Quantiki

John Matson at his Scientific American blog write: ''Quantum information science is a bit like classroom management—the larger the group, the harder it is to keep everything together. But to build a practical quantum computer physicists will need many particles working in synchrony as quantum bits, or quibits. <!--break-->Each qubit can be a 0 and a 1 simultaneously, vaulting the number-crunching power of a hypothetical quantum computer well past that of ordinary computers.

The MIT Press is pleased to announce the publication of Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction, by Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak.

Scientists in Belgium and Spain have proved for the first time that new systems of quantum cryptology are much safer than current security systems.

The most accurate quantum measurements possible are made using an interferometer, which exploits the wave nature of matter and light. In this method, two identical beams of particles are sent along different paths to a detector, with one interacting with an object of interest along the way. Recombining the beams afterwards creates an interference pattern that reflects how much the interacting beam was disturbed -providing details about the object's properties.

Scientists of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck, Austria, have reached a milestone in the exploration of quantum gas mixtures. In an international first, the research group led by Rudolf Grimm and Florian Schreck has succeeded in producing controlled strong interactions between two fermionic elements -lithium-6 and potassium-40. This model system not only promises to provide new insights into solid-state physics but also shows intriguing analogies to the primordial substance right after the Big Bang.