Frozen Light: Quantum Computing and Beyond

[Terumo]

Optical astronomy is my first love, and I'm trying to find a way to build a telescope that doesn't need a 5 ton mirror to achieve high resolutions so this topic REALLY piques my interest.

Meanwhile on that theme, in 2003 a team of Harvard physicists managed to stop light in it's tracks with a complicated arrangement.....

http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/665-1.html

It's claimed that this will be the way to make quantum computing possible -- where data can travel via light speeds and beyond, taking computing to a level even Star Trek couldn't fathom.

But, alas, light still equals heat and the speed it'll travel will cause a cooling nightmare.

But the questions remain: if man can stop light, how much light that we see from space is actually moving and not itself trapped in time? If light can be bent (gravitational lensing), how much of that light we see is truly in real time (well real in the sense of light=motion), and not just a 10+ billion year snap shot? And what naturally can stop light cold?

And is dark energy the cold light we seek to counter light that generates heat?

 

[MrDudeMan]

if the light was stopped, how would we see it?

 

[Terumo]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
if the light was stopped, how would we see it?

Apparently it still radiates, so it can be detected. Like it's just suspended in time (like shining a flashlight on the wall, the light is stopped from going through the wall, so it shines on the spot).

If man can stop light, there's a good chance nature stops it too. It gets really messy after that, as it can spin physics -- as we know it -- on it's head.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Terumo

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
if the light was stopped, how would we see it?

Apparently it still radiates, so it can be detected. Like it's just suspended in time (like shining a flashlight on the wall, the light is stopped from going through the wall, so it shines on the spot).

If man can stop light, there's a good chance nature stops it too. It gets really messy after that, as it can spin physics -- as we know it -- on it's head.

THat isn't stopping light. THat is reflecting some of it and absorbing some of.

-Kevin

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: Terumo
://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/665-1.html[/L]

It's claimed that this will be the way to make quantum computing possible -- where data can travel via light speeds and beyond, taking computing to a level even Star Trek couldn't fathom.

First of all, this is not correct. Quantum optics is just one of many field where people are trying to build quantum computers; there is no direct connection to the speed of light.

Secondly, I don' t really understand your question. Are you asking if there somewhere in space might exists for example a natural BE condensate where light may be "frozen"?
If so, I doubt it; simply because space is too warm; I don't know the details of this particular experiment but in similar experiments they use very cold vapors (nanokelvins) which I not think could exist naturally in space; there is way too much radiation around.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Also the speed of light isn't ever actually changed. It is just absorbed and reemitted by atoms, and that can take either a very long time, a little time, or it may not even happen.