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Picking on the Quantum Physicists

From this Sunday’s New York Times in an article entitled Wall Street, R.I.P.:

In search of ever-higher returns — and larger yachts, faster cars and pricier art collections for their top executives — Wall Street firms bulked up their trading desks and hired pointy-headed quantum physicists to develop foolproof programs.

Quantum physicists? Come on media get it right. I’m pretty sure those were string theorists who ruined America 😉
Personally I think we should use the association of Ph.D. physicists as the cause of the Wall Street mess to lobby for higher science funding. “Sure you could cut science funding, but then all those Ph.D.s are going to end up on Wall Street and the next thing you know everyone will be on the street stuffing newspaper in their shoes to keep warm.”

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New Word for Friday

The prime number theorem is a statement of a quantuplicity: there are about N/log N prime numbers in the first N numbers.

quantuplicity noun. The quantitative relationship between two amounts. Usually referring specifically to the case when this is expressed as a ratio giving the number of times that one contains another (or vice versa.)

Calculating quantuplicities for different sociological quantities can lead one to a very complicated poset.

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Reminder Seattle: 1 Millionth Comment Party

Reminder that Sandra, Maria, Grrl, and I will be Ozzies this Saturday. Translation: beer! That’s Saturday, Sept. 27th at 4 pm in the upstairs mezzanine at Ozzie’s. The address is 105 W. Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98119. That’s in lower Queen Anne just east west of that gigantic need with a spaceship stuck on top of it.

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What These Days Remind Me Of…

“Dreams of poverty excited universal enjoyment in Berkeley, coupled with the hope that the political and economic situation would worsen, throwing the country into ruin: this was the theory of the activists. Misfortune so vast it would wreck everyone, responsible and not responsible sinking into defeat…” – from The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick

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Dickian Physics Abstract

An entry into the “best abstract ever” subcompetition of the “best title ever” competition, arXiv:0809.3979:

Counterfactual Quantum Cryptography
Authors: Tae-Gon Noh
Abstract: The ‘quantum counterfactuality’ is one of the most striking counterintuitive effects predicted by quantum mechanics. This manuscript shows that the counterfactual effect is not merely an interesting academic theme, but that it can also provide practical benefits in everyday life. Based on the quantum counterfactual effect, the task of a secret key distribution between two remote parties can be accomplished even when no particle carrying secret information is in fact transmitted. The secret key obtained in this way may be used for secure communications such as internet banking and military communications. This manuscript also shows that, in some cases, the mere possibility that an eavesdropper can commit a crime is sufficient to detect the eavesdropper, even though the crime is not in fact carried out. In a sense, part of the story of the SF film Minority Report seems plausible.

Emphasis mine. Horselover Fat would be proud.

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Holevo Additivity Falls? The Quantum Universe Gets Even Stranger

Major news from the quantum information front. Today I see posted on the arXiv a paper by M.B. Hastings: arXiv:0809.3972 “A Counterexample to Additivity of Minimum Output Entropy.” If correct this resolves one of the most famous open problems in quantum information theory, and, even more interestingly says that in a quantum world, transmitting classical information down quantum channel defies your classical intuition. Blessed be our quantum world, which just continues and continues to amaze.
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