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Categories: Environmental: Wildfires, Physics: Quantum Computing
Published Approaching the terahertz regime


A class of nonvolatile memory devices, called MRAM, based on quantum magnetic materials, can offer a thousandfold performance beyond current state-of-the-art memory devices. The materials known as antiferromagnets were previously demonstrated to store stable memory states, but were difficult to read from. This new study paves an efficient way for reading the memory states, with the potential to do so incredibly quickly too.
Published Shedding light on quantum photonics


As buzz grows ever louder over the future of quantum, researchers everywhere are working overtime to discover how best to unlock the promise of super-positioned, entangled, tunneling or otherwise ready-for-primetime quantum particles, the ability of which to occur in two states at once could vastly expand power and efficiency in many applications.
Published In the wake of a wildfire, embers of change in cognition and brain function linger


Five years after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, researchers document persistent differences in cognitive function among survivors.
Published What's driving re-burns across California and the West?


Seasonal temperature, moisture loss from plants and wind speed are what primarily drive fires that sweep across the same landscape multiple times, a new study reveals. These findings and others could help land managers plan more effective treatments in areas susceptible to fire, particularly in the fire-ravaged wildland-urban interfaces of California.
Published Can you trust your quantum simulator?


Physicists have developed a protocol to verify the accuracy of quantum experiments.
Published Blast chiller for the quantum world


The quantum nature of objects visible to the naked eye is currently a much-discussed research question. A team has now demonstrated a new method in the laboratory that could make the quantum properties of macroscopic objects more accessible than before. With the method, the researchers were able to increase the efficiency of an established cooling method by an order of a magnitude.
Published 20,000 premature US deaths caused by human-ignited fires each year


A new study shows that smoke particles from human-lit fires are responsible for over 80% of smoke-related deaths each year. The study shows that smoke pollution is on the rise, reducing air quality, and leading to increased illness and premature deaths.
Published 'A perfect little system': Physicists isolate a pair of atoms to observe p-wave interaction strength for the first time


Physicists have taken a first step in understanding quantum emergence -- the transition from 'one-to-many' particles -- by studying not one, not many, but two isolated, interacting particles. The result is a first, small step toward understanding natural quantum systems, and how they can lead to more powerful and effective quantum simulations. The team has measured the strength of a type of interaction -- known as 'p-wave interactions' -- between two potassium atoms. P-wave interactions are weak in naturally occurring systems, but researchers had long predicted that they have a much higher maximum theoretical limit. The team is the first to confirm that the p-wave force between particles reached this maximum.
Published The optical fiber that keeps data safe even after being twisted or bent


An optical fiber that uses the mathematical concept of topology to remain robust, thereby guaranteeing the high-speed transfer of information, has been created by physicists.
Published New quantum computing architecture could be used to connect large-scale devices


Researchers have demonstrated an architecture that can enable high fidelity and scalable communication between superconducting quantum processors. Their technique can generate and route photons, which carry quantum information, in a user-specified direction. This method could be used to develop a large-scale network of quantum processors that could efficiently communicate with one another.
Published New type of entanglement lets scientists 'see' inside nuclei


Nuclear physicists have found a new way to use the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to see the shape and details inside atomic nuclei. The method relies on particles of light that surround gold ions as they speed around the collider and a new type of quantum entanglement that's never been seen before.
Published High-performance visible-light lasers that fit on a fingertip


Researchers have created visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip. The colors of the lasers can be precisely tuned and extremely fast -- up to 267 petahertz per second, which is critical for applications such as quantum optics. The team is the first to demonstrate chip-scale narrow-linewidth and tunable lasers for colors of light below red -- green, cyan, blue, and violet.
Published Researchers show a new way to induce useful defects using invisible material properties



Much of modern electronic and computing technology is based on one idea: add chemical impurities, or defects, to semiconductors to change their ability to conduct electricity. These altered materials are then combined in different ways to produce the devices that form the basis for digital computing, transistors, and diodes. Indeed, some quantum information technologies are based on a similar principle: adding defects and specific atoms within materials can produce qubits, the fundamental information storage units of quantum computing.
Published Bird diversity increased in severely burned forests of Southern Appalachian mountains


A new study found bird diversity increased in North Carolina mountain forest areas severely burned by wildfire in 2016, reinforcing that while wildfire can pose risks to safety and property, it can be beneficial to wildlife. The study results could help forest managers better predict bird responses to wildfire, and manage forests to benefit birds.
Published Wildfire threats not commonly disclosed by US firms despite risk to economy


U.S. firms rarely report their wildfire risks in required federal filings and instead bury such risks in nonspecific risk disclosures, according to new research.
Published Chaos gives the quantum world a temperature


Two seemingly different areas of physics are related in subtle ways: Quantum theory and thermodynamics. How can the laws of thermodynamics arise from the laws of quantum physics? This question has now been pursued with computer simulations, which showed that chaos plays a crucial role: Only where chaos prevails do the well-known rules of thermodynamics follow from quantum physics.
Published Quantum dots at room temp, using lab-designed protein



Quantum dots are normally made in industrial settings with high temperatures and toxic, expensive solvents -- a process that is neither economical nor environmentally friendly. But researchers have now pulled off the process at the bench using water as a solvent, making a stable end-product at room temperature. Their work opens the door to making nanomaterials in a more sustainable way by demonstrating that protein sequences not derived from nature can be used to synthesize functional materials.
Published A peculiar protected structure links Viking knots with quantum vortices



Mathematical analysis identifies a vortex structure that is impervious to decay.
Published Climate whiplash increased wildfires on California's west coast about 8,000 years ago


Researchers have been studying the effects of the sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred about 8,200 years ago, the so-called 8.2-kiloyear event, with the help of mineral deposits present in White Moon Cave in Northern California. New indications show that oscillations between extreme wetness and aridity in California were closely linked with the occurrence of wildfires. The researchers have concluded that such events are likely to become more common in the face of human-induced climate change.
Published Americans flocking to fire: National migration study


Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves -- and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, says one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters. These results are concerning, as wildfire and rising temperatures are projected to worsen with climate change. The study was inspired by the increasing number of headlines of record-breaking natural disasters.