quantum mechanics tagged posts

Atoms (shown in green and blue) are held in a trap of laser light (red) in which they can move in one dimension only. The atoms can point either up (green) or down (blue), similar to a needle in a compass. When the atoms do not interact, they can move freely in the trap (top picture); they have no discernible order. When repulsive interactions between the atoms are strong (bottom picture), they arrange themselves in the trap, with each atom pointing in the opposite direction of its neighbour.

Physicists have used ultracold atoms to imitate the behavior of electrons in a solid. Researchers have devised a new way to study the phenomenon of magnetism...

Interference of complex molecules are pictured in the Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer. Credit: Copyright: Quantum Nanophysics group, University of Vienna; Image: Mathias Tomandl & Patrick Braun

Topical research experiments are often too expensive or too complex to be rebuilt and incorporated in teaching. How can one, nevertheless, make modern science accessible to the public? This challenge was tackled in the research group Quantum Nanophysics led by Markus Arndt at the University of Vienna. For the first time, 2 research laboratories were created as complete, photorealistic computer simulations allowing university and high-school students as well as the general public to virtually access unique instruments...

First time wavelike behavior of room-temp polariton condensate has been demonstrated in the lab on a macroscopic length scale: a significant development in understanding and manipulation of quantum objects.

Quantum mechanics tells us objects have both particle and wavelike behaviour with a wavelength inversely proportional to the object’s velocity…at atomic length scales, except with bosons, particles of a particular type that can be combined in large numbers in the same quantum state, it is possible to form macroscopic-scale quantum objects, called Bose-Einstein condensates. These are at the root of quantum physics’ superfluidity and superconductivity...