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Atoms are odd little suckers

Physicists from Cornell University have proved that atoms will not move when someone is observing them. This is also known as Zeno Effect. This particular effect was reflected as one of the oddest predictions of quantum theory, but the experiments performed by physicists in the Utracold Lab of Muknud Vengalattore, have now successfully confirmed it.

#university #quantum
davtim68 7 Dec 10
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Level 9

Could be concluded that the speed is so rapid that they are perceived as motionless even by instruments.

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Level 8

All matter is made up of atoms and molecules that are constantly moving.As far as I know To actually observe atoms they must be lowered to an extremely low temperatures which stops their movement. The higher the temperature the faster they move . If not please Inlighten me

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Level 8

I know things at the quantum level are often counter-intuitive, but this seems absurd. Observing is one thing, pointing a laser beam at something is quite another, especially at that level. This is not merely observation, this is acting upon those atoms.

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Level 8

Sounds like good news to me. If it verifies the predictions of the theory, right on! Had it not, then what.. back to the chalkboards? Sadly, I have to wait until a program like NOVA puts all this it into layman's terms … with lots of visuals.. But I’m sure rooting for continued research … which leaves me wondering, in this time-of-trump, is the USA keeping up with such research ..or has the bulk of it also been ‘offshored?’

Varn Level 8 Dec 10, 2017
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Level 8

[news.cornell.edu]

bashful
0

Level 8

But do they move when you're not looking?

Yes because they will not be at the low temperature they must be at ,to stop the movement,to see them

This is quite a complicated situation. It would be more accurate to say that the atoms' state is not changing, rather than that they are not moving. This is not straightforward physics.

From Wikipedia: 'In 2015, Mukund Vengalattore and his group at Cornell University demonstrated a quantum Zeno effect as the modulation of the rate of quantum tunnelling in an ultra-cold lattice gas by the intensity of light used to image the atoms." This does not seem to me to be the same thing as saying that the atoms are not moving.
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