blike Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 According to Nature, a group of physicists from Oxford have proposed a plan to achieved superposition in a large object. And by large, they're referring to a mirror the size of a bacterium. Quantum superposition has been acheived in the past with atoms, but an effect called "decoherence" theoretically prevents the same effect in macroscopic objects. "William Marshall of the University of Oxford and his coworkers outline a scheme for evading decoherence to achieve a quantum superposition of states in an object with around a hundred trillion atoms. This is about a billion times larger than anything demonstrated previously." According to the article, many experiments have been proposed to demonstrate this effect, but this is the first one that is feasible with current technology. "In the hypothetical experiment, the light beam passes through a beam splitter, a kind of semi-mirror that lets some photons through and reflects others. Any photon can end up on one of two possible paths. Or it is possible to arrange things so that a photon effectively follows both paths at once, in a quantum superposition. The mirror would have to be in a very high vacuum as not to be disturbed by colliding gas molecules This enables the photon to interfere with itself, just as two light beams interfere when they cross paths, creating light and dark bands where their waves add or cancel out. The photon can transfer its superposition to the small mirror, so that it is in two positions at once. When this happens, the photon's self-interference disappears. The researchers calculate that the system will cycle back and forth between a superposition of photon states (in which case one can detect an interference pattern) and a superposition of mirror positions (for which there is no photon interference pattern)." Full article available here. Journal article here
JaKiri Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 I have 2 cats. They step on my keyboard, disturb my mouse hand and distract me from Homeworld 2 whilst looking for attention. My gf likes them.
aman Posted October 2, 2003 Posted October 2, 2003 I can see why they use a cat picture. Cats can disappear when you look for them, appear suddenly and interfere, and cause damage worth two cats. Photons at least have the potential to be useful since the article shows they are willing to be trained. Just aman
Kedas Posted October 3, 2003 Posted October 3, 2003 MrL_JaKiri said in post #7 :I have 2 cats. They step on my keyboard, disturb my mouse hand and distract me from Homeworld 2 whilst looking for attention. You are surprised that they play with your mouse? It is a cat!! that is what they do Anyway I just wanted to thank blike for putting that ugly Squid a bit lower so I don't have to look at it when I watch the home page. (I'm sure it looks a lot better under water)
Dudde Posted October 3, 2003 Posted October 3, 2003 blike you communist, dead mangled squid have feelings too!! *sigh* the oppression in this world...*shakes head*
Skye Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 Could it be used for anything productive ? Like say, manufacturing identical small componants.
YT2095 Posted October 4, 2003 Posted October 4, 2003 or maybe doubling the power output of a photo cell? 2 hits for the price of one?!
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