Tag : Physics

New Delhi (The Hawk): Going beyond the usually known use of quantum computers --- performing certain tasks at an exponentially faster rate than classical computers, scientists have for the first time used quantum computers for a novel purpose. They have used the new age computers to directly test the very foundations of the theory on which their working is based. Quantum mechanics like any physical theory is based on experiments. This means that experiments are used to justify some axioms from which the full theory can be logically deduced. While a large section of the scientific community is invested in building devices towards quantum computing applications, a separate community is invested in precision tests of fundamental aspects of quantum theory itself. A group of scientists from the Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology in a collaborative research have used quantum computers to perform some precision tests of the fundamental aspects of the quantum theory called Sorkin and Peres tests. The first is a test of the probabilistic aspect of quantum mechanics which helps calculate the chances of events happening while the second is a test of an aspect of the superposition principle, which expresses the fact that quantum objects may behave as waves -- throwing two stones in a pond gives a wave pattern which is the sum of two waves. The collaborative work started through a discussion between Professor Urbasi Sinha of RRI Bangalore and conference delegate Prof. Lorenzo Macconne from University of Pavia, Italy during the Quantum Frontiers and Fundamentals (QFF 2020) conference hosted by RRI Bangalore in January 2020. Over the next two years Prof. Sinha, with long standing exp ...