Saturday Citations: Test flight of the X-59; a confounding quantum calculation; the universe is not simulated
Chris Packham
staff contributor
Gaby Clark
scientific editor
Robert Egan
associate editor
This week, researchers published LIGO findings that hint at the existence of second-generation black holes. Astronomers captured a spectacular new image of the Milky Way across a wide range of radio wavelengths. And medical researchers report that the well-known "cuddle hormone" oxytocin .
Plus: Researchers reported on a problem that would take a future quantum computer an "unfathomable" amount of time to calculate; NASA made the first test flight of its X-59 supersonic plane; and a team of physicists mathematically proved that we are not, in fact, living in a simulated universe running on the computer system of a higher intelligence. So that's one less thing to fret about:
Calculation hard
The fundamental unit of classical computing, a bit, can only be binary, amounting to a one or a zero. Quantum computers use superposed and entangled states of particles as qubits, providing multiple states that exist simultaneously. The primary advantages of theoretical quantum computers include secure cryptographic keys and the prospect of instantaneously solving enormous problems. This week, researchers reported on a problem that a quantum computer would be unable to solve in any reasonable length of time: recognizing phases of matter in unknown quantum states.
At the macro level, phases of matter like liquid and gas phases are quickly identifiable, but there are many quantum phases that are new to science, such as symmetry-protected quantum phases, and identifying them opens new research paths in physics and information science. But some phases are difficult to recognize. Recognition difficulty increases with the range of the phase, meaning the measure of the distance over which the properties of a quantum many-body system are correlated.
By devising a mathematical scenario using a quantum computer to identify the phase of a quantum object based on its quantum state, they demonstrated that computational time grows exponentially with the correlation range.
Never give up the dream, rich people
The Concorde supersonic airliner entered commercial service in 1976 with assets that were much diminished from the initial optimistic projections of 350 aircraft鈥攁 total of 14 were built, making daily flights at twice the speed of sound, taking two hours and 52 minutes to travel from JFK to Heathrow. It's an actual bygone era of American life that rich elderly people recall fondly. The crash of a Concorde in 2000, killing all aboard, suppressed the demand for supersonic flight and all remaining planes were retired three years later.
One of the biggest obstacles to the return and expansion of supersonic commercial flight is overcoming the sonic boom鈥攖he atmospheric shock wave created when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier. Ultra-fast planes are generally banned over populated areas and the Concorde itself only accelerated to supersonic speeds while over the ocean.
This week, NASA made the , which was designed to minimize the sonic boom. The test flight, intended only to test the plane's structural integrity, wasn't supersonic, but future tests will demonstrate how noisily X-59 crosses the sound barrier. The low-boom plane is eventually expected to fly at Mach 1.5, or 990 miles per hour.
Elon, as usual, wrong
Do we live in a digital simulation running on the supercomputer of an advanced civilization? What if their computer is so advanced that our universe is just a screensaver? What happens to us when a five-dimensional intelligent being jiggles the mouse?
If the universe can be simulated at the appropriate granularity, it stands to reason that life could evolve within that simulation and eventually reach a technological threshold allowing a simulated intelligent programmer to create yet another simulation. That recursive framework raises the odds that we ourselves are, in fact, living in a simulated universe, a belief occasionally espoused by right-wing provocateur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
A team of researchers (that unfortunately includes disgraced astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss) has mathematically demonstrated that such a simulation is not achievable. Using mathematical theorems related to quantum incompleteness and indefinability, the team shows that a complete description of reality can never be achieved through computation alone. This is because the fundamental laws of physics generate space and time and therefore cannot be contained within space and time.
Dr. Mir Faizal of the University of British Columbia Okanagan says, "Any simulation is inherently algorithmic鈥攊t must follow programmed rules. But since the fundamental level of reality is based on nonalgorithmic understanding, the universe cannot be, and could never be, a simulation."
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