Schrodinger's Kittens Mohanty Group In Physical Review Letters [ 28 Jan 2005 ], the Mohanty Group at Boston University reports evidence of [center-of-mass displacement] quantum nanomechanical oscillations in silicon antennae of ~ 50 billion atoms, making this the largest observation of quantum mechanical behavior to date. "It's a truly macroscopic quantum system," says Alexei Gaidarzhy, the paper's lead author and a graduate student in the BU College of Engineering's Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. "When it's a new phenomenon, it's best not to be guided by expectations based on conventional wisdom. The philosophy here is to let the data speak for itself."

Mainstreaming Quantum Crypto? MagiQ/Cavium MagiQ Technologies has signed a deal with Cavium Networks to boost performance and lower costs through standardized engineering protocols, incorporating Cavium's network security chips into MagiQ's servers and creating designs for networking boards. Will quantum encryption go mainstream?

Coupling Flux Qubits You, Nakamura, and Nori "A central problem for implementing efficient quantum computing is how to realize fast operations, both one- and two-bit ones. However, this is difficult to achieve for a collection of qubits, especially for those separated far away, because the interbit coupling is usually much weaker than the intrabit coupling. Here we present an experimentally feasible method to effectively couple two flux qubits via a common inductance and treat both single and coupled flux qubits with more realistic models which include the loop inductance. The main advantage of our proposal is that a strong interbit coupling can be achieved using a small inductance, so that two-bit operations as fast as one-bit ones can be easily realized. We also show the flux dependence of the transitions between states for the coupled flux qubits." [ arXiv ]

Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Current Status and Future Directions Perimeter Institute Lecture Series A technical but pedagogical introduction to the problems associated with developing a consistent understanding of the nature of objective reality in light of quantum theory.

New Life for Schrodinger's Cat The observation of quantum superpositions of distinct macroscopic states by groups at Stony Brook and Delft represents a milestone in experimental quantum physics. Both teams have reported spectroscopic evidence for currents of microamps flowing through a superconducting ring in opposite directions at the same time. Physics World article by Tony Leggett.

Superconducting Quantum Bits Quantum Transport Group Superconducting devices can be used to explore the boundaries between the quantum and classical worlds, and hold potential applications in quantum information. Physics World article by Hans Mooij.

UNESCO Physics for Tomorrow The launch conference for the International Year of Physics was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, 13-15 Jan 2005. I've recently posted a summary and photos from the event.

RSA INFOSEC Awards My briefing to the UNISCA First Committee, "Converging Technologies: The Future of the Global Information Society," was selected to receive the 2004 RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy. RSA Awards summaries are available online via RSA Conference website, press release and news links.

Adaptive Quantum Networks quantum topology » neural networks [IJTP] Our paper on adaptive quantum networks appears in this month's International Journal of Theoretical Physics. We introduce a novel model of superposed adaptive quantum networks, with considerations for high-dimensional dissipative quantum systems in both quantum computation and molecular biology. A preprint of the article is available via quant-ph 0311016.