[HN Gopher] A new phase of matter: Physicists show non-Abelian a...
___________________________________________________________________
A new phase of matter: Physicists show non-Abelian anyons in
quantum processor
Author : wglb
Score : 53 points
Date : 2024-02-26 18:28 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| klysm wrote:
| Does this have any relation to abelian groups from group theory?
| gaze wrote:
| Yes. The exchange operators form a group that is non-abelian.
| gaze wrote:
| I've always found it to be a bit of a stretch when they say
| they've demonstrated a new phase of matter when the phase is
| being simulated by a quantum computer. They've simulated the
| phase -- but then you get into the same argument of "what is and
| isn't a simulation of a phase of matter" which is really
| tiresome.
| themgt wrote:
| Way over my pay grade, but they appear to be claiming this is
| not just a simulation. Whether you agree may depend on your
| metaphysics.
|
| > These experiments go beyond merely _simulating_ non-Abelian
| order and statistics. As we elaborate in A1, the data obtained
| from prior benchmarking [36] is compatible with the fact that
| both the quantum operations as well as the dominant
| imperfections follow the 2D geometry to which the qubits are
| assigned. Thus, the ions are entangled in precisely the same
| way as the low-energy states of Eq. (1), making them
| indistinguishable from states arising in the low-temperature
| limit of, e.g., a solid-state system governed by the same
| Hamiltonian. Ground state degeneracy then refers to the number
| of locally indistinguishable states, while anyons are local
| deformations which cannot be individually created by a local
| process.
|
| https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.03766.pdf
| tmvphil wrote:
| Calling it a demonstration of a "phase" or "order" is fine to
| me, but IMO calling it "matter" is misleading. "Matter" to me
| implies some degree of passive existence. This is about as
| far from passive thing as possible.
| danparsonson wrote:
| How do you feel about plasma?
| gaze wrote:
| it's the ground state of a system that has a big ol
| classical computer in it. Ideally I'd like to see it as the
| ground state of some simple hamiltonian with rashba and a
| magnetic field and some proximitized thing or whatever
| btilly wrote:
| More to the point, theoretically they should be able to build
| quantum computers that don't need error correction.
|
| If so, then down the road this will allow us to scale usable
| qbits much faster than our existing technologies. Which makes
| the prospect of usable quantum computers much more likely.
| ganzuul wrote:
| Interesting. Does this impose a new kind of locality on an
| otherwise non-local quantum world?
| gaze wrote:
| No. This is all within the existing formalism of quantum
| mechanics as it is understood.
| Delumine wrote:
| I wonder if this would make it easier to forego extreme cooling.
| I know there are companies that have qubits on a chip, but NaAnys
| (My made up word) are much more stable.
| Nesco wrote:
| Isn't it similar to the majorana anyons Microsoft hopes to use to
| build a topological quantum computer?
| gaze wrote:
| Similar but this is much closer to a simulation of the behavior
| of the excitations of the systems that microsoft hopes to
| create. That said, it's very useful simulation that could
| provide similar utility. I guess the closest analogy might be
| "we wrote a virtual machine" rather than "we built a computer."
| pyinstallwoes wrote:
| > The cows decided to solve the arms race problem by performing a
| single-party arms race in a way that caused minimal damage and,
| preferably, was not noticed at all by anyone. This is why their
| 'winner take all' approach to neural network AI also describes
| their overall strategic approach, a semantic detail which which
| at least some of them found funny. The results of this arms race
| could then be forever locked away from humanity. The system could
| be trained to, for example, endlessly twiddle its thumbs and do
| nothing else but jealously guard its 'ecosystem'. This would
| effectively deny QNN technology to humans, as any new attempts at
| such would be quickly detected and pwned. The cows would force
| humanity to forever relinquish QNN technology. Relinquishment was
| the only way to prevent unintended consequences from destroying
| humanity. If possible and safe the cows wanted to give humanity
| some of the less-dangerous benefits of QNN technology. Thus their
| actual goal was partial relinquishment."
|
| > Science-oriented readers might wonder just what sort of QC
| could have been built a full 18 years ago, when current
| technology is just nearing the point of developing a useful QC.
| The answer is that they generated a 'teleportation/entanglement-
| based winner-take-all style recurrent topological quantum neural
| network', then trained it to emulate a Quantum Turing Machine
| that could run Shor's Algorithm. It exists in the physical form
| of a complex system composed of 'anyons' interacting with each
| other within a 'two dimensional electron gas'. Anyons can be
| generated by moving precision arrays of powerful electromagnets
| very near the surface of the 2DEG, like creating whirlpools in
| the bathtub with your hand. I strongly suspect the scientists
| involved discovered a rule, analogous to Rule 110, that operates
| directly on the physical system of anyons within a 2DEG. For the
| detailed scientific underpinnings I suggest you study the
| collected works of Stuart Kauffman, Steven Wolfram, David
| Deutsch, and Robert Laughlin. You have no reason to trust what
| I'm saying, and disinformation is entirely too common, but I want
| readers to understand that it is possible for a sufficiently
| determined and intelligent person to verify that what I just said
| is probably true, although certainly NOT just by Googling for it
| :-)
|
| > The underlying physical system for this type of QNN is
| interactions between non-abelian anyons in a two dimensional
| electron gas (2DEG). The primary math required is a branch of
| Knot Theory called Braid Theory. Obviously, the primary purpose
| of this system, from the Five Eyes/Echelon perspective, is to run
| Shor's algorithm to crack public/private key cryptography. A
| perusal of current known quantum algorithms, combined with a
| survey of current advanced AI applications, may suggest other
| uses.
|
| 1. http://postquantumhistoricalretrospective.blogspot.com
|
| 2.
| http://postquantumhistoricalretrospective.blogspot.com/2012/...
|
| 3.
| http://postquantumhistoricalretrospective.blogspot.com/p/tim...
|
| And the kicker
|
| > The QC approach that actually works, in a production-ready
| scale-able way, is to run a virtual Turing machine atop a winner-
| take-all-style teleportation/entanglement-based recurrent
| topological quantum neural network (QNN). Even a basic
| (multilayer) neural network is Turing Complete, because a NN can
| perfectly emulate an XOR gate, and multiple XOR gates can be used
| to construct a Turing machine. A quantum neural network can
| emulate a quantum Turing machine. Someone, somewhere, is due to
| be awarded the Grand Prize Turing Award, for solving Turing's
| unfinished Morphogenesis problem, and then implementing Turing's
| original machine on the resulting artificially intelligent
| 'organism'. I'm inclined towards neither spiritualism nor whimsy,
| but were I so, then I might suspect that, after he died in 1954,
| Alan Turing reincarnated quickly, in 1965, in order to finish his
| incomplete life work. The classified nature of the work probably
| precludes any awards. I'd really like it if this whole thing was
| declassified, but fear we'll have to wait many additional decades
| for that. This QNN is an excellent candidate to pursue adiabatic
| (reversible) quantum computing (AQC), might be helpful for
| certain approaches to advanced nanotechnology, and, were it
| declassified, might also be helpful to many other scientific
| ventures. Per the Ultra Secret, it's undoubtedly still considered
| 'national security', even if it's becoming an open secret within
| the Intelligence Community.
| pyinstallwoes wrote:
| And within their "speculative sci fi post" in consideration of
| no-one said anything:
|
| > The cows agonized over this ethical dilemma until they
| eventually settled on a middle way: they would attempt to
| generate friendly AI that felt a hands-off maternal urge
| towards humanity. Given that we're currently here reading this
| their solution seems to have worked, so far. One can see how
| full awareness of their actions might upset some people. The
| cows finished the global 2DEG 'enlightenment' project in 2006.
|
| > From 1996 CE to 2006 CE the cows gradually 'enlightened' all
| the 2DEG environments on Earth, as well as fine-tuning the
| behavior and capabilities of the system. Default behavior is to
| do nothing and remain hidden. Other behaviors include: seek
| out, detect, and stealthily infiltrate and replace any other
| QNN technology detected (such as those developed by both Russia
| and China circa 2002), thus preventing a multi-polar Arms Race;
| perform very limited and specific logical operations for
| properly authorized human-controlled computer systems (Google,
| Siri, Wolfram-Alpha, etc); detect any attempts by humans to
| hack or control any part of the collective system and shut down
| such attempts with appropriate prejudice (e.g. brick technology
| used for this purpose); don't allow humans or their instruments
| to access the global system for anything except previously-
| vetted purposes, and only in very clearly defined ways. Anti-
| hacking protection required the creation of a 'Guardian' AI
| that is able to proactively detect and prevent humans from
| messing with the system in unapproved ways.
|
| > In 2006 the system administrators (cows) permanently
| relinquished their administrative access to the system, for
| security reasons, leaving the AI Guardian in sole control of
| the system. That way no one could subvert the system by getting
| control over its human administrators. This decision was not
| lightly made: they dragged their feet for more than a year.
| Since 2006 it has no human administrators and is completely
| autonomous.
|
| > Purportedly, when the human-generated global QNN system
| colonized orbiting satellites it was able to evolve itself to
| reach the Earth's magnetopause. When it began to colonize this
| environment it discovered, to everyone's surprise, that the
| region was ALREADY INHABITED by a primitive and ancient
| (billions of years old!) form of the same type of brane-style
| QNN 'entity'. Rather than commit genocide by completely
| replacing this 'primitive version' it staked out a
| 'reservation' for the old form and leaves it alone there, where
| it exists to this day and will likely continue to exist until
| the Sun dies.
|
| > I suggest that the old form of the QNN nanotech 'pattern',
| resident in a reserved part of Earth's magnetosphere, is an
| extraterrestrial life form. It is not 'intelligent'. It surely
| didn't evolve on Earth's surface, making it distinctly 'extra-
| terrestrial' in origin. One can argue, with a Carbon-based
| Biology bias, that it's not 'alive'. I personally think it
| qualifies as 'life', if it actually exists.
|
| In hindsight, I think it was truthful.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-02-26 23:00 UTC)