A full exposition of the mathematics of waves is beyond the scope of this writeup; I will just mention quickly that a fuller understanding of it requires a grasp of the idea of superposition and interference - what happens when waves meet each other; refraction - what happens when a wave passes from one medium to another; and diffraction - what happens when a wave passes through a hole.
Though a qubit may, for a while, be in a state of superposition between 0 and 1, it must eventually choose between the two.
They gave a progress report to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science AAASS) in Vancouver.In this section An uncertain future Whales are people, too X-ray specs Hamburger junction Embracing the future ReprintsAt the core of their efforts lie the quantum-mechanical phenomena of superposition and entanglement.
The pulses served to cool them even further, by settling them into their lowest possible energy states, and then to nudge them into a superposition of two different energy states.
It proved hard to hunt down in practice, however, because such "superposition" is a fragile phenomenon, easily lost upon any hint of disruption.
Actual superposition (as opposed to the cat-in-a-box sort) is easiest with small objects, for which there are fewer pathways along which the superposition can break down.
So far, only small-scale devices have been demonstrated, and many of these need to be kept in strictly defined conditions.One reason for this sensitivity is that qubits can maintain their quantum superposition only if they do not interact with other objects.
As with Dr Haroche's bouncing photons, the cooled ions remained in superposition long enough to examine them in detail.Dr Wineland also used them to build the world's most accurate clock.
The carefully calibrated pulses served to cool the ions even further, to their lowest possible energy, and to nudge them into a superposition of two different energy states.
But superposition (the existence of a thing in two or more quantum states simultaneously) is real and is, for example, the basis of quantum computing.
By properly applying this pulse, Dr Cirac believes it will be possible to leave the virus in a superposition of the ground and excited states.For that to work, however, the virus will need to have certain physical properties.
