How
Does Classical Reality Emerge from Quantum Environments?
Quantum
computing concept. Digital communication network.
Technological
abstract. Getty Image/Forbes.
Quantum Darwinism is an approach is largely promoted by Wojciech
Zurek of Los Alamos National Lab, who has long been associated with the idea of
decoherence (picking up on work by Heinz-Dieter Zeh), in which environmental
interactions are responsible for destroying quantum superpositions leading to
the single observed outcomes of classical measurements. Quantum Darwinism is an
outgrowth of this, which springs from the recognition that the most essential
characteristic of classical reality is its objectivity: everybody agrees about
the state of a classical object.
Zurek notes that in order for multiple observers to agree about
the state of a quantum object, they each must be getting some information about
its state from its larger environment, which is built up of a lot of other
quantum objects. Interactions between the quantum object and each of the
individual components of the quantum environment lead to their states becoming
entangled: the state of the quantum object of interest and the state of a
particular component of the environment are correlated in such a way that
measuring one gives you information about the other. That entanglement is the
source of the information that individual observers are using to determine the
state of the quantum object of interest. (Full story)
Resurrected
detector will hunt for some of the strangest particles in the universe
The
ICARUS detector, seen being placed at Fermilab
in
Batavia, Illinois, will hunt for a
particle called the
sterile
neutrino. REIDAR HAHN/FERMILAB.
After four days Lazarus rose from the grave, but physicists here
at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) are resurrecting a massive
particle detector by lowering it into a tomblike pit and embalming it with a
chilly fluid. In August 2018, workers eased two gleaming silver tanks bigger
than shipping containers, the two halves of the detector, into a concrete-lined
hole. Hauled from Europe 2 years ago, ICARUS—an outdated acronym for Imaging
Cosmic And Rare Underground Signals—will soon start a second life seeking
perhaps the strangest particles physicists have dreamed up, oddballs called
sterile neutrinos.
The first experimental hint of sterile neutrinos came from the
Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND), which ran from 1993 until 1998 at
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Researchers shot protons into a
target to generate a beam of pure muon neutrinos. But they spotted dozens of
electron neutrinos in their detector 30 meters away, far more than they were
expecting for such a short distance. The result suggested muon neutrinos were
quickly morphing into heavier sterile neutrinos and then into electron
neutrinos, in a kind of flavor-changing shortcut. The sterile neutrino's higher
mass would make the oscillation happen more quickly. (Full story)
Foreshocks
Could be Big Development in Predicting Earthquakes
Scientists have discovered that, out of nearly 2 million
earthquakes surveyed, foreshocks preceded about 75 percent of quakes that
struck in Southern California.
The revelations could be a huge advancement earthquake
forecasting.
For more, KCBS's Rebecca Corral spoke with Daniel Trugman, Seismologist at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. (Full story)
Curiosity
Has Now Been on Mars For 7 Years, So Here Are 7 Amazing Things It Has Seen 
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
On 6 August 2012, after an epic six-month journey, NASA rover
Curiosity finally arrived at her new home on Mars. This week marks seven Earth
years since touchdown. here are seven amazing things it has shown us about Mars,
including the discovery of Boron, which was found Using the ChemCam Instrument
created at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Boron is a chemical signature of evaporated water, and while we
still don't know if Mars once hosted life, the discovery is further evidence
that the planet was once plentiful with water, and therefore habitable. (Full story)
