Richard Feynman Archives

Secret Manhattan Project ciphers finally solved

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Paul Relkin has broken the code of the decades-old Olum ciphers, and in the process developed a novel cryptanalysis method for decrypting transposition ciphers.

While working on the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb, mathematician Paul Olum challenged his colleague, the distinguished theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, to solve his two ciphers – Olum 1 and Olum 2. Feynman failed, and the ciphers went unsolved for more than 75 years. Paul Relkin, an American software developer and cryptanalysis enthusiast, has recently published the first […]

Dealing with diminishing returns in quantum perturbations

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vibrant graphic representing quantum particles

Perturbations to quantum field theory are valuable tools for physicists as they approximate the properties of complex systems. However, limits in available computing power mean that the capabilities of their calculations are inherently limited. Recently, in a U.S. American-French-Italian collaboration, novel mathematical techniques have been used to circumvent this problem. The team’s approach could soon lead to long-awaited solutions to […]

Interferometry with antimatter

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Photo of a Talbot-Lau interferometer frame

For nearly a century, physicists have struggled to understand why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter. In a new experiment, Dr Marco Giammarchi and colleagues at the QUPLAS collaboration have demonstrated a technique which could help in their search for an answer. For the first time, the team have demonstrated interferometry with a single antiparticle – an […]

The Lattice, the Clock, and the Microscope: A Next-Generation Quantum Simulator

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Understanding systems of many interacting quantum particles remains one of the grand challenges in physics. Simulating such systems on supercomputers is impossible for more than a few particles, but promising approaches based on quantum simulators are on the horizon. Dr Sebastian Blatt’s team at the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, and their collaborators, have made significant strides to extend the capabilities […]