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Physics

Quantum batteries could charge better by breaking rules of causality

Taking advantage of a quantum phenomenon called indefinite causal order could make quantum batteries charge more efficiently

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

3 November 2023

In the quantum world, cause doesn’t always come before effect

Shutterstock / YanaBu

Quantum batteries could charge more efficiently by skirting conventional rules of causality.

Yuanbo Chen at the University of Tokyo and his colleagues analysed whether a particularly counterintuitive quantum phenomenon could play a role in powering quantum batteries – energy storage devices that could harness quantum effects.

In the classical world, causality goes in just one direction: if event A causes event B, then it is clear that B did not also cause A. But at the quantum scale, Chen says that it…

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