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Mapping the quantum frontier, one layer at a time. Artists concept.

Researchers design new experiments to map and test the mysterious quantum realm.

A heart surgeon doesnt need to grasp quantum mechanics to perform successful operations. Even chemists dont always need to know these fundamental principles to study chemical reactions. But for Kang-Kuen Ni, the Morris Kahn associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics, quantum spelunking is, like space exploration, a quest to discover a vast and mysterious new realm.

Today, much of quantum mechanics is explained by Schrdingers equation, a kind of master theory that governs the properties of everything on Earth. Even though we know that, in principle, quantum mechanics governs everything, Ni said, to actually see it is difficult and to actually calculate it is near-impossible.

With a few well-reasoned assumptions and some innovative techniques, Ni and her team can achieve the near-impossible. In their lab, they test current quantum theories about chemical reactions against actual experimental data to edge closer to a verifiable map of the laws that govern the mysterious quantum realm. And now, with ultracold chemistry in which atoms and molecules are cooled to temperatures just above absolute zero where they become highly-controllable Ni and her lab members have collected real experimental data from a previously unexplored quantum frontier, providing strong evidence of what the theoretical model got right (and wrong), and a roadmap for further exploration into the next shadowy layers of quantum space.

We know the underlying laws that govern everything, said Ni. But because almost everything on Earth is made of at least three or more atoms, those laws quickly become far too complex to solve.

Kang-Kuen Ni, right, and post-doc fellow Matthew A. Nichols do a hands-on consult in their lab. Ni and her team use ultra-cold chemistry to test quantum theory against actual experimental data and create a verifiable map of the quantum laws that govern everything on earth. Credit: Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

In their study reported in Nature, Ni and her team set out to identify all the possible energy state outcomes, from start to finish, of a reaction between two potassium and rubidium molecules a more complex reaction than had been previously studied in the quantum realm. Thats no easy feat: At its most fundamental level, a reaction between four molecules has a massive number of dimensions (the electrons spinning around each atom, for example, could be in an almost-infinite number of locations simultaneously). That very high dimensionality makes calculating all the possible reaction trajectories impossible with current technology.

Calculating exactly how energy redistributes during a reaction between four atoms is beyond the power of todays best computers, Ni said. A quantum computer might be the only tool that could one day achieve such a complex calculation.

In the meantime, calculating the impossible requires a few well-reasoned assumptions and approximations (picking one location for one of those electrons, for example) and specialized techniques that grant Ni and her team ultimate control over their reaction.

One such technique was another recent Ni lab discovery: In a study published in Nature Chemistry, she and her team exploited a reliable feature of molecules their highly stable nuclear spin to control the quantum state of the reacting molecules all the way through to the products. They also discovered a way to detect products from a single collision reaction event, a difficult feat when 10,000 molecules could be reacting simultaneously. With these two novel methods, the team could identify the unique spectrum and quantum state of each product molecule, the kind of precise control necessary to measure all 57 pathways their potassium rubidium reaction could take.

Over several months during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team ran experiments to collect data on each of those 57 possible reaction channels, repeating each channel once every minute for several days before moving on to the next. Luckily, once the experiment is set up, it can be run remotely: Lab members could stay home, keeping the lab re-occupancy at COVID-19 standards, while the system churned on.

The test, said Matthew Nichols, a postdoctoral scholar in the Ni lab and an author on both papers, indicates good agreement between the measurement and the model for a subset containing 50 state-pairs but reveals significant deviations in several state-pairs.

In other words, their experimental data confirmed that previous predictions based on statistical theory (one far less complex than Schrdingers equation) are accurate mostly. Using their data, the team could measure the probability that their chemical reaction would take each of the 57 reaction channels. Then, they compared their percentages with the statistical model. Only seven of the 57 showed a significant enough divergence to challenge the theory.

We have data that pushes this frontier, Ni said. To explain the seven deviating channels, we need to calculate Schrdingers equation, which is still impossible. So now, the theory has to catch up and propose new ways to efficiently perform such exact quantum calculations.

Next, Ni and her team plan to scale back their experiment and analyze a reaction between only three atoms (one molecule and an atom). In theory, this reaction, which has far fewer dimensions than a four-atom reaction, should be easier to calculate and study in the quantum realm. And yet, already, the team discovered something strange: the intermediate phase of the reaction lives on for many orders of magnitude longer than the theory predicts.

There is already mystery, Ni said. Its up to the theorists now.

Reference: Precision test of statistical dynamics with state-to-state ultracold chemistry by Yu Liu, Ming-Guang Hu, Matthew A. Nichols, Dongzheng Yang, Daiqian Xie, Hua Guo and Kang-Kuen Ni, 19 May 2021, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03459-6

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Mapping the Quantum Frontier: New Experiments Designed to Test the Mysterious Quantum Realm - SciTechDaily

Basking in warm sunshine and an atmosphere of optimism, the Terp community came together today at Maryland Stadium to honor the Class of 2021s achievements in the face of COVID-19s unprecedented challenges.

We really are Terrapin Strong, University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines told the crowd at the 11 a.m. commencement ceremony. Seeing your faces in person is a sign. Its a sign that we are beginning to win this fight against this virus. Its a sign that your collective resilience and strength and grit is stronger than any challenge you will face.

The 8,500 members of the Spring 2021 graduating class are being honored today with two in-person, outdoor ceremonies at the stadium, divided by school and collegethe first open-air graduations in 66 years. Graduates could bring two guests, sat in distanced households of three for safety reasons and were sent off with an appearance from Testudo and a fireworks display. Spring 2020 and Winter 2020 graduates, who had only virtual ceremonies due to the pandemic, were invited to attend as well.

We were reminded that each day is precious and many of us vow to never again take for granted the everyday parts of life, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a recorded message. I hope that as you graduate today, you remember that each of us can make the days ahead count that much more.

Hannah Rhee 21, the student speaker and computer science major, said the pandemic and recent social justice challenges facing the entire nation are reminders that asking for help and relying on friends and family are proof of strength, not weakness.

Through these relationships I learned about the world, made lasting friendships and developed my character, she said. I believe we are emerging as fearless Terps, more thoughtful and more kind because of our experiences.

The main, recorded address was delivered by Peter Chapman, president and CEO of IonQ, a leading quantum computing company spun off from UMD research and headquartered in the nearby Discovery District. The son of a NASA scientist-astronaut and formerly director of engineering for Amazon Prime, Chapman urged graduates to meet the future with optimism and look to the promise of technology in answering challenges ranging from disease to climate change.

I know that for some of you, this day is bittersweet, he said. But for all that youve lost, for all that we have all lost, youve gained a lot, too: memories and friendships, new strengths and new skills. And today, a degree from the University of Maryland.

More than 8,500 students were granted degrees at the Spring 2021 ceremonies at Maryland Stadium. Graduates from Spring and Winter 2020 were also invited to celebrate in-person after having virtual ceremonies due to COVID-19.Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle

UMD President Darryll J. Pines praised graduates for their resiliency over the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changes inside and out of the classroom.Photo by John T. Consoli

Senior marshal Alyssa Conway represented the College of Education at Fridays ceremonies. Senior marshals are chosen for academic excellence, service, extracurriculars and personal growth to assist at commencement.Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle

Peter Chapman, president and CEO of quantum computing company IonQ, delivered the main commencement address via recording. He urged graduates to be optimistic about the future and the promise that technology holds for issues ranging from disease to climate change.Photo by John T. Consoli

Graduates were able to invite two guests to join them at morning and afternoon commencement ceremonies in Maryland Stadium separated by school and college. The socially distanced events marked the first in-person graduation festivities since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020.Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle

Student speaker Hannah Rhee, a computer science major, emphasized the importance of relationships to support students studying through the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and social unrest brought on by racism and inequality.Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle

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Maryland Today | 'We Really Are Terrapin Strong' - Maryland Today

The spark about quantum computing is considered to have set out from a three-day discussion at the MIT Conference Center out of Boston, in 1981. The meeting, The Physics of Computation, was collaboratively sponsored by IBM and MITs Laboratory of computer science. The discussion aimed to formulate new processes for efficient ways of computing and bring the area of study into the mainstream. Quantum computing was not a popularly discussed field of science till then. The historic conference was presided over by many talented brains including Richard Feynman, Paul Benioff, Edward Fredkin, Leonid Levin, Freeman Dyson, and Arthur Burks, who were computer scientists and physicists.

Richard Feynman was a renowned theoretical physicist who received a Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1965 with other two physicists, for his contributions towards the development of quantum electrodynamics. The conference was a seminal moment in the development of quantum computing and Richard Feynman announced that to simulate quantum computation, there is a need for quantum computers. Later, he went on to publish a paper in 1982, titled Simulating Physics with Computers.The area of study soon got attention from computer scientists and physicists. Hence, the work on quantum computing began.

Before this, in 1980, Paul Benioff had described a first quantum mechanical model of a computer in one of his papers, which had already acted as a foundation for the study. After Feynmans statement in the conference, Paul Benioff went on to develop his model of quantum mechanical Turing machine.

However, almost a decade later, came Shors algorithm, developed by Peter Shor, which is considered a milestone in the history of quantum computing. This algorithm allowed quantum computers to factor large integers at a higher speed and could also break numerous cryptosystems. The discovery garnered a lot of interest in the study of quantum computing as it replaced the years taken by the classic, traditional computing algorithms to perform factoring by just some hours. Later, in 1996, Lov Grover invented the quantum database search algorithm, which exhibited a quadratic speedup that could solve any problem that had to be solved by random brute-force search and could also be applied to a wider base of problems.

The year 1998 witnessed the first experimental demonstration of a quantum algorithm that worked on a 2-qubit NMR quantum computer. Later in the year, a working 3-qubit NMR computer was developed and Grovers algorithm got executed for the first time in an NMR quantum computer. Several experimental progress took place between 1999 and 2009.

In 2009, the first universal programmable quantum computer was unveiled by a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado. The computer was capable of processing 2 quantum bits.

After almost a decade, IBM unveiled the first commercially usable integrated quantum computing system, and later in the year, IBM added 4 more quantum computing systems, along with a newly developed 53-qubit quantum computer. Google also gave a huge contribution to the field in late 2019, when a paper published by the Google research team claimed to have reached quantum supremacy. The 54-qubit Sycamore processor, made of tiny qubits and superconducting materials is claimed to have sampled a computation in just 200 seconds. Last year, IonQ launched its trapped ion quantum computers and made them commercially available through the cloud. There have been several experiments and research that are being carried on today. Each day becomes a new step for quantum computing technology since its proclamation back in the 80s.

According to a report by Fast Company, IBM plans to complete the 127-qubit IBM Quantum Eagle this year and expects to develop a 1000-qubit computing machine called the IBM Quantum Condor by 2023. IBM has been keeping up in the path of developing the best quantum computing solutions since it hosted the conference in 1981. Charlie Bennet, a renowned physicist who was part of the conference as IBMs research contingent, has a huge contribution to these innovations put forward by the company.

The emerging era of quantum computing will invite many breakthroughs. The quantum computing revolution will increase processing efficiency and solve intrinsic quantum problems. Quantum computer works with quantum bits or qubits that can be in the superposition of states that will cater to massive calculations at an extremely faster pace.

Quantum computing will have a greater impact on almost all industries and business operations. It is capable of molecular modeling, cryptography, weather forecasting, drug discovery, and more. Quantum computing is also said to be a significant component of artificial intelligence, which is fuelling several businesses and real-life functions today. We might soon reach the state of quantum supremacy and businesses need to become quantum-ready by then.

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Quantum Computing: The Chronicle of its Origin and Beyond - Analytics Insight

At the first-ever virtual Google I/O, Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai talked about news on Workspace, quantum computing and privacy needs.

Google announced new video collaboration features as part of Smart Canvas, a new set of capabilities that is part of Workspace.

The keynote for Google I/O was live streamed from Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California on Tuesday, and Google executives touched on everything from new collaboration features in Workspace, to quantum computing, to improved privacy controls. The speakers were on round stages in the outdoor spaces at Google's headquarters, and the audience sat in socially distanced chairs grouped around the stage in the surrounding green space. The video introduction at the event showed a montage of crowds of people at past events, including a cameo of a young Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, which is Google's parent company.

Pichai kicked off the keynote with an announcement about the new collaboration tool for Workspace: Smart Canvas.

Javier Soltero, general manager and vice president of Google Workspace, announced the Workspace news at the event. Soltero said the changes will transform a Google doc from a digital piece of paper to a collaboration platform that is always up to date and has built-in tools for keeping distributed teams connected.

SEE:Android 12: A cheat sheet(TechRepublic)

Pichai also discussed Google's work with quantum computing, describing the technology as the best chance to understand the natural world. He said that the company's current focus is to build an error-corrected qubit.

Actor Michael Pena toured Google's quantum campus with Google's lead quantum engineer Eric Lucero. Lucero showed off the "qubit fridge" and other parts of the lab which included a painting that he described as an homage to mother nature because quantum is the language of nature. Pena's job was to explain quantum computing to the average viewer, describing qubits as smart but picky about work environments and Google's research as wrapping qubits in a Bob Ross blanket of love and keeping them there until they can teach us to think like the Earth.

Lucero said now that the company has moved beyond classical computing and described the next milestone as building an error-corrected logical qubit and then building an error-corrected quantum computer.

In addition to highlighting the company's lofty research goals, executives also talked about work that affects the daily lives of users as well: changes to privacy controls. Jen Fitzpatrick, senior vice president for Google Maps, said the company is working toward a password-free future by improving phone-based authentication.

"We want to free everyone from password pain," she said.

Fitzpatrick said Google has made these improvements to the company's password manager:

Fitzgerald also announced other privacy changes:

Sameer Samat, vice president of product management for Google, said the Android 12 updates represent the biggest design change in Android for years. He said the three big themes for the update are:

He showed off one example of the phone customizing itself to the user when he selected a personal photo for the home screen. The system created a custom palette for the home screen based on the photo.

"We use a clustering algorithm to determine which colors are dominant and which are compliments," he said.

The update also includes new uses of light that differ depending on the action a user takes such as unlocking the phone via the touch screen or a button.

The update includes privacy changes as well. Suzanne Frey, the company's vice president of engineering and product, said that a new privacy dashboard makes it easier to understand which apps are using what data. The OS update also makes it easier to revoke an app's permission directly from the dashboard. Two new toggles allow users to turn off microphone and camera access from the dashboard as well.

Frey said that Google is the first phone maker to enable technically enforced privacy with its open source Private Compute Core.

Pichai closed the keynote with two new pieces of technology. The first was Project Starline, which uses custom built hardware and high resolution cameras to capture a person's shape from multiple angles. Pichai said that the real-time 3D model generates many gigabytes of data per second and required the company to build novel compression and streaming algorithms to reduce the data by a factor of 100 so the video could be sent through existing networks.

He also announced that the company is working on a carbon intelligence load shifting capability that will let data center operators to shift power sources across time and place. This allows operators to take advantage of currently available sources of green energy.

He said that the company is installing Dragon solar panels and a geothermal pile system at the Mountain View headquarters to create an on-demand supply of solar energy.

Google I/O began on Tuesday, and it is a three-day event that will run through May 20. It includes a series of workshops, meetups and keynotes.It's free to attend for anyone who wants to register. All that's needed is a gmail account.

From the hottest programming languages to the jobs with the highest salaries, get the developer news and tips you need to know. Weekly

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Google I/O 2021: Everything Google is announcing at this year's virtual keynote right now - TechRepublic

Famous mock musician David St. Hubbins once said, Theres a fine line between stupid and clever. On one side of the line is an endless celebration of genius. On the other: failure and ignominy.

The tech industry has no choice but to embrace innovation and risk taking. As such, some innovations start out looking crazy but end up being brilliant. Others start out looking just as crazy and implode under the weight of their own insanity.

In that light, here are seven next-horizon ideas that ride that fine line between amazing and amazingly stupid. The developers of these innovations might prove to be crackpots or they could turn out be insanely great. The technology could end up being a blackhole for venture cash or a savvy play for business value emerging along the fringe. It all depends on your perspective.

Of all the out-there technologies, nothing gets more press than quantum computers and nothing is spookier. The work is done by a mixture of physicists and computer scientists fiddling with strange devices at super-cold temperatures. If it requires liquid nitrogen and lab coats, well, its got to be innovation.

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6 'crackpot' technologies that might transform IT - CIO