The Quantum Theory of Consciousness. Quantum wonders: The field that isn't there - physics-math - 08. HERE'S a nice piece of quantum nonsense.
Take a doughnut-shaped magnet and wrap a metal shield round its inside edge so that no magnetic field can leak into the hole. Then fire an electron through the hole. There is no field in the hole, so the electron will act as if there is no field, right? Wrong. Quantum dynamics of matter waves reveal exotic multibody collisi. At extremely low temperatures atoms can aggregate into so-called Bose Einstein condensates forming coherent laser-like matter waves.
Due to interactions between the atoms fundamental quantum dynamics emerge and give rise to periodic collapses and revivals of the matter wave field. A group of scientists led by Professor Immanuel Bloch (Chair of Experimental Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and Director of the Quantum Many Body Systems Division at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching) has now succeeded to take a glance 'behind the scenes' of atomic interactions revealing the complex structure of these quantum dynamics. By generating thousands of miniature BECs ordered in an optical lattice the researchers were able to observe a large number of collapse and revival cycles over long periods of time. The research is published in the journal Nature.