StringTheory
Latest
String theory finds an elegant use for itself with qubit entanglement and black holes
Sure, trying to wrap your head around string theory -- a study in particle physics that's trying to rectify the perceived contradictions between general relativity and quantum mechanics -- can cause more cognitive pain than a colliding god particle. That hasn't stopped anyone from trying to validate its corollaries, and in the interim, researchers like Michael Duff of the Imperial College London. Mr. Duff realized a few years ago there existed some strong relations between formulas pertaining to both black holes (relativity) and four entagled qubits (quantum mechanics). So, in his words, "In a way, there's bad news and good news in our paper. The bad news is, we're not describing the theory of everything. The good news is, we're making a very exact statement which is either right or wrong. There's no in between." We're sure some science cliques are already gearing up to get their troll on. Hit up the PDF below if you want to read it yourself.
Large Hadron Collider schedules holiday for 2012, full 7 TeV power for 2013
It's good to know that even huge inanimate objects appreciate the need for a work-life balance. After a nice winter hiatus, Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider is coming back online soon, set to resume smashing protonic beams at one another with the force of 3.5 trillion electron-volts (TeV) per beam, or 7 TeV in total. We have to swallow hard when we hear such force described as "low-energy," but that's what the LHC designers consider it, and moreover we're learning they'll skip past the middle and go for the full 14 TeV potential smashes after a retooling break during 2012. Although this may delay the discovery of the Higgs boson particle, other physics research shouldn't be stalled in the meantime -- scientists claim they'll be able to extract data from the low-energy collisions that could lend us more information on aspects of string theory, extra dimensions, and supersymmetry. Doesn't all this sound like nerds trying to avoid getting real jobs?
