SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the shortest-distance-is-a-quantum-tunnel dept.
Submitted via IRC for chromas
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: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:42PM (2 children)
You aren't understanding properly. The math is "solid", and it predicts this kind of reaction. But people live at the macro scale where this kind of reaction cannot be experienced, so when they encounter observable events displaying it, the events don't fit any any accessible model. (Very few people, perhaps none, can use the math as a mental model of what's happening.) This "no fitting into an accessible model" is what they are calling spooky, and it's a legitimate use of the term.
The only people I'm aware of who both "understand" what is happening and don't find it spooky are the Copenhagen Theory followers, who just say "shut up and calculate, you shouldn't expect to understand". (The multi-world people have a model that works, but the one's I know think it feels spooky to be able to detect the events. I don't know any who adhere to one of the other interpretations, though Solipsists shouldn't have any problem.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Thursday November 07 2019, @12:38PM (1 child)
If QM tunneling is bogus, then non of these diodes [wikipedia.org] should work. Hint - they do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 07 2019, @12:51PM
I think you misinterpret OP. Nowhere does he say QM tunneling is bogus.