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There is no “Fourth” dimension

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Okay, here’s
the thing. There is no fourth dimension. Mind not blown by that? How about this
– there is no third dimension either. Before you start yelling at your
smartphone about how the Universe is made up of three dimensions, just settle
down and let the episode of MinutePhysics below explain this rather tricky
misconception.





Anyone with
a basic understanding of dimensions could tell you that an object with height,
width, and depth is three-dimensional, and something with height, width, but no
depth – say a drawing on a piece of paper – is two-dimensional. 




Just because
there are four dimensions doesn’t mean there’s a “fourth dimension”.
Learn more in the video below:


A Spooky Quantum Experiment Creates What May Be The Most Entangled Controllable Device Yet On The Planet

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If you’ve read anything about quantum computers, you may have encountered the statement, “It’s like computing with zero and one at the same time.” That’s sort of true, but what makes quantum computers exciting is something spookier: Entanglement.



A new quantum device entangles 20 quantum bits together at the same time, making it perhaps one of the most entangled, controllable devices yet.

This is an important milestone in the quantum computing world, but it also shows just how much more work there is left to do before we can realize the general-purpose quantum computers of the future, which will be able to solve big problems relating to AI and cybersecurity that classical computers can’t.

“We’re now getting access to single-particle-control devices” with tens of qubits, study author Ben Lanyon from the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Austria told Gizmodo. Soon “we can get to the level where we can create super-exotic quantum states and see how they behave in the lab. I think that’s very exciting.”
Forget about “quantum computing” for a second, and just consider the smallest particles. Particles take on exact values of certain innate properties, the way coins are either heads or tails. But unlike real coins, you can prepare particles so they encode both the values of “heads” and “tails”, each with some complex number (like a+bi) associated with it.
This is only meaningful after you prepare the particle in that state, and before you measure it again. Every time you measure it, you’ll always get just one of the choices. But if you prepare and measure the same state a lot of times, you can glean some information about it.
If you have two particles, then you can have them interact in such a way that they are entangled. Even if you separate these particles by great distances, they remain entangled, an effect that Albert Einstein called “spooky action at a distance”. Now, the complex numbers describe combinations of both particles’ properties, so one particle cannot be explained without the other. You can tell whether these particles were entangled based on mathematical correlations that would come up during repeated resulting measurements of them.
If you think of each of those two-state systems as a weird computer bit, and allow these bits to entangle, then you can generate strange new quantum-only correlated statistics when you measure them. Combined with another topic called quantum interference, this allows for new kinds of devices that can perform computing algorithms that regular computers wouldn’t be able to do.
But entangling a lot of particles together and keeping them entangled while still being able to control the individual qubits has been exceedingly difficult. Lanyon and others are now demonstrating a device with qubits as 20 calcium ions arranged in a line. In these atoms, the outermost electrons can be in one of two places, with the two places effectively representing the one and zero of a traditional computer bit. The scientists measure which state the atom is in by whether it fluoresces (glows under an added energy source) or not. They entangle these atoms’ states using a series of lasers.
The experimenters watched as all 20 atoms entangled with two other, three other, or even four other neighbours. They were able to individually manipulate and measure each qubit, according to the paper published in Physical Review X.
This shows just how much work there is left to do in the world of quantum computers. Other researchers have announced computers using a similar technology with 51 or 53 qubits. Google has one that it hasn’t quite tested yet with 72 qubits, and D-wave flaunts their 2000+ qubit machine, but it’s a very specific kind of quantum computer that might not be any faster than a regular computer performing the same problems.
I asked IBM about its own quantum computers: “We haven’t performed the same experiment on our IBM Q devices and we are not yet releasing data from our 20-qubit device,” Sarah Sheldon, an IBM quantum computing researcher, told Gizmodo. A similar experiment was done on the 16-qubit cloud device by an external group that was able to entangle all 16 qubits, she said.
If you want the truly universal quantum computers that futurists dream of, you have to be able to entangle the qubits.
“A key demonstration of growth in the performance of quantum computers is not simply the ability to fabricate more devices, but rather putting many qubits to work simultaneously,” Michael Biercuk, professor of quantum physics at the University of Sydney, told Gizmodo. Additionally, many of the leaders of the pack, like Google and IBM, make their quantum computers using highly engineered superconducting circuits, instead of single atoms. This demonstration is a win for systems that rely on atoms in different states as their qubits.
This experiment also demonstrates some of the most exotic quantum systems ever made, said Lanyon. He’s particularly interested in nearer-term physics experimentation: Testing the limits of quantum computing in the lab, instead of with theory.
Others thought this advance was important. “It is one step further towards small scale, general-purpose quantum computers” made from trapped atom systems like these, University of California Merced physicist Lin Tian told Gizmodo.
We’re inching closer to useful quantum computers, and have gotten excited about a number of announcements around big quantum devices. But this 20-qubit machine highlights, once again, that there are a lot of things beyond qubit count that must be taken into consideration.
[PRX] and Via Gizmodo.

A Spooky Quantum Experiment Creates What May Be The Most Entangled Controllable Device Yet On The Planet

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0

If you’ve
read anything about quantum computers, you may have encountered the statement,
“It’s like computing with zero and one at the same time.” That’s sort
of true, but what makes quantum computers exciting is something spookier:
Entanglement.




A new
quantum device entangles 20 quantum bits together at the same time, making it
perhaps one of the most entangled, controllable devices yet.

This is an
important milestone in the quantum computing world, but it also shows just how
much more work there is left to do before we can realize the general-purpose
quantum computers of the future, which will be able to solve big problems
relating to AI and cybersecurity that classical computers can’t.

“We’re
now getting access to single-particle-control devices” with tens of
qubits, study author Ben Lanyon from the Institute for Quantum Optics and
Quantum Information in Austria told Gizmodo. Soon “we can get to the level
where we can create super-exotic quantum states and see how they behave in the
lab. I think that’s very exciting.”
Forget about
“quantum computing” for a second, and just consider the smallest
particles. Particles take on exact values of certain innate properties, the way
coins are either heads or tails. But unlike real coins, you can prepare
particles so they encode both the values of “heads” and
“tails”, each with some complex number (like a+bi) associated with
it.
This is only
meaningful after you prepare the particle in that state, and before you measure
it again. Every time you measure it, you’ll always get just one of the choices.
But if you prepare and measure the same state a lot of times, you can glean
some information about it.
If you have
two particles, then you can have them interact in such a way that they are
entangled. Even if you separate these particles by great distances, they remain
entangled, an effect that Albert Einstein called “spooky action at a
distance”. Now, the complex numbers describe combinations of both
particles’ properties, so one particle cannot be explained without the other.
You can tell whether these particles were entangled based on mathematical
correlations that would come up during repeated resulting measurements of them.
If you think
of each of those two-state systems as a weird computer bit, and allow these
bits to entangle, then you can generate strange new quantum-only correlated
statistics when you measure them. Combined with another topic called quantum
interference, this allows for new kinds of devices that can perform computing
algorithms that regular computers wouldn’t be able to do.
But
entangling a lot of particles together and keeping them entangled while still
being able to control the individual qubits has been exceedingly difficult.
Lanyon and others are now demonstrating a device with qubits as 20 calcium ions
arranged in a line. In these atoms, the outermost electrons can be in one of
two places, with the two places effectively representing the one and zero of a
traditional computer bit. The scientists measure which state the atom is in by
whether it fluoresces (glows under an added energy source) or not. They
entangle these atoms’ states using a series of lasers.
The
experimenters watched as all 20 atoms entangled with two other, three other, or
even four other neighbours. They were able to individually manipulate and
measure each qubit, according to the paper published in Physical Review X.
This shows
just how much work there is left to do in the world of quantum computers. Other
researchers have announced computers using a similar technology with 51 or 53
qubits. Google has one that it hasn’t quite tested yet with 72 qubits, and
D-wave flaunts their 2000+ qubit machine, but it’s a very specific kind of
quantum computer that might not be any faster than a regular computer
performing the same problems.
I asked IBM
about its own quantum computers: “We haven’t performed the same experiment
on our IBM Q devices and we are not yet releasing data from our 20-qubit
device,” Sarah Sheldon, an IBM quantum computing researcher, told Gizmodo.
A similar experiment was done on the 16-qubit cloud device by an external group
that was able to entangle all 16 qubits, she said.
If you want
the truly universal quantum computers that futurists dream of, you have to be
able to entangle the qubits.
“A key
demonstration of growth in the performance of quantum computers is not simply
the ability to fabricate more devices, but rather putting many qubits to work
simultaneously,” Michael Biercuk, professor of quantum physics at the University
of Sydney, told Gizmodo. Additionally, many of the leaders of the pack, like
Google and IBM, make their quantum computers using highly engineered
superconducting circuits, instead of single atoms. This demonstration is a win
for systems that rely on atoms in different states as their qubits.
This
experiment also demonstrates some of the most exotic quantum systems ever made,
said Lanyon. He’s particularly interested in nearer-term physics
experimentation: Testing the limits of quantum computing in the lab, instead of
with theory.
Others
thought this advance was important. “It is one step further towards small
scale, general-purpose quantum computers” made from trapped atom systems
like these, University of California Merced physicist Lin Tian told Gizmodo.
We’re
inching closer to useful quantum computers, and have gotten excited about a
number of announcements around big quantum devices. But this 20-qubit machine
highlights, once again, that there are a lot of things beyond qubit count that
must be taken into consideration.
[PRX] and Via Gizmodo.

A Pulsar Just Got Swallowed By A Warp In Space-Time

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A star has
vanished from the telescopes of the radio astronomers due to the space-time
warp it produces as it orbits. The vanishing star is part of a binary star
system known as J1906. It’s actually a pulsar, which means it’s a rapidly
spinning neutron star, the outcome of a massive star collapsing in on itself. 






Scientists have been observing the young pulsar for five years to conclude what
type of companion star was revolving around it. That is, until lately, when the
pulsar disappeared. As a pulsar revolves, it releases a beam of electromagnetic
radiation, kind of like light coming from a lighthouse. 

Researchers use radio
telescopes that detect the pulses originating from the pulsar. But as
researchers observed J1906, the pulsar started to slip off the radar. It
appears that as the pulsar revolves around its companion star, the mass of the
companion star makes it drop deep into a dip in space-time fabric, so that its
radio waves cannot touch Earth.
The theory
is called geodetic precession, which, according to researchers at NASA, uses
Einstein’s theory of relativity to comprehend how massive things like the Earth
bend the space around them, manipulating the local space-time fabric.



The video above shows the sinkhole in space
formed by the pulsar as it circles the second star. As the warp upsurges, the
pulsar’s axis changes (illustrated by the arrows), so its radio pulses no
longer reach the Earth’s radio telescopes. But this pulsar won’t be out of
vision for ever. Chief researcher Joeri van Leeuwen from the Netherlands
Institute for Radio Astronomy projects that the star will come back into sight
in less than 160 years. The group’s findings were published in the
Astrophysical Journal in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society’s 225th conference.

A Pulsar Just Got Swallowed By A Warp In Space-Time

Editor
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0
A star has vanished from the telescopes of the radio astronomers due to the space-time warp it produces as it orbits. The vanishing star is part of a binary star system known as J1906. It’s actually a pulsar, which means it’s a rapidly spinning neutron star, the outcome of a massive star collapsing in on itself. 



Scientists have been observing the young pulsar for five years to conclude what type of companion star was revolving around it. That is, until lately, when the pulsar disappeared. As a pulsar revolves, it releases a beam of electromagnetic radiation, kind of like light coming from a lighthouse. 

Researchers use radio telescopes that detect the pulses originating from the pulsar. But as researchers observed J1906, the pulsar started to slip off the radar. It appears that as the pulsar revolves around its companion star, the mass of the companion star makes it drop deep into a dip in space-time fabric, so that its radio waves cannot touch Earth.
The theory is called geodetic precession, which, according to researchers at NASA, uses Einstein’s theory of relativity to comprehend how massive things like the Earth bend the space around them, manipulating the local space-time fabric.


The video above shows the sinkhole in space formed by the pulsar as it circles the second star. As the warp upsurges, the pulsar’s axis changes (illustrated by the arrows), so its radio pulses no longer reach the Earth’s radio telescopes. But this pulsar won’t be out of vision for ever. Chief researcher Joeri van Leeuwen from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy projects that the star will come back into sight in less than 160 years. The group’s findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society’s 225th conference.

New Images Of Jupiter Are In And They’re Awesome

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Earth is a miraculous being. We have lived on this planet for centuries and still haven’t learned of all its magnificent depths and crevices. Yet, beyond the mysteries of our own home, we have the beauty of the stars to consider, which inevitably leaves us wondering, what else is beyond this blanket of darkness and twinkling lights?

While we have discovered much about our solar system and neighboring planets, there is still plenty more to learn.



In 2011,
Nasa launched a space probe called Juno which is currently orbiting Jupiter.
Juno finally began its scientific investigation of the planet when it entered
orbit on July 5, 2016. The mission aims to learn more about how the planet
formed, its composition, the amount of water present within the deep
atmosphere, and its mass distribution. It will also measure its deep winds,
which have been noted to reach speeds of up to 618 kilometers per hour (384
mph), and its gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
On July 10,
Juno completed a close flyby of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot during its sixth
science orbit. “For generations people from all over the world and all walks of
life have marveled over the Great Red Spot,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Now
we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal.”
On Friday,
September 1, the JunoCam collected more images of this magnificent gas giant
from its seventh science orbit, and NASA put the raw images online. In the
following photos you will see what seems to be a large storm cutting into the
side of the planet, creating a rather lovely pattern, along with amazing
closeups of the clouds, a shadow on Jupiter caused by one of its moons, and
hurricanes making their way across the planet. As an additional treat, there is
also a video stitching together images as Juno flew over Jupiter.
Juno’s mission
is scheduled to end in July 2018 but the mission could be extended if all
continues to go well.
Enjoy!

New Images Of Jupiter Are In And They’re Awesome

Editor
-
0
Earth is a miraculous being. We have lived on this planet for centuries and still haven’t learned of all its magnificent depths and crevices. Yet, beyond the mysteries of our own home, we have the beauty of the stars to consider, which inevitably leaves us wondering, what else is beyond this blanket of darkness and twinkling lights?

While we have discovered much about our solar system and neighboring planets, there is still plenty more to learn.


In 2011, Nasa launched a space probe called Juno which is currently orbiting Jupiter. Juno finally began its scientific investigation of the planet when it entered orbit on July 5, 2016. The mission aims to learn more about how the planet formed, its composition, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, and its mass distribution. It will also measure its deep winds, which have been noted to reach speeds of up to 618 kilometers per hour (384 mph), and its gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
On July 10, Juno completed a close flyby of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot during its sixth science orbit. “For generations people from all over the world and all walks of life have marveled over the Great Red Spot,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal.”
On Friday, September 1, the JunoCam collected more images of this magnificent gas giant from its seventh science orbit, and NASA put the raw images online. In the following photos you will see what seems to be a large storm cutting into the side of the planet, creating a rather lovely pattern, along with amazing closeups of the clouds, a shadow on Jupiter caused by one of its moons, and hurricanes making their way across the planet. As an additional treat, there is also a video stitching together images as Juno flew over Jupiter.
Juno’s mission is scheduled to end in July 2018 but the mission could be extended if all continues to go well.
Enjoy!

For The First Time, Astronomers Have Found A Giant ‘Magnetic Bridge’ Between Galaxies

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For the first time, astronomers have detected a magnetic field associated with the Magellanic Bridge, the filament of gas stretching 75 thousand light-years between the Milky Way Galaxy’s nearest galactic neighbors: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively). It’s quite fascinating and odd discovering a “big magnetic link” in the Universe.


“There were hints that this magnetic field might exist, but no one had observed it until now,” says Jane Kaczmarek, at the University of Sydney, and lead author of the paper describing the finding.

“Not only are entire galaxies magnetic, but the faint delicate threads joining galaxies are magnetic, too,”said Bryan Gaensler, Director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, and a co-author on the paper. “Everywhere we look in the sky, we find magnetism.“


“In general, we don’t know how such vast magnetic fields are generated, nor how these large-scale magnetic fields affect galaxy formation and evolution,” says Kaczmarek. “The LMC and SMC are our nearest neighbours, so understanding how they evolve may help us understand how our Milky Way Galaxy will evolve. Understanding the role that magnetic fields play in the evolution of galaxies and their environment is a fundamental question in astronomy that remains to be answered.”

Visible in the southern night sky, the LMC and SMC are dwarf galaxies that orbit our home galaxy and lie at a distance of 160 and 200 thousand light-years from Earth respectively.
Such cosmic magnetic fields can only be detected indirectly, and this detection was made by observing the radio signals from hundreds of very distant galaxies that lie beyond the LMC and SMC. The observations were made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array radio telescope at the Paul Wild Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. This visible light mosaic below shows the LMC and SMC in context with the plane of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. (Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University).

“The radio emission from the distant galaxies served as background ‘flashlights’ that shine through the Bridge,” says Kaczmarek. “Its magnetic field then changes the polarization of the radio signal. How the polarized light is changed tells us about the intervening magnetic field.”

A radio signal, like a light wave, oscillates or vibrates in a single direction or plane; for example, waves on the surface of a pond move up and down. When a radio signal passes through a magnetic field, the plane is rotated. This phenomenon is known as Faraday Rotation and it allows astronomers to measure the strength and the polarity—or direction—of the field.
The observation of the magnetic field, which is one millionth the strength of the Earth’s, may provide insight into whether it was generated from within the Bridge after the structure formed, or was “ripped” from the dwarf galaxies when they interacted and formed the structure.
The paper, one of a growing number of new results that are building a map of the Universe’s magnetism, appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Image at top of page: ESA’s Planck satellite image of the magnetic field along the Milky Way’s Galactic plane.

A “Mini-Ice Age” Could Hit Earth By 2030, Scientists Warn

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Amid rising
concerns over the effects of global warming, a group of scientists has claimed
that the Earth could in a little over a decade be hit by a “mini ice
age” that would freeze major rivers. The startling prediction is based on
a mathematical model of the Sun’s magnetic energy which also suggests that
Earth’s temperature will start dropping in 2021.



The
plummeting temperature will then lead to something called the “Maunder
minimum“, which is referred to a previous mini ice age that occurred
between 1646 and 1715, turning London’s Thames into a frozen river, scientists
claimed. The latest research, led by maths professor Valentina Zharkova at
Northumbria University (NU), is built on a previous research that predicts the movements
of two magnetic waves produced by the Sun. It also foretells rapidly decreasing
magnetic waves for three solar cycles that will begin in 2021, and last for as
many as 33 years.
According to
the model, the two magnetic waves will become increasingly offset during Cycle
25, which peaks in 2022. During Cycle 26 between 2030 and 2040, the waves will
become out of sync, causing reduction in solar activity by as much as 60
percent.

“In cycle
26, the two waves exactly mirror each other — peaking at the same time but in
opposite hemispheres of the Sun,” maths professor Valentina Zharkova at Northumbria University (NU) reportedly said in 2015 while
conducting a previous research on the phenomenon. “Their interaction will be
disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict that this will
lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder minimum’.”

Although
Zharkova claimed 97 percent accuracy for the model that corresponds to previous
mini ice ages, she did warn that her model could not be used as proof of a
future mini ice age, partly because of global warming. The new research paper
on the findings was published this year in Astronomy & Geophysics.

“I hope
global warning will be overridden by this effect, giving humankind and the
Earth 30 years to sort out our pollution,” Zharkova told Sky News, adding that
any possible downward impact on global warming will last until 2050s when the
Sun’s two magnetic waves become active again. “We have to be sorted by that
time and prepare everything on Earth for the next big solar activity.”

Source.

Hold Onto Your Brain: Astronomers Have Discovered Something Pretty Weird About Black Holes

Editor
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Today is a very good today for the people who are interested in outer space because today astronomers have found the most important Earth-Like Planet and something pretty weird about black holes. I have already wrote about this Earth Like planet and you can read about it here.
Now coming towards the second big news. A new discovery has potentially doubled the number of super-massive black holes that astronomers thought existed in our Universe.


Super-massive black holes were traditionally thought to be at the center of all big galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. Now, a new study suggests they could also be at the center of all dwarf galaxies, too.
It all started three years ago, when astronomers from the University of Utah discovered a super-massive black hole lurking in an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy.
Since then, it’s remained the smallest known galaxy to house a giant black hole, but now the same team has found two more dwarf galaxies with super-massive black holes, suggesting that perhaps the pairing isn’t as uncommon as initially predicted.
With an estimated 7 trillion dwarf galaxies in the visible Universe, this might make super-massive black holes far more prolific than astronomers thought.
Even more impressive, the findings of the recent study reveal that, despite their size, these dwarf galaxies contain black holes even larger than our own.

“It’s pretty amazing when you really think about it,” says lead researcher Chris Ahn.

“These ultra-compact dwarfs are around 0.1 percent the size of the Milky Way, yet they host super-massive black holes that are bigger than the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.”

If you need a little perspective for just how mind-meltingly massive black holes can get, check out the video below:


The research also answers some ongoing questions about dwarf galaxies themselves.
When astronomers first discovered ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the 1990s, they noticed something strange – the dwarf galaxies had more mass than their stars could account for.
The new study suggests that super-massive black holes are responsible for this extra mass – and it could also shed light on how galaxies were created in the first place.

“We still don’t fully understand how galaxies form and evolve over time,” says Ahn. “These objects can tell us how galaxies merge and collide.”

Using adaptive optics, a technique that allows galaxies to be brought into finer focus, researchers measured the two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, named VUCD3 and M59cO.
The findings revealed that VUCD3’s black hole was 13 percent of the galaxy’s total mass, and M59cO’s black hole was 18 percent of its total mass.
Those readings are way larger than the black hole in the Milky Way, which makes up a little less than .01 percent of our galaxy’s total mass.

The findings lay to rest the idea that these dwarf galaxies are just massive star clusters, composed of hundreds of thousands of stars all created at the same time.
Instead, the study supports the idea that these dwarf galaxies were swallowed up and ripped apart by the gravity of larger galaxies.

“We know that galaxies merge and combine all the time – that’s how galaxies evolve,” says one of the researchers, Anil Seth. “Our Milky Way is eating up galaxies as we speak.”

“Our general picture of how galaxies form is that little galaxies merge to form big galaxies,” he added. “But we have a really incomplete picture of that. The ultra-compact dwarf galaxies provide us a longer timeline to be able to look at what’s happened in the past.”
Dwarf galaxies might be small, but they could hold the answer to some very large questions.
The research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
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