Mathematicians Pull An Invisible Matter Rabbit Out Of Schrödinger's Hat: "You've read a lot about 'invisibility' over the last few years. Mathematicians and scientists have been working on various devices that enable invisibility cloaks which shield small objects from detection by microwaves or sound waves.
An international team has devised an amplifier that can boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an invisible container. As a first application, the researchers propose manipulating matter waves, which are the mathematical description of particles in quantum mechanics. The researchers envision building a quantum microscope that could capture quantum waves, the waves of the nano-world. A quantum microscope could, for example, be used to monitor electronic processes on computer chips.
The authors dubbed their system 'Schrödinger's hat,' referring to the famed Schrödinger's cat in quantum mechanics. The name is also a nod to the ability to create something from what appears to be nothing. A magic rabbit by a stage magician, for example.
'You can isolate and magnify what you want to see, and make the rest invisible,' said corresponding author Gunther Uhlmann, a University of Washington mathematics professor. 'You can amplify the waves tremendously. And although the wave has been magnified a lot, you still cannot see what is happening inside the container. In some sense you are doing something magical, because it looks like a particle is being created. It's like pulling something out of your hat.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment