in the world It appears that a new record in quantum physics has been broken. in paper In a paper posted on the preprint site ArXiv, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China claim to have observed atoms in a quantum superposition state for 23 minutes. They argue that keeping quantum states stable for such long periods could make quantum devices more durable and help discover strange new effects in quantum physics.
Superposition is a phenomenon in which an object can occupy several different states at a given moment, but the actual state of the object is unknown. Very small objects such as photons and electrons exhibit this behavior. Rather than like particles with a single position, they behave like waves and can occupy a range of positions at any given time. Importantly, when a superimposed object is observed, its states collapse and it is observed in only one of its potential states. You can think of this as flipping a coin. While spinning in the air, it can be heads or tails at the same time, but when you look at it after landing, it can only be one or the other.
You may have also heard that superposition is explained using Schrödinger’s famous cat paradox. This is a thought experiment proposed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in which a cat is placed in a sealed box and radioactive material decays randomly, killing the cat. Until the box is opened, the experiment suggests that the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. Although commonly used to explain superposition, Schrödinger’s experiment was intended to demonstrate the seeming absurdity of this quantum behavior.
For years, researchers have been able to capture small objects that exhibit superposition, and in the laboratory, particles of light and even tiny crystals have been shown to occupy multiple states at the same time. However, the objects in these experiments were always very unstable, and the superposition exposures were very fleeting. But in a new study, Chinese researchers led by physicist Zheng-Tian Lu appear to have used atoms trapped in light to sustain the phenomenon.
The researchers used about 10,000 ytterbium atoms, cooled to a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, and captured them using the electromagnetic force of a laser beam. Under these conditions, the quantum states of atoms can be controlled very precisely, and researchers have used this to transform each atom into a superposition of two simultaneous states with two very different spins. I placed it.
Perturbations from an atom’s environment typically cause the atom to decay to a single state within seconds to milliseconds, but the researchers precisely tuned the laser to reduce the previous 1,400 seconds, or 23 minutes, to a single state. Atoms could be maintained for no duration. However, it is important to note that this work has not yet been formally independently reviewed.
Superpositions can be extended for very long periods of time, so if such a technique proves possible, it could in the future be used to detect and study magnetic forces, investigate new and exotic effects in physics, and even greatly It could also be used to realize stable quantum computer memory. .
This story was originally WIREDItaly Translated from Italian.
