the egg or the chicken? Who was here before? If you ask the elementary particles in nature, the answer will be both.
The paradox of the "chicken and the egg" was first proposed by philosophers in ancient Greece to present a problem with the idea of cause and effect. Now physicists from the University of Queensland and the Nyle Institute have shown that for quantum mechanics the chicken and the egg could be first at the same time. Of course, the quantum mechanics that governs the microscopic world does not solve the paradox in question, but this principle comes to illustrate how the arrow that determines what comes first, what is the cause and what is the result is not defined in the microscopic world and can be just as confusing as the chicken and the egg.
Dr. Jacobi Romero, one of the authors of the article, explains that the idea of cause and effect in quantum mechanics is not explained intuitively and simply like in everyday life. "The strangeness of quantum mechanics allows events to exist without logical order, take for example your daily commute to work. Some of you travel by both train and bus, sometimes you can travel first by bus and then by train and sometimes vice versa. In their quantum experiment, both scenarios are possible."
"This scenario called 'undefined order' does not exist in our everyday life and therefore we cannot accept it easily, but quantum mechanics makes it possible."
To observe the effect in the laboratory, the researchers used a device called a "photonic quantum switch". The device allows researchers to know the order of events based on the polarization of the light (photon). "By measuring the polarization of the photons coming out of the photonic quantum switch, we showed that the change in the light did not really occur in a defined order, all scenarios took place without a single-valued arrow. This is the first step that proves this principle that in the quantum world the order of events is not always defined. On orders of magnitude greater than the experiment, the principle of undefined order can affect the world of computing and communication."
It is important to note that this principle requires very precise laboratory conditions and it is easy to lose the "disorganization" that occurs when the experiment is not controlled. Researchers are still trying to theoretically explain how the transition to a large system affects the arrow of cause and effect and its strange effect on our world.
For an article published in Physical Reviews Letters
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- This is the end of the chicken and egg paradox
- The arrow of time works differently in the quantum world
- Physicists were able to control the movement of electrons in a molecule
- Black holes, wormholes and the secrets of quantum space-time
- The connection between quantum physics and organic chemistry. Part two of the interview given by Nobel laureate Prof. Aryeh Warshel to the Hidan website
7 תגובות
Raphael
I don't think there is any reason to think that there is a similar phenomenon in the "macro". There is no observation that shows anything that goes against the laws of physics. So why think there is such a thing?
Search the web for "Causality" and "Quantum Eraser"
I have no doubt that even in the macro there are phenomena that are currently observed only in particles. You just have to find the way to prove it in an experiment. I believe that there will be great breakthroughs in the future in understanding the subject of "time". Happy new year.
When I read articles with wording like this, I miss Zvi Yanai
I didn't understand the innovation, after all it was known a long time ago.
For example, if in the double slit experiment, the sensor that determines whether the photon passed through one slit or the other (that is, causes the wave function to collapse) can be placed at a huge distance from the slit, that is, *not be activated at all* while the photon "passed" through one of the slits, and yet it affects on the interference image, i.e. affects the photon backwards in time.
Hello commenters,
It is important to say that the chicken and egg paradox is analogous to the idea of what came first? What is the cause and what is the result of each event? And more than that, this experiment has no answer to the paradox, but if the macroscopic (large) world was governed by quantum laws and if this question were asked by the elementary particles in nature, the answer would not be clear because the arrow of cause and effect is not always defined in this world. As for the theory of special relativity - this is a classical theory that requires us to still maintain the order of cause and effect as long as we move up to the speed of light inclusive. Because it is not possible to exceed the speed of light in this theory there are no paradoxes regarding cause and effect. The effect in question comes from the quantum world and the superposition principle that particles can find themselves in several states at the same time and therefore all kinds of strange paths of cause and effect can occur. What do the researchers do to verify this? They measure a large number of photons and see that all the routes have taken place and there is really no definite arrow of what came first because they have seen all the possibilities, just like in the example of the train and the bus, one time you can travel in this order and another time. The conclusion is that until the particle is measured it is not possible to know what initial state it was in and therefore if the particle "had determined who came first the egg or the chicken" (which did not really happen in reality, and this is just an analogy to the paradox) then it could have been both.
I am completely ignorant of everything that concerns quantum mechanics,
But the question is what came first, the chicken or the egg
is a question suitable only for philosophical discussion,
Because since science knows the development and application of stem cells
For the Hebrews and the Hebrews, the answer is clear,
Because the egg is one cell that waits for what at the end of a process is a chicken,
or any other creature,
Therefore there is no doubt that before there was one cell,
One cell that most of the time "learned" to develop and conceive and create a whole being...
Now, following the Rem, we will see what kind of debate will develop,
I really don't understand the field but could it be related to the fact that they (the photons) move at the speed of light
And what we define as "time" depends on the speed of light
So for them time has no meaning and therefore it is impossible to arrange their events on (our) timeline