#materials discovery

[frank-olivier]

Quantum Simulation: A Frontier in Scientific Research

Quantum simulation, a burgeoning field in modern physics, leverages the unique properties of quantum systems to replicate and investigate the behavior of other complex quantum systems. This approach offers a powerful tool to study intricate quantum phenomena that are otherwise challenging to analyze using classical computational methods or experimental setups. By harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum simulation enables researchers to explore parameter spaces inaccessible to classical simulations and gain unique insights into the underlying physics.

One of the primary platforms for quantum simulation is ultracold atomic gases, cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. The low temperatures and high phase-space density of these systems allow for the study of individual atoms and molecules in a highly controlled environment, with minimal interactions with the surrounding environment. Optical lattices, created by interfering laser beams, provide a versatile and highly controllable platform for quantum simulations. By adjusting the laser parameters, researchers can engineer various types of lattice structures, enabling the study of phenomena such as Anderson localization, quantum phase transitions, and many-body dynamics. The periodic potential created by the optical lattice can mimic the crystal lattice of solid-state systems, allowing for the investigation of condensed matter physics in a clean and controllable environment.

Superconducting qubits, trapped ions, and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds are alternative platforms for quantum simulation, each with its unique strengths and capabilities. Superconducting qubits use superconducting circuits to encode quantum information and exhibit long coherence times. Trapped ions allow for precise control and readout of their quantum states using electromagnetic fields. Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds offer long-lived spins and coupling to other spins, making them useful for quantum information processing and sensing applications.

A significant challenge in quantum simulation is minimizing and correcting errors, which can arise from imperfections in the experimental setup or external disturbances. These errors can lead to decoherence, causing the quantum system to lose its coherence and become difficult to control. Researchers have developed robust quantum simulation methods and error correction codes to mitigate these errors and extend the capabilities of quantum simulations. Techniques such as quantum error correction, dynamical error suppression, and fault-tolerant quantum computing aim to overcome these challenges and enable longer and more accurate quantum simulations.

Quantum simulation has enabled the discovery of new phases, such as topological insulators and supersolids, and the study of strongly correlated systems, like high-temperature superconductors. By mimicking condensed matter systems in the laboratory, researchers can observe and understand their behavior in detail, leading to a deeper understanding of quantum phenomena and the development of new materials and technologies. Quantum simulations have the potential to revolutionize fields such as condensed matter physics, materials science, and chemistry. By simulating molecular Hamiltonians, quantum simulations can provide insights into chemical reactions, electronic structures, and excited states, with implications for drug discovery and materials design. Furthermore, quantum simulations can accelerate materials discovery by predicting the properties of new materials and optimizing existing ones for specific applications.

Esteban Adrian Martinez: Introduction to Quantum Simulators (Summer School on Collective Behaviour in Quantum Matter, September 2018)

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

[skrunksthatwunk]

the debate continues (pt 1) but kurama gets called in

bonus under the cut (ft hiei):

gay people

[juricore]

utena is so like. yes this is orpheus and eurydice yes this is thee narrative about breaking abusive cycles yes this is about the ability to change your stars/fate but it is also exactly what being a regular 14 yr old girl felt like

[whatasmoothgardener]

A teen girl with two best friends lives a double life as a pop idol. Complete with wearing a wig to disguise her identity. Who am I talking about Blue Rose or Hannah Montana?

[mxflowercheck]

so my bestie here @slice-of-julysky doesn't know what's a normal sleeping schedule, so when we shared a dorm i was the one who sent her to bed. BUT NOW she's got a girlfriend (congrats btw you two are the cutest) and her gf does the same thing

but it's different. and i have a hyperfixation. so here a based-on-real-life-headcanon

what Straal had to do to get Paul to sleep: physically pull him from the desk, take his jacker off or else paul would sleep in it, tonnes of arguing and (affectionate) threatening, step-by-step instructions 'cause paul is smart and sly and would find a way out of it

what Hugh had to do to get Paul to sleep: tell him to go to sleep, smile, tuck him gently and give him a goodnight kiss

(Straal after seeing this: i hate you. i hate you both. what the fuck paul, YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO FINISH THE EQUATION)

[gremmyroeroe]

Chat!!!! I got gender euphoria for trying out masc pronouns by my boyfriend and endless support AND i found out a label that fits me for atleast sexuality!! Its so nice omg. I am confused on my identity tho which is ok. Like he called me his pretty boy amd hamdsome husbamd 😭😭 i love him so much and he going to be such a good dad even if we dont work out potentially.

[creepyscritches]

Since I stopped regularly posting my art online it's nuts the psyche reset my art brain went through. Ego death of whatever deviantart mentality. I'm back to drawing w markers bc it's fun, baby. Making my weird little things and breaking crafts bc it's not always an unusable result lol. Waiting to get back to my 12yr old mary sue generator brain, it's the next step to making more things I enjoy making

[zzz-updates]

New Eridu Urban Discoveries | Two Slices of Bread Can Hold Anything!

Abandoned "Breaded Belief" TV Commercial Plan Proposal:

Tomato: "It feels so warm... Where am I?"

Lettuce: "Silly kid, we're inside this soft, fluffy bread~"

Before the sentence is even finished, the fresh, crisp vegetables drip with joyous juices.

>> Official Hoyolab post <<

[thehopelessauthor]

G.O.A.T Romances

1. Stolas x Blitz = Stolitz)

2. Fran x Maxwell (Franxwell)

3. Lucifer x Chloe (Deckerstar)

Recent:

4. Mattthew x Diana (Mariana)

5. Lyra x Will (Lyrill)

6. Nora x Nathan (Upload)

7. Geralt x Yennerfer (Yeralt)

8. Branch x Poppy (Broppy)

9. Anthony (Angel Dust) x Husk = Huskerdust / Anthusker)

<> Semi-canon but not canonically confirmed yet

[wayti-blog]

"Scientists are a step closer to unraveling the mysterious forces of the universe after working out how to measure gravity on a microscopic level."

"(...) now physicists at the University of Southampton, working with scientists in Europe, have successfully detected a weak gravitational pull on a tiny particle using a new technique.

They claim it could pave the way to finding the elusive quantum gravity theory.

The experiment, published in Science Advances, used levitating magnets to detect gravity on microscopic particles—small enough to border on the quantum realm.

Lead author Tim Fuchs, from the University of Southampton, said the results could help experts find the missing puzzle piece in our picture of reality.

He added, "For a century, scientists have tried and failed to understand how gravity and quantum mechanics work together. Now we have successfully measured gravitational signals at a smallest mass ever recorded, it means we are one step closer to finally realizing how it works in tandem.

"From here we will start scaling the source down using this technique until we reach the quantum world on both sides. By understanding quantum gravity, we could solve some of the mysteries of our universe—like how it began, what happens inside black holes, or uniting all forces into one big theory.""

continue reading article

[badolmen]

Truly heartbreaking to see a meme that generalizes autism special interests/adhd hyperfixations as a purely fandom thing/excludes ye old trains and encyclopedia folks like me. ‘Who was your favorite character from your first hyperfixation???’ Well. Uh, this is kinda awkward, but it was rose quartz. No, not from Steven Universe, I mean rose quartz from my geology books. Granite was always a close second but ehhh you know how it is with igneous rocks there’s too much variation to say granite is my favorite vs rose quartz which tends to be more consistent because it’s a crystalline mineral with definite composition.

[dihalect]

anti 'ai' people make 1 (one) well-informed, good-faith argument challenge(impossible)

[turiyatitta]

The Unseen Riches

A Journey Beyond Material Bounds“Being spiritually awakened is like being a multi-billionaire, yet living like a bum.” In an era where the accumulation of material wealth often dictates societal status and personal value, the concept of spiritual awakening offers a radical departure from conventional measures of riches. This awakening is akin to discovering an inexhaustible treasure within…

[covenawhite66]

Homo sapiens likely made it to Northern Europe 47,500 years ago. A detailed analysis of stone tools from a cave in Ranis Germany suggests; stone artefacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were in fact part of the early Homo sapiens tool kit.

Technocomplexes (types of stone age technology in a given region)during this transition.

One such technocomplex for which the makers are unknown is the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ), which has been described in northwestern and central Europe.

[cats-in-the-clouds]

i keep getting stuck being forced to take classes i despise and that have no relevance to me so i’m going to go all malicious compliance on every single assignment and subtly insult the class material and/or professor

[jcmarchi]

A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, MIT study finds

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-carbon-lite-atmosphere-could-be-a-sign-of-water-and-life-on-other-terrestrial-planets-mit-study-finds/

A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, MIT study finds

Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, rather than the presence, of a chemical feature in their atmospheres.

The researchers propose that if a terrestrial planet has substantially less carbon dioxide in its atmosphere compared to other planets in the same system, it could be a sign of liquid water — and possibly life — on that planet’s surface.

What’s more, this new signature is within the sights of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). While scientists have proposed other signs of habitability, those features are challenging if not impossible to measure with current technologies. The team says this new signature, of relatively depleted carbon dioxide, is the only sign of habitability that is detectable now.

“The Holy Grail in exoplanet science is to look for habitable worlds, and the presence of life, but all the features that have been talked about so far have been beyond the reach of the newest observatories,” says Julien de Wit, assistant professor of planetary sciences at MIT. “Now we have a way to find out if there’s liquid water on another planet. And it’s something we can get to in the next few years.”

The team’s findings appear today in Nature Astronomy. De Wit co-led the study with Amaury Triaud of the University of Birmingham in the UK. Their MIT co-authors include Benjamin Rackham, Prajwal Niraula, Ana Glidden Oliver Jagoutz, Matej Peč, Janusz Petkowski, and Sara Seager, along with Frieder Klein at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Martin Turbet of Ècole Polytechnique in France, and Franck Selsis of the Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux.

Beyond a glimmer

Astronomers have so far detected more than 5,200 worlds beyond our solar system. With current telescopes, astronomers can directly measure a planet’s distance to its star and the time it takes it to complete an orbit. Those measurements can help scientists infer whether a planet is within a habitable zone. But there’s been no way to directly confirm whether a planet is indeed habitable, meaning that liquid water exists on its surface.

Across our own solar system, scientists can detect the presence of liquid oceans by observing “glints” — flashes of sunlight that reflect off liquid surfaces. These glints, or specular reflections, have been observed, for instance, on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which helped to confirm the moon’s large lakes.

Detecting a similar glimmer in far-off planets, however, is out of reach with current technologies. But de Wit and his colleagues realized there’s another habitable feature close to home that could be detectable in distant worlds.

“An idea came to us, by looking at what’s going on with the terrestrial planets in our own system,” Triaud says.

Venus, Earth, and Mars share similarities, in that all three are rocky and inhabit a relatively temperate region with respect to the sun. Earth is the only planet among the trio that currently hosts liquid water. And the team noted another obvious distinction: Earth has significantly less carbon dioxide in its atmosphere.

“We assume that these planets were created in a similar fashion, and if we see one planet with much less carbon now, it must have gone somewhere,” Triaud says. “The only process that could remove that much carbon from an atmosphere is a strong water cycle involving oceans of liquid water.”

Indeed, the Earth’s oceans have played a major and sustained role in absorbing carbon dioxide. Over hundreds of millions of years, the oceans have taken up a huge amount of carbon dioxide, nearly equal to the amount that persists in Venus’ atmosphere today. This planetary-scale effect has left Earth’s atmosphere significantly depleted of carbon dioxide  compared to its planetary neighbors.

“On Earth, much of the atmospheric carbon dioxide has been sequestered in seawater and solid rock over geological timescales, which has helped to regulate climate and habitability for billions of years,” says study co-author Frieder Klein.

The team reasoned that if a similar depletion of carbon dioxide were detected in a far-off planet, relative to its neighbors, this would be a reliable signal of liquid oceans and life on its surface.

“After reviewing extensively the literature of many fields from biology, to chemistry, and even carbon sequestration in the context of climate change, we believe that indeed if we detect carbon depletion, it has a good chance of being a strong sign of liquid water and/or life,” de Wit says.

A roadmap to life

In their study, the team lays out a strategy for detecting habitable planets by searching for a signature of depleted carbon dioxide. Such a search would work best for “peas-in-a-pod” systems, in which multiple terrestrial planets, all about the same size, orbit relatively close to each other, similar to our own solar system. The first step the team proposes is to confirm that the planets have atmospheres, by simply looking for the presence of carbon dioxide, which is expected to dominate most planetary atmospheres.

“Carbon dioxide is a very strong absorber in the infrared, and can be easily detected in the atmospheres of exoplanets,” de Wit explains. “A signal of carbon dioxide can then reveal the presence of exoplanet atmospheres.”

Once astronomers determine that multiple planets in a system host atmospheres, they can move on to measure their carbon dioxide content, to see whether one planet has significantly less than the others. If so, the planet is likely habitable, meaning that it hosts significant bodies of liquid water on its surface.

But habitable conditions doesn’t necessarily mean that a planet is inhabited. To see whether life might actually exist, the team proposes that astronomers look for another feature in a planet’s atmosphere: ozone.

On Earth, the researchers note that plants and some microbes contribute to drawing carbon dioxide, although not nearly as much as the oceans. Nevertheless, as part of this process, the lifeforms emit oxygen, which reacts with the sun’s photons to transform into ozone — a molecule that is far easier to detect than oxygen itself.

The researchers say that if a planet’s atmosphere shows signs of both ozone and depleted carbon dioxide, it likely is a habitable, and inhabited world.

“If we see ozone, chances are pretty high that it’s connected to carbon dioxide being consumed by life,” Triaud says. “And if it’s life, it’s glorious life. It would not be just a few bacteria. It would be a planetary-scale biomass that’s able to process a huge amount of carbon, and interact with it.”

The team estimates that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope would be able to measure carbon dioxide, and possibly ozone, in nearby, multiplanet systems such as TRAPPIST-1 — a seven-planet system that orbits a bright star, just 40 light years from Earth.

“TRAPPIST-1 is one of only a handful of systems where we could do terrestrial atmospheric studies with JWST,” de Wit says. “Now we have a roadmap for finding habitable planets. If we all work together, paradigm-shifting discoveries could be done within the next few years.”