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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: jimmy olsen on March 02, 2015, 10:59:50 PM

Title: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: jimmy olsen on March 02, 2015, 10:59:50 PM
Neat! :nerd:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/physics-first-light-captured-both-particle-wave-n315936

QuoteIn a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave

Physicists have theorized for over a century that light acts as both a particle and a wave, depending on the conditions, but they've never been able to capture it being both at once — until a team in Switzerland did just that in a recent experiment. Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne managed to take a snapshot of light in all its elusive wave-particle duality, a form first proposed by Einstein in 1905.

It was no easy task: You need light in order to take pictures of things, but how do you take a picture of light itself? The EPFL team, led by Fabrizio Carbone, started by exposing a tiny metallic nanowire to a pulse of laser light. The light travels up and down this wire and interferes with itself, forming stationary "standing waves" and illustrating that portion of light's dual nature.

At the same time, though, those waves are made of innumerable photons. This was shown by barraging the standing waves with electrons — some of which would speed up, and some slow down, depending on how they strike photons in the stream. The simple fact that these "quanta" of exchanged energy exist proves that there are particles there, not just a simple waveform of radiation (like a magnetic field).

The result is the image above, which shows light exhibiting wavelike and particle-like properties at the same time. This research, published in the journal Nature Communications, significantly advances our understanding of how light works on the smallest detectable scales, and may be highly valuable in the field of quantum computing.

Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: DGuller on March 03, 2015, 01:09:26 AM
Hmm, that's what I fugred.  :hmm:
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: The Brain on March 03, 2015, 11:11:21 AM
katmai is displaying bloblike qualities.
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: crazy canuck on March 03, 2015, 12:10:33 PM
That is very cool.

Its too bad DGuller didn't just tell everyone he assumed this to be the case and save us all the trouble over the years.
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Valmy on March 03, 2015, 12:16:08 PM
DGuller was called mad for his theories but he showed them...SHOWED THEM ALL.

Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Siege on March 03, 2015, 01:24:54 PM
Singularity alert!
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: crazy canuck on March 03, 2015, 01:26:44 PM
Quote from: Siege on March 03, 2015, 01:24:54 PM
Singularity alert!

:lol:
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Caliga on March 03, 2015, 01:28:07 PM
Quote from: Siege on March 03, 2015, 01:24:54 PM
Singularity alert!
I met your boy Ray Kurzweil once.  He's not as nerdy as one might expect. :hmm:
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Siege on March 03, 2015, 01:56:32 PM
Quote from: Caliga on March 03, 2015, 01:28:07 PM
Quote from: Siege on March 03, 2015, 01:24:54 PM
Singularity alert!
I met your boy Ray Kurzweil once.  He's not as nerdy as one might expect. :hmm:

Back before his Google days?
Yeah, he was kind of cool.
These days you need to be a fucking CEO of a Fortune 500 to talk with him.
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Caliga on March 03, 2015, 02:07:42 PM
This was circa 2001-2002.  He came to Harvard to do a talk.  I actually don't think it was about the singularity, at least not directly.  I wish I could remember the topic. :hmm:
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: DGuller on March 03, 2015, 02:08:00 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on March 03, 2015, 12:10:33 PM
Its too bad DGuller didn't just tell everyone he assumed this to be the case and save us all the trouble over the years.
I thought it was too obvious to mention.  :Embarrass:
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: Razgovory on March 03, 2015, 02:29:33 PM
Quote from: Caliga on March 03, 2015, 02:07:42 PM
This was circa 2001-2002.  He came to Harvard to do a talk.  I actually don't think it was about the singularity, at least not directly.  I wish I could remember the topic. :hmm:

The new municipal mass transit schedule.
Title: Re: In a Physics First, Light is Captured as Both Particle and Wave
Post by: grumbler on March 03, 2015, 06:53:39 PM
That's cool.  Thanks for sharing.