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Metamaterial solves complex equations at the speed of light | Cosmos
Physicists have solved a mathematical equation at the speed of light by shining microwaves onto a metamaterial – a cluster of unusual shapes laid out in a carefully arranged pattern.
Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in the US and his colleagues came up with the metamaterial, and used it to solve a class of equation known as “Fredholm integral equations of the second kind”.
The collection of shapes, which the team nicknamed Swiss cheese, processes microwave radiation into which specific parameters have been encoded. It then spits out a solution to an ore-set integral equation, also encoded onto microwave properties.
And because it happens at the speed of light, it is orders of magnitude faster than conventional computer-based methods says Engheta, whose work is published in the journal Science.
Physicists have solved a mathematical equation at the speed of light by shining microwaves onto a metamaterial – a cluster of unusual shapes laid out in a carefully arranged pattern.
Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in the US and his colleagues came up with the metamaterial, and used it to solve a class of equation known as “Fredholm integral equations of the second kind”.
The collection of shapes, which the team nicknamed Swiss cheese, processes microwave radiation into which specific parameters have been encoded. It then spits out a solution to an ore-set integral equation, also encoded onto microwave properties.
And because it happens at the speed of light, it is orders of magnitude faster than conventional computer-based methods says Engheta, whose work is published in the journal Science.