from the you-look-to-sea-to-see-what-you-can-see dept.
[...] Our vision is made possible by the specialized cells in our retina that absorb light. But, can one see without any absorption of light or even a single photon? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.
Suppose you have a camera cartridge that could hold a roll of photographic film. The film is so delicate that even a single photon could damage it. Using conventional methods, it's impossible to determine if there's film in the cartridge. However, in the quantum world, it can be achieved. Anton Zeilinger, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics 2022, was the first to experimentally implement the idea of an interaction-free experiment using optics.
Now, in a study exploring the connection between the quantum and classical worlds, Shruti Dogra, John J. McCord, and Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu of Aalto University have discovered a new and much more effective way to carry out interaction-free experiments. The team used transmon devices –superconducting circuits that are relatively large but still show quantum behavior– to detect the presence of microwave pulses generated by classical instruments. Their research was recently published in Nature Communications.
Journal Reference:
Dogra, Shruti, McCord, John J., Paraoanu, Gheorghe Sorin. Coherent interaction-free detection of microwave pulses with a superconducting circuit [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35049-z)
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Saturday February 04, @09:36AM (3 children)
Otherwise they'd know that wives have been able to see whatever you're up to without even looking for millennia.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 04, @09:51AM (2 children)
So wives are quantum?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snospar on Saturday February 04, @02:51PM
Only until you observe them, then they collapse.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 05, @12:42AM
I'm unsure about wives, but mothers are quantum.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by calmond on Saturday February 04, @04:27PM (2 children)
Could this overcome the observer paradox [wikipedia.org]?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 05, @06:15AM (1 child)
No. In particular, "interaction free measurement" works exactly on that principle. Basically, the particle could have interacted with the film, so the fact that the film is undamaged serves as a measurement of the particle. That also means that you still risk destruction of the film, it's just that you have a chance to not damage the film and yet get information about its presence.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 06, @03:40PM
To be or not to be that is the question. Perhaps taken out of context, we won't know, though, except that we've yet to die.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"