Weird particle that remembers its past discovered by quantum computer

Weird particle that remembers its past discovered by quantum computer

Particles with unusual properties called anyons have long been sought after as a potential building block for advanced quantum computers, and now researchers have found one – using a quantum computer

A mysterious and long-sought particle that can remember its past has been created using a quantum computer. The particle, called an anyon, could improve the performance of quantum computers in the future.

The anyon is unlike any other particle we know because it keeps a kind of record of where it has been. Normally, repeatedly swapping particles like an electron or a photon renders them completely exchangeable, making it impossible to tell the swap has taken place.

But in the 1970s, physicists realised this wasn’t the case for certain quasiparticles that can only exist in two dimensions, which they dubbed anyons. Quasiparticles, as the name suggests, aren’t true particles, but rather collective vibrations that behave as if they are particles.

Now, I may need some correction here, because my understanding of quasiparticles included a perception that may have been incorrect. First of all, an anyon is a type of quasiparticle that occurs only in two-dimensional systems, different from standard elementary particles, fermions and bosons. "Fermions" are 'particular' quarks, leptons, other clustered matter... and "bosons" are energetic... wave forms which localize through toroidal forms, condensates, etc.

Anyons were determined to be two-dimensional in nature. I found a cool article about anyons. It's a bit heavy for my mere laymen status, but nevertheless it seems at least largely comprehensible to me.

Imagine memory in a particle? What would that be like? From the article:

With that richer topology comes much greater variety in the possibilities for adding up the contributions of world lines. In other words, there are many more possibilities for quantum statistics, and thus more categories of particles beyond bosons and fermions. I coined the word “anyon” to describe quarticles whose motion is restricted to two space dimensions, and which are neither bosons nor fermions. I meant this humorously, to suggest “anything goes,” but of course that implication should not be taken literally. Anyons must obey highly structured mathematical rules. Still, we find infinitely many consistent possibilities for them, instead of only two.

Because the rules for anyon behavior are sensitive to the quarticles’ motion over time, anyons have memory. More precisely: Since the amplitude for an evolution involving anyons will be different, depending on how their world lines got tangled up over time, the value of the amplitude provides a record of their relative motion. As we’ll discuss momentarily, the memory abilities of anyons might power an important technology.

I really can't imagine how this new property of this weird 'quantum liquid' state of matter is likely to be used. But as far a this goes... it extends way beyond my ability to fully appreciate yet. Especially when you consider other specialists counterpoints.

Dryer takes a different view, saying that the quasiparticle nature of anyons means that a simulation is identical to the real thing. “A counterintuitive property of these anyons is that they are not really physical, they don’t care what they’re made of,” says Dryer. “They’re just about information and entanglement – so if you have any system that can create that kind of entanglement, you can create the same type of anyons.”

Man, this gets heady.

It sounds like what has been achieved is being able to use a qubit as a memory module. Being a 2 dimensional function, the variables are time and amplitude. Sounds pretty tricky in how it all works. How much memory capacity does it have?

originally posted by: kwakakev
It sounds like what has been achieved is being able to use a qubit as a memory module. Being a 2 dimensional function, the variables are time and amplitude. Sounds pretty tricky in how it all works. How much memory capacity does it have?

I think we have to wait for the engineering types to model virtualized uses... and then see if it is feasible... but given that this is a two-dimensional thing which functions differently than standard solid physics it may be a while... but who knows? People may have been working on similar tech for years now (think how some ancient cultures used knots to chronicle history) ... We shall see... I am straining my mind just to keep up...

originally posted by: Maxmars
Man, this gets heady.

Who's, the computer?

Sounds like they are measuring "attached influence".

That's the potential. Now all they need is enough momentum and, nearly but not quite the biggest bang possible to power the "thought" without destroying the whole system.

Hang on....

originally posted by: kwakakev
It sounds like what has been achieved is being able to use a qubit as a memory module. Being a 2 dimensional function, the variables are time and amplitude. Sounds pretty tricky in how it all works. How much memory capacity does it have?

At least a gigazit. In a flux capacitor, a good bit more.

a reply to: stevieray

I don't know what a gigazit is, Google just gives me some gigaset phone. Sounds like one of those zits that when popped leaves an overwhelming sense of relief.

The math around the qubit is still young and growing, The computing logic we know and use don't work with it. Still cannot do an add function within the qubit numbers. But now that a qubit memory function has been found it is a step closer in this direction.

This is very interesting and way above my head. I can't help but to bring Karma to mind, but that's probably due to the linguistics of the writers using terms "particles that remember their past."

If there are processes like this, why not processes that can "remember" on a macro scale. If they can retain memory of things like the charge, position, and time of an event and enough of these particles are sampled, perhaps a model could be produced that can determine the past actions of a body and the intentions of the neural bundle of said body.

At that point it would probably require an anyon sample and model representative of the universe far beyond what we understand now.

a reply to: Maxmars

On "quantum particle memory"...

One of the first things that came to my mind was the initial Area 51 report on the strange material that could retain it's shape after being crumpled up. Someone suggested it was just aluminum foil.
Then I thought of broadbrush reincarnation data.
Then the physical human heart organ, and how it beats via the sinoatrial node, and where that initial zap originates.
Then the particles that know how to ultimately reproduce more living creatures after themselves; flora, fauna, freakazoids Lol.
Oh, and what in the paranormal investigation fields term as "residual hauntings" and "electronic voice phenomena", for example.

So many particles with a memory of some quantifiable sort to consider, it's cute.
Thank you for sharing the articles!

a reply to: Maxmars

So kind of like that memory metal, remember that?

There are videos on youtube about it, It could have been used to rework damage done to fender benders and other such minor motor vehicle accidents and so forth, but that quickly disappeared because then you'd never have to replace a fender, hence little to no replacement parts.

However that I believe that was on a molecular level, not a quantum one. And believe me the difference is oxymoronic, something so tiny in detail can make a huge difference.

originally posted by: Maxmars
Weird particle that remembers its past discovered by quantum computer

Particles with unusual properties called anyons have long been sought after as a potential building block for advanced quantum computers, and now researchers have found one – using a quantum computer

A mysterious and long-sought particle that can remember its past has been created using a quantum computer. The particle, called an anyon, could improve the performance of quantum computers in the future.

The anyon is unlike any other particle we know because it keeps a kind of record of where it has been. Normally, repeatedly swapping particles like an electron or a photon renders them completely exchangeable, making it impossible to tell the swap has taken place.

But in the 1970s, physicists realised this wasn’t the case for certain quasiparticles that can only exist in two dimensions, which they dubbed anyons. Quasiparticles, as the name suggests, aren’t true particles, but rather collective vibrations that behave as if they are particles.

Now, I may need some correction here, because my understanding of quasiparticles included a perception that may have been incorrect. First of all, an anyon is a type of quasiparticle that occurs only in two-dimensional systems, different from standard elementary particles, fermions and bosons. "Fermions" are 'particular' quarks, leptons, other clustered matter... and "bosons" are energetic... wave forms which localize through toroidal forms, condensates, etc.

Anyons were determined to be two-dimensional in nature. I found a cool article about anyons. It's a bit heavy for my mere laymen status, but nevertheless it seems at least largely comprehensible to me.

Imagine memory in a particle? What would that be like? From the article:

With that richer topology comes much greater variety in the possibilities for adding up the contributions of world lines. In other words, there are many more possibilities for quantum statistics, and thus more categories of particles beyond bosons and fermions. I coined the word “anyon” to describe quarticles whose motion is restricted to two space dimensions, and which are neither bosons nor fermions. I meant this humorously, to suggest “anything goes,” but of course that implication should not be taken literally. Anyons must obey highly structured mathematical rules. Still, we find infinitely many consistent possibilities for them, instead of only two.

Because the rules for anyon behavior are sensitive to the quarticles’ motion over time, anyons have memory. More precisely: Since the amplitude for an evolution involving anyons will be different, depending on how their world lines got tangled up over time, the value of the amplitude provides a record of their relative motion. As we’ll discuss momentarily, the memory abilities of anyons might power an important technology.

I really can't imagine how this new property of this weird 'quantum liquid' state of matter is likely to be used. But as far a this goes... it extends way beyond my ability to fully appreciate yet. Especially when you consider other specialists counterpoints.

Dryer takes a different view, saying that the quasiparticle nature of anyons means that a simulation is identical to the real thing. “A counterintuitive property of these anyons is that they are not really physical, they don’t care what they’re made of,” says Dryer. “They’re just about information and entanglement – so if you have any system that can create that kind of entanglement, you can create the same type of anyons.”

Man, this gets heady.

It's interesting that many particle science articles mention "quantum computing" but never elucidates that phrase. I'm unsure what a quantum computer actually does besides fueling corny sci fi TV programming.

The laws of quantum mechanics allow qubits to encode exponentially more information than bits.

So it thinks faster, answering more questions for scientists who are expected to read the output and comically slap themselves on the head exclaiming "eureka!" because the math it communicates is somehow still legible despite the fact its algorithms are magnitudes more complex than conventional software.

How do quantum computers work?
Quantum computers are elegant machines, smaller and requiring less energy than supercomputers. An IBM Quantum processor is a wafer not much bigger than the one found in a laptop. And a quantum hardware system is about the size of a car, made up mostly of cooling systems to keep the superconducting processor at its ultra-cold operational temperature.

A classical processor uses bits to perform its operations. A quantum computer uses qubits (CUE-bits) to run multidimensional quantum algorithms.

Superfluids

Your desktop computer likely uses a fan to get cold enough to work. Our quantum processors need to be very cold – about a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero. To achieve this, we use super-cooled superfluids to create superconductors.

Superconductors

At those ultra-low temperatures certain materials in our processors exhibit another important quantum mechanical effect: electrons move through them without resistance. This makes them "superconductors."

When electrons pass through superconductors they match up, forming "Cooper pairs." These pairs can carry a charge across barriers, or insulators, through a process known as quantum tunneling. Two superconductors placed on either side of an insulator form a Josephson junction.

Control

Our quantum computers use Josephson junctions as superconducting qubits. By firing microwave photons at these qubits, we can control their behavior and get them to hold, change, and read out individual units of quantum information.

Superposition

A qubit itself isn't very useful. But it can perform an important trick: placing the quantum information it holds into a state of superposition, which represents a combination of all possible configurations of the qubit. Groups of qubits in superposition can create complex, multidimensional computational spaces. Complex problems can be represented in new ways in these spaces.

Entanglement

Entanglement is a quantum mechanical effect that correlates the behavior of two separate things. When two qubits are entangled, changes to one qubit directly impact the other. Quantum algorithms leverage those relationships to find solutions to complex problems.

a reply to: TzarChasm


What a quantum computer actually does

a reply to: Maxmars

I am no where near smart enough to pretend I half understand this OP. But what I have learned in this life is that we are more than likely particles of creator source, part of something much larger in the collective when we die. These anyons seem to act much like we do on this 3D plane, limited while here but can constantly adapt, remember our past and know that we are part of something much larger and more complex. As above so below....

Man the universe is interesting! Great post!

a reply to: Maxmars

Remember that phrase "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"?

I don't know jack about quantum physics to begin with.

Now that they are talking about "world lines" with a straight face, the first thing that comes to mind is Ainz Ooal Gown in the anime series Overlord. Dungeons & Dragons, buddy.

a reply to: DirtWasher

I have to confess that it is substantially over my head as well... I get a sense of what is described here, but I can't really understand how this actually 'expands' the possibilities of quantum computing.

I thought, and maybe this is completely wrong, that the 'remembering' of the particle has to be a way to determine the past state of an anyon by it's current properties... and this is all figured out mathematically (so to speak). So that if the anyon has this or that property, it must have been in such or such a state beforehand.

That mental gymnastic is probably very wrong... given that everything logical about quantum mechanics seems to be intermittently illogical.

I have to say your allusion to karma is very acute. Ancient philosophies often seem oddly appropriate as metaphors for quantum physics... more some than others.

a reply to: Maxmars

I feel like "quantum computing" is a catch all pretense for diverting massive amounts of moolah to whatever sector 7 experiments are trending on the space race front. But maybe I'm just cynical.

a reply to: TzarChasm

I feel your cynicism is duly placed. This is very different from those costly experiments trying to find dark matter, or dark energy. Can you imagine being there to turn on the sensors and they're quiet?

Working quantum computers have been built and right now they suck because we haven't figured out room-temperature superconducting just yet. We're getting closer every iteration though.

a reply to: TzarChasm

I think that's a function of the god of commerce.

"Sell sell sell" and all that... (it's the same with AI.)

a reply to: Maxmars
Calling a quasiparticle a "particle" is like calling a faux diamond a "diamond". A faux diamond is not a diamond and a quasiparticle is not a particle.

But you can pretend a faux diamond is a diamond, and you can pretend a quasiarticle is a particle even if it's not. It may be useful to model the quasiparticle as a particle, even if, as in the case of Electron hole quasiparticles, the quasi particle is by definition the ABSENCE of a particle!

Yes, this is the analogy for an "electron hole" quasiparticle from that link, it's the absence of an electron in a lattice, modeled by the absence of a tile in the lower right in this puzzle:

In physics, chemistry, and electronic engineering, an electron hole (often simply called a hole) is a quasiparticle denoting the lack of an electron at a position where one could exist in an atom or atomic lattice.

A children's puzzle which illustrates the mobility of holes in an atomic lattice. The tiles are analogous to electrons, while the missing tile (lower right corner) is analogous to a hole. Just as the position of the missing tile can be moved to different locations by moving the tiles, a hole in a crystal lattice can move to different positions in the lattice by the motion of the surrounding electrons.

So in that example of a quasiparticle, it's by definition the absence of a particle! So not a particle. That's why I find the title of the article misleading, talking about quasiparticles as if they are particles.

originally posted by: TzarChasm
a reply to: Maxmars

I feel like "quantum computing" is a catch all pretense for diverting massive amounts of moolah to whatever sector 7 experiments are trending on the space race front. But maybe I'm just cynical.

originally posted by: Maxmars
a reply to: TzarChasm

I think that's a function of the god of commerce.

"Sell sell sell" and all that... (it's the same with AI.)

Relevant video, worth a watch if you haven't seen it:

Don't fall for quantum hype

What are the quantum technologies that are now attracting so much research funding? In this video I go through the most important ones: quantum computing, quantum metrology, the quantum internet, and quantum simulations. I explain what these are all about and how likely they are to impact our lives soon. I also tell you what frequently headline blunders to watch out for.

I can't say much about anyon quasiparticles, but I thought the article linked in the OP wasn't a very clear description, so I wonder how well the author really understands them.

psychometry
parapsychology
psychometry, also called object reading, process whereby facts or impressions about a person or thing are received through contact with an object associated with the subject of the impressions.

www.britannica.com...

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck
Just a link? Nothing to say?

I suppose it's expected on a conspiracy site like ATS that someone will try to inject something generally considered to be pseudoscience like parapsychology into a science thread, though some documentaries on the topic are entertaining.

Today, parapsychology is not taken seriously by most academics. The magician and skeptic James Randi has offered a million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate such abilities under controlled conditions; many have tried to claim the prize, but to date no one has succeeded.

And nobody ever will succeed.

I'm not quite as skeptical as that about parapsychology, but still pretty skeptical; the author makes some good points. Thinking about parapsychology can make us think about science and what science really is, as the article describes.