A little late...
Posted on 02/23/2006 8:50:48 AM PST by edcoil
Quantum computer works best switched off
Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.
The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger's cat to hit "Run".
With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.
Yeah, Zeno's Paradox. In order for you to get anywhere, you have to pass through an infinite number of halfway points.. I believe I read somewhere the resolution of this apparent paradox, but I'd have to go look it up again, and besides, I'd never get there..
Totally confused bump.
The Greeks of his day were not comfortable with the concept of infinite series, and produced several fallacies along these lines, with Zeno's being the most well-known.
(Aside: I've enjoyed the explanantions of your time on DU. Cool beans.)
Remember when computer games were written in BASIC? You could extract the primary calculations, find the best answers "offline" and then "win" the game by huge scores/margins (impressing the gorgeous, red-haired, flirty chick at the lab terminal next to you that you hope you can check to see if the cuffs match the collar...)
That, in very simple terms, is what the photon is doing. The program isn't running but the photon is interacting with the primary coding inside the program.
huh?
Wrong. It's Quantum Mechanics. The answer must be "1". Just ask Schroedinger...
A little late...
"The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program's components - so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through."
I've had several graduate quantum mechanics classes and still don't get this.
It's uncertain
If the cat is using Windows, (s)he has to hit "Start" before "Run".
You can get a flavor of it from the bomb-testing problem I quoted above. If the bomb is a dud, then the photon takes both paths, superposed. If the bomb is not a dud, then it either took one path or the other, and not both. One path makes the bomb explode, and the other does not, but photons that take the non-exploding path behave differently from photons that take both paths (i.e. the "dud" case). The photon gets the answer without actually testing the bomb.
Too much research loot sloshing around looking for a home?
Why not?
A non-running clock produces the correct answer twice a day.
Microsoft proved this six years ago: WindowsME performs best if it is never installed at all. Booting WindowsME results in a serious degradation of performance.
Which makes this not so useful for "Stockpile Stewardship."
Thank you.
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