Researchers at Argentina’s Bariloche Atomic Center Using ‘Quantum Control’ Techniques for dMRI Scans

(Physics.org) Quantum information experts Analia Zwick and Gonzalo Álvarez from Argentina’s Bariloche Atomic Center (CAB) are using their skills to unlock more information from each pixel of a dMRI scan. Although their research is still in the experimental stage, they hope it might lead to earlier diagnoses of diseases that affect the brain, like Alzheimers.
The researchers explained that the problem with conventional dMRI is that it doesn’t tell you why the molecules move fast or slowly. To get this sensitivity, their group and a few others use so-called “quantum control” techniques that were originally designed to protect quantum information.
The couple says that we are now in the second quantum revolution, where we try to control and manipulate quantum information for useful applications, such as nano- or molecular-scale sensors. We started to do exactly that during our postdocs abroad, and then we had the opportunity to return to Argentina and set up a lab in a new medical physics department.