Category Archives: Quantum Physics

The authors of a paper published in the journal Nature Methods have coined the term "NanoNeuro" to describe an emerging discipline that intersects nanoscience and neuroscience. It utilizes nanotechnology to simulate neuronal activity in the brain.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/ HaHanna

For over a century, neuroscientists have used glass or metal electrodes to study the activities of neurons in the brain. Given the vast numbers of neurons present in the brain, these methods are limited at best.

Materials at the nanometer scale (10-9 m) have unique properties, many of them recently uncovered by quantum physics. Nanomaterials have many advantages as biosensors and actuators, opening the door to major advances in neuroscience and medicine.

Nanoscience is the study of matter and phenomena at the nanoscale - i.e., of the order of 10-9 meters. In comparison, a single human hair is 60,000 nm thick. The prefix "nano" derives from "nanos", the Greek word for dwarf. The term "nanometer" was first coined by Richard Zsigmondy. He was the first to measure the size of particles using a microscope.

The physical properties of nanoparticles were already being manipulated in the ancient world: in the 4th century A.D. in Rome, the makers of the Lycurgus Cup used gold particles (perhaps not knowing they were doing so) to fashion glass which changes its color as light passes through it.

Yet, it wasn't until Nobel physicist Richard Feynman's lecture at Caltech that the concept of manipulating matter at the atomic level began to be considered. Several yearslater, Norio Taniguchi coined the term "nanotechnology" to describe semiconductor processes occurring at the nanoscale level.

The workings of the human brain itself have equally fascinated humans. Yet, despite the many developments in neuroscience, many questions, including what causes consciousness and what causes neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, remain unanswered.

Nanotechnology is poised to help researchers and scientists answer many of these questions.

Freud had hoped to base psychology on the understanding of neural events inside the brain. However, techniques for studying the brain at the physiological level were limited, and there is still a long way to go to simulate brain activity at the neuron level.

Advancements in this area would help us understand the functioning of the brain and treat neurological diseases.

The authors of the Nature Methods paper describe NanoNeuro as the application of nanomaterials - nanoprobes and nanoelectrodes to neuroscience. These nanomaterials will help us investigate neural circuitry at incredibly small scales. It is exploiting the same processes which have reduced computers from the size of a hangar to the size of a chip in a smartphone.

Materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene have unique chemical, thermal and mechanical properties. At the quantum scale, they exhibit exotic properties and entirely new functionalities.

Plasmonic nanoparticles possess unique optical properties that can be manipulated through their shape and size. They could be used to fire neurons with high degrees of precision.

Quantum dots are nanoparticles that fluoresce under an electric field. This fluorescence can be modulated with the strength of the electric field and reveal the activities of individual neurons. They could replace fluorescent dyes currently used in medical imaging.

Upconverting nanoparticles convert low-energy electrons into high-energy electrons. Researchers have succeeded in making mice see infrared colors by injecting these particles into their retina.

Since the human body is almost completely unharmed by magnetic fields, magnetic nanoparticles could be embedded into brain tissue to modulate neuronal activity.

Nanotechnology is a promising technology for the 21st century. It has the ability to convert neuroscience theory into useful applications by observing, manipulating and controlling matter at the nanometer scale. It offers the possibility of probing neural activity at the sub-cellular level, significantly improving our understanding of critical brain functions.

Garcia-Etxarri, A., et. Al. (2021) Time for NanoNeuro. [Online] Nature Methods.Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-021-01270-9

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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NanoNeuro: The Intersection of Nanoscience and Neuroscience - AZoNano

Mahdi Sanei was born on April 21, 1993 in the city of Isfahan. Also boost your business. Mahdi Sanei was known as an advertising consultant from 2011 to 2014, and he was active in advertising and branding consulting.

Because Mahdi Sanei started his activity in the same field, namely graphics and advertising, in fact, Mahdi was first a graphic designer and then got acquainted with the web field by starting his activity in the UI and UX sections. After several years of activity in the field of web design, Mahdi is attracted to the world of cyber security, programming and begins to study and study this part as much as he can, and now as an activist in the field of cyber security in the network application layer Be focused and active.

But why did Mahdi Sanei become so popular and popular?

Mahdi Sanei, after gaining technical experience as well as studying in a field related to his work, decided to establish a brand, a brand called TechGo.

After the establishment of TechGo, Mahdi Sanei was able to take big steps in this direction by attracting young and motivated forces and focusing on the idea of technology and digital.

It may be interesting to know that TechGo is generally made up of people under the age of 25 and mostly works remotely because Mahdi Sanei believed that digital work space and technology have removed physical limitations, so first to attract young people and trust it. He started and then, by creating aspirations among these young people, he was able to offer high quality and low cost to his customers, which made this name more colorful among all the competitors of Mahdi Sanei Company than ever before.

Why then did TechGo and Mahdi Sanei come up so much?

The question is correct, we must say that Mahdi was able to attract the trust of customers by combining the ideas of young people whom he had trusted one day and also providing very accurate and detailed services.

This brand was so obsessive and precise that its customers became addicted to He was re-collaborating, many secrets of how they work and the profit they make are still hidden, but what is clear is that Mahdi Sanei with the TechGo brand and his professional team has been able to be very attractive and most of the business To attract Asian online companies.

Read a part of Mahdi Saneis recently published interview in this article to get to know him better.

Mr. Sanei, where did you start and why technology?

I first started with graphic design and my interest was in media design, then I became interested in advertising and started studying and reviewing it, which made me familiar with the different parts of the digital world,

for example, my web design. I became acquainted and after trying to explore deeper layers, I was attracted to programming and the world of cyber security.

Those who are in this field know that digital science and technology are so vast and new that every day new events and ideas for There is discovery .

Mahdi Sanei has a brand, right?

This brand was formed; Want to tell the story?

In fact, we worked with different teams in different digital disciplines, and that led us to the conclusion of establishing TechGo,

TechGo is a brand that includes various teams of technology and digital sciences, which includes support and production of content in the context of social media to cyber security and even hardware. Of course, we are considering many other areas that are not yet active and developing the team. We are our own expert and technician.

We attract interns and staff from all over the world who work remotely and remotely. TechGo has a detailed identity and ideal that you will hear more about in the future.

How do you think those who aim for a digital world should start on this path? You see, the most important thing I think was focusing on one branch, you can hardly focus if you are interested in technology, and from our point of view this is a bug in your system,

So first they have to set a goal and then focus on just the branch of technology they have chosen.

This is my best suggestion. How does he see the future of the world in this regard?

I think the next century belongs to the quantum world, the combination of the digital world and the world of physics and quantum reveals to us certain dimensions of science that we have not yet achieved.

Lets get away from work, tell us about your personal life, where do you live and how do you go about your daily life?

(He says with a laugh) I am constantly traveling because of my job because of the meetings I have to attend and this has made me not have a fixed place, my daily life is with my colleagues and friends.

It is really the best pleasure for me to discover new events in It is technology

And for this reason, I have generally chosen those around me in a way that my life has the color and smell of technology and digital.

It seems that TechGo is a big tree that we will hear a lot of news about its growth in the future, so remember the names of Mahdi Sanei and TechGo.

The rest is here:

Mahdi Sanei, A Digital Technology Activist And Leading Entrepreneur In This Field, Forecast The Future Of Technology By Combining Artificial...

The central principle of superconductivity is that electrons form pairs. But can they also condense into foursomes? Recent findings have suggested they can, and a physicist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology today published the first experimental evidence of this quadrupling effect and the mechanism by which this state of matter occurs.

Reporting in Nature Physics, Professor Egor Babaev and collaborators presented evidence of fermion quadrupling in a series of experimental measurements on the iron-based material, Ba1xKxFe2As2. The results follow nearly 20 years after Babaev first predicted this kind of phenomenon, and eight years after he published a paper predicting that it could occur in the material.

The pairing of electrons enables the quantum state of superconductivity, a zero-resistance state of conductivity which is used in MRI scanners and quantum computing. It occurs within a material as a result of two electrons bonding rather than repelling each other, as they would in a vacuum. The phenomenon was first described in a theory by, Leon Cooper, John Bardeen and John Schrieffer, whose work was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972.

The iron-based superconductor material, Ba1xKxFe2As2, is mounted for experimental measurements. Credit: Vadim Grinenko, Federico Caglieris

So-called Cooper pairs are basically opposites that attract. Normally two electrons, which are negatively-charged subatomic particles, would strongly repel each other. But at low temperatures in a crystal they become loosely bound in pairs, giving rise to a robust long-range order. Currents of electron pairs no longer scatter from defects and obstacles and a conductor can lose all electrical resistance, becoming a new state of matter: a superconductor.

Only in recent years has the theoretical idea of four-fermion condensates become broadly accepted.

For a fermion quadrupling state to occur there has to be something that prevents condensation of pairs and prevents their flow without resistance, while allowing condensation of four-electron composites, Babaev says.

The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory didnt allow for such behavior, so when Babaevs experimental collaborator at Technische Universtt Dresden, Vadim Grinenko, found in 2018 the first signs of a fermion quadrupling condensate, it challenged years of prevalent scientific agreement.

What followed was three years of experimentation and investigation at labs at multiple institutions in order to validate the finding.

Babaev says that key among the observations made is that fermionic quadruple condensates spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry. In physics time-reversal symmetry is a mathematical operation of replacing the expression for time with its negative in formulas or equations so that they describe an event in which time runs backward or all the motions are reversed.

If one inverts time direction, the fundamental laws of physics still hold. That also holds for typical superconductors: if the arrow of time is reversed, a typical superconductor would still be the same superconducting state.

However, in the case of a four-fermion condensate that we report, the time reversal puts it in a different state, he says.

It will probably take many years of research to fully understand this state, he says. The experiments open up a number of new questions, revealing a number of other unusual properties associated with its reaction to thermal gradients, magnetic fields and ultrasound that still have to be better understood.

Reference: State with spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry above the superconducting phase transition by Vadim Grinenko, Daniel Weston, Federico Caglieris, Christoph Wuttke, Christian Hess, Tino Gottschall, Ilaria Maccari, Denis Gorbunov, Sergei Zherlitsyn, Jochen Wosnitza, Andreas Rydh, Kunihiro Kihou, Chul-Ho Lee, Rajib Sarkar, Shanu Dengre, Julien Garaud, Aliaksei Charnukha, Ruben Hhne, Kornelius Nielsch, Bernd Bchner, Hans-Henning Klauss and Egor Babaev, 18 October 2021, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/s41567-021-01350-9

Contributing to the research were scientists from the following institutions: Institute for Solid State and Materials Physics, TU Dresden, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden; Stockhom University; Bergische Universtt at Wuppertal, Germany; Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD-EMFL); Wurzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Germany; Helmholtz-Zentrum, Germany; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan; Institut Denis Poisson, France.

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Physics Experiment Reveals Formation of a New State of Matter Breaks Time-Reversal Symmetry - SciTechDaily

The Big Bang or the massive expansion of things that happened 14 billion years ago. Many believe that this is the origin of the universe. Hard to Imagine Without the Big Bang, would there still be a universe that gave birth to the earth and humans like us?

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Most recently, a physicist at the University of Liverpool in the UK. Using sophisticated concepts such as quantum gravity (QG), the universe proves the possibility of being as we have always seen. There is no beginning or big bang as it is understood. Or if the Big Bang is real, its a aftermath.

This unusual idea equates to renewing ancient beliefs in some cultures that the universe is eternal without origin and will never die.

Dr. Bruno Pento, a physicist, is studying the nature of time at the University of Liverpool. The author of the above research said that arXiv.org, now published in the online educational archive, has developed a new theory within the framework of quantum gravity. Named Causal Theory

The new theory assumes that space-time can be divided into smaller and smaller units, which will eventually be indivisible units based on space-time. Like the atoms of elements, this basic time-space can be used to find the universe or the beginning of the universe.

NASAAccording to the theory of relativity the gap is woven together into a continuous piece.

The causal theory was developed from the concept of quantum gravity. Such quantum concepts can explain physics problems at the particle level. Einsteins general theory of relativity cannot be explained. Singular (singular), or including the gravitational problem at the smallest point of infinite density. They are found only at the onset of black holes and eruptions.

Dr. Without the continuous weaving of a fabric as we imagine the universe and the real world today. The opportunity for two events to follow each other when and where. Will be limited immediately

A new perspective on such a gap is like looking through a magnifying glass on your computer screen. This will result in an enlarged image that is immediately separated from the rest of the screen. Unlike the naked eye, all screenshots are linked together.

Dr. Pento also explains that the synthesis theory of causation considers that the course of time is characterized by detailed and distinctive physical features. Rather than being an abstract or illusory.

Under this ideological framework, the universe is only a fundamental unit of expansion of space-time.

Such a theory is mathematically possible. It means that the origin or the Big Bang is not a prerequisite for the existence of the universe. There must have been something long before the Big Bang happened.

Our study shows that this is an infinitely long and infinite past. The Big Bang did not begin. It is only a step in the evolution of the universe, Dr. Pento concluded.

News BBCThailand Published on the website New news This is a collaboration between two news organizations.

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Quantum Gravity Theory Renewing Ancient Concepts "Universe Without Beginning" - New News - The Press Stories

image:The iron-based superconductor material, Ba1xKxFe2As2, is mounted for experimental measurements. view more

Credit: Vadim Grinenko, Federico Caglieris

The central principle of superconductivity is that electrons form pairs. But can they also condense into foursomes? Recent findings have suggested they can, and a physicist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology today published the first experimental evidence of this quadrupling effect and the mechanism by which this state of matter occurs.

Reporting today in Nature Physics, Professor Egor Babaev and collaborators presented evidence of fermion quadrupling in a series of experimental measurements on the iron-based material, Ba1xKxFe2As2. The results follow nearly 20 years after Babaev first predicted this kind of phenomenon, and eight years after he published a paper predicting that it could occur in the material.

The pairing of electrons enables the quantum state of superconductivity, a zero-resistance state of conductivity which is used in MRI scanners and quantum computing. It occurs within a material as a result of two electrons bonding rather than repelling each other, as they would in a vacuum. The phenomenon was first described in a theory by, Leon Cooper, John Bardeen and John Schrieffer, whose work was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972.

So-called Cooper pairs are basically opposites that attract. Normally two electrons, which are negatively-charged subatomic particles, would strongly repel each other. But at low temperatures in a crystal they become loosely bound in pairs, giving rise to a robust long-range order. Currents of electron pairs no longer scatter from defects and obstacles and a conductor can lose all electrical resistance, becoming a new state of matter: a superconductor.

Only in recent years has the theoretical idea of four-fermion condensates become broadly accepted.

For a fermion quadrupling state to occur there has to be something that prevents condensation of pairs and prevents their flow without resistance, while allowing condensation of four-electron composites, Babaev says.

The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory didnt allow for such behavior, so when Babaevs experimental collaborator at Technische Universtt Dresden, Vadim Grinenko, found in 2018 the first signs of a fermion quadrupling condensate, it challenged years of prevalent scientific agreement.

What followed was three years of experimentation and investigation at labs at multiple institutions in order to validate the finding.

Babaev says that key among the observations made is that fermionic quadruple condensates spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry. In physics time-reversal symmetry is a mathematical operation of replacing the expression for time with its negative in formulas or equations so that they describe an event in which time runs backward or all the motions are reversed.

If one inverts time direction, the fundamental laws of physics still hold. That also holds for typical superconductors: if the arrow of time is reversed, a typical superconductor would still be the same superconducting state.

However, in the case of a four-fermion condensate that we report, the time reversal puts it in a different state, he says.

It will probably take many years of research to fully understand this state," he says. "The experiments open up a number of new questions, revealing a number of other unusual properties associated with its reaction to thermal gradients, magnetic fields and ultrasound that still have to be better understood.

Contributing to the research were scientists from the following institutions: Institute for Solid State and Materials Physics, TU Dresden, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden; Stockhom University; Bergische Universtt at Wuppertal, Germany; Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD-EMFL); Wurzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Germany; Helmholtz-Zentrum, Germany; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan; Institut Denis Poisson, France.

Experimental study

Not applicable

'State with spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry above the superconducting phase transition

18-Oct-2021

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Experiments reveal formation of a new state of matterelectron quadruplets - EurekAlert

Physicists from the University of Colorado have created an atomic clock so precise it can measure gravitational time dilation over distances as small as one millimeter.

This record-breaking measurement could have implications reaching as far as redefining exactly how long a second is or discovering where all the dark matter in our universe is hiding.

Up front: Einstein figured out that time functions differently depending on how close to a gravity well the observer is. So, for instance, if youre standing on the Earth wearing a watch itll run a tad bit slower than if youre out in space.

This phenomenon is known as gravitational time dilation. Weve observed it in our solar system in reference to the sun, and more recently out in deep space in a double-star system.

On Earth, the previous record for smallest observation of gravitational time dilation ever measured was about 33 centimeters.

The Colorado team observed time dilation across an atomic clock stacked only a single millimeter high, thus blowing the old record away.

Background: The way the team accomplished such a feat was incredible. In essence, they arranged 100,000 atoms along a sort of scaffold that allowed them to stagger across an entire millimeters distance. No small feat at the atomic scale.

Then the team hit the atoms with beams of light tuned to specific frequencies to cause a reaction. At different heights away from the Earth, the atoms reacted either slower or faster. This demonstrated time dilation at the smallest scale weve seen so far.

Why it matters: The ability to accurately measure time cuts to the core of our species ability to explore the cosmos.

We dont have spaceships that can zip us out at light speed to explore the furthest reaches of space. We have telescopes and sensors.

Understanding the universe requires observation of whats happening over vast distances of space and time. After all, were not really seeing the stars twinkle in real time: were observing beams of light that have potentially traveled for millions of years.

Per the teams pre-print paper, building a better atomic clock has massive implications:

Ultimately, clocks will study the union of general relativity and quantum mechanics once they become sensitive to the finite wavefunction of quantum objects oscillating in curved spacetime.

Quick take: Better measurements lead to better results. And in this case, were closing in on one of the most fundamentally important events in human history: the unification of classical physics and quantum mechanics.

Arguably, closing the measurement of time from distances as huge as a millimeter down to the atomic, subatomic, and quantum scales could be the lynchpin which binds a single, overarching theory of everything together.

This would be huge, but its also a long shot based on where the research is today. Luckily, there are closer targets for atomic clock technology that could also revolutionize our understanding of the universe, namely: dark matter.

Many of Einsteins theories and those being explored by modern theoretical physicists hinge upon the existence of so-called dark matter. This mysterious substance supposedly makes up more than 85% of the entire universe, but we cant seem to find it anywhere.

And thats because its currently undetectable. When we look for dark matter were not trying to point a telescope at it. Were conducting measurements on everything but dark matter in hopes of painting its silhouette with math as a method for revealing it.

The more precise we are at determining how events at extreme distances unfold over time, the more likely well be able to accurately identify what were looking at or not looking at, as the case may be.

As with any pre-print research, its worth waiting for peer review before we start shouting eureka from the rooftops. But, if this all adds up, this research could be some of the most exciting stuff weve seen in the physics world all year.

H/t: Emily Conover, ScienceNews

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How atomic time-travel could reveal the mysteries of dark matter and more - The Next Web

Most people hear this term tossed around sometime or the other. This post will cover the basic properties and essential things that one should know if they want to comprehend Quantum Mechanics.

The history of quantum mechanics is an important part of the history of modern physics. The term Quantum Mechanics was coined by a group of physicists including Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg in the early 1920s at the University of Gttingen. Both matter and radiation have characteristics of waves and particles at the fundamental level. The gradual acknowledgment by scientists that matter has wave-like properties and radiation has particle-like properties provided the momentum for the development of quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with the behavior of matter and light on a subatomic and atomic level. It attempts to explain the properties of atoms and molecules and their fundamental particles like protons, neutrons, electrons, gluons, and quarks. The properties of particles include their interactions with each other and with electromagnetic radiation. So below mentioned are those two pointers one should know necessarily before tackling quantum mechanics.

Following are the list of few formulas that are used in quantum mechanics:

Its extremely difficult to notice the quantum effects when large bodies come into play. All things obey the quantum mechanics laws. This was the reason why quantum physics was explored later in theoretical chemistry. Until the physicist had to find an explanation for the shells in which the electron sits around the nucleus they had no use for quantum mechanics.

Dismissing quantum mechanics as a thing of the past will be a mistake. Agreed that the theory was coined a century before but due to the lack of modern instruments research into it was at a primitive state. Quantum mechanics has been applied and accepted into many fields such as optics, computers, thermodynamics, cryptography, and also meteorology. Research in these fields is still active.

Things appear and disappear at random, but they dont just travel over stretches of space without going through all the things in between. In the hay-days of quantum mechanics, this confusion was a great one but now it has been proved that this theory fits in perfect compatibility with the theory of special relativity. This tells us that entanglement although a non-local phenomenon does not have any action.

Quantum mechanics was not denied as a theory by Einstein, although many people have the misconception. He could not have denied the theory as it was successful on such a large scale. What Einstein said was that the theory was incomplete and it was his belief that the random processes of quantum mechanics may have an explanation to them.

Macroscopic bodies lose their quantum behavior very fast. This was never well understood by the scientists of that time. This happens because of the regular interactions the body would have to endure. Quantum mechanics has been exceptionally successful in explaining microscopic phenomena in all branches of physics.

Stay tuned with BYJUS to learn more about quantum physics, and much more.

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What Is Quantum Mechanics, Formula, And Applications - BYJUS

It may be strange to have a cover revolving abyssfrom an Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, View sentence courtesy of British writer Neil Gaiman. Perhaps what unites the works of the scientist and author of fiction is, in short, the attitude that calls into question our certainty about reality. Rovelli has already published other scholarly works in Brazil that question our notions of time, space, and existence, such as Seven short physics lessons, reality is not what it seems NS time order. In his new book, released by Objetiva, he delves into one of the most fascinating and misunderstood topics in modern science, quantum physics.

The lay public has ended up not knowing, for the past few decades, a blanket of mysticism, pseudoscience, and sorcery. There are therapists who claim to take advantage of quantum effects to treat other peoples problems, but it is rare that they know what quantum physics is and what its effects actually are. In times of obscurantism, scientific denial, and ignorance, books like Rovelli come at an opportune time.

Quantum physics studies puzzling little phenomena, such as the behavior of electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom. The motion of everyday objects such as a train has been satisfactorily described by classical mechanics that we inherited from Newton, but at the beginning of the 20th century physicists realized that their formulas did not apply to extreme scales such as fundamental particles. At this stage revolving abyss lies. More specifically on the German island of Helgoland, in the North Sea, mentioned by James Joyce in Ulysses His name means holy island. There Werner Heisenberg turned to start what we now call quantum physics.

Since science has been able to unravel this subatomic environment, some notions about reality that seemed so obvious have been called into question. For example, the electron did not move along a path, like a very small ball, but manifested itself in certain orbits of the atom and appeared to jump from one to the other without actually moving between points, obeying the rules of probabilistic, indeterminate paths. The challenge for quantum physics, in the past 100 years, has been to understand these phenomena. While the theory is incredibly accurate, and capable of making verifiable predictions more accurately than any other theory, Rovelli warns that it forces us to set aside some of our intuitive notions about the world we live in.

Even the word how much comes from a peculiar characteristic of reality. German physicist Max Planck noted that energy (as, for example, the heat of a furnace) does not increase assuming all possible values between them. Rovelli states that it behaves as if the energy were only transferred in bundles, assuming values multiples of the lower bound. There are no very tiny amounts of energy. Reality has a certain degree of accuracy, that is, energy takes on definite, definite, quantitative values that do not constantly evolve. Hence quantum, not some mystical characteristic that involves the power of the mind.

first part of revolving abyss He recounts the development of the study of these small phenomena, reviewing a star-studded crew of Nobel Prize winners such as Dane Niels Bohr, German Werner Heisenberg, and Austrian Erwin Schrdinger, among many others. The second part introduces the most disturbing concepts in quantum physics, such as superposition and entanglement, which have led to it being considered this mystic. In the third and final part, Rovelli offers some interpretations that are still under discussion and explains the basis for his hypothesis, formulated in the 1990s, relational quantum physics.

It attempts to remove some apparent contradictions in quantum theory through an interpretive approach that takes into account the relationship between the observer and the system it describes. For him, the properties of the object are relatively expressive. For example, it makes no sense to measure the speed of an aircraft without specifying what (on the ground, in the air in motion?) Likewise, quantum effects such as superposition and particle entanglement will depend on this relationship with a reference point (or observer) to be measured.

In the second century, the Indian sage Nagarjuna developed a philosophy of emptiness whose central thesis is, very briefly, that nothing exists in itself independently of other things, but that everything that exists does so in relation to something. Rovelli offers this and many other scientific references, from cubism to Shakespeares Storm, to explain how he sees the dilemmas posed by quantum physics, such as the idea that an observer changes the results of an experiment, or that a hypothetical cat can take on two simultaneous states and be alive and dead at the same time .

Quantum theory explained the foundations of chemistry, the workings of atoms, solid matter, plasma, the color of the sky, the neurons in our brain, the dynamics of stars, the origin of galaxies many aspects of the world. The basis of the latest technology: from computers to nuclear power plants, it is part From the daily lives of engineers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, chemists, and biologists. Theoretical principles are in high school curricula. They are the beating heart of todays science. It remains an enigma. A bit disturbing, writes Rovelo, who elegantly leads the reader through the intricacies of the most intricate theory I have envisioned mankind at all, which still haunts us with its incomprehensible secrets.

Read below the interview by Carlo Rovelli condition By email:

The beginning of the twentieth century gave us Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schudinger, who revolutionized our understanding of reality. Today, there appear not to be individual names as notable groups, but rather anonymous groups of researchers in universities and laboratories. as mr. look at this?

The difference is just a matter of perspective. In the early twentieth century, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrdinger were still not recognized. They looked like anonymous researchers in universities and laboratories. It is possible today that some of these anonymous researchers will be celebrated in the future.

What is the state of the art theoretical physics and what are the latest discoveries as influential as those you recorded in your book, created a century ago?

There are tentative ideas and theories, such as quantum theory and general relativity that were tentative in the beginning. We still dont know which one will prove correct. For my part, I hope the in-loop quantum gravity is correct. It has not yet been confirmed, but there is a mob to find evidence to support it. Loop Quantum Gravitation predicts that space is granular. You expect the geometry of spacetime to be in quantum interference. This changes our view of the world profoundly.

His book Relational Quantum Physics offers explanations for such exuberant phenomena as particle entanglement, Schrdingers cat, Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle, the idea of an observers interference in experiment, and surprisingly simple and elegant explanations when Mr. He describes it in the book. It seems to eliminate most quantum paradoxes and ambiguities.

fact. But that doesnt make quantum theory any less exotic. The conceptual change it requires is still significant.

How successful is relational quantum physics today and what are the biggest criticisms of it?

Scientists and philosophers remain divided over how to think about quantum phenomena. Relational quantum physics arose in the 1990s, and for a long time remained a minority view. In the past decade, and especially in recent years, it has received more attention. Many people find it attractive. But I certainly wouldnt say its the dominant view. There is still no prevailing view.

How close are we to unifying quantum theories and relativity?

Its an excellent question, but no one knows the answer. We may have already done so: toroidal quantum gravity could be this unification. But it may also be wrong. We have to wait, meditate, experiment, and find out.

the master. Do you think we will reach a point in our scientific knowledge where there are no more new questions to solve or where our ability to discover new things is stagnant?

No, I think the number of open questions is still huge. Theres a lot we dont know about reality It seems humanity is more likely to destroy itself than to reach the limits of its knowledge.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of scientific dissemination and communication to explain science to the general public. But we still have a lot of work to do in this area. as mr. Do you think it is possible to improve the dissemination of science to the public?

I had hoped that the extraordinary efficacy we see with vaccines would increase peoples confidence in scientific thinking. Unfortunately, this does not happen: many naive people are deceived by the nonsense that floods the Internet. But I dont think this has anything to do with science. Its about politics, peoples unhappiness, mistrust of society, and feelings that this society doesnt represent us. Science ends up getting caught in this crossfire.

There is a growing gap between the exact sciences and the humanities, but his book provides a thought-provoking example of Ernst Mach, who linked physics with philosophy, politics, and literature. How can we bring these worlds together today?

to be smarter We see that there are no real contradictions if we listen more carefully to each other.

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Carlo Rovelli: "I was hoping that vaccines would increase people's confidence in science" - by the way - Lodi Valley News.com

Mysterious forces may be a reliable trope in science fiction, but in reality, physicists have long agreed that all interactions between objects evidently arise from just four fundamental forces. Yet that has not stopped them from ardently searching for an additional, as-yet-unknown fifth fundamental force. The discovery of such a force could potentially resolve some of the biggest open questions in physics today, from the nature of dark energy to the seemingly irreconcilable differences between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Now, a recent experiment carried out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is offering fresh hints about a fifth forces possible character. An international collaboration of researchers used neutrons and a silicon crystal to set new limits on the strength of a potential fifth fundamental force at atomic scales. Published in Science in September, the study also includes measurements of the precise structure of both silicon crystals and neutrons themselves.

This work of fifth force searches actually goes on over the entire length scale of human observation, says NIST physicist Benjamin Heacock, the studys lead author. Because different theories predict different fifth force properties, he says, physicists have looked for its subtle effects in everything from surveys of astronomical objects like galaxies to the miniscule motions of custom-built microscopic instruments. So far, however, all searches have come up empty.

Theres a reason to think we're missing something, notes Eric Adelberger, a physicist at the University of Washington who was not involved with the study. His own team has previously looked for some of the proposed new forces and, with great experimental certainty, found nothing at all. In work recognized in 2021 with a Breakthrough Prize, they concluded that the fifth force must be much weaker than some theories predicted, or that it simply does not exist. The NIST experiment follows a similar idea but uses a novel experimental technique. The goal from the experimentalist perspective is to make strides forward in limiting [the strength of] new forces, wherever the experiment can do it, and for us that happens to be on the atomic scale, Heacock says.

Gauging relevant interactions at such scales is uniquely challenging, according to Adelberger, in part because in the atomic realm a typical object is about a million times smaller than the width of an average human hair. You have to ask, how much matter can you get within a little volume associated with that length scale? It's absolutely tiny, he says. And even the barest influence from other, known forces such as electromagnetism can easily scuttle the delicate measurements. To solve that problem, the NIST team relied on neutrons, the neutrally charged subatomic particles usually found in atomic nuclei, as neutrons are barely swayed by electromagnetic effects.

Further, the even smaller particles that make up neutrons, called quarks, are glued together so intensely by the strong interaction (one of the four known fundamental forces) that it is exceedingly difficult to physically disturb them. The strong interaction that holds quarks together in a neutron is insanely strong, so the neutron gets almost no distortion when it gets close to [other] matter, explains W. Michael Snow, a physicist at Indiana University who was also uninvolved with the new experiment. Studying the behavior of neutrons is consequently well-suited for seeking out new forces because there are not many easily measurable effects influencing these subatomic particles to begin with. One of the new studys co-authors, Albert Young, a physicist at North Carolina State University, puts it simply: At present, at our [atomic] length scale, neutrons kind of rule.

In their experiment, researchers observed neutrons that had traveled through a specially machined, nearly perfect silicon crystal made by collaborators at the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics in Japan. Silicon is a common material, but precision machining of silicon is a super difficult thing, underlines Michael Huber, a NIST physicist and another of the studys co-authors. Inside this perfect crystalshielded from light, heat, vibrations and other sources of external noise thanks to special NIST facilitiessilicon atoms are arranged in predictable grid-like patterns.

Neutrons traveling through that grid collided with some silicon atoms and evaded others. However, as the neutrons journey took place at the atomic scale where laws of quantum mechanics dictate that all particles behave like waves, their collisions with silicon atoms were similar to breakers crashing into a shore dotted with large, evenly spaced rocks. When a neutron bumped into a silicon atom then, this interaction created something like a neutron wave ripple. This ripple overlapped with other neutron wave ripples originating near adjacent silicon atoms, resulting in a wave interference pattern not unlike rough, choppy water along a rocky coast.

Most crucially, through clever experimental design, the researchers ensured that some of the neutron waves lapping on the silicon atom shores overlapped in a very specific way that resulted in so-called Pendellsung oscillations. These oscillations are roughly analogous to beats, and are best thought of as pulsing, alternating low-then-loud auditory effects that happen when two nearly identical sound waves are played simultaneously. In the case of this new experiment, they are akin to a distinctive but difficult to detect ripple pattern within the neutron waves breaking along the silicon seashore. Although Pendellsung interference was discovered and demonstrated a long time ago, in the 1960s at MIT, it's rarely used and most experiments are not sensitive to it, Huber explains.

His team carefully analyzed these special ripples, looking for key details about the silicon rocks and the neutron waves that crashed into them. It was as if they could tell how much water each wave carried, whether any rocks moved in the collision and more. Importantly, had an atomic-scale fifth-force interaction been at play, the details of the neutron wave interference pattern would have revealed its presence, much like how ripples in surf can follow the outline of a submerged sea wall. Although the researchers found no signs of a fifth force, they did determine a new limit, 10 times stricter than before, on how strong such a force could be.

The NIST team believes that their innovative experimental setup will allow them to make even more precise measurements in the future. They already managed, for instance, to infer details of the arrangement of quarks inside a neutron, as well as some precise motions of silicon atoms, which could prove useful for the manufacture of fine-tuned electronics. However, their quest to constrain the strength of the fifth force, a task they accomplish by combining multiple separate neutron-property measurements under certain assumptions, remains the most promising and the most difficult part of their work. We can keep and should keep searching [for the fifth force], says Yoshio Kamiya, a physicist at Tokyo University who was uninvolved with the new study. This is just one step.

Adelberger agrees, and he is eager see new results from the next phase of experimentation. There's a lot of stuff that has to go into getting this kind of a result, he says. Its a tiny effect, and researchers have to keep accounting for all other tiny effects. Both Kamiya and Adelberger think that there is room for debate on how strongly the new work should make physicists reconsider their theories about the strength of a possible fifth force. Based on the current study, Adelberger says, too many potential sources of error remain; even if the NIST team had found positive evidence of a new force, he says, it could not be considered truly definitive.

Heacock notes that his team already has ideas for advancing their work, for instance by using germanium crystals instead of silicon, in which atoms are arranged in different structures that could be even more advantageous for precise observations of neutron interference. Another goal is to seriously expand the available catalog of precise atomic scale measurements for any and all fifth forcehunting physicists to consult in their own independent work. Ideally, Heacock notes, the measurements in the new study are just a first few opening the door for the dozens more to come. I think any experiment will eventually hit a wall, but I also think we're pretty far from it, he says.

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New Universal Force Tested by Blasting Neutrons through Crystal - Scientific American

Scientists just broke the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in a lab: They achieved the bone-chilling temperature of 38 trillionths of a degree above -273.15 Celsius by dropping magnetized gas 393 feet (120 meters) down a tower.

The team of German researchers was investigating the quantum properties of a so-called fifth state of matter: Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a derivative of gas that exists only under ultra-cold conditions. While in the BEC phase, matter itself begins to behave like one large atom, making it an especially appealing subject for quantum physicists who are interested in the mechanics of subatomic particles.

Related: 10 science records broken in 2020

Temperature is a measure of molecular vibration the more a collection of molecules moves, the higher the collective temperature. Absolute zero, then, is the point at which all molecular motion stops minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees C. Scientists have even developed a special scale for extremely cold temperatures, called the Kelvin scale, where zero Kelvin corresponds to absolute zero.

Near absolute zero, some weird things start to happen. For example, light becomes a liquid that can literally be poured into a container, according to research published in 2017 in the journal Nature Physics. Supercooled helium stops experiencing friction at very low temperatures, according to a study published in 2017 in the journal Nature Communications. And in NASA's Cold Atom Lab, researchers have even witnessed atoms existing in two places at once.

In this record-breaking experiment, scientists trapped a cloud of around 100,000 gaseous rubidium atoms in a magnetic field inside a vacuum chamber. Then, they cooled the chamber way down, to around 2 billionths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero, which would have been a world record in itself, according to NewAtlas.

But this wasn't quite frigid enough for the researchers, who wanted to push the limits of physics; to get even colder, they needed to mimic deep-space conditions. So the team took their setup to the European Space Agency's Bremen drop tower, a microgravity research center at the University of Bremen in Germany. By dropping the vacuum chamber into a free fall while switching the magnetic field on and off rapidly, allowing the BEC to float uninhibited by gravity, they slowed the rubidium atoms' molecular motion to almost nothing. The resulting BEC stayed at 38 picokelvins - 38 trillionths of a Kelvin - for about 2 seconds, setting "an absolute minus record", the team reported Aug. 30 in the journal Physical Review Letters. The previous record of 36 millionths of a Kelvin, was achieved by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado with specialized lasers.

The coldest known natural place in the universe is the Boomerang Nebula, which lies in the Centaurus constellation, about 5,000 light years from Earth. Its average temperature is -272 C (about 1 Kelvin) according to the European Space Agency. ]

The researchers of the new study said in a statement that, theoretically, they could sustain this temperature for as long as 17 seconds under truly weightless conditions, like in space. Ultra cold temperatures may one day help scientists build better quantum computers, according to researchers at MIT.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Scientists just broke the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in a lab - Livescience.com