The wall between classical and quantum physics is shifting

aluminum/CC BY 3.0

Rob Sheldon explains, if nearly visible objects can be turned into waves — as was done recently — the wall between quantum and classical physics has moved:

Just recently, researchers managed to “entangle” two very tiny aluminum drums as if they were merely quantum particles — a first that helps pave the way for quantum computing. But it’s an unsettling first because the world above the level of the electron (macroscopic world) is supposed to behave according to Newton’s classical physics rules, not weird quantum rules under which two entangled particles sync no matter how far apart they are (non-locality).

[From Sheldon]In the recent experiment, the group at NIST had about a trillion aluminum atoms in a microscopic “drumhead” that bends up and down like a drum when they shine microwaves of the same frequency on it.

They connected two drums together with a microwave waveguide. Then, like Pritchard, they cooled their drums down to eliminate random shaking from hot atoms, pinged them with a microwave pulse to start them vibrating, and looked to see if their vibrations are talking to each other. They claim that it takes lots and lots of statistics, but after all the random stuff is smoothed out, the trillion or so atoms are syncing up with each other in ways that cannot be classical.

The result? We now have evidence that we can coherently treat a trillion aluminum atoms as a single wave. The wall between QM and classical has moved, and nearly naked eye visible objects can be turned into waves.

News, “Researchers make a trillion aluminum atoms behave as single wave” at Mind Matters News

The world is stranger than we used to think.

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