سوال ۲۵ کنکور ارشد فیزیک ۱۴۰۰

PART C: Reading Comprehension — PASSAGE 2

Researchers at the University of Rochester and Cornell University have taken an important step toward developing a communications network that exchanges information across long distances by using photons, massless measures of light that are key elements of quantum computing and quantum communications systems. The research team has designed a nanoscale node made out of magnetic and semiconducting materials that could interact with other nodes, using laser light to emit and accept photons.

The development of such a quantum network — designed to take advantage of the physical properties of light and matter characterized by quantum mechanics — promises faster, more efficient ways to communicate, compute, and detect objects and materials as compared to networks currently used for computing and communications. Described in the journal Nature Communications, the node consists of an array of pillars a mere 120 nanometers high.

The array is engineered so that each pillar serves as a location marker for a quantum state that can interact with photons and the associated photons can potentially interact with other locations across the device — and with similar arrays at other locations. This potential to connect quantum nodes across a remote network <u>capitalizes on</u> the concept of entanglement, a phenomenon of quantum mechanics that, at <u>its</u> very basic level, describes how the properties of particles are connected at the subatomic level.

25- The word “its” in paragraph 3 refers to ----------.