{"id":11198,"date":"2021-12-03t13:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-03t13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/so-many-nanoparticles-so-much-time\/"},"modified":"2021-12-03t13:00:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03t13:00:01","slug":"so-many-nanoparticles-so-much-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/so-many-nanoparticles-so-much-time\/","title":{"rendered":"so many nanoparticles, so much time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>by poonam narotam and fiona skeggs<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>particle physics research takes time. scientists at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) know this all too well as they accelerated particles to near light speed, collided streams of them into each other and helped find several of the 17 building blocks of matter in the debris for decades.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwhen you decide to go into particle physics, you\u2019re lucky if you get to do an experiment every 10 years,\u201d says physicist chris polly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>after 10 years of logistical planning and a 200-strong collaboration of physicists, fermilab recently confirmed that previous experimentation on subatomic<a href=\"https:\/\/news.fnal.gov\/2021\/04\/first-results-from-fermilabs-muon-g-2-experiment-strengthen-evidence-of-new-physics\/\"> particles called muons<\/a> may suggest the existence of a new, undiscovered 18th&nbsp;particle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe sort of had the equivalent of our mars rover landing moment where for the first time ever we unblinded our results,\u201d said chris polly, senior scientist at fermilab working on the muon \u201cg minus 2\u201d experiment. the g-factor in this experiment is related to angular momentum and minus 2 suggests the muon doesn\u2019t react as scientists expected.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>located just west of chicago, fermilab is home to scientists and engineers studying the fundamental particles of the universe. million-dollar equipment, such as a particle accelerator, facilitates experimentation of the smallest particles of the universe, including the neutrino and the muon.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>fermilab\u2019s quest for the 18th&nbsp;particle<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>the previous theoretical model predicted that \u201cg = 2\u201d, but results from fermilab indicate that \u201cg\u201d is actually greater than two for muons. the results matched a previous experiment carried out by the brookhaven national laboratory in new york 20 years earlier, and it\u2019s only the second time that this type of quantum physics experiment has been run.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cit was really gratifying to see that those results were in good agreement,\u201d said polly. \u201cmeaning that the experimental result from 20 years ago is fairly robust.\u201d the vastly increased capacity of the fermilab to run the experiment using superconducting magnets that operate near absolute zero and eliminate friction enabled fermilab to definitively confirm the results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>so, what exactly is a muon?<\/p>\n<p>according to fermilab\u2019s explainer&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zjnk5exnhz0\">video<\/a>, a muon is an electrically charged particle with similar properties to an electron, though much heavier and more unstable. the defining characteristic of a muon is that it spins, like a spinning top, and the particles essentially generate their own magnetic field.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the strength of this internal magnet is referred to as the \u201cg-factor,\u201d and it is determined by placing the muon in a magnetic field and measuring its rotation rate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the muon \u201cg minus 2\u201d experiment measures the \u201cg-actor\u201d of muons in a large magnetic ring. the goal of the experiment is to compare the measurements from the experiment to theoretical predictions. if the two results are not equal, it indicates something is present in nature that is not present in theory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cparticles in the universe are never really alone,\u201d polly said. \u201cthey\u2019re constantly surrounded by an entourage of other particles that hop in and out of existence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>polly said these extra particles interfere with the muon\u2019s magnetic field, and that could be the reason for the difference between the predicted value of \u201cg\u201d and the results from the brookhaven and fermilab experiments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the muon experimental team at fermilab hope to carry out five experimental runs by 2022 to increase precision and further confirm the difference between the theoretical \u201cg-factor\u201d value and the experimental value.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe reason the results from this experiment are so exciting,\u201d said polly. \u201cis because the results from the muon &#8216;g minus 2&#8217;&nbsp;experiment strongly suggest there must be yet an 18th&nbsp;particle out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201ceither that or there\u2019s something incorrect about our understanding of the forces that are governing the 17 particles that we know are the fundamental building blocks of nature,\u201d he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>a qubit\u2019s need for speed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>another exciting initiative at fermilab focuses on the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers, called quantum bits or \u201cqubits,\u201d whose computational power is significantly faster than regular computers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe power of quantum computation is not just that it can be applied to a couple of fields, but rather that it can be transformational for pretty much any field where procuring large datasets is critical in order to draw meaningful trends,\u201d said akshay murthy,&nbsp;a postdoctoral research associate who studies qubits at fermilab,&nbsp;in an email.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>fermilab is one of five department of energy national quantum centers supported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aip.org\/fyi\/2019\/national-quantum-initiative-signed-law\">national quantum initiative<\/a>, created by congress in 2018 to invest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aip.org\/fyi\/2019\/national-quantum-initiative-signed-law#:~:text=the%20act%20directs,to%20be%20appropriate.%e2%80%9d\">up to $625 million over five years<\/a> to develop quantum computers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>google and ibm released research in 2019 showing that a qubit-powered computer can perform complex calculations within three minutes that a normal computer would take 10,000 years to complete,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/21\/science\/quantum-computer-physics-qubits.html\">according to a new york times article<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the limitation of the devices that google and ibm have built so far is that they \u201ccan still only address problems that can be addressed by classical computers,\u201d murthy said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>murthy studies ways to improve coherence time, which is the amount of time it takes for a qubit to process information. he said improving coherence times enables quantum computers to solve problems in ways that classical computers cannot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwhat\u2019s really neat about quantum computers is they rely on these very odd quantum mechanical phenomena,\u201d murthy said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a superconducting qubit used for quantum sensing sits next to a u.s. penny.\" height=\"610\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/penny.jpg\" \/><figcaption><em>a superconducting qubit used for quantum sensing sits next to a u.s. penny for scale. qubits are the foundation of quantum computers. (reidar hahn\/fermilab)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>murthy said due to \u201cvery strange phenomena that tend to persist when you have features that are around the size of an electron,\u201d qubits give computers the ability to rapidly assess numerous possibilities at once to decide on the correct solution to a query at top speed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe fact that this technology is truly transformational if we\u2019re able to deliver on its promises,\u201d is something murthy said he is most excited about.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cit\u2019s starting to feel like in the next five to 10 years, this will actually be realizable,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cif we were able to make these sorts of advances\u2026 we could build a supercomputer and that would really enable transformation across a variety of different fields.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>after 10 years of logistical planning, fermilab recently confirmed that previous experimentation on subatomic particles called muons may suggest the existence of an undiscovered 18th&nbsp;particle, report&nbsp;poonam narotam and fiona skeggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9417,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4917],"tags":[4631,4632,4633,4634],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","tag-fermilab","tag-particle-theory","tag-quantum-physics","tag-super-computers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.4 - 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