Quantum Physics


Three-Slit Experiment

Authors: George Rajna

Physicists have performed a variation of the famous 200-year-old double-slit experiment that, for the first time, involves "exotic looped trajectories" of photons. These photons travel forward through one slit, then loop around and travel back through another slit, and then sometimes loop around again and travel forward through a third slit. [24] Now in a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, physicists Gael Sentís et al. have taken the change point problem to the quantum domain. [23] When a quantum system changes its state, this is called a quantum jump. Usually, these quantum jumps are considered to be instantaneous. Now, new methods for high-precision measurements allow us to study the time evolution of these quantum jumps. On a time scale of attoseconds, there time structure becomes visible. It is he most accurate time measurement of quantum jumps to date. [22] New research conducted at the University of Chicago has confirmed a decades-old theory describing the dynamics of continuous phase transitions. [21] No matter whether it is acoustic waves, quantum matter waves or optical waves of a laser—all kinds of waves can be in different states of oscillation, corresponding to different frequencies. Calculating these frequencies is part of the tools of the trade in theoretical physics. Recently, however, a special class of systems has caught the attention of the scientific community, forcing physicists to abandon well-established rules. [20] Until quite recently, creating a hologram of a single photon was believed to be impossible due to fundamental laws of physics. However, scientists at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, have successfully applied concepts of classical holography to the world of quantum phenomena. A new measurement technique has enabled them to register the first-ever hologram of a single light particle, thereby shedding new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics. [19] A combined team of researchers from Columbia University in the U.S. and the University of Warsaw in Poland has found that there appear to be flaws in traditional theory that describe how photodissociation works. [18] Ultra-peripheral collisions of lead nuclei at the LHC accelerator can lead to elastic collisions of photons with photons. [17]

Comments: 37 Pages.

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[v1] 2017-01-06 11:49:30

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