This paper sounds familiar, as if I had heard the same things a couple of years ago. But I've searched through Vort archives and nothing rings the bell.
Closest thing I came across was where I had posted that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (up) had observations in science experiments which had contradicted it... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2756365/replies?c=266 But I can't find those contradictions against HUP. On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 8:15 AM, H Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > > Can the wave function of an electron be divided and trapped? > <https://news.brown.edu/articles/2014/10/electron> > > https://news.brown.edu/articles/2014/10/electron > > October 28, 2014 Contact: Kevin Stacey 401-863-3766 > Electrons are elementary particles — indivisible, unbreakable. But new > research suggests the electron's quantum state — the electron wave function > — can be separated into many parts. That has some strange implications for > the theory of quantum mechanics. > > PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — New research by physicists from > Brown University puts the profound strangeness of quantum mechanics in a > nutshell — or, more accurately, in a helium bubble. > > Experiments led by Humphrey Maris, professor of physics at Brown, suggest > that the quantum state of an electron — the electron’s wave function — can > be shattered into pieces and those pieces can be trapped in tiny bubbles of > liquid helium. To be clear, the researchers are not saying that the > electron can be broken apart. Electrons are elementary particles, > indivisible and unbreakable. But what the researchers are saying is in some > ways more bizarre. > > In quantum mechanics, particles do not have a distinct position in space. > Instead, they exist as a wave function, a probability distribution that > includes all the possible locations where a particle might be found. Maris > and his colleagues are suggesting that parts of that distribution can be > separated and cordoned off from each other. > > “We are trapping the chance of finding the electron, not pieces of the > electron,” Maris said. “It’s a little like a lottery. When lottery tickets > are sold, everyone who buys a ticket gets a piece of paper. So all these > people are holding a chance and you can consider that the chances are > spread all over the place. But there is only one prize — one electron — and > where that prize will go is determined later.” > > If Maris’s interpretation of his experimental findings is correct, it > raises profound questions about the measurement process in quantum > mechanics. In the traditional formulation of quantum mechanics, when a > particle is measured — meaning it is found to be in one particular location > — the wave function is said to collapse. > > “The experiments we have performed indicate that the mere interaction of > an electron with some larger physical system, such as a bath of liquid > helium, does not constitute a measurement,” Maris said. “The question then > is: What does?” > > And the fact that the wave function can be split into two or more bubbles > is strange as well. If a detector finds the electron in one bubble, what > happens to the other bubble? > > "It really raises all kinds of interesting questions," Maris said. > > The new research is published in the Journal of Low Temperature Physics > <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10909-014-1224-3> > <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10909-014-1224-3>. > > > > Electron bubbles > > Scientists have wondered for years about the strange behavior of electrons > in liquid helium cooled to near absolute zero. When an electron enters the > liquid, it repels surrounding helium atoms, forming a bubble in the liquid > about 3.6 nanometers across. The size of the bubble is determined by the > pressure of the electron pushing against the surface tension of the helium. > The strangeness, however, arises in experiments dating back to the 1960s > looking at how the bubbles move. > > In the experiments, a pulse of electrons enters the top of a helium-filled > tube, and a detector registers the electric charge delivered when electron > bubbles reach the bottom of the tube. Because the bubbles have a > well-defined size, they should all experience the same amount of drag as > they move, and should therefore arrive at the detector at the same time. > But that’s not what happens. Experiments have detected unidentified objects > that reach the detector before the normal electron bubbles. Over the years, > scientists have cataloged 14 distinct objects of different sizes, all of > which seem to move faster than an electron bubble would be expected to move. > > “They’ve been a mystery ever since they were first detected,” Maris said. > “Nobody has a good explanation.” > > Several possibilities have been proposed. The unknown objects could be > impurities in the helium—charged particles knocked free from the walls of > the container. Another possibility is that the objects could be helium ions > — helium atoms that have picked up one or more extra electrons, which > produce a negative charge at the detector. > > But Maris and his colleagues, including Nobel laureate and Brown physicist > Leon Cooper, believe a new set of experiments puts those explanations to > rest. > > > New experiments > > The researchers performed a series of electron bubble mobility experiments > with much greater sensitivity than previous efforts. They were able to > detect all 14 of the objects from previous work, plus four additional > objects that appeared frequently over the course of the experiments. But in > addition to those 18 objects that showed up frequently, the study revealed > countless additional objects that appeared more rarely. > > In effect, Maris says, it appears there aren’t just 18 objects, but an > effectively infinite number of them, with a “continuous distribution of > sizes” up to the size of the normal electron bubble. > > “That puts a dagger in the idea that these are impurities or helium ions,” > Maris said. “It would be hard to imagine that there would be that many > impurities, or that many previously unknown helium ions.” > > The only way the researchers can think of to explain the results is > through “fission” of the wave function. In certain situations, the > researchers surmise, electron wave functions break apart upon entering the > liquid, and pieces of the wave function are caught in separate bubbles. > Because the bubbles contain less than the full wave function, they’re > smaller than normal electron bubbles and therefore move faster. > > In their new paper, Maris and his team lay out a mechanism by which > fission could happen that is supported by quantum theory and is in good > agreement with the experimental results. The mechanism involves a concept > in quantum mechanics known as reflection above the barrier. > > In the case of electrons and helium, it works like this: When an electron > hits the surface of the liquid helium, there’s some chance that it will > cross into the liquid, and some chance that it will bounce off and carom > away. In quantum mechanics, those possibilities are expressed as part of > the wave function crossing the barrier, and part of it being reflected. > Perhaps the small electron bubbles are formed by the portion of the wave > function that goes through the surface. The size of the bubble depends on > how much wave function goes through, which would explain the continuous > distribution of small electron bubble sizes detected in the experiments. > > The idea that part of the wave function is reflected at a barrier is > standard quantum mechanics, Cooper said. “I don’t think anyone would argue > with that,” he said. “The non-standard part is that the piece of the wave > function that goes through can have a physical effect by influencing the > size of the bubble. That is what is radically new here.” > > Further, the researchers propose what happens after the wave function > enters the liquid. It’s a bit like putting a droplet of oil in a puddle of > water. “Sometime your drop of oil forms one bubble,” Maris said, “Sometimes > it forms two, sometimes 100.” > > There are elements within quantum theory that suggest a tendency for the > wave function to break up into specific sizes. By Maris’s calculations, the > specific sizes one might expect to see correspond roughly to the 18 > frequently occurring electron bubble sizes. > > “We think this offers the best explanation for what we see in the > experiments,” Maris said. We’ve got this body of data that goes back 40 > years. The experiments are not wrong; they’ve been done by multiple people. > We have a tradition called Occam’s razor, where we try to come up with the > simplest explanation. This, so far as we can tell, is it.” > > But it does raise some interesting questions that sit on the border of > science and philosophy. For example, it’s necessary to assume that the > helium does not make a measurement of the actual position of the electron. > If it did, any bubble found not to contain the electron would, in theory, > simply disappear. And that, Maris says, points to one of the deepest > mysteries of quantum theory. > > “No one is sure what actually constitutes a measurement. Perhaps > physicists can agree that someone with a Ph.D. wearing a white coat sitting > in the lab of a famous university can make measurements. But what about > somebody who really isn’t sure what they are doing? Is consciousness > required? We don’t really know.” > > Authors on the paper in addition to Maris were former Brown postdoctoral > researcher Wanchun Wei, graduate student Zhuolin Xie, and George Seidel, > professor emeritus of physics. > >
