First quantum effects seen in visible object, page 1

www.newscientist.com...

Quote from source:
Does Schrödinger's cat really exist? You bet. The first ever quantum superposition in an object visible to the naked eye has been observed.

Aaron O'Connell and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, did not actually produce a cat that was dead and alive at the same time, as Erwin Schrödinger proposed in a notorious thought experiment 75 years ago. But they did show that a tiny resonating strip of metal – only 60 micrometres long, but big enough to be seen without a microscope – can both oscillate and not oscillate at the same time. Alas, you couldn't actually see the effect happening, because that very act of observation would take it out of superposition.

"We talk about quantum weirdness and things being in two places at once, but it all involves atoms and molecules, stuff we don't normally interact with," says O'Connell, who presented the results at the March meeting of the American Physical Society in Portland, Oregon, today.

Bridge between worlds

Proving that all objects, whatever their size, obeys the same rules has long been a goal of physicists. But with quantum mechanics it is no trivial matter: the larger an object, the more easily its fragile quantum state is destroyed by the disruptive influence of the world around it. O'Connell's experiments required delicate control and a temperature of just 25 millikelvin to measure the state in the few nanoseconds before it was broken down by disruptive influences from outside.

"It was a close call, but sufficient to see a first quantum signature," says Markus Aspelmeyer of the University of Vienna, Austria, who was not involved in the research.

The key was to connect the resonating strip to a superconducting qubit – a tiny electric circuit that can easily be prepared in a quantum superposition of two energy states. "The qubit acts as a bridge between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds," says O'Connell. By tuning the frequency at which the qubit cycled between its two states to match the resonant frequency of the metallic strip, the qubit's quantum state could be transferred to the resonator at will.

I had to post this because I'm a dork. I find this very interesting and happy we are able to see quantum effects on bigger objects. Quantum will help us as a species when we can begin to understand it like nothing else in history ever has.

We are all made of quantum objects so we should all be behaving like quantum objects. Where's the moon when your not looking at it?

Any thoughts?

Pred...

i love the fact that they've shown quantum uncertainty in a piece of metal you can see but not observe, it's quite fitting.

apparently our nose uses quantum effects to smell stuff and a leaf uses a different quantum effect to convert sunlight to energy in the most efficient manner possible. it's all very, very strange and i've really no idea what it all means but it's interesting!!!



[edit on 17/3/10 by pieman]

reply to post by Phlynx

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Basically, they showed that a strip of metal can exist in two states, which is to either oscillate or to not oscillate, even though "common sense" tells us that it should only be in one state(not oscillating.)

reply to post by Phlynx

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according to quantum physics, a particle (electrons, photons etc) are in two places at once, or everywhere at once, or doing two different things at once, so long as they are not interacting with anything else.

this idea stems out of (or is proven by, can't remember) the double slit experiment.

if you're a bit bigger it doesn't work because the bigger something is, the more likely it is to interact with other stuff. during this experiment, the scientists have made a piece of metal that's big enough to see vibrate and not vibrate at the same time.

that doesn't seem like much but quantum effects in large objects might have some cool applications. lets say you are over here and you induce a quantum state in an object (so that it is everywhere at once) and then you find a way to observe it over there, you can instantly transport objects over long distances.

reply to post by wiseone11

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When measured afterwards, the resonator was sometimes in its non-oscillating ground state and sometimes in an oscillating "excited" state. The number of times it was measured to be in each state followed the probabilistic rules of quantum mechanics.

they just checked it once it's quantum state had already broken down.

Regarding how to prove something is in different states instead of oscillating between those states - I have nothing to offer. I understand the basic concept of quantum states but have no deeper understanding whatsoever.

Buuuut.. I did find a photo of a qubit circuit with a resonator (the tiny metal strip if I'm not mistaken)! Still don't know what I'm looking at exactly, but enjoyed it either way and thought I should share it. Enjoy!

reply to post by pieman

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It's definitely a weird concept, hey?

It is just used to explain the uncertainty that the box holds. We cannot see the cat or observe it so as far as we know it could be dead or alive, depending on the quantum world.

I love the concept of it and how our minds work to figure it out.

I like the double slit experiment more thought because it is if the atom has consciousness to know whether we are looking at it or not. We are making a measure and therefore the wave-function breaks down.

I love the quantum world, so many mysteries.

Pred...

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