New techniques for accurate measurements of tiny objects

New research led by a team of scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) has outlined a way to achieve more accurate measurements of microscopic objects using quantum computers - a step that could prove useful in a huge range of next-generation technologies, including biomedical sensing. Examining the various individual properties of a large everyday object like a car is fairly simple: a car has a well-defined position, colour and speed. However, this becomes much trickier when trying to examine microscopic quantum objects like photons - tiny little particles of light. That's because certain properties of quantum objects are connected, and measuring one property can disturb another property. For example, measuring the position of an electron will affect its speed and vice versa. Such properties are called conjugate properties. This is a direct manifestation of Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principleit is not possible to simultaneously measure two conjugate properties of a quantum object with arbitrary accuracy.