In quantum mechanics, vibrations are made up of elementary vibrations called phonons. Cooling the resonator to its ground state can be seen as equivalent to removing all of the phonons. The team was then able to transfer individual phonons from the qubit to the resonator. The team was also able to transfer a superposition state, where the qubit was in a superposition of two states at the same time, onto the mechanical resonator. This means the resonator "literally vibrated a little and a lot at the same time", according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The vibrations lasted just a few nanoseconds before being broken down by disruptive outside influences. In the Nature paper, the team concluded "This demonstration provides strong evidence that quantum mechanics applies to a mechanical object large enough to be seen with the naked eye."