China - Quantum Physics in Space

This morning at 01:40 local time, China successfully launched a "Long March - 2D" rocket from its XiYuan launching site that was carrying a satellite for scientific research, named Micius after an ancient Chinese philosopher and scientist (Chinese: Mozi 墨子) whose direction of thought was dedicated to the well-being of the people.

The satellite is operating on a sun-synchronous orbit (inclination 97,37°) at some 500 km distance from Earth where Micius is expected to remain active for two years. Its goal is testing a new technology that could one day offer "hack-proof" digital communications.




中国成功发射全球首颗量子科学实验卫星

China successfully launched first satellite
globally for quantum science experiments.

The new technology tested is based on the entangled particle theory of quantum physics dating back to the 1930ies when Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger published relevant papers. That theory predicts the existence of pairs of similar elementary particles whose physical states (position, momentum, spin, polarization) are interrelated or entangled, no matter how far both particles are away from each other. Modern physicists have already gained experimental evidence for that theory while observing pairs of photons, neutrinos, electrons and even molecules.

The satellite will then create pairs of so-called entangled photons - tiny sub-atomic particles of light whose properties are dependent on each other - beaming one half of each pair down to base stations in China and Austria.



Spontaneous parametric down-conversion process can split photons
into type II photon pairs with mutually perpendicular polarization.

The experiment is using a special kind of laser that has several curious properties, one of which is known as "the observer effect" - i.e. the quantum state of any photon cannot be observed without changing it.

So, if the satellite were to encode an encryption key in that quantum state, any interception would be obvious. It would also change the key, making it useless.

If that mechanism works in technical practice, it will solve the central problem of encrypted communications - how to distribute keys without interception - promising hack-proof communications. The encrypted message itself can be transmitted normally after the key exchange.

其过程如下：事先构建一对具有纠缠态的光量子，将这对光量子分别放在通信双方，把具有未知量子态的光量子与发送方的光量子进行联合测量，则接收方的光量子瞬间变化为某种状态，这个状态与发送方的光量子变化后的状态是对称的，然后把联合测量的信息通过经典信道传送给接收方，接收方根据接收到的信息对变化的光量子进行幺正变换（相当于逆转变换），就可得到与发送方完全相同的未知量子态。

The proceedings are as follows: After the generation of one pair of photons that are in an entangled state, both photons are separately sent to two places communicating with each other. Take one of the photons bearing unknown quantum state [and participating as] the transmitted photon [and make it subject of] joint measuring, [when] the received photon instantaneously changes into a certain kind of state that is symmetrical to the state of the transmitted photon after [being subject to] change. Thereafter, a [trustworthy] script of information transport [is] jointly passed to the receiving site [obtained by joint measurement]. The received photon on the basis of received information change, undergoes one change (corresponding to a deteriorating change). Such it is possible to obtain at the transmitting side a completely identical, yet unknown quantum state.

[Source: FengHuang 凤凰 on August 16, 2016]




我国预计2030年建成量子通信网 每户配一个“密钥机”

China estimates that by 2030 a quantum communications network
will be created where each site connection uses one secret key.

[Source: RenMin Wang 人民网 on August 17, 2016]

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London visitor to "blueprint news" and who is interested in quantum physics.

Boko Haram - Exchange of Kidnapped Girls

The Nigerian jihadist organization Boko Haram has distributed another video dealing with the girls originally kidnapped from a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria.

Subject of that video is Boko Haram's demand that these girls should be exchanged against Boko Haram fighters detained by the government.

Therefore, the parents of more than 100 girls that remained from originally 200 after a forced marriage of 40 among them should apply to the Nigerian government to start talks with the islamist group of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.





بالصور.. "بوكو حرام" تنشر فيديو جديدا لفتيات اختطفتهن فى نيجيريا

With pictures ... "Boko Haram" propagates new video on the girls kidnapped in Nigeria.



Editor's warning: At the end of that video recorded in the Haussa language you will find some disturbing pictures on girls who perished while being under the control of Boko Haram. The pictures are suggesting they died in some bomb attack.



Nobody can ban all pictures !

[Source: Youm 7 اليوم السابع in their morning news on August 14, 2016]


As to the bloody traces left by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, here another example dating back to 2014:



[Picture from the archives of Vetogate]


بوكو حرام تقتل أرامل وأطفال ضباط الأمن النيجيري

Boko Haram kills widows and children of Nigerian police officers.

[Source: Vetogate بوابة فيتو, Egyptian online news on January 4, 2014]

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Today's visitor from Nigeria showed interest in an earlier blogspot
on Boko Haram. Black lines indicate a transmitted sub-net address
that was deliberately erased by the editor of "blueprint news".

CERN - Search for Magnetic Monopoles

On August 10, the CERN community of scientists at the particle accelerator facility in Geneva came up with another elementary subject of quantum physics which dates back to the 1930ies when Paul Dirac predicted the possible existence of magnetic monopoles in accordance with quantum theory.



Magnetic Monopoles and Dipoles (CERN)

As we already learned at school, the north- and south-pole of an elementary magnet cannot be separated by breaking the magnet apart in its middle. Instead, two different elementary magnets would appear that have, both, their own sets of north- and south-pole.

Quantum theory, however, should allow the existence of such isolated magnetic monopoles in a vacuum. Modern physics being unable to detect let alone generate such monopoles, therefore has to resort to an appropriate model which is far more easier to handle.

Here now scientists refer to the fact that some kind of magnetic anomaly can be generated in crystallized matter. It's the measurable magnetism of certain atoms that becomes the source of such anomaly and which might be related to a slight distortion of a regular crystal lattice, for instance due to a slight change in composition. As this arrangement resembles the "freezing of an anomaly" while the arrangement of atomic spins is similar to that of hydrogen atoms in frozen water, scientists have come to name such material a "spin ice".



Arrangement of hydrogen atoms (black circles) about oxygen atoms (open circles)
in frozen water. Two hydrogen atoms (bottom ones) are close to the central oxygen
atom while two of them (top ones) are far and closer to the two other (top left and
top right) oxygen atoms.

Two teams including Tom Fennell at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) in France and Jonathan Morris at the Helmholtz Centre in Berlin, Germany, are already working on that subject. The Morris group studied crystalline Dy2Ti2O7, which has a tetrahedral unit cell with two Dy spins pointing into the centre of the tetrahedron and two pointing out, very similar to the above mentioned arrangement of H spins in frozen water.

" The spins in a spin ice do not line up like those in a ferromagnet. Instead physicists believe that they join up to create magnetic flux lines within the material that resemble a knotted mess of strings. These are known as Dirac strings because they resemble the tubes of flux that should connect magnetic monopoles according to Dirac's calculations. " (physicsworld.com)

Here now comes the CERN facility with its technical abilities. The so-called MoEDAL experiment at the Large Hadron Collider LHC is designed specifically to look at the effects related with the appearance of monopoles. MoEDAL is composed of a largely passive detector, installed next to the LHCb experiment.

If monopoles exist, they are believed to be very massive. As the LHC produces collisions at unprecedented energy, physicists may be able to observe such particles if they are light enough to be in the LHC’s reach. For instance, high-energy photon–photon interactions could produce pairs of North and South monopoles. Monopoles could manifest their presence via their magnetic charge and through their very high ionizing power, estimated to be about 4700 times higher than that of the protons.


As to the marials to be used in spin ice research, here are some further facts:
The most prominent compounds with spin ice properties are dysprosium titanate (Dy2Ti2O7) and holmium titanate (Ho2Ti2O7). Both belong to the group of pyrochlores with its cubic crystal structure (Fd-3m) describing materials of the type A2B2O6 and A2B2O7 where the A and B species are generally rare-earth or transition metal species; e.g. Y2Ti2O7.The pyrochlore structure is a super structure derivative of the simple fluorite structure (AO2 = A4O8), where the A and B cations are ordered along the ⟨110⟩ direction (*). The additional anion vacancy resides in the tetrahedral interstice between adjacent B-site cations. These systems are known to be particularly susceptible to geometrical frustration and novel magnetic effects.

*= The ⟨110⟩ direction of one single cubic "building brick" (elementary cell) that continually adds to a cubic crystal lattice during its growth is the diagonal direction on one of its six square sides.

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Visitor from CERN calling another blogspot of mine that is dealing with the Higgs boson.




U.S. Visitor searching for my current blogspot on magnetic monopoles via Facebook.

Egypt - Blow Against ISIL

Last Update included below !



Brigadier Mahmud Samir, spokesman of the Egyptian forces (above),
also named Ahmed Samir by other media.


الجيش المصري يعلن قتل "الأنصاري" زعيم داعش في سيناء

Egyptian forces announce they killed "Al-Ansari", leader of ISIL in Sinai.

This is referring to Abu [Dae] Al-Ansari (أبو دعاء الأنصاري), "nom de
guerre" for a prominent ISIL leader and therefore put into brackets.

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on August 4, 2016]


أول صور لعملية مقتل أبو دعاء الأنصاري زعيم بيت المقدس في سيناء

1st picture of the operation that killed Abu [Dae] Al-Ansari, leader
of the [Ansar al-Sunna group of the] "Sacred House" in Sinai.



left picture: direct blow on terrorist target
right picture: location of blow (above) and arms depot (below)

[Source: Al-Balad البلد, Egyptian online news on August 4, 2016]


On the same day, the Arabic news service Al-Hurra الحرة and which is connected with Asharq-Al-Awsad TV (شبكة تلفزيون الشرق الأوسط) confirmed that the Egyptian operation killed Al-Ansari and more than 45 of his fighters south of the Sinai town of Al-Arish.



Egyptian army unit in Sinai.



Al-Arish, the administrative center of Egypt's Sinai province.

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Daily visitor statistics of "blueprint news" for August 5-6, 2016.

Syria - Chemical Warfare Again

قلق أممي من استخدام أسلحة كيمياوية بمعارك إدلب السورية

UN worried about use of chemical weapons in battles in Syria's Idlib [governorate]

المرصد السوري: أكثر من 30 حالة اختناق جراء استخدام الغازات السامة في سراقب

Syrian Observatory [for Human Rights]: More than 30 cases of suffocation
due to the use of poisonous gases in Sarakeb (سراقب)

[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on August 4, 2016]



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