Category Physics

When it comes to AI, can we Ditch the Datasets?

MIT researchers have demonstrated the use of a generative machine-learning model to create synthetic data, based on real data, that can be used to train another model for image classification. This image shows examples of the generative model’s transformation methods. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Huge amounts of data are needed to train machine-learning models to perform image classification tasks, such as identifying damage in satellite photos following a natural disaster. However, these data are not always easy to come by. Datasets may cost millions of dollars to generate, if usable data exist in the first place, and even the best datasets often contain biases that negatively impact a model’s performance.

To circumvent some of the problems presented by datasets, M...

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Magnetism helps Electrons Vanish in High-temp Superconductors

The Fermi surface on the left shows the arrangement of electrons in a copper-oxide high temperature superconductor before the “critical point.” After the critical point, the Fermi surface on the right shows that most electrons vanish. Research by the Brad Ramshaw’s lab connects this disappearance with magnetism.

A physicist’s discovery could lead to the engineering of high-temp superconducting properties into materials useful for quantum computing, medical imaging.

Superconductors — metals in which electricity flows without resistance — hold promise as the defining material of the near future, according to physicist Brad Ramshaw, and are already used in medical imaging machines, drug discovery research and quantum computers being built by Google and IBM.

However, the super-...

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Measuring Tiny Quantum Effects with High Precision

A research team has discovered a Heisenberg-limited metrology via weak-value amplification without using entangled resources. Most quantum information technologies including quantum computers – considered a step above supercomputers – and quantum communication that cannot be hacked are based on the principle of quantum entanglement. However, entangled systems exist in a small microscopic world and are pretty fragile. Quantum metrology, which provides enhanced sensitivity over conventional measurements in precision metrology, has also mainly relied on quantum entanglement, so that it is hard to implement in real life applications. Recently, a Korean research team has proposed a method to achieve the quantum metrology precision without using entangled resources.

A POSTECH research te...

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196 Lasers help Scientists Recreate the Conditions inside Gigantic Galaxy Clusters

A technician works at the National Ignition Facility. Scientists used the array of 196 lasers to create conditions similar to the hot gas inside gigantic galaxy clusters.

Experiments point the way to solving mystery that keeps clusters hot. Galaxies rarely live alone. Instead, dozens to thousands are drawn together by gravity, forming vast clusters that are the largest objects in the universe.

“Galaxy clusters are one of the most awe-inspiring things in the universe,” said Prof. Emeritus Don Lamb, a University of Chicago astrophysicist and co-author on a new paper published March 9 – one that may point the way towards solving a decades-long mystery.

Scientists have long known that the hydrogen gas in galaxy clusters is searingly hot – about 10 million degrees Kelvin, or roughly t...

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