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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison
@mitchison.bsky.social
310 followers 510 following 71 posts
Theory of Controlled Quantum Systems | @royalsociety.org University Research Fellow @ King’s College London | Editor @quantum-journal.bsky.social & New Journal of Physics | He/him | posts ≈ 60% science/30% politics/11% nonsense
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · 4d
Superconducting circuits win the Physics Nobel Prize! Congrats to Clarke, Devoret and Martinis, and everyone else involved in these discoveries 👏

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electri...
www.nobelprize.org
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physicsworld.bsky.social
Physics World @physicsworld.bsky.social · 4d
At PW headquarters, we're all waiting with bated breath for this morning's physics #NobelPrize. If you're doing the same, why not pass the time by reading/arguing with our editor @matindurrani.bsky.social's picks of the 5 most notable physics Nobels this century? physicsworld.com/a/the-top-fi... 🧪⚛️
The top five physics Nobel prizes of the 21st century revealed – Physics World
Matin Durrani counts down the five most significant physics Nobels since 2000
physicsworld.com
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schuckert.org
Alexander Schuckert @schuckert.org · 17d
When you realize the whole yearly budget for Quantum journal is equal to 8 Nature APCs - and they don't even wreck your paper in proof stage because...there is none
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katejj.bsky.social
Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 10d
The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · 10d
Awesome to have Kavan Modi visit us at King’s and talk about his work characterising correlated errors in quantum computers, using Quantum Process Tensor Tomography 🤩
Kavan Modi standing in front of a projector slide titled Quantum Process Tomography
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stuarthoddinott.bsky.social
Stuart Hoddinott @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 13d
The govt published its strategy to revitalise local communities last week

There is a heavy focus on directing funding to high streets and community spaces, which is part of the reason for declining "pride in place"

But it seems misguided for a few reasons

Short thread

www.gov.uk/government/p...
Pride in Place Strategy
The Pride in Place Strategy will help build stronger communities, create thriving places and empower local people.
www.gov.uk
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kityates.bsky.social
Kit Yates @kityates.bsky.social · 14d
If I was a tutoring company and I wanted to convince you that I could teach your kids maths, I would probably not have an advert that said “3=2” on it!

That’s just me though.
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · 14d
Our research makes it clear: by capitulating to the right, Labour is driving voters to Reform UK | Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte
Mimicking Farage on immigration is senseless. Labour voters feel betrayed; anti-immigration voters see through the ruse, say academics Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte
www.theguardian.com
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rebeccarhelm.bsky.social
Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 17d
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
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coecke.bsky.social
Bob Coecke @coecke.bsky.social · 19d
Nobel Prize Laureate Roger Penrose, Yvette Fuentes, and myself, request your help in order to save an archive of incredible scientific and historical value. Please raise awareness by *sharing*, or *contribute*:

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-penr...
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kai-arzheimer.com
Kai Arzheimer @kai-arzheimer.com · 24d
Want some free career advice? #AcademicChatter
Two-panel meme. Top panel: A distressed, shadowy figure with the text “struggling in your field of work”. Bottom panel: A smiling figure with the text “struggling in multiple fields at once but your combination is unique enough so you’re still one of the interdisciplinary experts”.
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anthonyzach.be
Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28d
The owner of and absolute unquestionable algorithm controller of a preferred communications channel of the UK Government calling for violence and the overthrow of the Government. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Elon Musk addresses the ‘unite the kingdom’ march crowd via video link – UK politics live
Met Police believe 110,000 people attending rally, with one group in Whitehall throwing projectiles at officers
www.theguardian.com
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dangaristo.bsky.social
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Sep 8
I've complained a couple times about the lack of physics community here but not done much about it! New commitment: I'll post one interesting arXiv paper a day until things are better.

(To the folks who follow me for non-physics science policy, don't worry; plenty more of that reporting to come.)
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spavel.bsky.social
Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · Sep 6
Two trials will be repeated endlessly despite always producing the same results:

1) Does UBI work? (yes)
2) Does AI improve productivity? (no)
M365 Copilot fails to up productivity in UK government trial
: AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex
www.theregister.com
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · Aug 31
Another great collab with our friends in Okinawa, my brilliant student Sindre Brattegard’s second paper is finally out! arxiv.org/abs/2508.20050 Building on his last paper, here we showed that you can use impurities as thermometers for an ultracold gas, even when the impurities are moving around!
Correlated decoherence and thermometry with mobile impurities in a 1D Fermi gas
We theoretically investigate the correlated decoherence dynamics of two mobile impurities trapped within a gas of ultracold fermionic atoms. We use a mean-field approximation to self-consistently desc...
arxiv.org
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
🔍 How uncertain can quantum systems be?
Saulo Moreira shares work developing new bounds that show how quantum effects—like coherence and correlations—can break classical limits on uncertainty.
This helps us better understand how quantum systems behave when measured.
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
Emanuel Schwarzhans discusses how entropy production powers detection—and limits it. Efficiency, jitter, dead time, dark counts: all tied to thermodynamic cost.
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
What defines a clock in quantum mechanics?
Paul Erker explores the minimal ingredients for timekeeping in the quantum regime, introducing autonomous quantum clocks and the thermodynamic trade-offs that constrain their precision.
A deep dive into time, entropy, and the limits of quantum tech.
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
ASPECTS' Javier Prior presents his team's work looking at how strong coupling reshapes heat flow in open quantum systems—exploring non-Markovian effects, coherence-driven fluctuations & new equilibrium states.
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
🕰️ What’s the real cost of reading time?
ASPECTS experiment reveals that the measurement of quantum ticks—not their generation—is the dominant source of entropy in quantum timekeeping.
Far from wasteful, this quantum-to-classical transition boosts precision. #FLQT2025
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aspects-quantum.bsky.social
ASPECTS @aspects-quantum.bsky.social · Aug 27
Simon Sundelin kicks off our ASPECTS day at the FLQT conference. Learn more here: www.aspects-quantum.com/flqt2025
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · Aug 26
So many great talks at Fundamental Limits of Quantum Technologies already, and many more yet to come! Here’s Shane Dooley of DIAS telling us about metrology using many-body quantum systems 🤩

www.aspects-quantum.com/flqt2025
@aspects-quantum.bsky.social
Dr Shane Dooley standing on the stage, next to the first slide of his talk titled “Remote quantum sensing through a thermal Floquet spin chain”
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rolandmcs.bsky.social
Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · Aug 26
'Immigration doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else' – Everyone.

This is what happens when the media runs away with Hard Right narratives.
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · Aug 26
Fresh on arXiv! arxiv.org/abs/2508.16375 By casting detectors as autonomous thermal machines, we uncover the link between entropy production and the detector’s efficiency, timing jitter, dead time and dark counts. Outstanding work by Manu Schwarzhans with my @aspects-quantum.bsky.social friends ❤️
Illustration of the three-way trade off between dark count rate (top), detection time uncertainty (jitter, bottom left) and dead time (bottom right). These cannot all be simultaneously improved, but must be traded off against one another, if the detector’s rate of steady-state entropy production (centre) is fixed.
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mitchison.bsky.social
Mark Mitchison @mitchison.bsky.social · Aug 20
I imagine Reform’s new policy will be forced deportation of vicars in response to this? Protect our women etc

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Former C of E vicar found guilty of indecent assault against nine women
Jury continues to deliberate further charges against Chris Brain, who led Nine O’Clock Service movement in Sheffield between 1986 and 1995
www.theguardian.com