Fractal patterns spotted in the quantum realm

physicsworld.com...

Quote from source:
From thunderous mountain landscapes viewed from above to the erratic trajectories of Brownian motion, fractal patterns exist at many scales in nature. Physicists believe that fractals also exist in the quantum world, and now a group of researchers in the US has shown that this is indeed the case. This image shows the fractal pattern that results when the waves associated with electrons start to interfere with each other.

A fractal is a geometric entity whose basic patterns are repeated at ever decreasing sizes. For example, a river system is an approximate fractal pattern as the channels branch off into progressively narrower tributaries moving upstream; at each confluence the pattern is a smaller version of the previous branching.

A sudden transition

Ali Yazdani at Princeton University in the US and his colleagues have revealed that these patterns also exist at the scale of individual atoms in a solid. And the key to this effect is a sudden transition where a material changes from a metal to an insulator. At this transition, the waves associated with individual electrons go from being extended across the whole system to being localized at lattice sites.

I thought I would post this as it is interesting and a big breakthrough. When we start understanding that everything is fractals our science will advance quicker. It can only help us to have more information about our world.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

reply to post by predator0187


Wow. I just finished reading the article and I sure wish I understood it. It sounds fascinating. I feel drawn to fractals for some reason...I've just got it in my mind that fractals will somehow turn out to be "The Answer".