Is
quantum mechanics relevant to everyday life? Latest
scientific evidence suggests that it is. A paper published
in Science based on research from the Paul Scherrer
Institute (PSI) in Switzerland and others, reports
how quantum computers behave as if they are isolated
devices. The extent to which they do this can be regulated
by the environment they are in. So future quantum
computers will have to be in a carefully controlled
environment. It's a little like concerns about turbulent
air conditions when designing aircraft.
One of the most important questions
in the natural sciences is whether quantum mechanics
is relevant to everyday experience. Once only a problem
in the realm of theoretical physics, the recent demand
for secure communications and ultra-high speed computation
has made the answer highly relevant to future technology
where interacting quantum bits (qubits) replace the
classical binary bits '0' and '1' on which current
digital electronics and communications rely.
From experiment to reality
To engineer quantum computers it is necessary for
the 'qubits' to be stable in realistic settings, such
as the integrated circuit packages in a typical office
computer. Physicists refer to such settings as the
'environment', or more picturesquely, the 'bath' and
the challenge is to control and minimize the interactions
of the 'qubits' with the 'bath'. 'Baths' by their
very nature can be difficult to define and therefore
the systematic study of interactions between qubits
and 'baths' is in its infancy. The new research shows
how a well-specified bath affects the 'qubits' in
a crystal which behaves as a very primitive quantum
computer.
The paper was published on
15th April 2005 in Science by a team from the Laboratory
for Neutron Scattering (LNS) at the Paul Scherrer
Institute (PSI) and the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH) Zurich, University College London
and the Universities of Chicago and Copenhagen.
H. M. Rønnow, R. Parthasarathy,
J. Jensen, G. Aeppli, T. F. Rosenbaum, D. F. McMorrow
in Science, Vol 308, April 2005, pages 389 - 392.
www.sciencemag.org
Further information:
Dr. Henrik Rønnow, PSI; Phone +41 (0)56 310
46 68; henrik.ronnow@psi.ch
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