Physicists Push the Limits of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

New researches expand the boundaries of physics, reaching quantum entanglement in larger systems. Perhaps, even getting around the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Recently released research pushes the boundaries of crucial concepts in quantum mechanics. Studies from 2 various groups utilized little drums to demonstrate that quantum entanglement. This is an effect generally connected to subatomic particles, can also be placed on much larger macroscopic systems. The groups claim to have found a means to avert the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

One concern that the scientists wanted to address was whether bigger systems could exhibit quantum entanglement similarly to microscopic ones. Quantum mechanics suggests that two objects can become “entangled,” wherein the properties of one object, such as position or velocity, can be attached to those of the other.

An experiment conducted at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, led by physicist Shlomi Kotler and his colleagues, revealed that a pair of vibrating aluminum membranes, each around 10 micrometers long, can be made to vibrate in sync as if they can be defined to be quantum entangled. Kotler’s group amplified the signal from their devices to “see” the entanglement much more plainly. Measuring their position and velocities returned the exact same numbers, showing that they were, without a doubt, entangled.

Averting the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?

One more experiment with quantum drums– each one-fifth the size of a human hair– by a group led by Prof. Mika Sillanpää at Aalto University in Finland attempted to discover what happens in the area between quantum and non-quantum behavior. Like the other scientists, they likewise achieved quantum entanglement for bigger objects. However, they also made an interesting inquiry into getting around the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Dr. Matt Woolley of the University of New South Wales established the group’s theoretical model. Photons in the microwave frequency were utilized to produce a synchronized vibrating pattern and assess the drums’ positions. The researchers handled to make the drums vibrate in opposite phases to each other, obtaining “collective quantum motion.”

The research study’s lead author, Dr. Laure Mercier de Lepinay, stated that, in this circumstance, the quantum unpredictability of the drums’ motion is canceled if the two drums are dealt with as one quantum-mechanical entity.

This result permitted the team to gauge both the positions and the momentum of the virtual drumheads simultaneously. Sillanpää said that one of the drums reacts to all the forces of the other drum in an opposing way, sort of with a negative mass.

In theory, this should not be feasible under the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, one of the most well-known tenets of quantum mechanics. In the 1920s, Werner Heisenberg proposed the principle that when handling the quantum world, where particles likewise act like waves, there’s an inherent uncertainty in gauging the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously. The more exactly you measure one variable, the greater the uncertainty in the measurement of the other. In other words, it is not feasible to concurrently identify the precise values of the particle’s position and momentum.

Quantum skepticism

Big Think contributor astrophysicist Adam Frank, known for the 13.8 podcast, called this a fascinating paper as it shows that it is possible to make larger entangled systems that act like a solitary quantum object. Since we are looking at a single quantum object, the measurement does not appear to be ‘getting around’ the uncertainty principle, as we understand that in entangled systems, an observation of one component constrains the behavior of other parts.

Ethan Siegel, an astrophysicist, commented that the main achievement of this most current work is that they have developed a macroscopic system. In this system, two components are successfully quantum mechanically entangled across big length scales and with huge masses. However, there is no fundamental evasion of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle here; each individual component is precisely as uncertain as the rules of quantum physics predict. While exploring the partnership between quantum entanglement and the different parts of the systems is crucial, including what happens when you treat both components as a solitary system, nothing this study shows negate Heisenberg’s most significant contribution to physics.”

The papers, released in the journal Science, might assist develop new generations of ultra-sensitive measuring devices and quantum computers.

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