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Dave Bacon is a theoretical ski bum who is also a pseudo professor. His research is on quantum computing, his scientific passions extend to everything in physics, mathematics, computer science and beyond, and his personal pleasures include making wine, playing poker, skiing, camping, and daydreaming (although not all of those at the same time.)
Nothing he says on this blog should be construed as having anything to do with his employer or his dog.
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Category: Off The Deep End • Physics
Posted on: October 14, 2009 2:13 PM, by Dave Bacon
You all scoff at me for subscribing to the RSS feed http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/rss.xml but on Oct. 12 it told me
NO AND NOR WILL IT IN 2012Aha! What will this do to the sales of 2012 end of world books? (Crap, yeah you're right it will probably make them go up.)
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PZ Myers 11.23.2009
Tim Lambert 11.22.2009
Orac 11.23.2009
PZ Myers 11.23.2009
Ed Brayton 11.23.2009
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From USA Today: ' For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in." '
Everything that you need to know about anything can be found in USA Today. ("All the news that fits, we print.") And, if USA Today runs out of space, that's why I subscribe to the NY Post...
Posted by: Rocky Humbert | October 14, 2009 3:53 PM
I love the term "cosmic shifting." I always imagine the entire universe shifting just a little to the left. Or sometimes I imagine a gigantic binary register which has just been shifted left, multiplying by two. Of course the direction of this shift is just further evidence of my academic communist roots.
Posted by: Dave Bacon | October 14, 2009 4:05 PM
Dave: Perhaps "cosmic shifting" ... is like the SHIFT key on your computer keyboard? Alt-SHIFT-Delete for the universe....
Posted by: Rocky Humbert | October 14, 2009 6:50 PM
Well, I'm certainly not one of the scoffers since I subscribe to the same feed...
Posted by: Ian Durham | October 14, 2009 7:55 PM
The true prophecy is in these digits (which you must convert to the Mayan system, of course):
http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/A140416
A140416 Decimal expansion of constant arising in quantum concatenated code Hamiltonians.
0, 0, 1, 9, 9, 3, 5, 7, 3, 3, 4, 6, 3, 0, 4, 1, 8, 3, 0, 9, 4, 4, 0, 4, 4, 7, 1, 8, 9, 5, 3, 6, 7, 0, 9, 7, 0, 2, 3, 8, 7, 1, 1, 1, 9, 6, 8, 2, 4, 3, 7, 4, 2, 9, 1, 6, 3, 7, 1, 7, 3, 1, 8, 0, 1, 8, 1, 2, 9, 4, 3, 8, 3, 8, 4, 2, 4, 0, 7, 4, 5, 5, 7, 1, 9, 8, 3, 0, 9, 7, 9, 1, 1, 2, 3, 9, 7, 6, 2, 2, 6, 6, 8, 4, 9, 5, 6, 8, 6, 2, 8, 4, 6, 9, 2, 2, 2, 7, 2, 0
OFFSET
0,4
COMMENT
0.0019935733463041830944. Equation (36) on p. 11 of Bacon.
Abstract: Protecting quantum information from the detrimental effects of decoherence and lack of precise quantum control is a central challenge that must be overcome if a large robust quantum computer is to be constructed. The traditional approach to achieving this is via active quantum error correction using fault-tolerant techniques.
An alternative to this approach is to engineer strongly interacting many-body quantum systems that enact the quantum error correction via the natural dynamics of these systems. Here we present a method for achieving this based on the concept of concatenated quantum error correcting codes.
We define a class of Hamiltonians whose ground states are concatenated quantum codes and whose energy landscape naturally causes quantum error correction. We analyze these Hamiltonians for robustness and suggest methods for implementing these highly unnatural Hamiltonians.
LINKS
David Bacon, The Stability of Quantum Concatenated Code Hamiltonians
FORMULA
(-71 + 869041^(1/2))/432000.
KEYWORD
cons,easy,nonn
AUTHOR
Jonathan Vos Post, Jun 17 2008
EXTENSIONS
Offset corrected. More digits added R. J. Mathar, Jan 26 2009
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | October 14, 2009 11:36 PM