Sep 2, 2017 01:40 PM
Quantum Theory Rebuilt From Simple Physical Principles
https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-t...-20170830/
EXCERPT: [...] But some researchers want to dig deeper. They want to know why quantum mechanics has the form it does, and they are engaged in an ambitious program to find out. It is called quantum reconstruction, and it amounts to trying to rebuild the theory from scratch based on a few simple principles.
If these efforts succeed, it’s possible that all the apparent oddness and confusion of quantum mechanics will melt away, and we will finally grasp what the theory has been trying to tell us. “For me, the ultimate goal is to prove that quantum theory is the only theory where our imperfect experiences allow us to build an ideal picture of the world,” said Giulio Chiribella, a theoretical physicist at the University of Hong Kong.
There’s no guarantee of success — no assurance that quantum mechanics really does have something plain and simple at its heart, rather than the abstruse collection of mathematical concepts used today. But even if quantum reconstruction efforts don’t pan out, they might point the way to an equally tantalizing goal: getting beyond quantum mechanics itself to a still deeper theory. “I think it might help us move towards a theory of quantum gravity,” said Lucien Hardy, a theoretical physicist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada....
A New Explanation For Dark Energy: The Matter In Our Universe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswitha...4ce6be4700
EXCERPT: [...] Perhaps the biggest theoretical question of all is why? Why does the Universe accelerate? We literally have no good explanation for what's the cause of this dark energy. We recently looked at the possibility that it's frozen neutrinos, or it could be a symptom of us having something wrong with the expanding Universe. But there's another possibility that gets very little attention that ought to get a lot more: it could be a property of empty space itself that is caused by the presence of other things – like matter that acts as an effective boundary – in the Universe. And the reason this is possible is because this is an effect that we know exists: the Casimir effect....
We're about to cross the 'quantum supremacy' limit in computing
http://www.sciencealert.com/google-s-qua...ven-bigger
EXCERPT: [...] That's not to say quantum computing could never be a useful addition for your home desktop. But to even begin dreaming of the possibilities, there are a whole number of problems to solve first. One of them is to ramp up a measly handful of qubits from less than 20 to something that can begin to rival our best classical supercomputers on those trickier tasks. That number? About 50-odd, a figure that's often referred to in rather rapturous terms as quantum supremacy. The Harvard device was based on an array of super-cooled atoms of rubidium held in a trap of magnets and laser 'tweezers' that were then excited in a fashion that allowed their quantum states to be used as a single system. The researchers were able to control 51 of these trapped atoms in such a way that they could model some pretty complex quantum mechanics, something well out of reach of your everyday desktop computer....
- - -
https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-t...-20170830/
EXCERPT: [...] But some researchers want to dig deeper. They want to know why quantum mechanics has the form it does, and they are engaged in an ambitious program to find out. It is called quantum reconstruction, and it amounts to trying to rebuild the theory from scratch based on a few simple principles.
If these efforts succeed, it’s possible that all the apparent oddness and confusion of quantum mechanics will melt away, and we will finally grasp what the theory has been trying to tell us. “For me, the ultimate goal is to prove that quantum theory is the only theory where our imperfect experiences allow us to build an ideal picture of the world,” said Giulio Chiribella, a theoretical physicist at the University of Hong Kong.
There’s no guarantee of success — no assurance that quantum mechanics really does have something plain and simple at its heart, rather than the abstruse collection of mathematical concepts used today. But even if quantum reconstruction efforts don’t pan out, they might point the way to an equally tantalizing goal: getting beyond quantum mechanics itself to a still deeper theory. “I think it might help us move towards a theory of quantum gravity,” said Lucien Hardy, a theoretical physicist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada....
A New Explanation For Dark Energy: The Matter In Our Universe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswitha...4ce6be4700
EXCERPT: [...] Perhaps the biggest theoretical question of all is why? Why does the Universe accelerate? We literally have no good explanation for what's the cause of this dark energy. We recently looked at the possibility that it's frozen neutrinos, or it could be a symptom of us having something wrong with the expanding Universe. But there's another possibility that gets very little attention that ought to get a lot more: it could be a property of empty space itself that is caused by the presence of other things – like matter that acts as an effective boundary – in the Universe. And the reason this is possible is because this is an effect that we know exists: the Casimir effect....
We're about to cross the 'quantum supremacy' limit in computing
http://www.sciencealert.com/google-s-qua...ven-bigger
EXCERPT: [...] That's not to say quantum computing could never be a useful addition for your home desktop. But to even begin dreaming of the possibilities, there are a whole number of problems to solve first. One of them is to ramp up a measly handful of qubits from less than 20 to something that can begin to rival our best classical supercomputers on those trickier tasks. That number? About 50-odd, a figure that's often referred to in rather rapturous terms as quantum supremacy. The Harvard device was based on an array of super-cooled atoms of rubidium held in a trap of magnets and laser 'tweezers' that were then excited in a fashion that allowed their quantum states to be used as a single system. The researchers were able to control 51 of these trapped atoms in such a way that they could model some pretty complex quantum mechanics, something well out of reach of your everyday desktop computer....
- - -