It sounds like something from a mythical science fiction novel and perhaps it is to some extent. Science, especially in the world of quantum physics, is beginning to touch on spiritual dimensions and worlds.
It may also be because the world of quantum physics is very close to one of the most important but hardly systematized and by that hardly understood ways of gaining knowledge for humans: intuition, quantum and quale.
The Problem
And so it may have happened at Tel Aviv University (TAU) with a very unusual experiment.
One step back: The major problem is that we cannot see and touch the Quantum world. The dynamics of quantum systems, composed of microscopic particles like atoms or electrons, are notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to observe directly, explains TAU.
Second step back: Due to the laws of topography, we have a new kind of physical state of matter. Such wave-like properties lead to a unique phenomenon. This means that the wave of electrons possesses a quantity that can “close on itself” in different ways, somewhat like the difference between a cylinder and a Möbius strip. This “topological” state of the electrons, for which the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded, is considered a new state of matter and attracts much current research, explains TAU.
Final step, there is a limitation in measuring these phenomena in quantum systems. Due to the nature of quantum mechanics, one cannot directly measure the electron’s wave function and its dynamical evolution. Instead, researchers indirectly measure the wave-like and topological properties.
The solution: Quantum Pendulum
In the current study, the researchers considered the possibility of constructing a sufficiently large mechanical system that would adhere to dynamical rules akin to those found in quantum systems, in which they could directly measure everything.
To this end, they built an array of 50 pendula, with string lengths that slightly varied from one pendulum to another. The strings of each neighbouring pair of pendula were connected at a controlled height, such that each one’s motion would affect its neighbours’ motion, explains the press release of TAU.
In the video below you can see the Bloch oscillations, Zener tunnelling and Schrödinger’s equation at work. The very base of the experiment.
The press release of TAU concludes: The experiment opens the door to realizing further situations that are even more interesting and complex, like the effects of noise and impurities, or how energy leakage affects wave dynamics in Schrödinger’s equation.
These are effects that can be easily realized and seen in this system, by deliberately perturbing the pendula motion in a controlled manner.
An experiment which opens new paths. Who could ask for more?
The research is a collaboration between Dr Izhar Neder of the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Chaviva Sirote-Katz of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr Meital Geva and Prof. Yair Shokef of the School of Mechanical Engineering, and Prof. Yoav Lahini and Prof. Roni Ilan of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University and was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).
Based on press release of TAU, adapted, paraphrased and augmented by VonNaftali. Pic generated by AI. It Does not correspond to reality; yet.