Australian Engineers Just Accidentally Solved a 58-Year-Old Quantum Mystery

[Judi Lynn]

DAVID NIELD8 HOURS AGO

Nearly 60 years ago, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Nicolaas Bloembergen predicted an exciting new phenomenon called nuclear electric resonance. But no one has been able to demonstrate it in action – until now.

Actual evidence of nuclear electric resonance has now been discovered by accident in a lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, thanks to faulty equipment. The breakthrough gives scientists a new level of control over nuclei, and could seriously speed up the development of quantum computers.

Central to the phenomenon is the idea of controlling the spin of individual atoms using electrical rather than magnetic fields. That means more precise and more miniaturised management of nuclei, which could have profound impacts in a variety of fields.

"This discovery means that we now have a pathway to build quantum computers using single-atom spins without the need for any oscillating magnetic field for their operation," says quantum physicist Andrea Morello, from UNSW.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/in-an-accidental-discovery-australian-engineers-solve-58-year-old-quantum-mystery

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. How cool. Thank you for posting.

In fact, thank you for posting all of the amazing and wonderful science things you post.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Sounds genuinely exciting. I note, however, that since it relies on nuclear spins ...

... it will still only work on nuclei which have convenient, especially nonzero, spins.

Carbon-12, the most abundant carbon nucleus by a factor of 100 or so, apparently will be as undetectable by this method as by NMR. Kind of a bummer for organic chemists, and somewhat for medicine as well.

NMR scanners rely on proton spins, so a NER scanner for medical purposes could be a real breakthrough, if it's practical.