

Team of scientists puts visible object into quantum ground state - wizard_2
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/news.2010.130.html

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Groxx
This is quite epic for quantum mechanics. Prior to this, something 30
micrometers was usually considered _unbelievably_ massive to apply quantum
principles to.

Dare I say I smell quantum-mechanic _mechanical_ experiments soon? How about
gears that rotate and don't? I also wonder if this could be the basis for a
relatively easy way to make a quantum computer.

edit: another article [1] and the data's original article [2] (behind a
paywall). By the article's abstract, it sounds like they measure the state of
the drum with a quantum bit "coupled" to its state. Don't ask me how that
works, though.

[1]: [http://worldofweirdthings.com/2010/03/18/rethinking-
quantum-...](http://worldofweirdthings.com/2010/03/18/rethinking-quantum-
states-and-computers/)

[2]:
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08967.html)

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wizard_2
From the article.

 _A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be
visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving._

 _According to quantum theory, particles act as waves rather than point masses
on very small scales. This has dozens of bizarre consequences: it is
impossible to know a particle's exact position and velocity through space, yet
it is possible for the same particle to be doing two contradictory things
simultaneously. Through a phenomenon known as 'superposition' a particle can
be moving and stationary at the same time — at least until an outside force
acts on it. Then it instantly chooses one of the two contradictory positions._

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roundsquare
When they say they put an object big enough to see into this quantum
mechanical state, thats awesome. But, it still seems like you can't _see_ it
being in this state. I wonder if its possible to be able to to see something
both vibrate and not vibrate.

Though as far as I know, one of the ways the environment messes with quantum
mechanical phenomena is by photons hitting the objects in question, so maybe
seeing these things is out of the question.

~~~
JonM
Exactly ^^ Observing the phenomena would change it's state. It's one of those
complete head-f __ks about quantumn mechanics.

You just have to accept that the quantumn world concerns probabilities (wave
functions) rather than finite "locations" which we are used to in the non-
quantum world.

It's a hugely interesting subject.

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DanielBMarkham
As another commenter pointed out, the team put a visible object into a quantum
ground state, but, alas, if you saw the object it's probability function would
collapse.

So we've made something that's big enough to see, but nobody can look at it.

Damn I can't wait until we hackers start working quantum computers! "Well Bob,
the code is actually in the box -- and it's not. In this universe? Sure it's
buggy as hell. But let me assure you, there are many other universes in which
the code is kicking ass, and you are very happy. Actually the code was
perfectly fine here too -- until you looked at it."

(I know I'm using hyperbole. The point is that quantum effects make normal
people's brain hurt)

