Quantum systems may hide memory in unexpected ways.
An international team of scientists has taken a closer look at how memory functions in quantum systems and their time evolution. Their study reveals that whether a quantum process appears to have memory depends on how it is examined. From one angle, the process may seem completely memoryless. From another, traces of past behavior remain visible. The findings open new paths for research in quantum science and emerging technologies.
In classical physics, memory is defined in a straightforward way. If a system’s future behavior depends only on its current condition, it is considered memoryless. If earlier states continue to influence what happens next, the system is said to have memory.
Quantum physics complicates this picture. Quantum systems can store and transmit information in ways that have no counterpart in classical science. In addition, measurement is not just a passive observation. It plays an active and fundamental role in how quantum systems evolve.
Rethinking Memory in Quantum Mechanics
In a study published in PRX Quantum, researchers from the University of Turku in Finland, the University of Milan in Italy, and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in Poland revisited the meaning of “memory” in the quantum world.
“Our work shows that memory is not a single concept but can manifest in different ways depending on how the evolution of a system is described,” says first author, Doctoral Researcher Federico Settimo from the University of Turku.
Two Perspectives, Different Memory Signatures
For years, scientists have analyzed memory effects by focusing on how quantum states change over time. This framework, first introduced by Erwin Schrödinger, treats the state of a system as the central object that evolves.
Quantum theory, however, also provides another equally fundamental viewpoint developed by Werner Heisenberg. Instead of tracking how states change, this approach examines how observables evolve. Observables are the measurable physical quantities recorded in experiments.
Although both approaches produce identical predictions for experimental outcomes, the new research shows that they do not describe memory in the same way.
The team found that this distinction directly affects how memory can be identified. Certain memory effects become visible only when studying the evolution of quantum states. Others appear only when focusing on the behavior of observables.
As a result, the same quantum process can look memoryless under one description and memory-dependent under another. This discovery suggests that quantum memory is more complex than previously recognized and cannot be fully understood by examining quantum states alone.
Implications for Quantum Technologies
“Our findings open up new research avenues into the dynamics of quantum systems. Moreover, our work has implications beyond its foundational significance for quantum technologies, where the external environment induces noise and memory effects. Knowing how memory can be witnessed is essential for developing strategies to mitigate noise or exploit environmental effects in realistic quantum devices,” says Professor of Theoretical Physics Jyrki Piilo from the University of Turku.
In practical terms, quantum devices constantly interact with their surroundings, which introduces noise and can generate memory effects. A clearer understanding of how to detect and interpret these effects could help researchers reduce unwanted interference or even use environmental interactions to improve performance.
Overall, the study sheds light on a core feature of quantum dynamics and shows how the uniquely quantum character of time evolution reshapes even basic ideas such as memory.
Reference: “Divisibility of Dynamical Maps: Schrödinger Versus Heisenberg Picture” by Federico Settimo, Andrea Smirne, Kimmo Luoma, Bassano Vacchini, Jyrki Piilo and Dariusz Chruściński, 26 February 2026, PRX Quantum.
DOI: 10.1103/6dt2-sq44
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5 Comments
An international team of scientists has taken a closer look at how memory functions in quantum systems and their time evolution. Their study reveals that whether a quantum process appears to have memory depends on how it is examined. The findings open new paths for research in quantum science and emerging technologies.
WHY? WHY? WHY?
Please ask the researchers to think deeply:
1. Is it scientific for you to publicly use an ugly cat as an analogy to quantum?
2. Quantum mechanics is mathematics, do you really understand the physical reality of quantum mechanics?
3. How do you understand geometric shapes in nature?
4. Is geometric shape a physical reality?
If we cease asking “whether observation disturbs the object” and instead ask “how observation participates in the topological variation of the object,” our understanding of scientific knowledge may enter a new realm.
—— Excerpted from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/2010973729556026200.
What makes skyscrapers, bridges, and tunnels different from one another is not the steel reinforcement, cement, and sand they are composed of, but the difference in their spatial structure.
—— Excerpted from https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/2012896837590360214.
Space is a physical entity of ideal fluid characteristics with zero viscosity, zero compression, and zero anisotropy, which is completely different from the philosophical concept of non existence. Any object in space based on the space and is rooted in the ideal fluid characteristics of space.
Mathematically, a space with ideal fluid physical characteristics can form spatiotemporal vortices through topological transformations. The formation of spacetime vortices marks the beginning of time. These spatiotemporal vortices self organize through complex interactions and may form extremely complex spatiotemporal structures. All particles in the Standard Model are emergent states of these spatiotemporal vortices, but definitely not all. All operations and observational behaviors in scientific experiments are related to the interaction of these spatiotemporal vortices.
Are these science?
Example 1
Two sets of cobalt-60 are manually rotated in opposite directions, and even without detection, people around the world know that they will not be symmetrical because these two objects are not mirror images of each other at all. However, a group of so-called physicists and so-called academic publications do not believe it. They conducted experiments and the results were indeed asymmetric, but they still firmly believed that these two objects were mirror images of each other, and the asymmetry was due to a violation of the previous natural laws (CP violation). In the history of science, there can never be a dirtier and uglier operation and explanation than this.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947619.
Example 2
Please see how the so-called “mystery of θ – τ” is explained: θ and τ are completely identical in all measurable physical properties such as mass, lifetime, charge, spin, etc. However, experimental observations have shown that the θ meson decays into two π mesons, while the τ meson decays into three π mesons, making it difficult for physicists to explain why they are so similar. Physicist Martin Block proposed a highly challenging idea: θ and τ are the same particle, but in weak interactions, parity is not conserved. An easy to understand explanation is the following analogy:: There are two boxes of apples with identical weight, color, and taste. However, when one box is opened, there are two apples, while when the other box is opened, there are three apples. This confuses the old farmer who buys apples. He circled around the orchard and came up with a highly challenging idea: these two boxes of apples are not from the same tree, so they are the same.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947686.
Everyone who has a reverence for natural laws and regulations deserves respect.
In the physical world constructed by the American Physical Society (APS) and its publications using parity violation, particles from God, Demons, and Angels wander around, while dead and alive cats jump up and down, unconstrained by dynamics and thermodynamics, and unaware of what is dirty, ugly, and shameful in public. APS and its publications reject the possibility that spaces with zero viscosity, zero compression, and zero anisotropy in mathematics may form spatiotemporal vortices through topological transformations. They don’t know that space and non existence are not the same concept.
If a self proclaimed scientific society (such as American Physical Society) deviates from science without shame, it is highly likely to be heading towards the end.
When we pursue the ultimate truth of all things, the space in which our bodies and all things exist may itself be the final and deepest puzzle we need to explore. This is not only the pursuit of physics, but also the most magnificent exploration of the origin of the universe by human reason.
Based on the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT), space is an uniformly incompressible physical entity. Space-time vortices are the products of topological phase transitions of the tipping points in space, are the point defects in spacetime. Point defects do not only impact the thermodynamic properties, but are also central to kinetic processes. They create all things and shape the world through spin and self-organization.
In today’s physics, some so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
and go on.
Is this the counterintuitive science they widely promote? Compromising with pseudo academic publications and peer review by pseudo scholars is an insult to science and public intelligence. Some so-called scholars no longer understand what shame is. The study of Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reminds us that the most profound problems in physics often lie at the intersection of different theories. By exploring these border regions, we can not only resolve contradictions in existing theories but also discover new physical phenomena and application possibilities.
Under the topological vortex architecture, it is highly challenging for even two hydrogen atoms or two quarks to be perfectly symmetrical, let alone counter-rotating two sets of cobalt-60. Contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, etc.) stubbornly believe that two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, constructing a more shocking pseudoscientific theoretical framework in the history of science than the “geocentric model”. This pseudo scientific framework and system have seriously hindered scientific progress and social development.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time. A large amount of pseudo scientific research has been conducted, and countless pseudo scientific papers have been published, causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
Complexity does not necessarily mean that there is no logical and architectural framework to follow. Mathematics is the language and tool that reveals the motion of spacetime, rather than the motion itself. Although the physical form of spacetime vortices is extremely simple, their interaction patterns are highly complex, and we must develop more and richer mathematical languages to describe and understand them.
The development of the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reflects a progression from concrete physical phenomena to abstract mathematical modeling and, ultimately, to interdisciplinary unification. Its core innovation lies in forging the continuous spacetime geometry of general relativity with the discrete interactions of quantum field theory within the same topological dynamical system. The core idea of TVT — space is physical, and matter is its topological excitation—already provides a solid and elegant scientific path for understanding the origin of all things.
——Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/microscope-spacecrafts-most-precise-test-of-key-component-of-the-theory-of-general-relativity/#comment-909171 and https://t.pineal.cn/blogs/6255/A-Mathematical-and-Physical-Analysis-On-the-Origin-of-Objects.
What he said⬆️
The Stoics knew.
Science is discovering the reality behind statements such as Epictetus’s ” Reality is where you are looking from, NOT what you are looking at”
Light is PURLELY a subjective experience. Only exists within sentient beings with a visual cortex.
If that is hard to grasp, ask yourself ” where does smell exist ?
We each absorbe ” energy “, pricess it both individually and in ” packets ” of group consciousness…the latter forming holograms ; the former, the consciousness ofbthe ” seer”.