Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

CRC Press eBooks

This Is a Quantum World

F. J. Duarte

Published Apr 10, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Undoubtedly, ours is a quantum world and it is getting more quantum with each passing day. The quantum nature of our world is firmly based on the transistor, the universal classical computer, the laser and its innumerable applications, the atomic clock, quantum chemistry, NMR, MRI, and numerous other quantum based medical technologies. And now we should add quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, and quantum computing. These are all tangible utilitarian technologies that we already have at hand. Adding all the coming discoveries in quantum chemistry and quantum biology will certainly, and surely, seal the character of this world… as a quantum world.

DOI
10.1201/9781003649434-35

Related papers

Quantum revolution

CERN Bulletin

The turn of the XXth century witnessed a revolution in physics comparable to Isaac Newton’s discovery of the universal laws of mechanics and of gravitation three centuries earlier. The world required to be described in novel terms, as the immutable, deterministic view of our familiar universe had given way to a new world picture, one which featured chance, flux, and an incessant upsurge of waves of matter. Such a worldview was so radically new and counterintuitive that it gave rise to strong debates, to the effect that Albert Einstein himself tried to oppose it on the grounds that “God does not play dice”. In spite of the intense debates that accompanied its emergence, quantum mechanics quickly proved an incredibly efficacious new tool to understand and to predict a wide array of new phenomena. It was so successful that in no time it broke free from the environment of research labs to become part of daily life, making it possible, for example, to understand why some materials were conductors, while others were insulators. Along with it, came, too, the discovery of transistors, on which much of modern electronics rests. It also led to understand how novel materials known as superconductors allow the transport of electricity with no loss, thus paving the way for new developments in the fields of medical imagery or energy distribution. Other aspects of the quantum theory led to the development of atomic clocks of astounding accuracy, which would be wrong by no more than fifteen seconds, had they been set at the beginning of the universe. A hundred years later, at the turn of the XXIst century, Quantum mechanics has lost none of its astounding power. Contemporary research has undertaken the task of exploring its less immediately perceptible aspects. Groundbreaking developments have ensued, such as the teleportation of grains of light or the possibility, once predicted by the great physicist Richard Feynman, to build, one day, novel computers which, unlike the ones we are familiar with today, will be able to process innumerable numbers of operations in parallel. The Wright Colloquium will be for us the occasion to explore, in the company of five internationallyknown specialists in the field, some of the fascinating aspects of quantum mechanics. We will appraise how efficiently quantum physics can describe our world, and confront its limitation when it is faced with the infinitely small (in relation to recent experiments carried out at the CERN) as with the incommensurably large scale of sidereal spaces. We will appreciate the extent to which quantum physics already has impacted our everyday lives, and evoke the way in which novel fields such as quantum computers and quantum information will entail profound changes in the future. The quantum adventure has only just begun! Monday 15 November 2010 - 18h30 Jochen Mannhart Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Germany Quantum Physics on the Scale of Daily Life Tuesday 16 November 2010 - 18h30 Wolfgang Ketterle Nobel Laureate 2001 (Physics), Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, U.S.A. When freezing cold is not cold enough New forms of matter close to absolute zero temperature Wednesday 17 November 2010 - 18h30 David Gross Nobel Laureate 2004 (Physics), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa-Barbara, U.S.A. Quantum Mechanics of the Very, Very Small and the Very, Very Large Thursday 18 November 2010 - 18h30 Alain Aspect CNRS senior scientist and Professor Institut d'Optique and Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau, France. From Einstein’s intuition to quantum bits: a new quantum age? Vendredi 19 novembre 2010 - 18h30 Rainer Blatt Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Innsbruck, Austria The Quantum Way of Doing Computations

•Jan 1, 2010•0 citations

Introduction

W. H. Klink, S. Wickramasekara

Quantum mechanics is now one of the most successful of all known physical theories. Not only have there been innumerable tests of the theory, all confirming its essential correctness; equally convincing is that our world is dominated by devices that function because of the knowledge of the quantum world. Well-known examples include lasers, transistors, magnetic imaging devices and nuclear energy.

Morgan & Claypool Publishers eBooks•Mar 1, 2015•0 citations

The Science of Cryogenics - eScholarship

Nick Catrini

T he S cience of C ryogenics B S J Nick Catrini Have you ever wondered how NASA launched their monumental space shuttles? Or perhaps you have heard of the scientists who can slow the speed of light to almost zero? Or about Walt Disney’s attempt at cryogenic stasis, where he waits to be awoken when a cure for lung cancer is developed? Unfortunately, Walt Disney being put into cryogenic stasis is a rumor and after his death he was cremated-but all three of these ideas have their roots in the field of cryogenics. Cryogenics is the art of achieving extremely low temperatures and observing phenomena that don’t normally occur in the chaotic, energy rich universe we experience from day to day. People have been freezing things for ages, but the age has come where there’s a demand for colder and colder temperatures, to the point where even the vacuum of outer space is a blazing inferno by comparison to what’s needed in the lab today. Simply put, the colder you get to absolute zero, the easier it is to observe the true quantum nature of atoms, where generalizations and models made for atoms at room temperature begin to break down, and what’s actually going on takes a different route. The ability to find and exploit these differences could lead to breakthrough technologies such as room temperature superconductors, quantum computers, improvements on existing technologies, and it could also answer questions about the origin and nature of the universe itself. Liquid nitrogen is cold, space is colder, but what scientists need is in nanokelvin, billionths of a degree. One historic study that used ultracold temperatures focused on slowing the speed of light to seventeen meters per second in “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” Niels Bohr an ultracold atomic gas. The method of getting of the gas to be ultracold was the focal point of the study, since the colder it would get, the slower light would travel through it. The scientists reached a whopping 435 nanokelvin, but in a surprising way to the unfamiliar layman (Hau, 1999). In order to slow light down to seventeen meters per second, lasers were used to cool the atoms down to 50 microkelvin, and then a magnetic field was applied to the cloud of cold atoms to filter out any atoms that do not have magnetic dipoles against the field, creating an effect similar to a coffee cup cooling off, where the improperly aligned atoms steamed off and out of the magnetic field, or cup, and the remaining aligned ones were the only ones left (Marangos, 1999). Now, nanokelvin temperatures are great, but in some cases even nanokelvin is too hot for simulating some phenomena (Campbell, 2011). Again, atomic gases are cooled with lasers put into arrays called optical lattices that “trap” atoms and prevent them from moving, lowering the temperature. Now, why are scientists studying this again? As Niels Bohr once said, “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” For one, the mere attempt to use advances in science and technology to tackle hard problems can lead to various discoveries in the process, such as the Bose-Einstein condensate or the slowing of light to 17 meters per second. But now, is the cost worth it? Slowing light promotes stronger light-matter interaction, which can benefit devices that clean up distortion and noise over long distance data transmission through optical fibers (Krauss, 2008). Last but not least, one of the most important discoveries in all of cryogenics’ time is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging over scanning. That handful of words is better known as an MRI or PET scan you’d get at a hospital. MRI is revolutionary since it performs non-invasive imaging of anatomical structures with no known adverse biological effects, it can determine data not available by other techniques, and it increases the specificity of a diagnosis (Partain, 1984). Research in these cooler temperatures today covers areas such as quantum magnetism and high temperature superconductivity, and the working memory needed for a quantum computer. The words “quantum computer” may sound very enticing, like some sort of science fiction mystery magic machine capable of solving any problem and running day to day tasks exponentially faster than even the most expensive supercomputer, but the reality is a stark contrast. In fact, the quantum computer got its roots in NMR-based technology (Ladd, 2010). A quantum computer is special because unlike a classical computer that has “bits” of information, a 1 or a 0, a quantum computer uses “qubits” which can be 1, 0, or anything in between. Qubits are particularly useful for a select set of problems, usually anything dealing with many 6 • B erkeley S cientific J ournal • E xtremes • F all 2014 • V olume 19 • I ssue 1

Berkeley Scientific Journal•Jan 1, 2014•0 citations

Quantum Computer—A New Technology for the Information Age

R. Blatt

Since the mid-nineties of the 20th century, it became apparent that one of the centuries’ mostimportant technological inventions, that is computers in general, and many of their applications canbe further enhanced by using operations based on quantum physics. [...]

EUROSENSORS Conference (EUROSENSORS)•Dec 7, 2018•0 citations

Quantum cryptography

Wolfgang Tittel, G. Ribordy, Nicolas Gisin

We live in a quantum world – something that physicists have considered with amazement for more than seventy years. But we now realize that quantum physics is more than a radical departure from classical physics, It also offers many new possibilities for information processing.

Physics World•Mar 1, 1998•52 citations

In My End Is My Beginning

Valerio Scarani

Abstract Nature makes innumerable variations on the theme ‘indistinguishability principle’. In certain variations the theme is obvious, in others it is more hidden – exactly as in music. I have presented the phenomena that most directly show the specificity of quantum physics; but to think that this book contains all of quantum physics would be like killing Schubert’s Trout in the first octaves. Think of the historical successes of quantum physics – the comprehension of chemistry, the discovery of the atom first and the world of elementary particles afterwards. Think of the research domains that, apart from increasing our understanding of Nature, have produced important applications – quantum optics with the laser, solid-state physics with semiconductors and superconductors, atomic physics with the atomic clocks required for precise synchronicity (for instance in the GPS system). Think of the most recent but fascinating domains such as mesoscopic physics or the physics of the Bose–Einstein condensates91 produced for the first time in 1995. Think of the frontiers of cosmology, for instance the so-called inflation that is supposed to describe the very first instants of our universe. Think of the impetus that the needs of physics have given to certain branches of mathematics. Think of all that, and you will have a more comprehensive summary of what quantum physics is – each of these points deserves many books for itself alone.

•Jan 5, 2006•0 citations
Undoubtedly, ours is a quantum world and it is getting more quantum with each passing day. The quantum nature of our world is firmly based on the transistor, the universal classical computer, the laser and its innumerable applications, the atomic clock, quantum chemistry, NMR, MRI, and numerous other quantum based medical technologies. And now we should add quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, and quantum computing. These are all tangible utilitarian technologies that we already have at hand. Adding all the coming discoveries in quantum chemistry and quantum biology will certainly, and surely, seal the character of this world… as a quantum world.
The turn of the XXth century witnessed a revolution in physics comparable to Isaac Newton’s discovery of the universal laws of mechanics and of gravitation three centuries earlier. The world required to be described in novel terms, as the immutable, deterministic view of our familiar universe had given way to a new world picture, one which featured chance, flux, and an incessant upsurge of waves of matter. Such a worldview was so radically new and counterintuitive that it gave rise to strong debates, to the effect that Albert Einstein himself tried to oppose it on the grounds that “God does not play dice”. In spite of the intense debates that accompanied its emergence, quantum mechanics quickly proved an incredibly efficacious new tool to understand and to predict a wide array of new phenomena. It was so successful that in no time it broke free from the environment of research labs to become part of daily life, making it possible, for example, to understand why some materials were conductors, while others were insulators. Along with it, came, too, the discovery of transistors, on which much of modern electronics rests. It also led to understand how novel materials known as superconductors allow the transport of electricity with no loss, thus paving the way for new developments in the fields of medical imagery or energy distribution. Other aspects of the quantum theory led to the development of atomic clocks of astounding accuracy, which would be wrong by no more than fifteen seconds, had they been set at the beginning of the universe. A hundred years later, at the turn of the XXIst century, Quantum mechanics has lost none of its astounding power. Contemporary research has undertaken the task of exploring its less immediately perceptible aspects. Groundbreaking developments have ensued, such as the teleportation of grains of light or the possibility, once predicted by the great physicist Richard Feynman, to build, one day, novel computers which, unlike the ones we are familiar with today, will be able to process innumerable numbers of operations in parallel. The Wright Colloquium will be for us the occasion to explore, in the company of five internationallyknown specialists in the field, some of the fascinating aspects of quantum mechanics. We will appraise how efficiently quantum physics can describe our world, and confront its limitation when it is faced with the infinitely small (in relation to recent experiments carried out at the CERN) as with the incommensurably large scale of sidereal spaces. We will appreciate the extent to which quantum physics already has impacted our everyday lives, and evoke the way in which novel fields such as quantum computers and quantum information will entail profound changes in the future. The quantum adventure has only just begun! Monday 15 November 2010 - 18h30 Jochen Mannhart Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Germany Quantum Physics on the Scale of Daily Life Tuesday 16 November 2010 - 18h30 Wolfgang Ketterle Nobel Laureate 2001 (Physics), Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, U.S.A. When freezing cold is not cold enough New forms of matter close to absolute zero temperature Wednesday 17 November 2010 - 18h30 David Gross Nobel Laureate 2004 (Physics), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa-Barbara, U.S.A. Quantum Mechanics of the Very, Very Small and the Very, Very Large Thursday 18 November 2010 - 18h30 Alain Aspect CNRS senior scientist and Professor Institut d'Optique and Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau, France. From Einstein’s intuition to quantum bits: a new quantum age? Vendredi 19 novembre 2010 - 18h30 Rainer Blatt Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Innsbruck, Austria The Quantum Way of Doing Computations
T he S cience of C ryogenics B S J Nick Catrini Have you ever wondered how NASA launched their monumental space shuttles? Or perhaps you have heard of the scientists who can slow the speed of light to almost zero? Or about Walt Disney’s attempt at cryogenic stasis, where he waits to be awoken when a cure for lung cancer is developed? Unfortunately, Walt Disney being put into cryogenic stasis is a rumor and after his death he was cremated-but all three of these ideas have their roots in the field of cryogenics. Cryogenics is the art of achieving extremely low temperatures and observing phenomena that don’t normally occur in the chaotic, energy rich universe we experience from day to day. People have been freezing things for ages, but the age has come where there’s a demand for colder and colder temperatures, to the point where even the vacuum of outer space is a blazing inferno by comparison to what’s needed in the lab today. Simply put, the colder you get to absolute zero, the easier it is to observe the true quantum nature of atoms, where generalizations and models made for atoms at room temperature begin to break down, and what’s actually going on takes a different route. The ability to find and exploit these differences could lead to breakthrough technologies such as room temperature superconductors, quantum computers, improvements on existing technologies, and it could also answer questions about the origin and nature of the universe itself. Liquid nitrogen is cold, space is colder, but what scientists need is in nanokelvin, billionths of a degree. One historic study that used ultracold temperatures focused on slowing the speed of light to seventeen meters per second in “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” Niels Bohr an ultracold atomic gas. The method of getting of the gas to be ultracold was the focal point of the study, since the colder it would get, the slower light would travel through it. The scientists reached a whopping 435 nanokelvin, but in a surprising way to the unfamiliar layman (Hau, 1999). In order to slow light down to seventeen meters per second, lasers were used to cool the atoms down to 50 microkelvin, and then a magnetic field was applied to the cloud of cold atoms to filter out any atoms that do not have magnetic dipoles against the field, creating an effect similar to a coffee cup cooling off, where the improperly aligned atoms steamed off and out of the magnetic field, or cup, and the remaining aligned ones were the only ones left (Marangos, 1999). Now, nanokelvin temperatures are great, but in some cases even nanokelvin is too hot for simulating some phenomena (Campbell, 2011). Again, atomic gases are cooled with lasers put into arrays called optical lattices that “trap” atoms and prevent them from moving, lowering the temperature. Now, why are scientists studying this again? As Niels Bohr once said, “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” For one, the mere attempt to use advances in science and technology to tackle hard problems can lead to various discoveries in the process, such as the Bose-Einstein condensate or the slowing of light to 17 meters per second. But now, is the cost worth it? Slowing light promotes stronger light-matter interaction, which can benefit devices that clean up distortion and noise over long distance data transmission through optical fibers (Krauss, 2008). Last but not least, one of the most important discoveries in all of cryogenics’ time is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging over scanning. That handful of words is better known as an MRI or PET scan you’d get at a hospital. MRI is revolutionary since it performs non-invasive imaging of anatomical structures with no known adverse biological effects, it can determine data not available by other techniques, and it increases the specificity of a diagnosis (Partain, 1984). Research in these cooler temperatures today covers areas such as quantum magnetism and high temperature superconductivity, and the working memory needed for a quantum computer. The words “quantum computer” may sound very enticing, like some sort of science fiction mystery magic machine capable of solving any problem and running day to day tasks exponentially faster than even the most expensive supercomputer, but the reality is a stark contrast. In fact, the quantum computer got its roots in NMR-based technology (Ladd, 2010). A quantum computer is special because unlike a classical computer that has “bits” of information, a 1 or a 0, a quantum computer uses “qubits” which can be 1, 0, or anything in between. Qubits are particularly useful for a select set of problems, usually anything dealing with many 6 • B erkeley S cientific J ournal • E xtremes • F all 2014 • V olume 19 • I ssue 1
Abstract Nature makes innumerable variations on the theme ‘indistinguishability principle’. In certain variations the theme is obvious, in others it is more hidden – exactly as in music. I have presented the phenomena that most directly show the specificity of quantum physics; but to think that this book contains all of quantum physics would be like killing Schubert’s Trout in the first octaves. Think of the historical successes of quantum physics – the comprehension of chemistry, the discovery of the atom first and the world of elementary particles afterwards. Think of the research domains that, apart from increasing our understanding of Nature, have produced important applications – quantum optics with the laser, solid-state physics with semiconductors and superconductors, atomic physics with the atomic clocks required for precise synchronicity (for instance in the GPS system). Think of the most recent but fascinating domains such as mesoscopic physics or the physics of the Bose–Einstein condensates91 produced for the first time in 1995. Think of the frontiers of cosmology, for instance the so-called inflation that is supposed to describe the very first instants of our universe. Think of the impetus that the needs of physics have given to certain branches of mathematics. Think of all that, and you will have a more comprehensive summary of what quantum physics is – each of these points deserves many books for itself alone.