Posted on 04/04/2017 7:18:54 PM PDT by MtnClimber
New technique allows atomic spin properties to be measured simultaneously with greater accuracy
Many seemingly unrelated scientific techniques, from NMR spectroscopy to medical MRI and timekeeping using atomic clocks, rely on measuring atomic spin – the way an atom’s nucleus and electrons rotate around each other. The limit on how accurate these measurements can be is set by the inherent fuzziness of quantum mechanics. However, physicists in Spain have demonstrated that this limit is much less severe than previously believed, measuring two crucial quantities simultaneously with unprecedented precision.
Central to the limits of quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that it is not possible to know a particle’s position and momentum with absolute accuracy, and the more precisely you measure one quantity, the less you know about the other. This is because to measure its position you have to disturb its momentum by hitting it with another particle and observing how the momentum of this second particle changes. A similar principle applies to measuring a particle’s spin angular momentum, which involves observing how the polarisation of incident light is changed by the interaction with the particle – every measurement disturbs the atom’s spin slightly. To infer the spin precession rate, you need to measure the spin angle, as well as its overall amplitude, repeatedly. However, every measurement disturbs the spin slightly, creating a minimum possible uncertainty.......
The spin angle, they say, is in fact two angles: the azimuthal angle and polar angle to measure the precession rate, you need only the azimuthal angle. Therefore, by loading as much uncertainty as possible into the polar angle, you can measure the two quantities you need – the azimuthal angle and amplitude of the spin – and therefore measure the spin precession rate much more accurately than previously thought possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at chemistryworld.com ...
I wonder if this will impact the security of quantum encryption?
HEISENBERG!
Yes Heisenberg, not Hindenberg which went all splody on us.
Yeah, Science Mr. White! Science, B!TCH!
There used to be a desktop image, I think it came standard on Windows ME, that depicted atoms or molecules and their curving and arcing trajectories.
it was neat.
I was going to reply to this thread but I didn’t want to perturb it
A photon has a known energy and its effect can be subtracted out. So if a particle slows down, you know how fast it might have been if you hadn't tried to measure it.
Then there is schroedinger’s cat and its relationship?
Suddenly I have gone all wobbly.
Does Hussein in Tahiti know this?
Eugene Polzik of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark is impressed: ‘It sets a new and clever way of measuring certain magnetic field disturbances using an ensemble of quantum spins,’ he says. ‘It would be easy for me to look at this and say “Oh, yes, right: it doesn’t contradict quantum mechanics,” but to figure out how to achieve this, to understand how relevant it is and under what circumstances it is relevant – this is an excellent and elegant development.’
...
At least from this part of the article, which was saved for last, the uncertainty principle is still intact.
Avoid the entanglement, eh?
0bama is like a black hole spinning. There is not anything that will slow down his spin.
Speaking of uncertainty, Get back to me after you have divided the spin radius by two and reached zero.
I won’t be waiting...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
