Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday August 07 2018, @09:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the Quantum dept.

https://www.livescience.com/63182-quantum-computer-reverse-arrow-time.html

A new technique for quantum computing could bust open our whole model of how time moves in the universe.

A new paper, published July 18 in the journal Physical Review X [ https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.031013 ], opens the door to the possibility that the arrow pf time is an artifact of classical-style computation — something that's only appeared to us to be the case because of our limited tools.

A team of researchers found that in certain circumstances causal asymmetry disappears inside quantum computers.

In this paper, the researchers looked at physical systems that had a goldilocks' level of disorder and randomness — not too little, and not too much.

They tried to figure out those systems' pasts and futures using theoretical quantum computers (no physical computers involved). Not only did these models of quantum computers use less memory than the classical computer models, she said, they were able to run in either direction through time without using up extra memory. In other words, the quantum models had no causal asymmetry

"While classically, it might be impossible for the process to go in one of the directions [through time]," said Jayne Thompson, of the National University of Singapore, "our results show that 'quantum mechanically,' the process can go in either direction using very little memory."

And if that's true inside a quantum computer, that's true in the universe, she said.

Quantum physics is the study of the strange probabilistic behaviors of very small particles — all the very small particles in the universe. And if quantum physics is true for all the pieces that make up the universe, it's true for the universe itself, even if some of its weirder effects aren't always obvious to us. So if a quantum computer can operate without causal asymmetry, then so can the universe.

Thompson added that the research doesn't prove that there isn't any causal asymmetry anywhere in the universe. She and her colleagues showed there is no asymmetry in a handful of systems. But it's possible, she said, that there are some very bare-bones quantum models where some causal asymmetry emerges.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:50AM (4 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:50AM (#718579) Homepage Journal

    You are a cloud atoms which are comprised of subatomic particles.

    No, I am a perl script reading from /dev/urandom for input. It just spit out a really weird universe shaped chunk of data is all.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @11:34AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @11:34AM (#718731)

    Why hello, dad.

    • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Wednesday August 08 2018, @02:57PM (2 children)

      by pvanhoof (4638) on Wednesday August 08 2018, @02:57PM (#718801) Homepage

      Children. Time to go to bed. Com'n Perl, Ruby; say your prayers to CPU.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @06:18PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @06:18PM (#718894)

        Don't forget to take Fifo for a walk in the morning!

        • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:07PM

          by pvanhoof (4638) on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:07PM (#718927) Homepage

          You overheard them too? Ruby was telling his brother that he's his son. Goddamn kids on dope. I really don't want another! Have you seen at the neighbors what happened with their kid Web? Made a few javascripts pregnant and now the whole neighborhood is infested with shit websites, spyware and adds. They told me Ruby plays with those websites too. Thank CPU Perl is finally off that drugs.

          FIFO, get over here. Stop dumping dogfood LIFO in the corner. Look. You're supposed to keep it in. Damned. That's what happens when you go at it too fast.