British scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz received this year's Nobel prize in physics "for the theoretical discovery of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter". The reference to "theoretical discoveries" suggests that their work did not find, or not find practical application and will not affect our lives. But the opposite is true.

image

To understand the potential, it is necessary to understand the theory. Most people know that in the center of the atom its nucleus, and around it revolve electrons. Their orbits correspond to different energy levels. When atoms are collected in substance, all energy levels of each atom are joined in the zone of the electrons. These energy bands can accommodate a certain number of electrons. And between all areas there are gaps where electrons cannot flow.

If you apply an electric charge (a flow of additional electrons) to the material, its conductivity will be determined by whether the most high-energy zone a place for the extra electrons. If this place is, the material will behave as a conductor. If not, require additional energy to push the flow of electrons in a new, blank area. Then the material will be an insulator. Understanding conductivity is important for electronics because electronic products is entirely dependent on the components, which represent conductors, semiconductors and insulators.

In the 1970-ies and 80-ies of Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz and other theorists began to suspect that some of the content violates this rule. Instead of having a gap between the zones in which electrons cannot flow, they have a special energy level between zones, where strange and unexpected things.

This property exists only on the surface or on the edge of such materials. It also depends to some extent on the shape of the material topology, as physicists say. It is the same for spheres or eggs, for example, but will be different with Thor because of a hole in the middle. The first measure of this behaviour was done with the current flowing along the border of the flat sheet.

image

The properties of such topological materials can be extremely useful. Electric currents can move without resistance on their surfaces, for example, even if the device is slightly damaged. Superconductors are already doing this without any topological properties, but only work at very low temperatures — and therefore have to spend a lot of energy to maintain them at cold state. Topological materials have the potential to do the same work at higher temperatures.

This is important for computing machinery: most of the energy that currently uses the computer, goes to the fans, which dissipate heat generated by electrical resistance in the circuits. Eliminate this problem with the heat and you will theoretically make the device much more efficient. This can significantly reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, for example. You may also receive a battery with much greater life. Scientists are already experimenting with topological materials such as cadmium telluride and mercury telluride, trying to bring all this to life.

There is also the potential for a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing. Classical computers encode information, feeding or not feeding voltage to the chip. Computer reads it as 0 or 1, respectively, for each "bit" of information. You collect these bits together and converted into more complex information. How it works a binary system.

image

With a quantum computer you put the information in electrons, not in microchips. Energy levels of these electrons correspond to the zeroes and ones like the classic variant, but in quantum mechanics can simultaneously be loyal to both. I will not go into theory, but these computers can process huge amounts of data in parallel and much faster.

While Google and IBM are exploring how to manipulate the electrons to create quantum computers, which are much more powerful than the classical, in their way there's one big obstacle: these computers are very vulnerable to the surrounding "noise". If classic computers cope with interference, quantum computers will generate an intolerable number of errors due to stray electric fields or air molecules beating on the CPU, even if you keep it in high vacuum. That is why we do not use quantum computers in everyday life.

One possible solution may be storing the information in a few electrons, since noise usually affects the quantum processors at the level of single particles. Suppose you have five electrons, simultaneously storing the same bits of information. As long as most of them will store the information correctly, the violation of one electron will not undermine the system.

image

Scientists experimented with a large number of spare electrons, but topological engineering techniques can in theory offer a more simple solution. Similarly, topological superconductors are able to transfer the flow of electricity is good enough it does not interfere with the resistance, topological quantum processors can be strong enough to ignore the noise issues.

Future

After ten to thirty years, and scientists will probably learn well enough to manipulate the electron to implement quantum computation. With their help, we could simulate the formation of molecules, for example, that too is difficult given modern computers. This would lead to a revolution in the field of pharmaceuticals, because we could predict what will happen with the drug in the human body without conducting practical experiments.

Quantum computing could make a reality of artificial intelligence. Quantum machines could learn faster classic, as backed up by much more intelligent algorithms. In short, the predictions of Tulessa, Haldane and Kosterlitz can turn all the computer technology of the 21st century. The fact that the Nobel Committee recognized the importance of their work in 2016, most likely, deserves our appreciation and gratitude of our descendants. Source: nlo-mir.ru