Nick @internic@qoto.org

I guess it's time for a #introduction. I'm a theoretical physicist by training (PhD in quantum open systems/quantum information) and currently paying the bills as an engineer working in free-space optical communication (implementation) and quantum communication (concepts). I'm interested in physics and math, of course, but I enjoy learning about really any area of science, philosophy, and many other academic areas as well. My biggest other interest is hiking and generally enjoying nature.

I'm definitely interested in following #ScienceMastodon, but I'm also just curious to see the mix of interesting photos and thoughts on myriad topics that may show up here.

I'm sort of part of the #TwitterMigration, but I honestly haven't used the bird site all that much in recent times, and as a FOSS/Linux geek I've been interested in federated services like Mastodon for quite a while.

It looks like maybe there are some services/sites that partner with #Authy to provide #2FA based on your phone number (distinct from the more standard TOTP), so if you've got accounts on those sites setup with your phone number and then you setup an Authy account with that phone number, these are already pre-populated. I'm basing that on these two Reddit posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/2fa/comments/o8izzb/can_anyone_explain_the_difference_these_two_types/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/8szsbx/authy_is_an_awesome_app_but_there_is_one_major/

Someone I know has these weird entries in their #Authy app under a section labeled "authy accounts". These seemed to already be present when they created the Authy account, and they can't seem to remove/delete the entries. I don't have anything similar in my Authy, only the next section, "authenticator accounts", so I have no idea what these are, and the generic names makes web searches difficult.

I'm hoping someone out there who uses #authy or is knowledgable about #2FA or #infosec can enlighten me (so please boost if you're connected to such people).

TIL that the Curie family has received the most Nobel prizes of any family: "...with four prizes awarded to five individual laureates. Marie Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie." #Physics #historyofscience
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize#Family_laureates

"LastPass, one of the leading password managers, said that hackers obtained a wealth of personal information belonging to its customers as well as encrypted and cryptographically hashed passwords and other data stored in customer vaults."
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/lastpass-says-hackers-have-obtained-vault-data-and-a-wealth-of-customer-info/

Perhaps some #physics folks out there on #ScienceMastodon who study #GeneralRelativity can clarify: Has it been shown that one can have naked singularities in AdS? I thought it had, but a quick search suggests maybe those results were in error or arguably unphysical.

I'm seeing headlines like "Scientists just made a wormhole to learn more about traversing space and time" in response to this recent Nature paper:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05424-3

In fact, from what I can tell, they ran a computation on a quantum computer that would correspond to a certain quantum field theory if you expanded it from a limited number of quantum bits to an infinite number. And that quantum field theory has a conjectured relationship (duality) to General Relatively in 1+1 dimensional Anti-De Sitter space (which is neither the dimensionality nor geometry of spacetime that we actually inhabit). They did a calculation on the quantum computer that should approximate a quantum teleportation in the field theory, which (if the conjectured duality is true) should correspond to traversing a wormhole.

Now, I think that's an interesting result, but I also think it's being way overhyped to the public, and people are imagining that someone has built a literal wormhole in their lab. I suppose there's a certain symmetry, though, since I have always thought that the name "quantum teleportation" over-hypes that technology and gives laypeople a totally incorrect, Star Trek-y impression of what's happening.

I guess it's time for a #introduction. I'm a theoretical physicist by training (PhD in quantum open systems/quantum information) and currently paying the bills as an engineer working in free-space optical communication (implementation) and quantum communication (concepts). I'm interested in physics and math, of course, but I enjoy learning about really any area of science, philosophy, and many other academic areas as well. My biggest other interest is hiking and generally enjoying nature.

I'm definitely interested in following #ScienceMastodon, but I'm also just curious to see the mix of interesting photos and thoughts on myriad topics that may show up here.

I'm sort of part of the #TwitterMigration, but I honestly haven't used the bird site all that much in recent times, and as a FOSS/Linux geek I've been interested in federated services like Mastodon for quite a while.