2020年经济学人 量子领域没有蝴蝶效应(1)

In Ray Bradbury's science-fiction story "A Sound of Thunder", a character time-travels far into the past and inadvertently crushes a butterfly underfoot.

在雷·布莱伯利的科幻小说《一声惊雷》中，主角穿越到了遥远的过去，并在无意间踩死了一只蝴蝶。

The consequences of that minuscule¹ change ripple² through reality such that, upon the time-traveller's return, the present has been dramatically changed.

这一微小改变的结果波及现实，当这位时间旅行者返回现实，世界已经发生了巨大的变化。

The "butterfly effect" describes the high sensitivity of many systems to tiny changes in their starting conditions.

“蝴蝶效应”描绘的是诸多系统对初始条件中微小变化的高敏感度。

But while it is a feature of classical physics, it has been unclear whether it also applies to quantum mechanics,

但虽然这是经典物理学的一个特征，但它是否也适用于量子力学尚不清楚，

which governs the interactions of tiny objects like atoms and fundamental particles.

而量子力学控制着微小物体的相互作用，比如原子和基本粒子。

Bin³ Yan and Nikolai Sinitsyn, a pair of physicists⁴ at Los Alamos National Laboratory, decided⁵ to find out.

洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室的两名物理学家Bin Yan和Nikolai Sinitsyn决定找出答案。

As they report in Physical Review Letters, quantum-mechanical systems seem to be more resilient than classical ones.

正如他们在《Physical Review Letters》中报告的那样，量子力学系统似乎比经典物理系统更具复原性。

Strangely, they seem to have the capacity to repair damage done in the past as time unfolds.

奇怪的是，随着时间推移，它们似乎具备修复过去损伤的能力。

To perform their experiment, Drs Yan and Sinitsyn ran simulations on a small quantum computer made by IBM.

为了完成他们的实验，Yan和Sinitsyn博士在IBM制造的一台小型量子计算机中进行了模拟。

They constructed a simple quantum system consisting of "qubits"—

他们创建了一个由“量子位”组成的简单量子系统——

the quantum analogue⁶ of the familiar one-or-zero bits used by classical computers.

“量子位”是类似经典计算机中常用的一或零位的量子模拟。

Like an ordinary bit, a qubit can be either one or zero. But it can also exist in "superposition", a chimerical⁷ mix of both states at once.

和普通位一样，量子位要么是一，要么是零。但它也可以以“叠加”形式存在，即两种状态同时存在的一种空想混合。

Having established the system, the authors prepared a particular qubit by setting its state to zero.

建立了系统后，作者通过将其状态设为零来拟定一个特定的量子位。

That qubit was then allowed to interact with the others in a process called "quantum scrambling⁸" which,

该量子位被允许和“量子置乱”中的其他量子位相互作用，

in this case, mimics⁹ the effect of evolving a quantum system backwards¹⁰ in time.

以此模拟时间倒退中量子系统进化的影响。

Once this virtual foray into the past was completed, the authors disturbed the chosen qubit,

一旦这种对过去的虚拟突袭完成，作者们就会扰乱所选择的量子位，

destroying its local information and its correlations¹¹ with the other qubits.

摧毁了其局部信息，以及它和其他量子位的关联。

Finally, the authors performed a reversed scrambling process on the now-damaged system.

最后，作者们在现已损坏的系统中进行了反向置乱处理。

This was analogous¹² to running the quantum system all the way forwards in time to where it all began.

这类似于让量子系统在时间中正向前行，来到它开始的地方。

They then checked to see how similar the final state of the chosen qubit was to the zero-state it had been assigned at the beginning of the experiment.

然后他们查看了被选量子位的最终状态和他们在实验之初设定的零状态有多么相似。

1 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

2 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

3 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

4 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 analogue   

n.类似物；同源语

参考例句：

• The gill of a fish is the analogue of the lung of a cat.鱼的鳃和猫的肺是类似物。
• But aside from that analogue standby,the phone, videoconferencing is their favorite means of communication.除了备用的相似物电话，可视对话是他们最喜欢的沟通手段。

7 chimerical   

adj.荒诞不经的，梦幻的

参考例句：

• His Utopia is not a chimerical commonwealth but a practical improvement on what already exists.他的乌托邦不是空想的联邦，而是对那些已经存在的联邦事实上的改进。
• Most interpret the information from the victims as chimerical thinking.大多数来自于受害者的解释是被当作空想。

8 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 mimics   

n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员，滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 )；善于模仿的人或物v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 )；酷似

参考例句：

• Methods:Models were generate by CT scan,Mimics software and Abaqus software. 方法：采用CT扫描，Mimics软件和Abaqus软件的CAD进行三维有限元模型的创建。 来自互联网
• Relaxing the mind and body mimics the effect that some blood-pressure pills would have. 放松身心会产生某些降压药才能产生的效果。 来自辞典例句

10 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

11 correlations   

相互的关系( correlation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One would expect strong and positive correlations between both complexes. 人们往往以为这两个综合体之间有紧密的正相关。
• The correlations are of unequal value. 这些对应联系的价值并不相同。

12 analogous   

adj.相似的；类似的

参考例句：

• The two situations are roughly analogous.两种情況大致相似。
• The company is in a position closely analogous to that of its main rival.该公司与主要竞争对手的处境极为相似。