the entangled buckyballs moving into the assembler stabilized by such a field. But when we take them from the stabilization field that they’re in and move them to the field for the port’s ring, they are out of the stabilization field and the action of moving them un-entangles them if we move them very fast. When we try to ‘up the speed’ of placement of the buckyballs into the ring, they start losing their entanglement in transit.”
“Ouch, that is a problem. How fast can you place them reliably without breaking their entanglement?”
“About two per second. Since the buckyballs have a diameter of about one nanometer, that means about 5.5 days per millimeter of ring. To make a pair of one centimeter diameter rings like you want will take somewhere around half a year!” He paused and shrugged, “We’re still working on it though.”
Everyone at the table could see that he didn’t have any ideas for a solution at present.
“Dang! I’ll come look at your set up after the meeting. Maybe I’ll have some ideas on how to stabilize the entanglement sooner.” She looked up at the ceiling, “Or maybe during the placement?” After a moment she turned to Fred Marsden, “Is your team having any luck entangling tori?”
Marsden rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah, we can entangle them alright. But we have a problem similar to Ben’s. Once we’ve entangled them, we can’t separate them to put the tori into your stabilization field without breaking the entanglement. Molecules this big will only stay entangled for microseconds unless they’re stabilized.”
“Any ideas on how to solve it?”
He shrugged, “We’re going to try to position each torus on a stabilization field plate, then bring the two tori into contact while they’re on the plates and see if we can get them to entangle with the field all ready to turn on.” With a sigh he said, “The entanglement field and the stabilization field are pretty different though.”
“Vivian?” Ell turned to Vivian Varka the electrical engineer. “Let’s look at their setup together and see whether we can help them work on the transition from one field to the other, maybe a gradual transition.” She looked up at the ceiling again, “Or would an abrupt transition be better?” She brought her eyes back down and shrugged, “I guess we can try both.”
Ell looked around the table, “Any other news or ideas?”
They all looked back without response, as if hopeless or depressed or something. Ell despondently wondered what she could do to buck them up. Maybe she should just give up and disband D5R?
Roger felt nervous speaking up in this group because he was the most junior. Well except for Ell! Nonetheless, he cleared his throat, “Uh.”
Everyone turned to look at him. “I’m wondering if an intermediate approach might work?”
The group looked at him with puzzled expressions. “For instance if we entangled nanotubes say a hundred microns long instead of the much larger nanotori. Then used Ben’s micromanipulators to move them into a ring shape at a relatively slow pace…”
Ell’s eyebrows went up and she looked around at the group. They all looked somewhat dubious but no one was saying it couldn’t be done. “It’s an idea. Roger why don’t you do some tests and calculations. How fast can Fred entangle them and how fast can Ben move them without breaking entanglement? Then determine whether it will actually be faster than ‘one at a time’ buckyballs?”
Roger nodded.
Ben put a hand up and Ell nodded. “I’m just wondering,” he said, “exactly how long the investors will put up with our lack of progress? Should we be taking offers we may be getting for other jobs?”
For a moment Ell considered telling them that she was the only investor. Then she thought about telling them they did have a deadline after which they would be disbanded. That would be the way it would work in the real world. Mentally she shrugged, after all, there wasn’t
“Ouch, that is a problem. How fast can you place them reliably without breaking their entanglement?”
“About two per second. Since the buckyballs have a diameter of about one nanometer, that means about 5.5 days per millimeter of ring. To make a pair of one centimeter diameter rings like you want will take somewhere around half a year!” He paused and shrugged, “We’re still working on it though.”
Everyone at the table could see that he didn’t have any ideas for a solution at present.
“Dang! I’ll come look at your set up after the meeting. Maybe I’ll have some ideas on how to stabilize the entanglement sooner.” She looked up at the ceiling, “Or maybe during the placement?” After a moment she turned to Fred Marsden, “Is your team having any luck entangling tori?”
Marsden rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah, we can entangle them alright. But we have a problem similar to Ben’s. Once we’ve entangled them, we can’t separate them to put the tori into your stabilization field without breaking the entanglement. Molecules this big will only stay entangled for microseconds unless they’re stabilized.”
“Any ideas on how to solve it?”
He shrugged, “We’re going to try to position each torus on a stabilization field plate, then bring the two tori into contact while they’re on the plates and see if we can get them to entangle with the field all ready to turn on.” With a sigh he said, “The entanglement field and the stabilization field are pretty different though.”
“Vivian?” Ell turned to Vivian Varka the electrical engineer. “Let’s look at their setup together and see whether we can help them work on the transition from one field to the other, maybe a gradual transition.” She looked up at the ceiling again, “Or would an abrupt transition be better?” She brought her eyes back down and shrugged, “I guess we can try both.”
Ell looked around the table, “Any other news or ideas?”
They all looked back without response, as if hopeless or depressed or something. Ell despondently wondered what she could do to buck them up. Maybe she should just give up and disband D5R?
Roger felt nervous speaking up in this group because he was the most junior. Well except for Ell! Nonetheless, he cleared his throat, “Uh.”
Everyone turned to look at him. “I’m wondering if an intermediate approach might work?”
The group looked at him with puzzled expressions. “For instance if we entangled nanotubes say a hundred microns long instead of the much larger nanotori. Then used Ben’s micromanipulators to move them into a ring shape at a relatively slow pace…”
Ell’s eyebrows went up and she looked around at the group. They all looked somewhat dubious but no one was saying it couldn’t be done. “It’s an idea. Roger why don’t you do some tests and calculations. How fast can Fred entangle them and how fast can Ben move them without breaking entanglement? Then determine whether it will actually be faster than ‘one at a time’ buckyballs?”
Roger nodded.
Ben put a hand up and Ell nodded. “I’m just wondering,” he said, “exactly how long the investors will put up with our lack of progress? Should we be taking offers we may be getting for other jobs?”
For a moment Ell considered telling them that she was the only investor. Then she thought about telling them they did have a deadline after which they would be disbanded. That would be the way it would work in the real world. Mentally she shrugged, after all, there wasn’t
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