Such an "impossible" situation is possible in the strange world described by quantum theory. In order to reach the quantum world, the team cooled the atom to a temperature of about 100 nanokelvins (one ten millionth of a degree above "absolute zero"), which is the coldest temperature known to mankind in nature or in the laboratory
A team of physicists fromThe atomic chip group At Ben-Gurion University, which included doctoral student Shimon Makhlouf, researcher Dr. Yonatan Yaffe and Prof. Ron Pullman, he succeeded, with the help of a static magnetic field, in making the atom be in two places at the same time.
Such an "impossible" situation is possible in the strange world described by quantum theory. In order to reach the quantum world, the team cooled the atom to a temperature of approximately 100 nanokelvins (one ten millionth of a degree above "absolute zero"), which is the coldest temperature known to mankind in nature or in the laboratory.
The article describing this very complex experiment was recently published in the journal Nature Communications. The success in creating the strange situation that is called in the professional language a situation of superposition, allows a rare glimpse into the quantum world and its principles. Beyond the basic research regarding one of the two physical revolutions of the 20th century, the superposition situation also enables technological developments such as inertial navigation systems or systems for measuring the gravitational field (for example for water and oil exploration) with unprecedented sensitivity.
Spatial superposition is a situation where a single quantum particle is in two (or more) "copies" that are in different places at the same time. In this special state, the different copies maintain a special relationship between them, which determines the properties of the particle when the copies meet again. This relationship, called "phase", is very sensitive to the forces acting in the environment of the copies, and thus may be used for a very precise measurement of such forces. This sensitivity enables the development of diverse technological applications as well as enables precise research of the fundamentals of quantum theory, as well as searches for new forces and new physics.
The research team cooled a cloud of atoms in a gaseous state and caused the entire cloud to enter a state of superposition, so that every atom in the cloud entered the state of superposition. In total, it is about ten thousand atoms that were cooled to a state of Bose-Einstein condensation. Such extreme cooling earned the scientists who succeeded in this for the first time the Nobel Prize (2001). Putting atoms into a state of superposition has also been done before.
The innovation in the present work is the use of static magnetic fields. In 1921, scientists discovered that the electron, as well as the atom within which it is found, are small magnets and that static magnetic fields can exert a force on them (Stern-Gerlach effect). As soon as the phenomenon was discovered, it was clear that it would be possible to use it to create a state of superposition, but after several calculations, the scientists quickly realized that this would be very difficult to do. Indeed, almost a hundred years of attempts have produced pottery. With the help of several changes he made in the original idea, the Ben-Gurion University research team has now succeeded in carrying out the task.
For the article in Nature
Additional articles by the research group
47 תגובות
Why is the article published without the publisher's name?
Understanding the value
I think I didn't understand anything
Mitra and Amit
The article is not clearly written and there are even mistakes in it. The experiment is a macroscopic experiment
And it is not a single atom. It is a collection of identical atoms that are in the state of the machine
Condensation Bose Einstein. It is not possible to differentiate between the atoms, so you can treat them all together
As if they are one big atom. The wave function of this big "atom" is split in two.
Therefore, in practice this is performed on large bodies and the fact is that you can see
A picture of the situation. I think there are at least a few million atoms in the picture you see.
Mitra, the atoms that make up the image are indistinguishable from each other and their wave function
concentrated in two places at the same time.
The honorable Mr. Yoav.
Rewinding time is a little bit of physics, a little bit of experiments, a little bit of connections, a little bit of repetition of reality that repeats itself, a little bit of da is woo, a little bit of talking about it on TV and deleting it later, a little bit of collecting limited information about 2/3 of the casualties for the event, and a little bit of trying to follow the relation of the knowledge In taking care of the future, and a little meeting myself, sometimes old and sometimes young from a perspective and when it happened to me it sent me looking for a place to sleep at night. With respect, again with respect
dear blowing water
It's been a while since I met myself?
What did you do gossiping about you?
Dear respected colleague, Hello
If you read my response, which must have been long forgotten because it is on the previous page, you would have seen my testimony that I met the duplicate of my body in time reversals. Believe it or not, but this is my testimony
Is it true to say, that it cannot be applied to large bodies, since this would require knowledge of the place and velocity, at the same time, of an immense number of atoms?
Dear Mitra, they say that if you stand on one of the copies, the other copy converges back in time (something like that)
What happens if you replace such a "copy" atom with another atom? Is there something that identifies and separates them? Or what happens, if it is even possible to cancel one such "copy" atom?
In honor of the dear Mr
If you again compare humans to the souls of computers, you can see that scientifically "computers" can do all the following things. Sincerely
interesting
Yes, absolutely. We know there are drugs that make people talk nonsense….
Isn't it about multidimensionality and reality of the atom in several places?
The Jewish holy books are full of examples of flesh and blood people who knew how to do "uniqueness" and "ascension of the soul" and find it in time in several places
(I know it sounds delusional, but there are testimonies from our contemporaries about the "milkman" Rabbi Chaim Ezra HaCohen of Givatayim [may God prolong his years with goodness!] and distinguishing between the living and the dead - the same goes for the first rabbi of the Levant-Lezion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Zi "E)
Are there any scientific claims that could explain such a phenomenon?
You can deal with "such an argument" only when it is an argument.
What you said is not an argument but a baseless and meaningless statement
Who said it is "the same atom" or "the same cluster"? I have a different explanation for what you see here.
What happens is that they cause matter to lose dimensions and reveal itself in four - our dimension.
Is it possible to deal with such an argument with the help of what is known today?
If a quantum computing research center is built in Israel and its budget is similar to the budget of the Weizmann Institute, Israel will be one of the richest countries in the world. And that's just from royalties.
Perhaps the atom is moving so fast that it appears to be in two places
But actually he is in one place and the shooting speed is so low compared to his movement
which looks like it's in two places.
"I" is not true what you say. The collapse process is not part of quantum theory it is something that is needed to understand the results
Quantum theory holds that a particle can be in a superposition of states but the wave function collapses to a single state when it is measured - in complete contradiction to what the scientists have shown. Sounds puzzling. It is possible that the split they got is due to the Stern Gerlach effect only?
Ghosts:
I assume the meaning is literal: "static" = "unchanging"
Israel:
If he was moistening with water, then he was fine, but the word moistening has other meanings that I think are more appropriate here
As can be learned from some of the responses, the article is indeed written in an unclear and imprecise manner. Sentences like "in order to reach the quantum world, the team cooled the atom to a temperature of approximately 100 nano-kelvins" are incorrect and cause confusion. The team cooled a cluster of atoms (the cooling of a single atom is usually meaningless). Cooling a cluster of atoms to extremely low temperatures causes the collection of atoms to behave similar to the wave function of a single atom, such a situation is known as Bose-Einstein condensation. In the picture you see an image of the cluster of atoms entangling itself, where entanglement is the indication of superposition.
In addition, despite what is written at the end of the article, the researchers did not use static magnetic fields but magnetic fields that change over time. The achievement described in the article is ultimately technological and less significant scientifically.
Do not step on our water.
He is the only one who moistens the dry discussions here a little.
Machel
You got me ahead of time with the response.
If you are already here and still here: what does "static magnetic field" mean in the context of the article?
Does she also breathe water?
Come on! So is there also a gasping Mia? Beauty! You must have met her at the prom before the carriage turned into a pumpkin or she was waiting for you at home when you returned in time as per mother's instructions
I don't really like to clash with you and your croaks, but one of the things I came back in time for was to meet my "princess" and I met
I finally figured out this blowing water thing!
Every time he leaves the house, his mother tells him to "come back on time" and he obeys her and comes back on time because otherwise his carriage will turn into a pumpkin.
Only after "having to decide" the atom can return in time and fix its place
Dekal, first there is really no such law as conservation of matter (there is conservation of energy, matter is a form of energy)
But if you answer anyway with a wave of hands, the particle is not in two places at the same time, it is 'half' here and 'half' there, so even in the concepts of 'matter conservation' it works out
Heart, Y, dot and palm:
The meaning of superposition is that the wave function of the atom is in different places in space. The wave function can be understood as the probability of finding the atom in a certain place.
When taking a picture, each atom "has to decide" where it is, and that's what you see in the picture. Because the experiment has lots of atoms, it actually measures the wave function (more precisely, the squared wave function).
We know that in the picture every atom is in superposition in the two clouds (before taking the picture) and not simply different atoms in different clouds according to the splitting process itself, and especially when you connect the two clouds in the picture you don't see one smooth cloud but a cloud with striations across it.
Hope I helped…
B, I wrote "as if".
And in order to make sense of what you wrote. So yes, you can say that half of the atom is in one place and the other half in another. But it is not semi-spatial. It's semi-existential. His existence is spreading. over an entire area. And the law of conservation applies when you sum up its entire existence.
Judit is making progress
Yes Yes …. Now we understand!!!
Now we understand how Sages would be in several places at one time...
point:
The interpretation of your words is that half of the atom is at point A and half at point B.
This is not exactly what the title of the article says.
Dekal is sure that the law of conservation of energy is preserved. Think of it as if the material is spread some here and some here but the sum is preserved.
I don't know the source of the picture and how it was taken. But according to what is written, it is a photograph of 2 groups in superposition.
The state of the individual particles within the groups cannot be identified and therefore the superposition can be preserved.
If they tried to identify a particle within a certain group then the superposition should collapse.
That's what I think.
The whole point is that it is impossible to know whether the atom is in place A or place B.
He cannot be found in both places at the same time.
Miracles with all due respect I'm sure you believe me, the experience is not so pleasant because - the way you meet yourself - a house, a place to sleep, a bank account, family, friends - Hope is no longer just yours
Water blowing
I wouldn't brag about meeting you either...
: )
A somewhat petty question, perhaps, but how does a situation in which matter appears in two places at the same time not violate the law of conservation of matter?
Does this mean that what you see in the picture is only a computer simulation and not a photograph of the particles during the experiment?
Y, you asked a correct question and I think that this is also what is special about this experiment.
It is true that usually measurement causes a collapse (or decoherence, depending on the approach) from a state of superposition of states to a single state.
But apparently it depends on how you measure and what you measure.
For example, in this experiment, if they had really tried to measure the identity of the particles that make up the groups, then certainly the function would have collapsed into one state, but all this photograph shows is the dispersion of the probability function and not the identity of the particles, therefore the state of superposition can continue.
"Wise men be careful with your words".
It is not about one atom being in two different places at the same time!
If it were possible to measure such small quantities as an electron. (exact position of an electron) then we wouldn't need the quantum theory at all.
I don't like to show off, but I met myself when I went back in time
As far as I understood a state of superposition exists until measurement - the measurement (or observation) of a particle causes it to collapse into one reality. How did they manage to measure a state of superposition?
This atom actually behaves like a ghost..
Israel
forward. This article is for you.
: )