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Physicists reach one-fifth quanta cooling
Physicists at the NIST have cooled an object below the so-called "quantum limit."
Described in the Jan. 12, 2017, issue of Nature, showed that a microscopic mechanical drum could be cooled to less than one-fifth of a single quantum, or packet of energy, lower than ordinarily predicted by quantum physics.
The new technique theoretically could be used to cool objects to absolute zero, the temperature at which matter is devoid of nearly all energy and motion, NIST scientists said.
http://phys.org/news/2017-01-physicists-cool-microscopic-quantum-limit.html
Physicists Cool Object to Below "Quantum Limit"
Physicists have used microwave light to cool an object to less than one-fifth of a quantum of energy:
"The colder you can get the drum, the better it is for any application," said NIST physicist John Teufel, who led the experiment. "Sensors would become more sensitive. You can store information longer. If you were using it in a quantum computer, then you would compute without distortion, and you would actually get the answer you want."
"The results were a complete surprise to experts in the field," Teufel's group leader and co-author José Aumentado said. "It's a very elegant experiment that will certainly have a lot of impact."
The drum, 20 micrometers in diameter and 100 nanometers thick, is embedded in a superconducting circuit designed so that the drum motion influences the microwaves bouncing inside a hollow enclosure known as an electromagnetic cavity. [...] NIST scientists previously cooled the quantum drum to its lowest-energy "ground state," or one-third of one quantum.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by seeprime on Sunday January 15 2017, @06:52AM
One fifth of a quantum does not make sense to me. If the word quantum, in this sense, describes a discreet measurement unit, then the definition is wrong. I'm missing something here. If they haven't gotten down to absolute zero, the job isn't done yet. They'll keep getting closer and closer over the centuries, never to attain absolute zero as it should be unmeasurable since any equipment would stop working at 0K.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday January 15 2017, @07:13AM
If a quantum of thermal energy is the minimum increment per atom, perhaps they are referring to a fraction of the atoms in the object at zero and the rest at one quantum.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @04:02PM
No, a quantum of thermal energy is the energy of one energy packet (quantum), i. e., the minimal amount or unit of energy, in layman's terms ... Wikipedia for help.