[extropy-chat] fermionic light

[Lee Corbin]

Hi Damien,   the link below doesn't work.  Is "The" supposed to be
the last part of it?   Thanks for copying the text---I guess all of it---
from the link.

Also, did you see my post "Will He Who Loves His Atoms Please Stand Up?".
It was directed to you.  No problem if you did, just wanted to make sure
that you knew it was not towards Heartland or John Clark, etc.

Lee

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Damien Broderick" <thespike at satx.rr.com>
To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 8:27 PM
Subject: [extropy-chat] fermionic light


> 
> 
> Bright future for 'solid light'
> 
> [ 
> <http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/uninews.php?volume=16&number=7&publication=un>The 
> University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 4  30 April - 14 May 2007 ]
> 
> By Rebecca Scott
> 
> When photons interact they can behave like a solid.
> 
> Researchers from the universities of Melbourne 
> and Cambridge have unveiled a new theory that 
> shows light can behave like a solid.
> 
> "Solid light will help us build the technology of 
> this century," says research team member, 
> University of Melbourne physicist Dr Andrew Greentree.
> 
> Dr Greentree and School of Physics colleagues 
> Jared Cole and Professor Lloyd Hollenberg, with 
> Dr Charles Tahan of the University of Cambridge, 
> made their 'solid light' breakthrough by studying 
> light with tools more commonly used to study matter.
> 
> "Solid light photons repel each other as 
> electrons do. This means we can control photons, 
> opening the door to new kinds of faster computers," says Dr Greentree.
> 
> "Many real-world problems in quantum physics are 
> too hard to solve with today's computers. Our 
> discovery shows how to replicate these hard 
> problems in a system we can control and measure."
> 
> He says photons of light do not normally interact 
> with each other. In contrast, the electrons used 
> by computers strongly repel each other.
> 
> The team has shown theoretically how to engineer 
> a 'phase transition' in photons, leading them to 
> change their state so that they do interact with each other.
> 
> Mr Cole describes a phase transition as a change 
> in the state of something - "such as when water becomes ice".
> 
> "Usually, photons flow freely, but in the right 
> circumstances, they repel each other, and form a crystal."
> 
> He says phase transitions are important in 
> science and technology, but only the simplest examples are as yet understood.
> 
> Dr Greentree says the solid light phase 
> transition effect ties together two very 
> different areas of physics, optics and condensed 
> matter "to create a whole new way of thinking".
> 
> "It is very exciting for the University of 
> Melbourne and its international collaborators to 
> be leading the world in this new area," he says.
> 
> The team's work has been reported in Nature Physics and New Scientist.
> 
> Funding has come from international and national 
> sources, including the Australian Research 
> Council, Australian Government, US National 
> Security Agency, the US-based Advanced Research 
> and Development Activity, US Army Research Office 
> and US National Science Foundation.
> 
> 
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