From SciTechDaily.com: Secret Quantum Dance of Atoms Captured for the First Time by Goethe University Frankfurt
Image: Ultrashort, high-intensity X-ray laser pulses trigger controlled explosions of molecules – making it possible to capture high-resolution images of molecular structures. Credit: Till Jahnke / Goethe University Frankfurt
Using the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, scientists have
filmed atoms performing an eternal quantum dance that never stops — even
at absolute zero.
This first-ever direct view of zero-point motion reveals that molecules
vibrate in beautifully ordered, synchronized patterns instead of random
motion.
Most people struggle to make sense of the quantum realm: According to
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, observing it is like watching a
dancer while being allowed to see either their position or their speed,
but never both at the same time. Even so, this quantum “dance” is not
random. The movements follow strict, well defined patterns.
Within molecules, this unusual behavior has a surprising effect. Even
at absolute zero, a temperature at which all motion should vanish, a
molecule never becomes completely still. Its atoms continue a faint,
continuous motion driven by what scientists call zero-point energy.
Breakthrough in Measuring Zero-Point Motion
For decades, researchers believed these subtle zero-point movements
could never be tracked directly. That assumption has now changed. A team
at Goethe University Frankfurt and collaborating institutions succeeded
in observing them at the European XFEL in Hamburg, Germany, the world’s
most powerful X-ray laser. By illuminating individual molecules and
recording rapid-fire snapshots of their atoms, the team revealed each atom’s detailed pattern of movement.
Professor Till Jahnke of the Institute for Nuclear Physics at Goethe
University Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in
Heidelberg explains: “The exciting thing about our work is that we were
able to see that the atoms don’t just vibrate individually, but that
they vibrate in a coupled manner, following fixed patterns. We directly
measured this behavior for the first time in individual medium-sized
molecules that were also in their lowest energy state. This zero-point
motion is a purely quantum mechanical phenomenon that cannot be
explained classically.”
Physicists describe these patterns as vibrational modes. Simple
molecules containing only a few atoms are relatively easy to
characterize, but the situation becomes much more complicated as
molecules grow larger. The team examined iodopyridine, which contains
eleven atoms and displays 27 different vibrational modes that range
across an entire spectrum of motion
Years of Data Lead to a Breakthrough...
Full article: https://scitechdaily.com/secret-quantum-dance-of-atoms-captured-for-the-first-time/
[Vlad] Read the comments by Bao-hua ZHANG on Topological Vortex Theory (TVT)...
