Quantum Physics. Alice in Quantumland: A Charming Illustrated Allegory of Quantum Mechanics by a CERN Physicist. By Maria Popova Down the rabbit hole of antimatter, or how to believe six impossible things about gender stereotypes before breakfast. As a lover of science and of all things Alice in Wonderland, imagine my delight at discovering Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics (public library) — an imaginative and unusual 1995 quantum primer by particle physicist Robert Gilmore, who has under his belt experience at Stanford and CERN. Besides the clever concept, two things make the book especially remarkable: It flies in the face of gender stereotypes with a female protagonist who sets out to make sense of some of the most intense science of all time, and it features Gilmore’s own magnificent illustrations for a perfect intersection of art and science, true to recent research indicating that history’s most successful scientists also dabbled in the arts.
Gilmore writes in the preface: In the first half of the twentieth century, our understanding in the Universe was turned upside down. Quantum physics says goodbye to reality. Some physicists are uncomfortable with the idea that all individual quantum events are innately random. This is why many have proposed more complete theories, which suggest that events are at least partially governed by extra "hidden variables". Now physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of hidden-variables theories that focus on realism -- giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it (Nature 446 871).
Some 40 years ago the physicist John Bell predicted that many hidden-variables theories would be ruled out if a certain experimental inequality were violated – known as "Bell's inequality". In his thought experiment, a source fires entangled pairs of linearly-polarized photons in opposite directions towards two polarizers, which can be changed in orientation. Bell's trick, therefore, was to decide how to orient the polarizers only after the photons have left the source. Quantum Mechanics and Reality. Quantum Mechanics and Reality, by Thomas J McFarlane. © Thomas J. McFarlane 1995www.integralscience.org Most traditional [spiritual] paths were developed in prescientific cultures. Consequently, many of their teachings are expressed in terms of cosmologies or world views which we no longer find relevant. . .The question then naturally arises: Is it possible to incorporate both science and mysticism into a single, coherent world view?
. . .Up until the first quarter of the twentieth century science was wedded to a materialist philosophy which was inherently antagonistic to all forms of religious insight. The primary purpose of this essay is to explain how quantum mechanics shows that the materialistic common sense notion of reality is an illusion, i.e., that the objective existence of the world is an illusion. The appearance of an objective world distinguishable from a subjective self is but the imaginary form in which Consciousness Perfectly Realizes Itself. Now listen to Niels Bohr, the pioneer of 20th century physics: How Quantum Mechanics Screws with our Perception of Reality.
Quantum "spooky action at a distance" travels at least 10,000 times faster than light. Quantum entanglement, one of the odder aspects of quantum theory, links the properties of particles even when they are separated by large distances. When a property of one of a pair of entangled particles is measured, the other "immediately" settles down into a state compatible with that measurement. So how fast is "immediately"?
According to research by Prof. Juan Yin and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai, the lower limit to the speed associated with entanglement dynamics – or "spooky action at a distance" – is at least 10,000 times faster than light. Despite playing a vital role in the development of quantum theory, Einstein felt philosophically at odds with its description of how the universe works. Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein debating quantum theory in the mid 1920s In 1935 Einstein and his coworkers discovered quantum entanglement lurking in the equations of quantum mechanics, and realized its utter strangeness. Golden Ratio Discovered in the Quantum World | Science. By Rakefet TavorEpoch Times Staff Created: January 19, 2010 Last Updated: June 17, 2012 PICTURING THE GOLDEN RATIO: Scientists fired neutrons at cobalt niobate particles, finding resonant notes with the golden ratio.
(Tennant/HZB) The “golden ratio,” which is equal to approximately 1.618, can be found in various aspects of our life, including biology, architecture, and the arts. But only recently was it discovered that this special ratio is also reflected in nanoscale, thanks to researchers from the U.K.’s Oxford University, University of Bristol, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and Germany’s Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB).
Their research, published in the journal Science on Jan. 8, examined chains of linked magnetic cobalt niobate (CoNb2O6) particles only one particle wide to investigate the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Neutrons were fired at the cobalt niobate particles to detect the resonant notes. Dr. Quantum bounce could make black holes explode. A. Corichi/J.P. Ruiz The collapse of a star into a black hole could be a temporary effect that leads to the formation of a 'white hole', suggests a new model based on a theory known as loop quantum gravity. Black holes might end their lives by transforming into their exact opposite — 'white holes' that explosively pour all the material they ever swallowed into space, say two physicists.
The suggestion, based on a speculative quantum theory of gravity, could solve a long-standing conundrum about whether black holes destroy information. The theory suggests that the transition from black hole to white hole would take place right after the initial formation of the black hole, but because gravity dilates time, outside observers would see the black hole lasting billions or trillions of years or more, depending on its size.
Many physicists, however, believe that at some stage in this process, quantum-gravity effects should take over, arresting the collapse and avoiding the infinities. In a loop. Fluid Experiments Support Deterministic “Pilot-Wave” Quantum Theory. For nearly a century, “reality” has been a murky concept. The laws of quantum physics seem to suggest that particles spend much of their time in a ghostly state, lacking even basic properties such as a definite location and instead existing everywhere and nowhere at once. Only when a particle is measured does it suddenly materialize, appearing to pick its position as if by a roll of the dice. This idea that nature is inherently probabilistic — that particles have no hard properties, only likelihoods, until they are observed — is directly implied by the standard equations of quantum mechanics.
But now a set of surprising experiments with fluids has revived old skepticism about that worldview. The bizarre results are fueling interest in an almost forgotten version of quantum mechanics, one that never gave up the idea of a single, concrete reality. The experiments involve an oil droplet that bounces along the surface of a liquid. Magical Measurements Bottom: Akira Tonomura/Creative Commons. A Critical Test of Quantum Criticality.
+Enlarge image APS/Martin Klanjšek Every physicist knows how a ferromagnet like iron behaves as the temperature is increased [Fig. 1(a)]. At low temperatures, the constituent spins are spontaneously aligned as a result of the local magnetic fields from neighboring spins. Thermal fluctuations act against such local fields, inducing random reorientation of the spins. As the temperature increases, thermal fluctuations grow and the net magnetization in the ordered state continuously decreases. The magnetization drops to zero at a critical temperature ( kelvin in the case of iron). In a narrow temperature range around , thermal fluctuations of the spins extend over all length scales of the material—scale invariance is a key feature of critical points. Fluctuations driving quantum phase transitions are of a different nature, however.
Research on quantum criticality in the past two decades has focused on heavy-fermion metals [2, 3]. References S. About the Author: Martin Klanjšek. Stop Using Quantum Mechanics as Evidence for Magic. The Higgs Boson Explained. DNA molecules can 'teleport', Nobel Prize winner claims. A Nobel Prize winning biologist has ignited controversy after publishing details of an experiment in which a fragment of DNA appeared to ‘teleport’ or imprint itself between test tubes.
According to a team headed by Luc Montagnier, previously known for his work on HIV and AIDS, two test tubes, one of which contained a tiny piece of bacterial DNA, the other pure water, were surrounded by a weak electromagnetic field of 7Hz. Eighteen hours later, after DNA amplification using a polymerase chain reaction, as if by magic the DNA was detectable in the test tube containing pure water. Oddly, the original DNA sample had to be diluted many times over for the experiment to work, which might explain why the phenomenon has not been detected before, assuming that this is what has happened.
The phenomenon might be very loosely described as 'teleportation' except that the bases project or imprint themselves across space rather than simply moving from one place to another. What does all of this mean? Two Diamonds Linked by Strange Quantum Entanglement | Spooky Action at a Distance | Quantum Mechanics Macroscopic Objects. Scientists have linked two diamonds in a mysterious process called entanglement that is normally only seen on the quantum scale. Entanglement is so weird that Einstein dubbed it "spooky action at a distance.
" It's a strange effect where one object gets connected to another so that even if they are separated by large distances, an action performed on one will affect the other. Entanglement usually occurs with subatomic particles, and was predicted by the theory of quantum mechanics, which governs the realm of the very small. But now physicists have succeeded in entangling two macroscopic diamonds, demonstrating that quantum mechanical effects are not limited to the microscopic scale. "I think it's an important step into a new regime of thinking about quantum phenomena," physicist Ian Walmsley of England's University of Oxford said. "That is, in this regime of the bigger world, room temperatures, ambient conditions. Physics Community Afire With Rumors of Higgs Boson Discovery | Wired Science. One of the biggest debuts in the science world could happen in a matter of weeks: The Higgs boson may finally, really have been discovered.
Ever since tantalizing hints of the Higgs turned up in December at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists there have been busily analyzing the results of their energetic particle collisions to further refine their search. “The bottom line though is now clear: There’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look,” wrote mathematician Peter Woit on his blog, Not Even Wrong. According to Woit, there are rumors of new data that would be the most compelling evidence yet for the long-sought Higgs. The possible news has a number of physics bloggers speculating that LHC scientists will announce the discovery of the Higgs during the International Conference on High Energy Physics, which takes place in Melbourne, Australia, July 4 to 11. The new buzz is just the latest in the Higgs search drama.
The mention of “spin” of a particle is one that... - Say It With Science. Atoms Reach Record Temperature, Colder than Absolute Zero. Absolute zero is often thought to be the coldest temperature possible. But now researchers show they can achieve even lower temperatures for a strange realm of "negative temperatures. " Oddly, another way to look at these negative temperatures is to consider them hotter than infinity, researchers added. This unusual advance could lead to new engines that could technically be more than 100 percent efficient, and shed light on mysteries such as dark energy, the mysterious substance that is apparently pulling our universe apart. An object's temperature is a measure of how much its atoms move — the colder an object is, the slower the atoms are. Bizarro negative temperatures To comprehend the negative temperatures scientists have now devised, one might think of temperature as existing on a scale that is actually a loop, not linear.
With positive temperatures, atoms more likely occupy low-energy states than high-energy states, a pattern known as Boltzmann distribution in physics. Personal and Historical Perspectives of Hans Bethe. Amplituhedron. An amplituhedron is a geometric structure that enables simplified calculation of particle interactions in some quantum field theories. In planar N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory, an amplituhedron is defined as a mathematical space known as the positive Grassmannian. The connection between the amplituhedron and scattering amplitudes is at present a conjecture that has passed many non-trivial checks, including an understanding of how locality and unitarity arise as consequences of positivity. Research has been led by Nima Arkani-Hamed. Edward Witten described the work as “very unexpected" and said that "it is difficult to guess what will happen or what the lessons will turn out to be.
"[4] Description[edit] Using twistor theory, BCFW recursion relations involved in the scattering process may be represented as a small number of twistor diagrams. Implications[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Notes[edit] Bibliography[edit] External links[edit]