Quantum news (up to 2020)

Compiled by Steve Randolf, PhD

I believe that the current physical theories will eventually evolve to converge with the existing knowledge about psi. That is why I am researching how the latest physical discoveries could be related to psi. Apart from generating specialized articles about this topic separately, I will be posting in this file the latest news about quantum entanglement, quantum computing, time reversal in quantum systems, quantum biology/consciousness, the theory of everything, etc.

Quantum entanglement in time (December 12, 2020)

Quantum entanglement is often mentioned as a possible explanation of precognition. But how exactly are both phenomena related? Quantum entanglement is typically described as a correlation between particles separated in space, but for this phenomenon to account for precognition, the correlation must be also through time. It turns out that entanglement in time has also been extensively researched in recent years. Here is an article discussing several related findings with links to the corresponding scientific papers.

A comparison of the human brain's network structure with that of the cosmos (November 17, 2020)

Hungarian philosopher Ervin Laszlo, the main contemporary promoter of the Sanskrit term Akasha has written a number of books defending that the same intelligent organization and hierarchy can be found everywhere on different scales, due to information being universal, omnipresent, and atemporal.

A bit further back in time, Nikola Tesla and Erwin Shrödinger were also fascinated by that ancient concept.

Here is a new paper supporting the idea that the universe is a self-organizing neural network similar to the human brain.

Strings are not the only possible explanation (November 9, 2020)

String theory is still not completely accepted. Here is an alternative published in Physical Review Letters.

AI determines the direction of the arrow of time (October 23, 2020)

Researchers develop AI for determining the direction of time in microscopic systems by analyzing videos of moving particles. The work has been published in Nature Physics.

Quantum butterfly non-effect (September 23, 2020)

Recently, I cited a paper discussing the possibility of rewinding in time the state of a quantum computer. A new paper, published in Physical Review Letters describes research performed to check if a sort of a butterfly effect exists in quantum-entangled systems. To do that, they rewound back in time the system, changed its past by measuring a qubit, and checked if that affected the future state of the computer. It turns out that the effect, which is admitted to exist on a macroscopic level, does not work on the quantum level, at least in their setup.

A preprint copy of the paper can be downloaded from Arxiv.

Is the Universe a neural network? (September 15, 2020)

Physicist Vitaly Vanchurin proposes an outline of a Theory of Everything, in which quantum mechanics, gravity, the holographic principle, and string theory are all emergent from a model based on neural network dynamics. Could a neural network be the host of the "universal consciousness"? If all our universe's information is encoded in every point of space-time (as concluded by Star Gate researchers) perhaps that idea is not so crazy.

A preprint of the paper is available from Arxive.

Dark matter imprints in Hubble telescope images (September 13, 2020)

Here is one more evidence that dark matter is… dark. Gravitational lensing produced by its mass is detected but the radiation emitted does not correspond to that mass. The article cites a theory suggesting that dark matter is invisible since it is in a parallel universe. Supposedly, the gravitational field of its mass is still in our universe.

Paper published in science. A copy is available from Arxive.

Schrödinger’s cat unaffected by gravity (September 13, 2020)

Roger Penrose’s theory that the collapse of a wave function upon observation is due to the effect of space-time warping produced by macroscopic objects’ gravity has been put to the test. The results suggest that the theory is wrong, although its inventor considers there are still possible workarounds.

Research published in Nature Physics

Schrödinger and the Upanishads (September 7, 2020)

Apparently, Schrödinger one of the founders of quantum mechanics was fascinated by the ancient Sanskrit philosophy of the Upanishads and found a profound source of inspiration in it. According to that philosophy, the inner self or soul called Atman is part of a universal consciousness identical to the Universe itself, called Brahman. Quantum physics in its modern form requires the observer to be considered as a part of any quantum system under study and shows unambiguously that the act of observation affects the experiment.

Time reversal in quantum computers (September 2, 2020)

All physical laws are time-reversible. The only law that impedes time reversal is the second law of thermodynamics, stating that entropy always increases or remains constant in any closed system. In fact, time is considered to be a subjective human perception due to this irreversibility of entropy which is related to the irreversibility of most physical processes. However, there is abundant evidence that on the quantum scale violations of this wall are possible.

This Nature paper describes once again a violation of the 2^nd law, equivalent to time reversal, in this case in a quantum computer.

One may ask oneself if this time reversal in a quantum computer could be an emulation of human precognition. In other words, assuming that our brains are quantum computers (this is a theory, which is not proved yet but it is defended by several renowned physicists), do we foresee events by rewinding our brain’s quantum states back in time? Star Gate research proved that one can have a precognition of an event that he/she will never experience. This implies that precognitive information does not directly come from our brains but from some external source.

Spooky action at a distance in macroscopic objects (August 26, 2020)

A common argument against looking for a possible relationship between quantum entanglement and psi is that quantum effects such as entanglement are lost in macroscopic systems due to decoherence. However, constantly emerging new records like this show that this reasoning might be incorrect.

Work published in Nature

An improvement in quantum coherence time (August 23, 2020)

A common argument against searching for a possible relationship between quantum entanglement and psi is that quantum effects are not possible in macroscopic humid and warm systems. However, there is growing evidence that it might be false.

These scientists have discovered a way to drastically stabilize the entangled states.

Quantum biology (August 23, 2020)

A discussion between three experts, uncovering some of the latest discoveries of this newborn science. It turns out that quantum entanglement plays a crucial role in plant’s photosynthesis, human’s perception of taste and smell, and insects’ orientation. That talk suggests that we are just starting to understand the real magnitude of the role played by quantum phenomena in macroscopic processes, and so far we have largely underestimated it.

A new quantum paradox (August 23, 2020)

A new quantum paradox has been established in relation to the role of observers in quantum experiments. According to the research, there are three widely accepted assumptions, one of which must be wrong according to their findings.

When a measurement is made, the observed outcome is a real, single event in the world. If this assumption were wrong, it might imply that a measurement can produce outcomes in different parallel universes.

Experimental settings can be freely chosen, allowing us to perform randomized trials.

Once such a free choice is made, its influence cannot spread out into the universe faster than light.

The paper is published in Nature Physics.