro scale in a glass plate, which then serves as a mold with which the cilia are formed by means of a casting process. Den Toonder then places these hairs in a so-called microfluidic chip, a piece of plastic with small fluid channels, in which cells and tissues can also be grown.
"We can vary the pattern in which we apply the hairs in the chip. For each biomechanical process we want to study, we make a specific chip. For example, compare it to a CD and CD player. The CD is the chip, it is replaceable. The CD player is our entire system of electromagnet, control and measuring equipment", says Den Toonder.
Besides Den Toonder, Erik Bakkers is also a recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant. Read more about his research below.
Demonstrate teleportation of Majorana particles with new nanomaterial
Erik Bakkers, Professor of Advanced Nanomaterials & Devices, focuses his research on a new nanomaterial and thereby hopes to conclusively demonstrate the teleportation of Majorana particles. This is an essential step in the construction of the Majorana quantum computer. Bakkers will receive anAdvanced Grant of 2.5 million euros.
The award to Erik Bakkers builds on his highly successful ERC Consolidator Grant of 2013 that helped fund his presentation in 2017 of an advanced quantum chip with nano-hashtags and consequently in 2018 the long expected zero-bias peak, which has exactly the same peak as was predicted by the Majorana theory.
Bakkers: "These results are extremely important, but also showed us that the current combination of semiconductor (indium antimonide) and superconductor (aluminum) is not ideal for the next step in Majorana research. "The transition between these two materials is not very sharp, because the aluminum reacts chemically with the indium antimonide. In addition, high magnetic fields are required to reach the required topological state, which is very difficult. The topology is intended to protect the Majorana particle so that it is much more stable than other quantum states.
Robust crystal lattice
Bakkers therefore wants to use the Advanced Grant to develop a new material combination: topological crystalline insulator nanowires of tin telluride coupled to the superconductor lead. This material occurs naturally in a topological state, which is formed by the symmetry of the crystal lattice. Because the crystal lattice of this material is very simple, the same as that of kitchen salt, everything is much more robust. Lead is also a stronger superconductor than aluminum and this combination should make it easier to find and manipulate Majorana conditions.
Bakkers begins the research by growing high-quality tinelluride nanowires. For this growth process he also wants to use a growth strategy that has never been used for these materials before, namely a high-vacuum technique (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) to produce extremely pure material.
"The results from the earlier ERC study already gave strong indications of the presence of Majorana particles. But in order to really demonstrate their presence, two things have to be proven: teleportation and interdependence. Using this Advanced Grant I want to prove teleportation", says Bakkers. This requires an entangled pair of particles to appear on both sides of the nanowire and these states must be linked. Bakkers: "For example, if I change the electric field on one side, the particle on the other side must simultaneously show the same change." Quantum teleportation forms the basis of the qubit, the building block of the Majorana quantum computer. "That application is on the distant horizon", says Bakkers.


Understanding the full extent of climate change and its effects can be complicated. But the issue causing climate change can be understood relatively simply: there is too much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. To deal with that issue, we focus largely on how we can reduce the amount of carbon that we are emitting, but there’s another approach as well: removing the carbon that is already in the atmosphere. Accomplishing that task is currently costly and more theoretical than it is practical, but breakthroughs in quantum computing may hold the key to quickly, efficiently and effectively sucking pollution right out of the sky.
The concept of quantum computing provides promise for a lot of industries, from medical research to weather modeling. But one of the areas it could provide the most positive impact is in addressing climate change – particularly when it comes to capturing carbon and cutting down on the amount of energy that we are using. The new model of computation would unlock a level of computing power that is currently unachievable by conventional computers, which opens up the possibility of new models and simulations – new insights into the world that we can’t currently see, including new methods to contain and eliminate the emissions that we have spent more than a century sending up into the atmosphere.
What is quantum computing?
To understand the potential of quantum computing, it’s important to understand what exactly quantum computing is – which is no small task, seeing as it relies on theoretical physics. Traditional computers rely on bits to store data, which you have likely seen represented with 0s and 1s. Quantum computing uses a mechanical phenomenon known as quantum bits or qubits to store information, and qubits do not have the same binary restrictions as their traditional counterparts. Rather than being a 0 or a 1, a qubit can be a 0, a 1 or both simultaneously. This technical achievement is enabled by microscopic particles like electrons and photons that can occupy different states at the same time, as long as they are not observed. If you’re familiar with the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, then you’ll at least have an idea of how this works: essentially, until you look at something, you never truly know what state it is in so it can be in multiple states at once.
In recent years, quantum computing has broken from the realm of the theoretical and become more of a reality. Earlier this year, Google claimed “quantum supremacy” – an achievement accomplished by building a quantum processor capable of completing computations that would essentially be impossible for any traditional computer to process. The company claimed its processor completed in just 200 seconds a task that would have taken a traditional computer about 10,000 years to do. Google’s claims were called into question by competitors, but regardless if Google achieved true quantum supremacy, it did prove the viability of quantum computing and opened the door to new developments and breakthroughs in computing power.
The uncertainty of climate change
Enter climate change. We know that the planet is warming. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Earth’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (about 0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century. We also know that during that time frame, humans have pumped more carbon dioxide and other emissions into the atmosphere than at any other time in human history. We have a wealth of data documenting these changes – enough so that there is a scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is real. What we don’t have at this point is a reliable way to understand the effects of these changes or predict future outcomes. Scientists do have tools that they use to project the potential changes that the planet might experience because of climate change, but those models are largely limited by traditional computing power. If you’ve ever opened your weather app and found that the forecast was entirely wrong, you’ve experienced the shortcomings of current modeling systems. Meteorologists and scientists do the best they can with the tools they have, but there really is no surefire way to project how our emissions are affecting the atmosphere and what sort of long-term outcomes we might experience because of it.
How quantum computing can help address climate change
Quantum computing can close that gap – and more than that, it might contain a key to solving our emissions problem. Because the computational power of quantum processors are multitudes more powerful than traditional alternatives, computer models can become much more accurate. By feeding larger datasets into the machine and having that information processed quicker and more efficiently than ever before, we can get a clearer view of what exactly climate change is doing to the planet and what might be on the horizon for us. These models can also extend to understanding large complex molecules – something that traditional computers are effectively unable to accomplish. A report from the World Economic Forum explains this is because simulating a complex molecule requires exponentially more computer power with every atom added, and by the time you attempt to render a molecule with 70 atoms, it would take a traditional computer about 13 billion years to accomplish that. Quantum computing could allow us to finally accurately simulate complex molecules, which would open up the possibility of understanding exactly how carbon dioxide would react to different methods for capturing and processing it. This would allow scientists to determine the best ways to literally suck carbon out of the atmosphere, as well as discover new methods to recycle and reuse existing carbon rather than pumping out more emissions.
If we know, with reasonable accuracy, how carbon reacts to different ways of interacting with it through simulations, we can finally take action to remove the harmful gas from our atmosphere. Carbon capture is something that has been on the minds of scientists for decades now, with new tools on the horizon that can help to suck emissions out of the sky and put them to use again. Recent breakthroughs suggest that it is possible to turn greenhouse gas emissions into a fuel source that can be reused. These types of developments are not a suitable replacement for lowering our levels of emissions and ending the practice of indiscriminately pumping carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but it provides a serviceable middle ground between continuing down our current path and finally embracing the reality of climate change and taking the drastic action needed to prevent the most devastating effects that are looming in the future. Quantum computing may finally unlock the technology that we need to remove as much carbon as possible from the atmosphere and put it to good use. Until we finally achieve net-zero carbon emissions – something that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes we need to accomplish by 2050 if we have any hope of limiting the impact of climate change – finding a worthwhile way to suck up excess carbon and put it to work would come as a marked improvement. If we have to have excess carbon in the atmosphere, we might as well make good use of it.
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Vuckovic’s Stanford team is developing materials that can trap a single, isolated electron. Working with collaborators worldwide, they have recently tested three different approaches to the problem, one of which can operate at room temperature – a critical step if quantum computing is going to become a practical tool.
In all three cases the group started with semiconductor crystals, material with a regular atomic lattice like the girders of a skyscraper. By slightly altering this lattice, they sought to create a structure in which the atomic forces exerted by the material could confine a spinning electron.
“We are trying to develop the basic working unit of a quantum chip, the equivalent of the transistor on a silicon chip,” Vuckovic said.
One way to create this laser-electron interaction chamber is through a structure known as a quantum dot. Physically, the quantum dot is a small amount of indium arsenide inside a crystal of gallium arsenide. The atomic properties of the two materials are known to trap a spinning electron.
In a recent paper in Nature Physics, Kevin Fischer, a graduate student in the Vuckovic lab, describes how the laser-electron processes can be exploited within such a quantum dot to control the input and output of light. By sending more laser power to the quantum dot, the researchers could force it to emit exactly two photons rather than one. They say the quantum dot has practical advantages over other leading quantum computing platforms but still requires cryogenic cooling, so it may not be useful for general-purpose computing. However, it could have applications in creating tamper-proof communications networks.
In two other papers Vuckovic took a different approach to electron capture, by modifying a single crystal to trap light in what is called a color center.
In a recent paper published in NanoLetters, her team focused on color centers in diamond. In nature the crystalline lattice of a diamond consists of carbon atoms. Jingyuan Linda Zhang, a graduate student in Vuckovic’s lab, described how a 16-member research team replaced some of those carbon atoms with silicon atoms. This one alteration created color centers that effectively trapped spinning electrons in the diamond lattice.
But like the quantum dot, most diamond color center experiments require cryogenic cooling. Though that is an improvement over other approaches that required even more elaborate cooling, Vuckovic wanted to do better.
So she worked with another global team to experiment with a third material, silicon carbide. Commonly known as carborundum, silicon carbide is a hard, transparent crystal used to make clutch plates, brake pads and bulletproof vests. Prior research had shown that silicon carbide could be modified to create color centers at room temperature. But this potential had not yet been made efficient enough to yield a quantum chip.
Silicon carbide is a promising platform for single photon sources, quantum bits (qubits), and nanoscale sensors based on individual color centers. Toward this goal, we develop a scalable array of nanopillars incorporating single silicon vacancy centers in 4H-SiC, readily available for efficient interfacing with free-space objective and lensed-fibers. A commercially obtained substrate is irradiated with 2 MeV electron beams to create vacancies. Subsequent lithographic process forms 800 nm tall nanopillars with 400–1400 nm diameters. We obtain high collection efficiency of up to 22 kcounts/s optical saturation rates from a single silicon vacancy center while preserving the single photon emission and the optically induced electron-spin polarization properties. Our study demonstrates silicon carbide as a readily available platform for scalable quantum photonics architecture relying on single photon sources and qubits.
Vuckovic’s team knocked certain silicon atoms out of the silicon carbide lattice in a way that created highly efficient color centers. They also fabricated nanowire structures around the color centers to improve the extraction of photons. Radulaski was the first author on that experiment, which is described in another NanoLetters paper. She said the net results – an efficient color center, operating at room temperature, in a material familiar to industry – were huge pluses.
“We think we’ve demonstrated a practical approach to making a quantum chip,” Radulaski said.
But the field is still in its early days and electron tapping is no simple feat. Even the researchers aren’t sure which method or methods will win out.
“We don’t know yet which approach is best, so we continue to experiment,” Vuckovic said.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.


We all mark days with clocks and calendars, but perhaps no timepiece is more immediate than a mirror. The changes we notice over the years vividly illustrate science's "arrow of time" — the likely progression from order to disorder. We cannot reverse this arrow any more than we can erase all our wrinkles or restore a shattered teacup to its original form.
Or can we?
An international team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory explored this question in a first-of-its-kind experiment, managing to return a computer briefly to the past. The results, published March 13 in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest new paths for exploring the backward flow of time in quantum systems. They also open new possibilities for quantum computer program testing and error correction.
A quantum computer able to effectively jump back and clean up errors as it works could operate far more efficiently.
To achieve the time reversal, the research team developed an algorithm for IBM's public quantum computer that simulates the scattering of a particle. In classical physics, this might appear as a billiard ball struck by a cue, traveling in a line. But in the quantum world, one scattered particle takes on a fractured quality, spreading in multiple directions. To reverse its quantum evolution is like reversing the rings created when a stone is thrown into a pond.
In nature, restoring this particle back to its original state — in essence, putting the broken teacup back together — is impossible.
The main problem is that you would need a "supersystem," or external force, to manipulate the particle's quantum waves at every point. But, the researchers note, the timeline required for this supersystem to spontaneously appear and properly manipulate the quantum waves would extend longer than that of the universe itself.
Undeterred, the team set out to determine how this complexity might be overcome, at least in principle. Their algorithm simulated an electron scattering by a two-level quantum system, “impersonated” by a quantum computer qubit — the basic unit of quantum information — and its related evolution in time. The electron goes from a localized, or "seen," state, to a scattered one. Then the algorithm throws the process in reverse, and the particle returns to its initial state — in other words, it moves back in time, if only by a tiny fraction of a second.
Given that quantum mechanics is governed by probability rather than certainty, the odds for achieving this time-travel feat were pretty good: The algorithm delivered the same result 85 percent of the time in a two-qubit quantum computer.
"We did what was considered impossible before," said Argonne senior scientist Valerii Vinokur, who led the research.
The result deepens our understanding of how the second law of thermodynamics — that a system will always move from order to entropy and not the other way around — acts in the quantum world. The researchers demonstrated in previous work that, by teleportating information, a local violation of the second law was possible in a quantum system separated into remote parts that could balance each other out.
“The results also give a nod to the idea that irreversibility results from measurement, highlighting the role that the concept of “measurement” plays in the very foundation of quantum physics,” said article coauthor Gordey Lesovik of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
This is the same notion Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger captured with his famous thought experiment, in which a cat sealed in a box might remain both dead and alive until its status is monitored somehow. The researchers suspended their particle in this superposition, or form of quantum limbo, by limiting their measurements.
"This was the essential part of our algorithm," Vinokur said. "We measured the state of the system in the very beginning and at the very end, but did not interfere in the middle."
The finding may eventually enable better methods of error correction on quantum computers, where accumulated glitches generate heat and beget new ones. A quantum computer able to effectively jump back and clean up errors as it works could operate far more efficiently.
"At this moment, it's very hard to imagine all the implications this can have," Vinokur said. "I am optimistic, and I believe that it will be many."
The study also begs the question, can the researchers now figure out a way to make older folks young again? "Maybe," Vinokur jokes, "with the proper funding."
The work was done by international team including researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Gordey Lesovik, Andrey Lebedev, Mikhail Suslov), ETH Zurich (Andrey Lebedev) and Argonne National Laboratory, U.S. (Valerii Vinokur, Ivan Sadovskyy).
Funding for this research was provided by the DOE Office of Science and Strategic Partnership Projects (Swiss National Foundation and the Foundation for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics “BASIS”).
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.


In 1933, Einstein, together with two younger colleagues – Boris Podolsky (1896-1966) and Nathan Rosen (1909-1995) – published a thought experiment that proved to be a particularly serious attack on quantum physics. Their publication became known in history as the EPR paradox. According to Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen, there was a conflict between the following statements of physics and of quantum mechanics:
- An experiment can produce two particles with identical or strongly related values for certain properties. These particles will keep these values when undisturbed, even after a long period of time.
- The behavior of the particles is subject to the conservation laws of physics.
- The result of a measurement on a particle has a statistical uncertainty that, in principle, cannot be predicted according to quantum physics.
- The uncertainty relationship of Heisenberg says that the position and the momentum (mass times speed) of a particle can never both be measured at the same time with unlimited precision. The more accurately its position is determined, the less accurately its momentum will be determined, and vice versa.
About momentum and the law of impulse conservation
The momentum of a particle is the impact a particle has in a collision. This depends on its speed and its mass. Even though a fly and a bus have the same speed, the impact they can deliver differs considerably. To accurately define impact in physics, the mass of an object is multiplied by its speed, this is momentum. The law of conservation of momentum is a physical theorem that states that the momentum of a closed system never changes. Two – or more – billiard balls that collide with each other therefore posses together the same total momentum before and after the collision, only distributed differently. The symbol in physics for impulse is p. So p = m v Question: Is it possible for a grain of sand and a brick to posses the same amount of momentum?
The uncertainty principle of Heisenberg in an equation:
Δq stands for the uncertainty in position when measuring a particle, Δp stands for the uncertainty in momentum when measured. The product of these two can’t be less than Planck’s constant (h) divided by 4π. That is a very small number – 1.05 x 10-34 – but is nevertheless an absolute lower limit on the possible accuracy of a measurement. This becomes important when measuring very small particles, such as electrons. This limit is not the result of the limited precision of our measuring instruments, but it is a fundamental property of observable nature as examined by physics.
The EPR thought experiment
EPR stands for Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen. What they proposed is this: Two identical particles A and B are initially at rest. They fly apart at time I. We wait with measuring them until they have traveled very far from each other. At time II we measure the momentum pA of particle A. Heisenberg does not prohibit us from measuring pA as accurately as we want. The position qA of of A then becomes inversely proportionally uncertain according to Heisenberg. Through the law of conservation of momentum, we now also know the momentum pB of particle B. This is the opposite to pA with exactly the same magnitude.
At the same time, we measure the position qB of particle B. We can do that also as accurately as we wish. That should also be possible, according to Einstein, when Heisenberg is correct, because it is no longer connected to particle A. The momentum of B then becomes correspondingly uncertain according to Heisenberg. That shouldn’t be a problem in itself, but now comes the surprise, says Einstein. Because of the symmetry, we know now the position qA of particle A as accurately as we wish. At the same time we know the momentum of particle A as accurately as we wish.
In this way, according to Einstein, the Heisenberg uncertainty relation can be circumvented, unless the particles communicate in some way with each other. For instance, that particle A informs B that its momentum has been measured so that particle B has to keep its position uncertain in order to keep up with the uncertainty relation . This communication would have to be instantaneous because otherwise the conservation laws would be temporarily violated. If you measure both particles at the same time, the total result of their momentum and position must still satisfy the conservation laws.
Einstein: ‘Es könne keine solche spukhafte Fernwirkung geben‘. So no spooky operation at a distance, please.
Niels Bohr’s answer to the challenge
Niels Bohr had been confronted with Einstein’s clever thought experiments before and each time he had been able to parry Einstein by pointing out errors in his reasoning. However, this time it was more difficult for Bohr. Bohr’s final answer was “entanglement“. Bohr pointed out that according to the Copenhagen interpretation the quantum wave that describes the behavior of the two particles before they are measured is not a material wave and that that wave is therefore not subjected to the laws of relativity. Relativity theory belongs fully to classical physics, therefore it only applies to matter. Only on measuring one of the particles does the collective quantum wave ‘collapse’ over its entirety. Bohr called this joint quantum state of two particles entanglement. This happens when objects, such as particles, have a shared history. Now think about the Big Bang. Is the universe one single entangled state wave? Some physicists do think so. Anyhow, also read my post ‘Schrödinger’s stopwatch‘. Entanglement plays an important role there.
Quantum entanglement is a fully accepted phenomenon today and is used, among other things, to make measurements without directly measuring the measured particle itself. Numerous Bell experiments have confirmed that quantum entanglement exists and is indeed faster than light. That’s especially stunning for people who don’t want to let go of the idea of permanently existing matter, and there are quite a few.
If you are still in doubt here, China is not. Chinese scientists take entanglement very seriously and are building a quantum radar system based on entangled radar photons.
Revealing quantum experiments have been done with a special type of instrument — the Mach-Zehnder interferometer — which seem to show that quantum objects, such as photons, only exist when they are measured. In order to understand this result, it is necessary to study this type of interferometer in detail first.


Superconducting materials are hailed as the “holy grail” of condensed matter physics since their applications are so extensive. From levitating trains and quantum computing to faster and more efficient classical electronics, superconductivity is heavily researched for the swathe of use cases that could transform by vanquishing electrical resistance and magnetic field.
Superconductivity can cause magnetic materials to levitate due to effects on magnetic field lines. Image used courtesy of the University of Rochester
Yet, conventional methods to obtain superconductivity are far from economical, requiring massive amounts of energy and cryogenic cooling. Hence, the next step to achieve affordable and useful superconductivity is to reach superconductivity at higher temperatures (any temperature above 90K (−183°C) in superconductors is considered “high”) with the eventual goal being room temperature.
Some of the top electrical engineering research institutions have published new findings on this goal in the past few months, with achievements hailing from the University of Rochester, MIT, and Yale.
The “World’s First Room-temperature Superconductor”
Instead of achieving superconductivity by means of cooling, the researchers were able to achieve this temperature feat by applying extremely high pressures to a hydrogen-rich material that mimics the lightweight and strong-bond characteristics of pure hydrogen—a strong candidate for high-temperature superconductors.
This material made of yttrium and hydrogen (“yttrium superhydride”), which can be metalized at significantly lower pressures, exhibited a pressure of 26 million pounds per square inch and a record high temperature of 12°F.
The researchers used a diamond anvil cell to test superconducting materials. Image used courtesy of the University of Rochester
According to their article in Nature, the team’s next step was to create a “covalent hydrogen-rich organic-derived material” called carbonaceous sulfur hydride. It was this material that then exhibited superconductivity at 58°F by applying 39 million PSI of pressure.
For this achievement, lead researcher Ranga Dias was announced as a Time100 Next innovator this past week.
MIT Devises a Three-Layer Graphene “Sandwich”
While the University of Rochester’s findings are a significant step forward to reach superconductivity, the high pressures required still limit the feasibility of this technique in the real world. Earlier this month, MIT researchers published a paper that describes a method for obtaining superconductivity at high temperatures without requiring immense pressure.
A 3 layer graphene “sandwich” has shown superconductive behavior at 3K. Image used courtesy of MIT
In 2018, researchers were able to show that when two thin films of graphene are placed on top of one another at a specific angle, the structure actually becomes a superconductor. Since then, the search for more materials sharing this property has proven fruitless—until now.
Now, the same MIT researchers have been able to observe superconductivity in a three-layer graphene “sandwich,” the middle layer of which is twisted at a new angle with respect to the outer layers.
Compared to the original two-layer superconductive material, which has a critical temperature of 1K, the new three-layer material has shown a critical temperature of 3K. As for the exact reason, the scientists are still unsure. “For the moment we have a correlation, not a causation,” the researchers noted in a university press release.
Reimaging Coulomb’s Law for High-temperature Superconductors
More superconductor news emerged from Yale University this month, where researchers published a study that challenges fundamental understandings of electromagnetics in superconductors.
Their study, which was focused on high-temperature superconductors, found that in this state the behavior of electrons does not follow Coulomb’s law. Normally, two electrons typically repel one another, working to move to the place of lowest energy between one another (which is theoretically infinity).
Two equations associated with Coulomb’s law. Image used courtesy of the Physics Hypertextbook
Surprisingly, the Yale researchers found that in high-temperature superconductors, electrons behave independently from other atomic particles, creating a ring-like structure with each other.
This is fundamentally opposed to previous understandings of Coulomb’s law: instead of moving infinitely away from one another, the electrons move close together, forming a ring-like structure. The researchers theorize that this unprecedented effect may be caused by the “underlying functional form of the Coulomb interaction between valence electrons.”
Warming Superconductors Takes Time
While the realities of room-temperature superconductors (beyond a stringent lab setting) are far from a reality, the recent studies from these institutions indicate that researchers are on the right trail.
“History has taught us that a quest like that can take time,” explains superconductor researcher Van der Molen, professor of condensed matter physics at Leiden University. “Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in 1911, but it wasn’t until 1957 that a good explanatory theory was published. . . . It’s complicated, even for physicists.”
Catch Up on More Superconductivity Research
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When the bizarre world of quantum physics — where a "cat" can be both alive and dead, and particles a galaxy apart are connected — is merged with computer technology, the result is unprecedented power to anyone who masters this technology first.
There is an obvious dark side. Imagine a world where online bank accounts could be easily hacked into and robbed. But this power can also be turned to good, allowing new drugs to be designed with unprecedented speed to cure disease. To prepare for such a future, many countries are investing billions (opens in new tab) to unlock the potential of what is called quantum computing. With an eye toward the future, a group of researchers at Fermilab,a particle physics laboratory in Batavia, Ill., has worked with high-school teachers to develop a program to train their students in this emerging field.
This program, called "Quantum Computing as a High School Module," was developed in collaboration with young students in mind. But it's also a perfect diversion for science enthusiasts of any age who suddenly have a lot of time on their hands.
This online training course introduces students to quantum concepts, including superposition, qubits, encryption, and many others. These additional concepts include quantum measurement, entanglement and teleportation; students will also learn and how to use quantum computers to prevent hacking. The course is also appropriate for community college or undergraduate students in areas outside of physics, such as computer science, engineering or mathematics, as well as a science literate public. One of the course's teachers, Ranbel Sun wrote, "It was great to work with a couple of America's smartest researchers to make sure that the science was right. Combining their knowledge and our teaching experience, we have developed an understandable learning program which bridges the gap between popular media and college textbooks."
Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum physics, which were developed in the early 1900s. Quantum physics describes the tiny realm of atoms, where the laws of nature seem to be very different from the world we can see. In this microcosm, electrons and particles of light called photons simultaneously act as both waves and particles — a seeming absurdity, but one that is well accepted among scientists.
This non-intuitive quantum behavior has been exploited to develop powerful technologies, like the lasers and transistors that form the backbone of our technological society. Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman was the first to suggest that computers could be built to directly exploit the laws of quantum mechanics. If successful, these quantum computers could solve incredibly important and difficult problems that are too complex for even the most powerful modern supercomputers to solve. Last year, Google used a quantum computer called Sycamore to solve a problem thought to be virtually unsolvable by conventional computers; a calculation that would take the most powerful supercomputers 10,000 years to finish was solved in just 200 seconds by Sycamore.
The familiar computer on your desk uses a vast array of objects called bits to operate. Bits are basically simple switches that can be either on or off, which is mathematically equivalent to ones and zeros. Quantum computers rely on qubits, which can simultaneously be both on and off at the same time. This peculiar feature is common in the quantum world and is called superposition: being in two states at once. Researcher Ciaran Hughes said, "The quantum world is very different from the familiar one, which leads to opportunities not available using classical computers."
In 1994, Peter Shor invented an algorithm that revealed the power of quantum computing. His algorithm would allow quantum computers to factorize a number enormously faster than any classically known algorithm. Factorizing numbers is important because the encryption system used by computers to communicate securely relies on the mathematics of prime numbers. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible only by one and themselves.
In a standard encryption algorithm, two very large prime numbers are multiplied together, resulting in an even larger number. The key to breaking the security code is to take the large number and find the two prime numbers that were multiplied together to make it. Finding these prime numbers is extremely hard for ordinary computers and can take centuries to accomplish.
However, using Shor's quantum algorithm, finding these prime factors is much easier. A working quantum computer would make our standard method of encryption no longer secure, resulting in the need for new encryption methods. Fermilab researcher Jessica Turner said, "Quantum computing is a very new way of thinking and will be revolutionary, but only if we can develop programmers with quantum intuition."
Obviously, any nation state or individual who is able to crack encryption codes will have a huge information advantage. The competition to develop working quantum computers is the new space race.
Quantum computing has the potential to overturn how computers securely communicate: from health care, to financial services and online security. Like it or not, the future is quantum computing. To fully reap the rewards of this quantum revolution requires a quantum fluent workforce. This new program is a very helpful step towards that goal.
The researchers have made their training program freely available.
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Originally published on Live Science.
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Quantum computing utilize the properties of quantum physics for storing data and for performing computations. It might be highly beneficial for some tasks where they might vastly outperform some of the best supercomputers. Classical computers, on the other hand, encode information in the form of bits that is in 0s and 1s. In a quantum computer, memory in the basic unit is a qubit or a quantum bit.
Qubits are created from physical systems, like the spin of the electron or photon orientation. The systems might be in a lot of different settings all at one time; a property called the quantum superposition. The qubits might also be inextricably associated together through a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement. The outcome is a series of qubits that represent different data at the same time.
For example, eight bits is sufficient for one classical computer for representing any number that ranges between 0 and 255. However, eight qubits are sufficient for one quantum computer to show each number lying between 0 and 255. Some entangled qubits might be sufficient to show more numbers than there is a number of atoms present in the universe.
It is where quantum computing gain an advantage over classical computers. In situations in which there are many possible combinations, quantum computers might consider them at the same time. Some of the examples involve trying to find the total prime factors of a large digit or to find the shortest route between two places.
How Do Quantum Computing Work?
Instead of the conventional bits, quantum computers utilize qubits. Rather than just being on or off, the qubits might also be in the position called “superposition.” This is the position where they are both on and off simultaneously or somewhere lying in the spectrum.
Bits are utilized for representing the information in the regular computers. The quantum computers are dependent on quantum bits, which are qubits that are also able to be made from one electron.
Unlike different transistors that might be either 0 or 1, the qubits might come as 0 and 1 at the same time. The capability of a qubits to get the superposition states in the form of different states at the same time, is a great capability in itself for quantum computers. Just like conventional computers, however, quantum computers may need a route for transferring quantum information between the distant seeming qubits, which represents a big experimental challenge.
Quantum computers might develop vast multi-dimensional spaces in which we can represent them with even massive issues. On the other hand, classical supercomputers do not hold this capability.
Algorithms that utilize quantum wave interference are utilized for finding solutions in space and then utilize them into the different forms that we are able to use and understand.
How To Utilize Them?
For some of the problems, supercomputers are not the ultimate solution. Until recently, we depended on supercomputers to solve the important issues. These are actually quite large classical computers, which are often with a multitude of classical GPU and CPU cores. However, supercomputers are not quite ideal at solving specific problem types that might seem easy. It is the reason why we may need quantum computers.
Larger versions of these issue types might not be solved well by powerful supercomputers due to the fact they do not hold the memory, to capacitate the multitude of combinations of actual life problems.
Supercomputers also have to analyze different combinations, one after another, that can require a long time to process.
Why Are These Computers Efficient?
For some decades, we have seen big companies in the IT sector like IBM who have involved actively in the development of quantum computer systems to solve the issues in new ways.
Quantum computers are able to utilize a big multidimensional space in which large issues can be represented. On the other hand, classical supercomputers are not able to do this.
Algorithms that utilize quantum wave interference are utilized to look for solutions in the space and then translate them back into the specific forms that we may use or understand.
A promising quantum algorithm example would be Grover’s search. For example, let’s say you want to locate an item from a long list containing N items. On a single classical computer, you will need to check half the total items on average, and in the worst-case scenario, you will have to check all the items.
Through Grover’s search algorithm, you are able to find the right item after you have checked roughly the root of N of those. It will represent the profound increase in efficiency and the time that is saved. For instance, if you needed to search for an item contained in a list of one trillion, and every item took one microsecond to be checked, then: A conventional computer will take around a week, while a quantum computer will take about a second to complete the search.
You don’t have to know the technicalities of these computers in order to avail their full benefits. However, the science that works behind them is quite interesting. It is because it shows a lot of advanced fields that come together in the play of quantum computers.
Given the amazing potential of computational resource of quantum computers, you may have the expectation for them to be massive. In fact, these are currently around the size of the domestic refrigerator with an added box the size of a wardrobe, which contains control electronics.
Just like how bits are utilized in conventional computers, quantum computers utilize quantum bits or qubits to store information in the form of quantum. These have much better efficiency and performative function as compared to conventional computers, and these can be used to perform a variety of functions with massive data input in a given time simultaneously. This article highlighted the efficiency and the capability of quantum computing over conventional computing in today’s market.


Entanglement is at the heart of quantum physics and future quantum technologies. Like other aspects of quantum science, the phenomenon of entanglement reveals itself at very tiny, subatomic scales. When two particles, such as a pair of photons or electrons, become entangled, they remain connected even when separated by vast distances. In the same way that a ballet or tango emerges from individual dancers, entanglement arises from the connection between particles. It is what scientists call an emergent property.
How do scientists explain quantum entanglement?
In the video below, Caltech faculty members take a stab at explaining entanglement. Featured: Rana Adhikari, professor of physics; Xie Chen, professor of theoretical physics; Manuel Endres, professor of physics and Rosenberg Scholar; and John Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, and director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter.
When researchers study entanglement, they often use a special kind of crystal to generate two entangled particles from one. The entangled particles are then sent off to different locations. For this example, let's say the researchers want to measure the direction the particles are spinning, which can be either up or down along a given axis. Before the particles are measured, each will be in a state of superposition, or both "spin up" and "spin down" at the same time.
If the researcher measures the direction of one particle's spin and then repeats the measurement on its distant, entangled partner, that researcher will always find that the pair are correlated: if one particle's spin is up, the other's will be down (the spins may instead both be up or both be down, depending on how the experiment is designed, but there will always be a correlation). Returning to our dancer metaphor, this would be like observing one dancer and finding them in a pirouette, and then automatically knowing the other dancer must also be performing a pirouette. The beauty of entanglement is that just knowing the state of one particle automatically tells you something about its companion, even when they are far apart.
Are particles really connected across space?
But are the particles really somehow tethered to each other across space, or is something else going on? Some scientists, including Albert Einstein in the 1930s, pointed out that the entangled particles might have always been spin up or spin down, but that this information was hidden from us until the measurements were made. Such "local hidden variable theories" argued against the mind-boggling aspect of entanglement, instead proposing that something more mundane, yet unseen, is going on.
Thanks to theoretical work by John Stewart Bell in the 1960s, and experimental work done by Caltech alumnus John Clauser (BS '64) and others beginning in the 1970s, scientists have ruled out these local hidden-variable theories. A key to the researchers' success involved observing entangled particles from different angles. In the experiment mentioned above, this means that a researcher would measure their first particle as spin up, but then use a different viewing angle (or a different spin axis direction) to measure the second particle. Rather than the two particles matching up as before, the second particle would have gone back into a state of superposition and, once observed, could be either spin up or down. The choice of the viewing angle changed the outcome of the experiment, which means that there cannot be any hidden information buried inside a particle that determines its spin before it is observed. The dance of entanglement materializes not from any one particle but from the connections between them.
Relativity Remains Intact
A common misconception about entanglement is that the particles are communicating with each other faster than the speed of light, which would go against Einstein's special theory of relativity. Experiments have shown that this is not true, nor can quantum physics be used to send faster-than-light communications. Though scientists still debate how the seemingly bizarre phenomenon of entanglement arises, they know it is a real principle that passes test after test. In fact, while Einstein famously described entanglement as "spooky action at a distance," today's quantum scientists say there is nothing spooky about it.
"It may be tempting to think that the particles are somehow communicating with each other across these great distances, but that is not the case," says Thomas Vidick, a professor of computing and mathematical sciences at Caltech. "There can be correlation without communication," and the particles "can be thought of as one object."
Entanglement can also occur among hundreds, millions, and even more particles. The phenomenon is thought to take place throughout nature, among the atoms and molecules in living species and within metals and other materials. When hundreds of particles become entangled, they still act as one unified object. Like a flock of birds, the particles become a whole entity unto itself without being in direct contact with one another. Caltech scientists focus on the study of these so-called many-body entangled systems, both to understand the fundamental physics and to create and develop new quantum technologies. As John Preskill, Caltech's Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, and director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, says, "We are making investments in and betting on entanglement being one of the most important themes of 21st-century science."


Computers and similar electronic devices have gotten faster and smaller over the decades as computer-chip makers have learned how to shrink individual transistors, the tiny electrical switches that convey digital information.
Scientists’ pursuit of the smallest possible transistor has allowed more of them to be packed onto each chip. But that race to the bottom is almost over: Researchers are fast approaching the physical minimum for transistor size, with recent models down to about 10 nanometers — or just 30 atoms — wide.
“The processing power of electronic devices comes from the hundreds of millions, or billions, of transistors that are interconnected on a single computer chip,” said Dr. Kyeongjae Cho, professor of materials science and engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. “But we are rapidly approaching the lower limits of scale.”
To extend the quest for faster processing speed, the microelectronics industry is looking for alternative technologies. Cho’s research, published online April 30 in the journal Nature Communications, might offer a solution by expanding the vocabulary of the transistor.
Conventional transistors can convey just two values of information: As a switch, a transistor is either on or off, which translates into the 1s and 0s of binary language.
One way to increase processing capacity without adding more transistors would be to increase how much information each transistor conveys by introducing intermediate states between the on and off states of binary devices. A so-called multi-value logic transistor based on this principle would allow more operations and a larger amount of information to be processed in a single device.
“The concept of multi-value logic transistors is not new, and there have been many attempts to make such devices,” Cho said. “We have done it.”
Through theory, design and simulations, Cho’s group at UT Dallas developed the fundamental physics of a multi-value logic transistor based on zinc oxide. Their collaborators in South Korea successfully fabricated and evaluated the performance of a prototype device.
Cho’s device is capable of two electronically stable and reliable intermediate states between 0 and 1, boosting the number of logic values per transistor from two to three or four.
Cho said the new research is significant not only because the technology is compatible with existing computer-chip configurations, but also because it could bridge a gap between today’s computers and quantum computers, the potential next landmark in computing power.
While a conventional computer uses the precise values of 1s and 0s to make calculations, the fundamental logic units of a quantum computer are more fluid, with values that can exist as a combination of 1s and 0s at the same time or anywhere in between. Although they have yet to be realized commercially, large-scale quantum computers are theorized to be able to store more information and solve certain problems much faster than current computers.
“A device incorporating multi-level logic would be faster than a conventional computer because it would operate with more than just binary logic units. With quantum units, you have continuous values,” Cho said.
“The transistor is a very mature technology, and quantum computers are nowhere close to being commercialized,” he continued. “There is a huge gap. So how do we move from one to the other? We need some kind of evolutionary pathway, a bridging technology between binary and infinite degrees of freedom. Our work is still based on existing device technology, so it is not as revolutionary as quantum computing, but it is evolving toward that direction.”
“The concept of multi-value logic transistors is not new, and there have been many attempts to make such devices. We have done it.”
The researchers discovered they could achieve the physics needed for multi-value logic by embedding zinc oxide crystals, called quantum dots, into amorphous zinc oxide. The atoms comprising an amorphous solid are not as rigidly ordered as they are in crystalline solids.
“By engineering this material, we found that we could create a new electronic structure that enabled this multi-level logic behavior,” said Cho, who has applied for a patent. “Zinc oxide is a well-known material that tends to form both crystalline solids and amorphous solids, so it was an obvious choice to start with, but it may not be the best material. Our next step will look at how universal this behavior is among other materials as we try to optimize the technology.
“Moving forward, I also want to see how we might interface this technology with a quantum device.”
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Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have uncovered a striking new behavior of the ‘strange metal’ state of high temperature superconductors. The discovery represents an important piece of the puzzle for understanding these materials, and the findings have been published in the highly prestigious journal Science.
Superconductivity, where an electric current is transported without any losses, holds enormous potential for green technologies. For example, if it could be made to work at high enough temperatures, it could allow for lossless transport of renewable energy over great distances. Investigating this phenomenon is the aim of the research field of high temperature superconductivity. The current record stands at −130 degrees celsius, which might not seem like a high temperature, but it is when compared to standard superconductors which only work below −230 degrees celsius. While standard superconductivity is well understood, several aspects of high temperature superconductivity are still a puzzle to be solved. The newly published research focusses on the least understood property – the so called ‘strange metal’ state, appearing at temperatures higher than those that allow for superconductivity.
“This ‘strange metal’ state is aptly named. The materials really behave in a very unusual way, and it is something of a mystery among researchers. Our work now offers a new understanding of the phenomenon. Through novel experiments, we have learned crucial new information about how the strange metal state works” says Floriana Lombardi, Professor at the Quantum Device Physics Laboratory at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers.
Believed to be based on quantum entanglement
The strange metal state got its name because its behavior when conducting electricity is, on the face of it, far too simple. In an ordinary metal, lots of different processes affect the electrical resistance – electrons can collide with the atomic lattice, with impurities, or with themselves, and each process has a different temperature dependence. This means that the resulting total resistance becomes a complicated function of the temperature. In sharp contrast, the resistance for strange metals is a linear function of temperature – meaning a straight line from the lowest attainable temperatures up to where the material melts.
“Such a simple behavior begs for a simple explanation based on a powerful principle, and for this type of quantum materials the principle is believed to be quantum entanglement.” says Ulf Gran, Professor at the Division of Subatomic, High-Energy and Plasma Physics at the Department of Physics at Chalmers.
“Quantum entanglement is what Einstein called ‘spooky action at a distance’ and represents a way for electrons to interact which has no counterpart in classical physics. To explain the counterintuitive properties of the strange metal state, all particles need to be entangled with each other, leading to a soup of electrons in which individual particles cannot be discerned, and which constitutes a radically novel form of matter.”
Exploring the connection with charge density waves
The key finding of the paper is that the authors discovered what kills the strange metal state. In high temperature superconductors, charge density waves (CDW), which are ripples of electric charge generated by patterns of electrons in the material lattice, occur when the strange metal phase breaks down. To explore this connection, nanoscale samples of the superconducting metal yttrium barium copper oxide were put under strain to suppress the charge density waves. This then led to the re-emergence of the strange metal state. By straining the metal, the researchers were able to thereby expand the strange metal state into the region previously dominated by CDW – making the ‘strange metal’ even stranger.
“The highest temperatures for the superconducting transition have been observed when the strange metal phase is more pronounced. Understanding this new phase of matter is therefore of utmost importance for being able to construct new materials that exhibit superconductivity at even higher temperatures,” explains Floriana Lombardi.
The researchers’ work indicates a close connection between the emergence of charge density waves and the breaking of the strange metal state – a potentially vital clue to understand the latter phenomenon, and which might represent one of the most striking evidence of quantum mechanical principles at the macro scale. The results also suggest a promising new avenue of research, using strain control to manipulate quantum materials.
For more information, contact:
Professor in Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology
+46 31 772 3318
Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level. The university has 3100 employees and 10,000 students, and offers education in engineering, science, shipping and architecture.
With scientific excellence as a basis, Chalmers promotes knowledge and technical solutions for a sustainable world. Through global commitment and entrepreneurship, we foster an innovative spirit, in close collaboration with wider society.The EU’s biggest research initiative – the Graphene Flagship – is coordinated by Chalmers. We are also leading the development of a Swedish quantum computer.
Chalmers was founded in 1829 and has the same motto today as it did then: Avancez – forward.