ADVERTISEMENT

Physicists Mentioned A Tardigrade And A Qubit Have Been Quantum Entangled

Update: 2021-12-20 14:00 IST

Physicists contends to have linked a superconducting qubit with a tardigrade

A group of physicists contends to have linked a superconducting qubit with a tardigrade, bringing quantum physics' frigid, small, and a planned environment into life's 'hot and moist' systems. Moreover, many quantum researchers argue that the unfortunate tardigrade was not linked in a significant way, based on the data given in this preprint paper.

It is worth noting that the researchers didn't actually entangle a tardigrade with a qubit in any way. As it is not a case of 'quantum biology. While two or more particles are connected in sufficient a way that a fundamental feature they possess including position, momentum, or polarisation is not independent of each other and is known as quantum entanglement.

ADVERTISEMENT

Entanglement occurs in quantum systems naturally when particles collide or interact in almost any other way. While Albert Einstein was not a fan, scientists have demonstrated that entanglement is not difficult to induce in the years following.

Scientists have made considerable progress of tying together larger and larger objects. They've caught molecular ions, bigger nanoparticles, and even teeny-tiny diamonds in their web. All of such systems, however, are still very small, generally very cold, and well-organized. A tardigrade, on the other hand, is a fairly big collection of frozen, messy biological material, even in its dried, 'indestructible' state.

The researchers used a tardigrade species named Ramazzottius varieornatus and placed it in a dehydrated cryptobiosis in their new preprint publication published on arXiv. They then chilled it to only 10 degrees Celsius above absolute zero and placed it under 0.000006 millibars of pressure.

The researchers proceeded to entangle the tardigrade with two superconducting transmon qubits and discovered that the creature and the qubits recognised coupling.

They agitated the tardigrade after roughly 420 hours of experimentation, and it went on its merry way. However, following some early sensational headlines, a handful of physicists and science writers are stressing out that this isn't actually entanglement or at least not completely new.

The authors of the new study do acknowledge that this is a new record "for the conditions under which a complex form of life might exist, which is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the new research. They will have to wait for peer review to verify if these assertions are true.

As fascinating as the thought of a quantum tardigrade may sound, researchers don't seem to have sufficient evidence for the first living organism to have been quantum entangled at this time.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tags:    

Similar News