Discovery of a "Flat" Atom Hailed as Quantum Computing Breakthrough

msw writes to tell us that nanoelectronics researchers have discovered a new molecule that could act as a state-manipulable atom due to its unique shape and properties. "Imagine a tiny arsenic atom embedded in a tiny strip of silicon atoms. An electric current is applied. Something strange arises on the surface -- an exotic molecule. On one end is the spherical submerged arsenic atom; on the other end is an 'artificial' flat atom, seemingly 2D, created as an artifact. The pair form an exotic molecule, which has a shared electron, which can be manipulated to be at either end, or in an intermediate quantum state."

Quick !! Couple the quantum inverters !!!

and unleash them on the flux capacitor !!! we are getting into quantum artifact business.

Re:How dare you sir !!!

and those subjects you mentioned are fictional devices from a bad 1980s movie and therefore, Offtopic.

wow.

you are sure you are in the right website ? you surely dont fit well with the demographic here. i would rather chop my own balls than call Back to the Future a bad movie in slashdot.

Quantum State

Don't you mean indeterminate quantum state? The electron can't be in an intermediate state since there are only two possible states.

Re:Quantum State

He meant to say interdeterminatable.

Re:Quantum State

Yes, the electron has been interdeterminaterized

Re:Quantum State

Of course, to get it back you are going to need a disinterdeterminaterizer.

Re:Quantum State

qubits have 3 possible states 1 0 and indeterminate. Thus it is a breakthrough in quantum computing and not just regular computing. The indeterminate state is defined as a superposition of the two other states. And indeed it is a real, though not particularly well defined state for the electron to be in.

Re:Quantum State

qubits have 3 possible states 1 0 and indeterminate.

Not true! Qubits have an infinite number of possible states. Imagine that your classical bit is represented as either an arrow pointing up for 1 and an arrow pointing down as -1. A quantum bit is like an arrow that can be pointed in the up direction, the down direction, or any other direction (it basically constrained to the surface of a sphere).

Re:Quantum State

Your terminology is slightly off. Qubits can have an infinite number of possible states. 0 and 1 are called the basis. Also, a qubit is considered to be in a "pure state", not only when it's in a basis state, but also if it is in a superposition of the bases. A mixed state is something completely different. It occurs when we don't know exactly what pure state, so the state is represented by the sum of the possible pure states weighted by the probability of the qubit being in that state. http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/index.php/Mixed_state [quantiki.org]

What do they mean by an "atom"?

I suspect that they mean some kind of artifact that behaves like an atom for certain useful purposes, but without explaining what that artifact is and what makes it behave like an atom they're not actually explaining anything.

Re:What do they mean by an "atom"?

Yeah, the title of this should be "found a flat 'atom'" which should be in quotes, not the "flat" part.

The artifact is definitely flat, but the "atom" is a virtual one. Much like an atom of Positronium, where an electron is circling around a positron (anti-electron). Positronium acts chemically exactly like Hydrogen, because chemistry is based on the electron shell, not the actual atom inside (the different elements are all distinguished by how many electrons they have in orbit, as well how much or little they want to keep electrons.)

So, this "atom" that they're referring to doesn't actually exist as a "physical" object, but rather it's an artifact as you mentioned, and if an electron were to just kind of oddly orbit around an empty space, chemically, it's a hydrogen atom.

Re:What do they mean by an "atom"?

Ah, now it makes more sense.

And now for something completely different...

And to demonstrate that there is nothing so weird that the quacks won't latch onto it, when I googled on Positronium I discovered that someone is claiming that they have a homeopathic remedy created from the decay of Positronium.

http://www.hominf.org/posi/posifr.htm [hominf.org]

Such gems as Since positronium is made up of both particle and anti-particle, it assumes a position mid way between matter and anti-matter. When it decays, it is converted into a pulse of pure energy. This threefold state has been picked up by a number of provers for whom the number 3 was prevalent in dreams and waking experiences. It also provides a convenient way to arrange and "map" (to see the map, a visual representation of the remedy, click here) the symptoms and themes of the proving, as we shall see later.

Holy mother of Mendeleev, what a load of collywobbles.

Re:What do they mean by an "atom"?

It means that chemically, there is an "atom" there, but that no one knows what is actually in the nucleus, or trapping the electron at all. Something is, but no one knows what is in there. Likely, nothing... it's the magnetic field making the electron act like there's an atom there.

Still, this is way cool... imaginary matter!

"Tiny Arsenic Atom" ??

Is there a big variety I'm unaware of?

The article is exiting gibberish

Can someone on slashdot please make sense of the article. It claims
1. That quantum computing needs vastly fewer bits to represent data. I thought it dealt with multiple possibilities simultaneously, but that the final reality just needed small number of bits. (Ideal for encryption cracking. Crap for storing a database)
2. That a synthetic atom was created. OK. I used to be a chemist. A new non-peridic table atom is heresy to me. But that extraordinary claim seemed to be nothing more than an odd electrical state, acting as if an unknown atom was present.
3. A molecule was created. Covalent bonds and the like. Except that it seemed to be an arsenic atom buried in a matrix. Not a separate molecule at all.
4. That faster than light communication is possible. I thought that collapsing entanglement does appear to happen faster than light, but that no information transfer happens. Mind you, that's my memory of my take on a New Scientist comment some time back. My brain has its share of garbage. Compost help ideas grow. ;-)

I suspect there is great science here being reported as little more than magic.

Re:The article is exiting gibberish

Imagine that if you want, but it isn't how it works.

A quantum bit can actually be in many different states; any weighted superposition of the 0 state and the 1 state, in fact. But you can't look at it and say "ah, right now it's in an indeterminate state"; when you read it, it collapses to either the 0 state or the 1 state. Its state prior to observation only determines the odds that you'll see the 0 state vs. the 1 state when you read it; you can only read it as being in one or the other.

Not sure, but sounds tasty

Next time you think about putting your new quantum motherboard in your mouth think again.

Re:Sure

Uh, two points:

1. There already exists an issue with the amount of toxic chemicals in most computers today.
http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/recycle/computerrecy.htm [maine.gov]
"A typical processor and monitor contain five to eight pounds of lead and heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury and arsenic."

2. When you are dealing with quantum levels a gram of any element has a lot of area to work in and they are suspending the toxic bit with a field of silicon.
"Imagine a tiny arsenic atom embedded in a tiny strip of silicon atoms..."

Re:Sure

"typical monitor" when this was written was a CRT. I'd hardly call a CRT a "typical" purchase for anyone anymore. I got rid of my last one four years ago, and I'm not even sure I know anyone who still has one. Hell, most non-gamers I know don't even own a desktop PC. I'm not saying there aren't still hazardous materials in today's PC, I'm just saying its a hell of a lot less than "five to eight pounds."

Re:Sure

There is nothing wrong with using toxic substances. The problem is how you process it, and recycle or dispose of it. I'm sure the car you drive to work has a serious amount of Toxins. We only need to be sure that we allow a proper reclaim process.

A good example is the lead acid battery in your car. You get charged $5 for every new battery that you buy if you don't recycle the old one.

Re:Mod grandparent 'troll', not 'insightful'

Half NaCl, half KCl, IIRC.
Too much potassium can be bad for you though, so you shouldn't dump a lot of it on your fries either.

Youngsters

Back in my day, the President of the United States declared that arsenic counted as a vegetable in our school lunches, and although we didn't much like the taste, we all did our part to defeat the commies and make the world free. And this is the thanks the next generation has for us -- gettin' all uppity about using it in computers. Sheesh!

Re:Sure

Let's see... We have one arsenic atom per bit. Let's assume a one (decimal) megabit quantum storage unit. That means one million arsenic atoms.

Arsenic has a nuclear mass of about 74.92159 u with one u being about 1.660538782 * 10^(27) kg.
Google tells us that 74921590 u = 1.24410212 * 10^(-10) micrograms (0.000000000124410212 ug). Note that you already eat several ug of arsenic a day [informaworld.com], so eating your megabit quantum storage chip is unlikely to give you arsenic poisoning. That is not what you should worry about at that moment.

Re:Sure

You are correct. Cyanide smells like Almonds. Arsenic, when heated, smells like Garlic. At least, according to wikipedia...

Re:

Sadly, these flat atoms will never get the attention that more endowed atoms get on a regular basis.