Exoplanets and Advanced Technical Civilizations (ATCs) by Richard Lukens

1. Exoplanets and Advanced Technical Civilizations (ATCs)byRichard Lukens Agenda: Discuss Two (maybe three) Subjects: An update of talk, “Exoplanets and the Drake Equation,” given to the Lyncean Group in 2006 2. FTLC as an M. Kaku Class I Impossibility. P.S. A new method for searching for ATCs.

2. Drake Equation’s estimate of possible ATCs • Drake’s 1961 equation estimated number of broadcasting civilizations in our galaxy via the birth of acceptable stars (estimated at 10/yr in the galaxy), the number of those stars with a habitable planet having a broadcasting civilization (estim. At 10%), and estimating the lifetime of such a civilization at 10,000 years. Thus, he estimated there are 10,000 such civilizations in our galaxy. • Post 1961 findings lead to a highly modified Drake equation (HMDE, Lukens, 2006).

3. The HMDE Considers: • Life: conditions, processes and time required for life to emerge on a planet. • Stars: definition and number density of suitable stars and fraction with planets. • Planets: fractions with suitable temperature regimes, rotational stability, radiation protection, size. • Technology crises: fraction of planets from which ATCs emerge and survive their successes. • From the above, it was estimated that there are ~2 ATCs per billion cubic light years.

4. Update: 2009 compared with 2006 • Number of exoplanets about suitable stars has increased from 134 to 208. • The chance that an exo-Earth would have a suitable temperature regime dropped from 2.2% to 1.9%. • The chance that a suitably orbiting exo-Earth has a stable orbit increased from 16% to 19%. • The estimate of ~2 ATCs per billion cubic light years is unchanged.

5. The Search for Exo-Planets Continues • Observatories in space: Corot, Keppler, SIM Lite, Darwin. • Terrestrial telescopes: numerous 8 & 10 m telescopes on-line & much larger telescopes to come. • Newer technologies, including laser combs. • New data will enable improved estimate of ATC number density within a few years.

6. Update conclusion and inferences • The estimated number density of ATCs in our galactic neighborhood is unchanged from 2006. • The logic that an ATC will likely be more advanced than we are remains unchanged. • An ATC could be interstellar and would have solved many M.Kaku-type impossibilities. • If interstellar, they may have solved the problem of faster than light communication (FTLC)

7. M.Kaku’s Impossibility Classessee his “Physics of the Impossible,” Four Corners Press, 2008. • Class I: Possible in this century: e.g., teleportation, telepathy, invisibility. Kaku does not mention FTLC. • Class II: Possible within a few millenia: e.g., time machines, hyperspace travel, travel via wormholes. • Class III: Probably never possible. • FTLC may be a Class I impossibility.

8. Faster-than-light (FTL) Phenomena • Tachyons must travel faster than c. • Inflation: radius of U expanded ~20 order of magnitude faster than c just after big bang. • 1990s experiments with light pulses in media with anomalous index of refraction. L.Wang et al (Nature, 406, p.77. 2000) achieved 300c. • Entanglement.

9. Entanglement • Schroedinger; 1935: “When two systems of which we know the states by their respective representations, enter into a temporary physical interaction due to known force betwee them and then after a time of mutual influence the systems separate again, they can no longer be described as before, viz., by endowing each of them with a representation of its own. I would not call that one, but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics. • Each of the quantum particles is in superposition, and their states are in instant correlation, no matter the distance between them, until the superposition of one of them is broken.

10. Brief history of entanglement • 1935: Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen challenge entanglement in their famous EPR paper. • 1964: Bell’s inequality as a recipe for testing EPR. See H.Pagels, The Cosmic Code, Bantam, 1982. • 1972: Clauser and Freedman verify q.m. to 5 sigmas. • 1983: A.Aspect verified q.m. to over 40 sigmas. • mid-1990s: N.Gisin’s 16 km measured interaction between entangled photons at more than 1E7 c.

11. A simple FTLC system? • Create entangled pairs of particles with one of each pair in separate, coded boxes. Carry one of each pair aboard space ship. Send message by altering the particles in the appropriate boxes from one terminal and read message at other terminal. • Big Problems: 1) entanglement is difficult to maintain, 2) reading the state of an entangled particle destroys entanglement, and 3) the state read is unpredictable, and there’s no Rosetta Stone for gibberish. • Alas, it looks as if such a system is impossible. :-(

12. Enter research toward quantum computers • A variety of systems: e.g., NMR, superconductor circuit, trapped ion, quantum dot, photonic systems • Additional methods of entanglement. • Gentle adjustments of quantum states, including shifting patterns of entanglement, to implement algorithms. • Error suppression and correction via improved system stability, correction algorithms, method of detecting and correcting impending decoherence. • Nearly perfect copies of quantum states have been made. • Non-demolition measurements.

13. Examples of notable progress • 2003. Paris, “Engineering QND measurements for continuous variable information processing,” Forschritte der Physik 51, p.202.Discusses information gain vs disturbance • 2005. Dunker & Kumaver,”Progress in nondestructive computation systems,” Proc.Quantum Info.& Comput.Conf. No.3,vol.5815, p.195. Simulations indicate NDM possible where method uses low coupling coefficients. • 2005. Engel & Loss, “Fermionic Bell-state analyzer for spin qubits,” Science 309, p.586. Resonant tunneling scheme for ND indication as to whether spins are anti-parallel or parallel. • 2006. Research Highlights, Nature 459, p.895. “Telecloning demonstrated. Phys.Rev.Lett. 96, 060504.

14. More Examples • 2006. Berezovsky et al, “Nondestructive optical measurement of a single electron spin in a quantum dot,” Science 314, p.1916. Polarized, off-resonance photon undergoes Kerr rotation in region of electron on QD without disturbing the electron’s state. • 2008. Katz et al, “Reversal of the weak measurement of a quantum state in a superconducting phase qubit,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 200401. Impending decoherence detected and corrected. • 2009. Home et al, “Complete methods set for scalable ion trap quantum information processing,” Science 325, p.1227. Coheerence times of > 10 minutes. • 2009. Politi et al, “Shor’s quantum factoring algorithm on a photonic chip,” Science 325, p.1221.

15. Effect of progress on FTLC problems • Information on entangled states can be obtained non-destructively. Can superposition ratios possibly be used for coding? • Entanglement lifetimes have been extended many orders of magnitude, and powerful error prevention and/or correction techniques have appeared. • It now appears that FTLC is not a total impossibility and probably qualifies as a Kaku Class I impossibility. • If so, an FTLC-capable interstellar ATC is a possibility.

16. A new method for finding ATCs--2 variants • Examine stars and planets for unusually low intensities of visible radiation and unusually high output of IR and/or microwave radiation. Rationale: • A Kardashev Type II civilization uses “all” the radiant energy emitted by its star; • A Kardashev Type I civilization uses “all” the radiant energy of its star that falls on its planet’s disk. • Example candidate star: Gl 49. MV is 9.70, which is 4.5 sigmas higher than the average of 7.33 for its type of star (K5 V).