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New technology to improve worlds most sensitive scientific instruments
A new technology that can improve gravitational-wave detectors, one of the most sensitive instruments used by scientific researchers, has been pioneered by physicists at The University of Western Australia in collaboration with an international team of researchers.
The new technology allows the world’s existing gravitational wave detectors to achieve a sensitivity that was previously thought only to be achievable by building much bigger detectors.
The paper, published in Communications Physics, was led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at UWA, in collaboration with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Tiny Crystal Device Could Boost Gravitational Wave Detectors and Help Discover Black Hole Births
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NSF / LIGO / Sonoma State University / A Simonnet, Author provided
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In 2017, astronomers witnessed the birth of a black hole for the first time. Gravitational wave detectors picked up the ripples in spacetime caused by two neutron stars colliding to form the black hole, and other telescopes then observed the resulting explosion.
In 2017, astronomers witnessed the birth of a black hole for the first time. Gravitational wave detectors picked up the ripples in spacetime caused by two neutron stars colliding to form the black hole, and other telescopes then observed the resulting explosion.
But the real nitty-gritty of how the black hole formed, the movements of matter in the instants before it was sealed away inside the black hole’s event horizon, went unobserved. That’s because the gravitational waves thrown off in these final moments had such a high frequency that our current detectors can’t pick them up.
If you could observe ordinary matter as it turns into a black hole, you would be seeing something similar to the Big Bang played backwards. The scientists who design gravitational wave detectors have been hard at work to figure out how improve our detectors to make it possible.
New device for scaling up quantum computers
Australian scientists have developed a new cryogenic computer system called
Gooseberry which has potential for scaling up quantum computers from dozens to thousands of qubits.
Quantum computing – as opposed to traditional (or classical ) computing – has been around for many years now. This area of computer science involves the exploitation of physical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform calculations. Unlike the bits of classical computers, which are based on binary ones and zeros, quantum computer qubits can work with multiple values simultaneously. By combining qubits in this way, it quickly becomes possible to work with exponentially larger numbers, with potentially revolutionary applications. If fully realised, quantum computers could solve problems in fields as diverse as cryptography, medicine, finance, artificial intelligence and logistics.
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Beyond qubits: next big step to scale up quantum computing Through the Microsoft partnership with the University, Professor David Reilly and colleagues have invented a device that operates at 40 times colder than deep space to directly control thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum technology.
The control platform with the cryogenic chip to control thousands of qubits. The invention will help quantum engineers overcome the input-output bottleneck preventing quantum machines scaling to useful devices.
Scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have opened the next chapter in quantum technology with the invention of a single chip that can generate control signals for thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers.