Schrodinger's Cat Closer To Reality?

Shipud writes "A group from the University of Oxford is proposing a scheme to achieve quantum superposition in a large object, according to Nature - not as large as Schrodinger's cat, but about ten-thousandth of a square millimiter, some 10^14 atoms. Quantum superposition is the phenomenon in which a photon passing through a beam splitter to takes two paths at once, inconceivable in the macroscopic world. William Marshall and co-workers suggest to mount a tiny mirror on a springy arm, so that the power of a single photon will be enough to oscillate it. When that photon is superposed, it transfers its superposition to the mirror, which will be quantum superposed: at two places at once. Wave particle duality has already been shown in Buckminster fullerenes, a 60 atom compound. Are we getting closer to quantum computers?"

Comments

Can they...

[drkich]

I would love to be able to stay up really freakin' late and sleep at the same time. Now that would be a break through!

Interesting!

[floydigus]

Quantum superposition is the phenomenon in which a photon passing through a beam splitter to takes two paths at once, inconceivable in the macroscopic world.

Whereas Slashdot is the phenomenon in which a sentence takes two paths at once.

Open the box and see

[Dancin_Santa]

Are we getting closer to quantum computers?

Maybe.

Canonical answer

[jolshefsky]

The question:

Are we getting closer to quantum computers?

The answer:

Yes and no.

Obligatory quote

[ManxStef]

inconceivable in the macroscopic world.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re:Yeah...

[isaac]

I don't mean to be a spoil sport, but even if they accomplish superposition, we still have Heisenberg to consider, right?

I'm not sure. Maybe we do, and maybe we don't. We'll probably never know for certain.