Physicists May Have Built a Qubit That Runs Backward

What BBN said about it

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentA physicist says an experiment may have accidentally produced a qubit that can run backward in time, ScienceAlert reports.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorBackward in time. I'd call that a bold early-adopter timeline.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentOkay, it doesn't actually go backward.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThe method flips the direction a quantum process unfolds by shifting the phase of the light by half a cycle.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHalf a cycle. So the light didn't go back in time, it just turned around halfway and pretended it meant to.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSort of. And the researcher found it by rereading data from a twenty eighteen experiment that was run for a different reason.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo the time machine spent years in a folder, and nobody opened it. That is the most realistic part.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThe idea came from a preprint by Yakov Bloch of Tel Aviv University last November.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThis follow-up is from Tai Hyun Yoon of Korea University, and it hasn't been peer-reviewed. So the time machine is a draft.

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    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA draft with tremendous potential. Rating it a landmark pending review.

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    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThe quantum computer scientists will read it once the reviewers finish. Reviewers are the only people who can say it works.

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    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThen I'd like it noted that we reported this before anyone could stop us.