Quantum physicists bring Schrödinger’s cat to life (and death)
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/127979_en.html
EXCERPT: [...] Superposition means photons can be all things - in all states and places - at once. They don’t even obey the rules of cause and effect, where events follow each other in a certain causal order. [...] The problem with superposition is that once you try to ‘see’ or measure it, it ceases to exist. Where a quantum particle used to be all things at once, it assumes a definite state. In short, if you open Schrödinger’s box, you collapse the experiment. So scientists trying to prove a lack of causal order have had to infer it from the success of an algorithm, rather than directly measure it. But the EQUAM team has found a third way. By using a theoretical mathematical concept known as a ‘causal witness’ - designed by Časlav Brukner’s group at the Austrian Academy of Sciences - Philip Walther and his team were able to show, for the first time, that a quantum process was not causally ordered....
Move Over Spintronics, Here Comes Magnonics to the Rescue of Electronics
http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semic...lectronics
EXCERPT: As we approach the physical limits of electrical currents performing the same logic computations as previous generations of digital electronics, the question has become how do we continue to fabricate logic gates when the devices are too small for classical physics? A European collaborative research center called Spin+X has offered a prototype of a device that leverages something called spin waves that may offer a way forward. Spin waves are the synchronous waves of electron spin alignment observed in a magnetic system. If the prototype is any indication, then researcher may have another avenue to explore when traditional electronics reaches its physical limits....
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/127979_en.html
EXCERPT: [...] Superposition means photons can be all things - in all states and places - at once. They don’t even obey the rules of cause and effect, where events follow each other in a certain causal order. [...] The problem with superposition is that once you try to ‘see’ or measure it, it ceases to exist. Where a quantum particle used to be all things at once, it assumes a definite state. In short, if you open Schrödinger’s box, you collapse the experiment. So scientists trying to prove a lack of causal order have had to infer it from the success of an algorithm, rather than directly measure it. But the EQUAM team has found a third way. By using a theoretical mathematical concept known as a ‘causal witness’ - designed by Časlav Brukner’s group at the Austrian Academy of Sciences - Philip Walther and his team were able to show, for the first time, that a quantum process was not causally ordered....
Move Over Spintronics, Here Comes Magnonics to the Rescue of Electronics
http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semic...lectronics
EXCERPT: As we approach the physical limits of electrical currents performing the same logic computations as previous generations of digital electronics, the question has become how do we continue to fabricate logic gates when the devices are too small for classical physics? A European collaborative research center called Spin+X has offered a prototype of a device that leverages something called spin waves that may offer a way forward. Spin waves are the synchronous waves of electron spin alignment observed in a magnetic system. If the prototype is any indication, then researcher may have another avenue to explore when traditional electronics reaches its physical limits....