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Physicists Smash Record For Wave-Particle Duality

Posted by Soulskill on from the call-me-when-it-works-on-a-baseball dept.

KentuckyFC writes "One of the central concepts in quantum theory is wave-particle duality — that every object can be thought of as a particle and a wave. Indeed every object has a quantum wavelength associated with it and so can form a quantum superposition with itself. That's easy to demonstrate with fundamental particles such as photons and electrons by passing a beam of them through a double slit and watching the interference pattern that forms on the other side. In this way, physicists have observed the interference patterns associated with atoms and even molecules such as buckyballs. Now, a group at the University of Vienna has observed the interference pattern formed by the quantum superposition of molecules containing over 800 atoms, or around 5,000 protons, 5,000 neutrons and 5,000 electrons. That's the most macroscopic occurrence of wave-particle duality ever observed, they say."

6 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Whatever by For+a+Free+Internet · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wake me up when they can find the wavelength of a Turtle, because quantum theory holds that the universe is made of picoturtles. Why should anyone believe quantum "science"?

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    1. Re:Whatever by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't forget the four elephants on the back of the turtle holding the world up. It's like you people had never taken a science class before.

  2. Not enough by HeckRuler · · Score: 4, Funny

    I won't be happy until they get a whole cat to exist in superposition.
    Then a lab assistant.
    THEN THE WORLD!

    1. Re:Not enough by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny

      There are lots of pictures of coherent cats on the internet. Unfortunately as soon as somebody looks at them, they immediately collapse into a picture of a lolcat.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  3. Re:Nothing new by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Informative

    They just observed what we already know.

    No. They observed what we already expected. Our currently best theories predicted it. But then, our then-best theories didn't predict the null result of the Michelson-Moreley experiment, or the photoelectric effect. We don't really know it until we tried.

    Note that there are theories which postulate a modification of quantum mechanics for sufficiently large objects as solution to the measurement problem. Therefore measurements like this can indeed differentiate between competing theories. Although I think you'd need to test even larger objects to test those theories.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  4. Particle, wave, Nobel prizes...a family affair by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 4, Interesting

    love this one:
    "In 1906, J.J. Thompson had received the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are particles;
    in 1937 he saw his son awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are waves.
    Both father and son were correct, and both awards were fully merited."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Thomson
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Paget_Thomson