Category Archives: Quantum Physics
Max Planck Created Quantum Theory and Laid a New Foundation for Physics – Interesting Engineering
At the base of modern physics is something called quantum theory. It explains the behavior of energy and matter on different atomic levels - atomic and subatomic. Quantum theory encompasses the working of the realms of physics commonly referred to as quantum physics and quantum mechanics and it offers up a rather interesting look into the foundations of modern physics.
Quantum theory was first presented to the general public in the year 1900, by a physicist named Max Planck. He presented the theory to the German Physical Society, specifically by presenting the results of an experiment he had done looking into the color of radiation from glowing bodies (not human bodies, physical bodies).
In the experiment, he found that if he assumed that energy existed in individual units similar to matter, that he would find the answer to the original question posed in his experiment. Thinking of energy in this way was new and allowed the energy to be easily quantified. These units of energy that he was able to quantify were named quanta by Planck in his writings about the experiment and subsequent mathematical equations.
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The equation that formed the beginnings of quantum theory demonstrated that at certain temperature levels, the energy that was let off from a glowing body would exist in different areas of the spectrum of color, or wavelength. Planck initially imagined that his discovery of quanta would set in motion the creation of a new theory, but what actually ended up happening was that it completely rewrote humanity's understanding of the laws of nature.
In 1918, Planck won the Nobel Prize for his discovery and research on quanta. It is important to note though, that while Planck's research began the foundation of modern quantum theory, tens to hundreds of other scientists worked in the years prior to set Planck up to make this discovery just at the point that he did. Taking a closer look at the timeline, we can see how the theory progressed after the discovery.
1900: Planck makes the initial discovery, or rather assumption, that energy was made of units called quanta.
1905: Albert Einstein theorizes that energy and radiation could be quantified in the same way that Planck had theorized of quanta.
1924:Louis de Brogliefirst proposed that there was no difference between energy and particles in his theory of wave-particle duality, also demonstrated in the famous double-slit experiment.
1927: A scientist by the name of Werner Heisenberg theorized that the measurement of two complementary values at the same time, such as the position and momentum of a given subatomic particle, would be impossible. This stands starkly in contrast to traditional physics and became known as the uncertainty principle.
Now that we've taken a closer look at the timeline of quantum theory development, let's take a closer look at who exactly Max Planck was.
Born in April of 1858, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (quite the name) was a theoretical physicist who was the originator of quantum theory, which, as we've discussed, afforded him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. During his lifetime he made major contributions to the field of theoretical physics but the quantum theory remains his largest accomplishment.
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Quantum theory at the hands of Planck completely revolutionized our understanding and conceptualization of quantum particles and processes. It could be equated in gravity of the theory of Alber Einstein's theory of relativity that changed our understanding of space and time.
Both quantum theory and the theory of relativity exemplify the foundations of all of the 1900s physics, forcing researchers to rethink how they approach the world around them.
Planck passed away at the age of 89 years-old in 1947 in Germany.
The main methods of interpreting quantum theory are known as the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds theory. The Copenhagen theory proposes that a particle is whatever it is measured to be. In other words, if you measure a particle as a wave, it's a wave. However, it also states that you can't assume that it has any specific properties or that it exists until you measure it. It's an off-the-cuff way of insisting that physical reality doesn't actually exist until you observe it. This leads way to the idea of superposition, which means that any given particle or object can be in any number of potential places at once during the period that we don't know its position, or aren't observing it.
The famous thought experiment of Schrodinger's Cat is the perfect exemplification of this interpretation of the quantum theory.
The many-worlds theory or multiverse theory. This states that as soon as the potential for an object to exist occurs, the universe splits into a series of parallel universes where both states of that object exist. This theory is the basis of TV shows like Rick and Morty or other popular science fiction stories, but at the end of the day, it's a very real interpretation of the quantum theory.
Both Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman expressed that they preferred the multiverse theory style of interpretation.
At the end of the day, quantum theory and Planck's research have drastically influenced the work of physicists and researchers over the last 100 years. The implications of quantum theory can be a little mind-boggling though, even causing Planck himself to balk at them during his time. The foundational principles of the theory, however, continue to be repeated and proven through subsequent experimentation. Physics in many ways still will be fleshed out in the next century, but its foundation of quantum theory laid by Max Planck is likely here to stay.
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Max Planck Created Quantum Theory and Laid a New Foundation for Physics - Interesting Engineering
Lost and found in French translation – The Guardian
To answer Karin Koller (Letters, 23 June), the French for bra, soutien-gorge, is masculine because compound words, consisting of a noun preceded by a verbal prefix, are nearly always masculine. The exceptions are when denoting women: for example, garde-malade, a home nurse. Nowadays, dcollet would be a more correct translation of cleavage.Gisle EarleOxford
Quantum physicists understand bras better than most thanks to Paul Dirac, whose analysis showed that the bra and the ket work together to form a special product, which was named bra-ket (derived from bracket). So the bra is a product of quantum mechanics.Prof Brian JosephsonDepartment of physics, Cambridge University
The English bra comes from brassire, which is feminine, but now means a babys sleeved vest. Its older meaning was chemise de femme trs ajuste a tight-fitting garment that could have lifted the breasts. In the 1950s, I remember bra and brassire being used, and my embarrassment at seeing brasserie emblazoned on the outside of a restaurant.Jenny MoirChelmsford, Essex
Karin Koller should not be too worried that the French for cleavage, dcollet, is masculine. Of greater importance is vagin. The Latin word it comes from, vagina, is feminine.Michael BulleyChalon-sur-Sane, France
It surely remains only to say BRAva! to Karin Koller. The crossword setter who caused this fascinating thread now knows what theyre up against.Jenny SwannBeeston, Nottingham
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Do we need a ‘Quantum Generation’? | TheHill – The Hill
Driving Route 66 requires no specialized training. Steering wheel, pedals, lights, mirror controls they are all familiar concepts, each one a well-established automobile technology. If youve driven one car, youve more or less driven them all. Call it drivers intuition.
However, despite the publics growing awareness of quantum technology, a corresponding intuition is rare, even among experts in the field. With quantum intuition, one could differentiate between quantum and classical worlds at the most basic level without deliberation.
For most of us, stuck with our classical minds, quantum intuition is difficult due to the counterintuitive nature of the quantum world. Concepts like entanglement and superposition can be challenging, since there is no obvious mapping of the bizarre quantum world to everyday life.
Developing our quantum minds
Most of us have technological intuition, like the ability to drive an unfamiliar car or use a new computer program. Unhindered by philosophical obstacles, it allows children to program a TV remote or master a smartphone much faster than their parents. Thats because kids today have been born and raised surrounded by technology built upon classical computers and have developed an intuition for them.
With quantum computers only now emerging, such early development is lacking. Consider, for example, light. While familiar in the macroscopic world, its quantum properties are odd. Sometimes it behaves like a wave, sometimes like a particle. Think of quantum particles that can pass, or tunnel, through energy barriers. Or imagine entangled particles, which influence each other even if separated by a large distance. There are also mind-boggling interpretations of quantum mechanics that drive ongoing and vigorous debates among specialists, such as theories of multiple universes or theories in which the future influences the past.
The legendary spookiness of quantum mechanics which so bothered Albert Einstein is born from similar examples, and the frustrations expressed by Einstein, Richard Feynman or Erwin Schrdinger are as painful today as they were a century ago.
As the quantum technological revolution changes the world, it must first move out from laboratories and into proverbial garages. To get there requires a quantum education at an early stage, an effort to tunnel through the barrier of quantum weirdness and kick-start a quantum generation of young people who can consider entanglement without being spooked, like we are, and instead set up those garages and launch completely new approaches to quantum technology.
From quantum intuition to quantum workforce
We are not yet ready for that transition. Mastering intuition requires a solid quantum education, one that crosses disciplines and fuses physics, computer science, engineering, mathematics and materials research in nearly equal parts.
Such an education must include focused training at the elementary, middle and high school levels, as well as informal education at museums and unconventional approaches like merging art into quantum education.
How do we get there? With much to do, the United States is not sitting idle. For example, several first steps emerged from a recent collaborative effort from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy that brought together cross-disciplinary specialists to develop core resources for inspiring quantum information science learners. One outcome, a necessary minimum list of nine key concepts with narratives developed by subject-matter experts, is helping shape the nations approach to early education, tackling such concepts as qubits, quantum computers and entanglement, just to name a few.
Industry is also getting involved. As students further develop their careers, the convergent efforts of industry, academia and government will be vital, as will early introductions to industrial settings. One initial effort, known as the TRIPLETS program, was initiated by NSF and co-sponsored by industrial partners such as IBM, Google, Raytheon, Montana Instruments and many others, including several Department of Energy National Laboratories. This approach allows students to collaborate with both an industrial advisor and an academic investigator, forming a triplet that introduces fundamental research and industrial culture well before graduation.
A continuing national investment
Fundamental research generates high quality educational experiences, which will lead to quantum intuition, and this cultural and technological shift requires investment.
The ambitious all-of-government approach known as Industries of the Future includes a plan to increase federal investments in five key industries to $10 billion per year by fiscal year 2025. In addition to quantum information science, the targeted industries include artificial intelligence, 5G technologies and advanced communications, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing, with quantum technologies further integrating across the other fields.
This plan builds upon the National Quantum Initiative Act, established in 2018, with both efforts calling for the development of a future quantum workforce and a strong focus on education.
However, implementation will require educators, academics, industry, and government agencies working together to create the policies and practices that enable young people today to develop the quantum intuition needed for the future.
Armed with intuition, the quantum generation will come.
Tomasz Durakiewicz is program director for Condensed Matter Physics at the National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research, and since February 2019 has served as staff associate, Office of the Assistant Director, in the agency's Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Durakiewicz has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, more than 210 conference abstracts and six patents, and he has presented more than 60 invited talks. For more than a decade prior to his service at NSF, Durakiewicz was a materials researcher at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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If Wormholes Are Actually Going to Work, They’ll Need to Look Weird – Yahoo! Voices
Photo credit: KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY - Getty Images
From Popular Mechanics
In a new, unreviewed paper, researchers suggest the conditions that could have created stable wormholes.
By applying quantum ideas to standard gravity, the researchers were able to satisfy the requirements to make a traversable wormhole.
Their solution is for a pseudosphere instead of a sphere, making the math more amenable.
Could the first stable wormholes be more like ... real worms? The wormhole design that could eventually succeed is tiny and strangely shaped, Iranian researchers say. No word on whether these wormholes will appear only after a rainfall.
The hypothetical wormhole, of any shape or stability, is the result of two black holes that end up touching. But that means anything that crosses the threshold of either end is immediately sucked into the infinitely dense heart of one black hole or the other, never to return.
The series of conditions that would avoid an infinite, well, suckage past dual event horizons involves an escalating series of impossibilities based on the idea that general relativity basically doesnt apply at all. The wormhole must be held open by a material with negative mass, for example. Right now, we dont know of anything that fits the criteria.
Now, those impossibilities also have a shape. In a new paper not yet reviewed for print, researchers studied ways to use quantum physics phenomena to describe how a wormhole might function. The secret is that an impossible black hole under general relativity is improved into a supportable quantum black hole.
The researchers improve the coupling constant, which refers to a quantum phenomenon of the way particles interact, by fine tuning it with a new mathematical formula. The result is called antiscreening running coupling.
The researchers studied this solution for both spherical and pseudospherical wormholes. Though these two terms sound related, think of them more like a science and a pseudoscience: almost complete opposites. A pseudosphere looks like two trumpet bells pressed together, or a childs spinning top. The curvature is concave instead of convex like a sphere, and the math is much more complex.
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Plugging in a pseudosphere instead of a sphere, with the previously zhuzhed numbers to reflect the new running constant, turns out a black hole that saves the causal structure, satisfies null energy condition, and the matter is nonexotic, the scientists explain. Exotic matter includes hypothetical stuff that does have negative mass, for example. Finding a solution that doesnt rely on positing the existence of an exotic matter makes the wormhole a little more feasible.
The caveat here is the researchers believe theyre describing a situation that could have happened at the nano scale and near the very absolute beginning of time. It has to be noted that such a traversable wormhole is not at the astrophysical scales. It is a quantum wormhole, applicable in the very early universe, they explain. That means very tiny and when the universe itself was tiny as well.
In this delicate but stable hypothetical wormhole, a passenger can travel through the wormhole, but how possible that isand what it looks likevaries as the passenger particle approaches the throat of the wormhole.
The same way particles travel through tunnels created in quantum computers and other current schemata, they could have snuck through very tiny pseudospherical wormholes in the primordial space ooze, using quantum gravity as their guide.
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If Wormholes Are Actually Going to Work, They'll Need to Look Weird - Yahoo! Voices
At Long Last: An Answer to the Mystery Surrounding Matter and Antimatter – SciTechDaily
An element that could hold the key to the long-standing mystery around why there is much more matter than antimatter in our universe has been discovered in Physics research involving the University of Strathclyde.
The study has discovered that an isotope of the element thorium possesses the most pear-shaped nucleus yet to be discovered.
Nuclei similar to thorium-228 may now be able to be used to perform new tests to try find the answer to the mystery surrounding matter and antimatter.
The study was led at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and has been published in the journal Nature Physics.
Professor Dino Jaroszynski, Director of the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerators (SCAPA) at the University of Strathclyde, said: This collaborative effort, which draws on the expertise of a diverse group of scientists, is an excellent example of how working together can lead to a major breakthrough.
It highlights the collaborative spirit within the Scottish physics community fostered by the Scottish University Physics Alliance (SUPA) and lays the groundwork for our collaborative experiments at SCAPA.
Physics explains that the Universe is composed of fundamental particles such as the electrons which are found in every atom. The Standard Model, the best theory physicists have to describe the sub-atomic properties of all the matter in the Universe, predicts that each fundamental particle can have a similar antiparticle. Collectively the antiparticles, which are almost identical to their matter counterparts except they carry opposite charge, are known as antimatter.
According to the Standard Model, matter and antimatter should have been created in equal quantities at the time of the Big Bang yet our Universe is made almost entirely of matter. In theory, an electric dipole moment (EDM) could allow matter and antimatter to decay at different rates, providing an explanation for the asymmetry in matter and antimatter in our universe.
Pear-shaped nuclei have been proposed as ideal physical systems in which to look for the existence of an EDM in a fundamental particle such as an electron. The pear shape means that the nucleus generates an EDM by having the protons and neutrons distributed non-uniformly throughout the nuclear volume.
The researchers found that the nuclei in thorium-228 atoms have the most pronounced pear shape to be discovered so far. As a result, nuclei like thorium-228 have been identified as ideal candidates to search for the existence of an EDM.
The experiments began with a sample of thorium-232, which has a half-life of 14 billion years, meaning it decays very slowly. The decay chain of this nucleus creates excited quantum mechanical states of the nucleus thorium-228. Such states decay within nanoseconds of being created, by emitting gamma rays.
The research team, led by Dr David ODonnell at UWS, used highly sensitive state-of-the-art scintillator detectors to detect these ultra-rare and fast decays. With careful configuration of detectors and signal-processing electronics, the research team has been able to measure precisely the lifetime of the excited quantum states, with an accuracy of two trillionths of a second.
The shorter the lifetime of the quantum state, the more pronounced the pear shape of the thorium-228 nucleus giving researchers a better chance of finding an EDM.
For more on this research, read Physicists May Have Solved Long-Standing Mystery of Matter and Antimatter.
Reference: Direct measurement of the intrinsic electric dipole moment in pear-shaped thorium-228 by M. M. R. Chishti, D. ODonnell, G. Battaglia, M. Bowry, D. A. Jaroszynski, B. S. Nara Singh, M. Scheck, P. Spagnoletti and J. F. Smith, 18 May 2020, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0899-4
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At Long Last: An Answer to the Mystery Surrounding Matter and Antimatter - SciTechDaily
The Period of the Universe’s Clock – Physics
June 19, 2020• Physics 13, 99
Theorists have determined 1033 seconds as the upper limit for the period of a universal oscillator, which could help in constructing a quantum theory of gravity.
diuno/iStock/Getty Images
diuno/iStock/Getty Images
A trio of theorists has modeled time as a universal quantum oscillator and found an upper bound of 1033 seconds for the oscillators period. This value lies well below the shortest ticks of todays best atomic clocks, making it unmeasurable. But the researchers say that atomic clocks could be used to indirectly confirm their models predictions.
Physics has a time problem: In quantum mechanics, time is universal and absolute, continuously ticking forward as interactions occur between particles. But in general relativity (the theory that describes classical gravity), time is malleableclocks located at different places in a gravitational field tick at different rates. Theorists developing a quantum theory of gravity must reconcile these two descriptions of time. Many agree that the solution requires that time be defined not as a continuous coordinate, but instead as the ticking of some physical clock, says Flaminia Giacomini, a quantum theorist at Canadas Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PITP).
Such a fundamental clock would permeate the Universe, somewhat like the Higgs field from particle physics. Similar to the Higgs field, the clock could interact with matter, and it could potentially modify physical phenomena, says Martin Bojowald of Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
But researchers have yet to develop a theory for such a clock, and they still dont understand the fundamental nature of time. Aiming to gain insights into both problems, Bojowald and his colleagues imagined the universal clock as an oscillator and set out to derive its period. Their hope was that doing so might offer ideas for how to probe times fundamental properties.
In the model, the team considers two quantum oscillators, which act like quantum pendulums oscillating at different rates. The faster oscillator represents the universal, fundamental clock, and the slower one represents a measurable system in the lab, such as the atom of an atomic clock. The team couples the oscillators to allow them to interact. The nature of this coupling is different from classical oscillators, which are coupled through a common force. Instead, the coupling is imposed by requiring that the net energy of the oscillators remains constant in timea condition derived directly from general relativity.
The team finds that this interaction causes the two oscillators to slowly desynchronize. The desynching means that it would be impossible for any physical clock to indefinitely maintain ticks of a constant period, placing a fundamental limit on the precision of clocks. As a result, the ticks of two identically built atomic clocks, for example, would never completely agree, if measured at this precision limit. Observing this behavior would allow researchers to confirm that time has a fundamental period, Bojowald says.
Bojowald and his colleagues used the desynchronization property to derive an upper limit of 1033 seconds for the period of their fundamental oscillating clock. This limit is 1015 times shorter than the tick of todays best atomic clocks and 1010 times longer than the Planck time, a proposed length for the shortest measurable unit of time.
Resolving a unit of Planck time is far beyond current technologies. But the new model potentially allows researchers to get much closer than before, says Bianca Dittrich, who studies quantum gravity at PITP. Bojowald agrees. Using the timescale of the desynchronization between clocks to make time measurements, rather than the clocks themselves, could allow for measurements on much shorter timescales, he says.
Another bonus of choosing an oscillating quantum system as the model for a fundamental clock is that such a system closely resembles clocks used in the lab, says Esteban Castro-Ruiz, of the Universit Libre de Bruxelles, who studies problems involving quantum clocks and gravity. The resemblance is key, says Castro-Ruiz, because it brings the question of a fundamental period of time to a more concrete setting, where one can actually start thinking about measurable consequences.
This research is published in Physical Review Letters.
Katherine Wright
Katherine Wright is a Senior Editor of Physics.
Demonstrating quantum weirdness with vibration quanta called phonons shows that the particles can complement photons in quantum information technology. Read More
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Physicists have proposed a new theory for Bose-Einstein condensates – Tech Explorist
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is considered as the fifth state of matter in which separate atoms or subatomic particles, cooled to near absolute zero coalesce into a single quantum mechanical entitythat is, one that can be described by a wave functionon a near-microscopic scale.
First predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein based on the quantum formulations of the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, the exact properties of Bose-Einstein condensates are notoriously challenging to study.
Physicists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Ludwig Maximilian University Munich now have proposed a new theory to describe these quantum systems more effectively and comprehensively.
Dr. Carlos Benavides-Riveros from the Institute of Physics at MLU, said,Many attempts were made to prove their existence experimentally. Finally, in 1995, researchers in the U.S. succeeded in producing the condensates in experiments. In 2001 they received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work. Since then, physicists around the world have been working on ways to define better and describe these systems that would enable their behavior to be more accurately predicted.
Benavides-Riveros said,In quantum mechanics, the Schrdinger equation is used to describe systems with many interacting particles. But because the number of degrees of freedom increases exponentially, this equation is not easy to solve. This is the so-called many-body problem, and finding a solution to this problem is one of the major challenges of theoretical and computational physics today.
Co-author Jakob Wolff from MLU said,The working group at MLU is now proposing a comparatively simple method. One of our key insights is that the particles in the condensate interact only in pairs. This enables these systems to be described using much simpler and more established methods, like those used in electronic quantum systems.
Jakob Wolff said,Our theory is in principle exact and can be applied to different physical regimes and scenarios, for example, strongly interacting ultracold atoms. And it looks like it will also be a promising way to describe superconducting materials.
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Physicists have proposed a new theory for Bose-Einstein condensates - Tech Explorist
8.13 and 8.14: Physics Junior Lab – MIT Technology Review
In 8.13 and 8.14, the 18-credit-hour classes known as Physics Junior Lab, students are introduced to experimental physics by replicating classic early-20th-century discoveries in such things as special relativity, quantum mechanics, and nuclear physics. The labs involve a lot of finessing of equipment, connecting of cables, and twiddling of knobsnot the sort of thing you can easily put online.
But Junior Lab professors Gunther Roland and Phil Harris, PhD 11, both regularly collaborate with researchers around the globe on particle physics experiments requiring the analysis of enormous data sets. These big projects require that all of them be able not just to communicate across time zones but also to access experiments and data remotely.
So when the classes went online, they had students use data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to replicate the analysis that confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson. Students also got to work with data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and repeat the analysis that identified the gravitational waves caused by the collision of two black holeswork published in 2016 that led to a Nobel Prize for MIT professor Rainer Weiss.
Junior Lab students, who work in pairs, could no longer look at each others notebooks in the lab, but Roland says having lab partners use a shared online notebook encouraged more collaboration, an essential skill for experimental physicists. Students both edited the same document, and instructors could scroll through their notebooks in Zoom meetings and see their plots and calculations. Roland and Harris plan to keep the online shared notebooksand may add a menu of projects like those using LIGO and LHC datawhen everyones back on campus.
I dont think it should be the only thing, Roland says, since that sort of analysis-based work lacks what he calls the fiddling-with-the-knobs part so essential in experimental physics. The hands-on component is also very important. But it allows the students to do things that are cutting-edge right now instead of cutting-edge in the 1920s.
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‘Everything was centered around Sara, he was lost’: Abhishek Kapoor on Sushant Singh Rajput after ‘Kedarnath’ – DNA India
Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide at the age of 34 on June 14 and since then there have been a lot of theories floating around why he took such a drastic step. Filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor who has worked with Sushant in debut film 'Kai Po Che' and later in 'Kedarnath', in a recent interview said that he was a "troubled man, whose mind was systematically dismantled by the industry."
As per reports on BollywoodLife, Abhishek said, "Its a systematic dismantling of a fragile mind. Sushant was brilliant, he was an engineer, he was into astrophysics and quantum physics. But because we couldnt box him into stereotypes we called him off. He was off, just off your radar. Theres this thing that if youre not like us then you cant be with us. There are so many camps that if youre not part of a camp, even if youre in the middle of a room, you will be ignored. It is true, especially for actors. I, as a filmmaker, can isolate myself. I can warn a young actor but he cannot see it at the time because the lights are so bright. You lose yourself."
The director further added how Sushant was trobled while shooting for 'Kedarnath' but when it was time to shoot he was 100% in the scene. For the uninformed, 'Kedarnath' was the debut film of actress Sara Ali Khan. The filmmaker said that Sushant felt that all the media attention had diverted towards her and he became reclusive.
"I had not spoken to him for about a year and a half. There were times, you talk and then youd go away to do a film. He must have changed his number 50 times and I remember when Kedarnath was coming out, the media had just slammed it. I dont know what happened, he could see that he was not getting the kind of love because everything was centered around Sara at that time. He was just kind of lost. When the film released and it did really well, I sent him a message saying, 'Bro I have been trying to reach you, Im not sure if you are upset, or just busy, but call me so we can chat. We made a super film together, again. If we are not going to celebrate it then what the hell are we going to celebrate in life? So please call me, I love you' to which he didn't respond. He didnt respond to me on his birthday. I said to myself just let it be. I could see he was not in a good place but you cannot cross a line," he stated.
Abhishek was present at Sushant's funeral along with his wife. He was cremated at Mumbais Vile Parle crematorium on Monday.
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Nano-motor of just 16 atoms runs at the boundary of quantum physics – New Atlas
Researchers at Empa and EPFL have created one of the smallest motors ever made. Its composed of just 16 atoms, and at that tiny size it seems to function right on the boundary between classical physics and the spooky quantum realm.
Like its macroscopic counterparts, this mini motor is made up of a moving part (the rotor) and a fixed part (the stator). The stator in this case is a cluster of six palladium atoms and six gallium atoms arranged in a rough triangular shape. Meanwhile, the rotor is a four-atom acetylene molecule, which rotates on the surface of the stator. The whole machine measures less than a nanometer wide.
The molecular motor can be powered by either thermal or electrical energy, although the latter was found to be much more useful. At room temperature, for example, the rotor was found to rotate back and forth at random. But when an electric current was applied using an electron scanning microscope, the rotor would spin in one direction with a 99-percent stability.
This, the team says, makes it far more practical than previous molecular motors. Ultimately, it could be used not only for moving tiny machines around, but also for energy harvesting on the nanoscale.
Empa
But there are a few other strange quirks of the new motor. Its made to spin in one direction the same way that a regular motor would, using a ratcheting scheme. Normally, this is done using a gear with sloped teeth and a pawl, which slides along the flat side of the teeth but cant climb back up the steep side, forcing one-way movement.
In this case though, the molecular motor works backwards. Somehow, the rotor prefers to move against the grain, climbing the steep side and ignoring the flat route. As counterintuitive as it seems, the effect is basically the same, so the rotor still turns in one direction.
Another oddity is that the molecular motor seems to break a law of classical physics. As we innately understand at the macro scale, a minimum amount of energy is required for a movement to overcome resistance on a bicycle, for instance, you cant just stop pedaling and expect to ride uphill.
But somehow, thats basically what this mini motor was doing. The researchers found that the rotor moved even under tiny amounts of thermal or electrical energy far less than should be required to get it spinning. That means temperatures below -256 C (-248.8 F) or an applied voltage of under 30 millivolts.
Instead, what seems to be happening is a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling. Essentially, particles have regularly been observed tunneling through barriers that they dont have the energy to overcome normally. Back to the bike analogy, this isnt so much like gliding to the top of the hill without pedaling as it is just teleporting to the other side of it.
But even this explanation raises further questions. Quantum tunneling is thought to be frictionless, but if that was the case the rotor would spin in any direction randomly. The fact that it prefers one direction with 99-percent probability suggests that energy is being lost during this process.
"The motor could enable us to study the processes and reasons for energy dissipation in quantum tunneling processes," says Oliver Grning, lead researcher on the study.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An animation of the rotor can be seen in the video below.
Smallest Motor in the World
Source: Empa
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Nano-motor of just 16 atoms runs at the boundary of quantum physics - New Atlas