A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has achieved a milestone in quantum technologies, demonstrating for the first time the control of quantum randomness.
The team of researchers focused on a unique feature of quantum physics known as "vacuum fluctuations". You might think of a vacuum as a completely empty space without matter or light. However, in the quantum world, even this "empty" space experiences fluctuations or changes. Imagine a calm sea that suddenly gets waves—that's similar to what happens in a vacuum at the quantum level. Previously, these fluctuations have allowed scientists to generate random numbers. They're also responsible for many fascinating phenomena that quantum scientists have discovered over the past hundred years.
The findings are described today in the journal Science, in a paper lead by MIT postdoctoral associates Charles Roques-Carmes and Yannick Salamin; MIT professors Marin Soljačić and John Joannopoulos; and colleagues.
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