Posted on 09/21/2018 8:19:00 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In this mini world, the concepts of "before" and "after" dissolve, such that two events can both precede and succeed each other. In other words, event A can occur before event B, and event B can occur before event A...
This idea, called a "quantum switch," was first proposed in 2009 by another team and has since been explored both theoretically and experimentally. Previous experiments showed event A could both precede and succeed event B, but the research couldn't say that these two scenarios were happening at the same place, said Cyril Branciard, co-author of this new study and a physicist at the NÉEL Institute in France.
To determine exactly where these violations of causality occurred, the researchers "implemented another quantum switch with a slightly different architecture," Branciard told Live Science. The new design allowed them to demonstrate experimentally that event A was happening both before and after event B not only at the same time, but also in the same place, Branciard told Live Science. Branciard and his team programmed and observed how a photon — a quantum particle of light — moved its way through a circuit. The photon could take one of two paths: If the photon took one path, they called the occurrence event A, and if it took the other, they called it event B.
A photon is can be thought of as both a particle and a wave. If the researchers used a photon with a horizontal polarization— the direction in which these waves oscillate— the photon would first travel path A and then travel backward to pass through path B, meaning event A happened before B. If they vertically polarized the photon, the photon would travel first through path B, then A, meaning B happened before A.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
“Branciard and his team programmed and observed how a photon — a quantum particle of light — moved its way through a circuit. The photon could take one of two paths: If the photon took one path, they called the occurrence event A, and if it took the other, they called it event B.”
If I understand correctly, in the weird realm of quantum mechanics particles can be in both places at the same time.
“’Quantum theory dictates that a very tiny thing can absorb energy only in discrete amounts, can never sit perfectly still, and can literally be in two places at once,’”
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