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from the shortest-distance-is-a-quantum-tunnel dept.
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Chemists observe "spooky" quantum tunneling
A molecule of ammonia, NH3, typically exists as an umbrella shape, with three hydrogen atoms fanned out in a nonplanar arrangement around a central nitrogen atom. This umbrella structure is very stable and would normally be expected to require a large amount of energy to be inverted.
However, a quantum mechanical phenomenon called tunneling allows ammonia and other molecules to simultaneously inhabit geometric structures that are separated by a prohibitively high energy barrier. A team of chemists that includes Robert Field, the Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor of Chemistry at MIT, has examined this phenomenon by using a very large electric field to suppress the simultaneous occupation of ammonia molecules in the normal and inverted states.
"It's a beautiful example of the tunneling phenomenon, and it reveals a wonderful strangeness of quantum mechanics," says Field, who is one of the senior authors of the study.
Heon Kang, a professor of chemistry at Seoul National University, is also a senior author of the study, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Youngwook Park and Hani Kang of Seoul National University are also authors of the paper.
The frequency-domain infrared spectrum of ammonia encodes changes in molecular dynamics caused by a DC electric field[$], PNAS (2019) (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1914432116)
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:40PM (2 children)
Agreed, and terms like "spooky" don't really belong in scientific discussion.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:41PM (1 child)
Blame Einstein or Einstein worship.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 06 2019, @07:12PM
First, Einstein never used "spooky" for tunneling, he used the term for the effect that in quantum mechanics, measuring one system seems to influence a far-away system that no longer is in physical contact with the measured system. Einstein termed that "spooky action at a distance" because he believed that this was a sign that quantum mechanics would have to be replaced by a more fundamental theory that didn't have that problem.
I'm pretty sure Einstein would not approve the use of "spooky" in this article.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.