Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Raiders Of The Lost Dimension (quantum mechanics)
Space Mart ^ | Jun 06, 2006 | Unattributed

Posted on 06/06/2006 9:59:36 AM PDT by Ben Mugged

A team of scientists working at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos has uncovered an intriguing phenomenon while studying magnetic waves in barium copper silicate, a 2,500-year-old pigment known as Han purple. The researchers discovered that when they exposed newly grown crystals of the pigment to very high magnetic fields at very low temperatures, it entered a rarely observed state of matter. At the threshold of that matter state--called the quantum critical point-the waves actually lose a dimension.

That is, the magnetic waves go from a three-dimensional to a two-dimensional pattern. The discovery is yet another step toward understanding the quantum mechanics of the universe.

Writing about the work in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature, the researchers describe how they discovered that at high magnetic fields (above 23 Tesla) and at temperatures between 1 and 3 degrees Kelvin (or roughly minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit), the magnetic waves in Han purple crystals "exist" in a unique state of matter called a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC).

In the BEC state, magnetic waves propagate simultaneously in all of three directions (up-down, forward-backward and left-right). At the quantum critical point, however, the waves stop propagating in the up-down dimension, causing the magnetic ripples to exist in only two dimensions, much the same way as ripples are confined to the surface of a pond.

"The reduced dimensionality really came as a surprise," said Neil Harrison, an experimental physicist at the Los Alamos Pulsed Field Facility, "just when we thought we had reached an understanding of the quantum nature of its magnetic BEC."

(Excerpt) Read more at spacemart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: multipledimensions; physics; quantummechanics; science
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last
To: Ben Mugged
"Raiders of the Lost Dimension"

Are these raiders like shape shifting beings from another world in Dimension SIX? (666 becomes Six Six Six). I heard a rumor that these shape shifting beings now control the entire world. They control politics, wage wars and run economic systems to benefit themselves. America is being run like a huge plantation. We are all just worker bees in the great hive. The U.S. will become The North American Union. Canada will be linked by super highways to Mexico. The illegal drug trade will increase, not decrease. Billions in illegal profits will become trillions. The U.S. dollar will fade away to become "The Amero."

< / sarcasm>

21 posted on 06/06/2006 10:41:02 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Matthew 7:1 through 6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kanawa

Placemarker for earlier.


22 posted on 06/06/2006 10:48:12 AM PDT by kanawa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ElkGroveDan

"Looked like a natural gravity well to me"

(g_d, I am a geek)


23 posted on 06/06/2006 11:01:06 AM PDT by waverna
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged

The LACK of knowledge we have of the workings of this universe cannot be adequately measured.


24 posted on 06/06/2006 11:03:34 AM PDT by Leatherneck_MT (In a world where Carpenters come back from the dead, ALL things are possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee_Bob

"You hear the music before it gets written"

Most music today sounds like it has not yet been written...
it seems to exist in a confused, undecided state...much like
Schrodinger's Cat.


25 posted on 06/06/2006 11:07:23 AM PDT by Bobalu (This is not the tag line you are looking for.....move along (waves hand))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Paradox
does it cease to vary by the distance cubed, and become dependent on distance squared?

I prefer my distances julienned - looks much prettier on top of the salad. But I'm still searching for a good quantum dressing.

26 posted on 06/06/2006 11:08:35 AM PDT by talleyman (Kerry & the Surrender-Donkey Treasoncrats - trashing the troops for 40 years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged

Two dimensionality? Look up cheniere.org for Deborah Chung's room temperature superconductor. It converts ambient heat into electric current automatically between layers of high pressure laminate. It has reverse resistance, a seeming violation of the 2nd law of TD, but there it is, demonstrated in the lab just as this is. Then, no sooner is it announced than the University shuts it down on orders from DC(controlling vested interests)....Which is the greater addiction? Our dependence(ala big oil)on foreign oil, or the government's fuel taxing LUST? The love of money is the root of all evil....


27 posted on 06/06/2006 11:33:30 AM PDT by timer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: timer

Doesn't sund difficult. Should be easy to replicate if it's real.


28 posted on 06/06/2006 11:42:10 AM PDT by saganite (Billions and billions and billions-------and that's just the NASA budget!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged

I wonder why they used this particular material?


29 posted on 06/06/2006 11:51:55 AM PDT by Rev DMV
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee_Bob
I'm listening to the radio in the year 2032 right now.,/i>

I heard the year 2525 in 1969.

30 posted on 06/06/2006 12:58:00 PM PDT by thulldud ("Muslim Community Leaders Warn of Backlash from Tomorrow's Terrorist Attack")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: saganite

See JNaudin website(he's in france), he gives materials, details of how to do it. The carbon weave tape requires VERY high lamination pressures. Big oil may smother the idea here in the US but foreigners? That's a different story...


31 posted on 06/06/2006 2:37:23 PM PDT by timer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: All

Ping for later pondering.


32 posted on 06/07/2006 1:53:05 AM PDT by Son Of The Godfather
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged; All
Han purple was used more than 2,000 years ago to color Xi'an terra cotta warriors of the Qian Dynasty. The pigment is known in the scientific world as BaCuSi206 -- and when magnet lab scientists exposed it to very high magnetic fields and very low temperatures, it entered a state of matter that is rarely observed.

The most recent research, published in today's issue of the journal Nature, shows that at the lowest temperature point at which the change of state occurs -- called the Quantum Critical Point -- the Han purple pigment actually loses a dimension: it goes from 3D to 2D.

Theoretical physicists have postulated that this kind of dimensional reduction might help explain some mysterious properties of other materials (high temperature superconductors and metallic magnets known as "heavy fermions" for example) near the absolute zero of temperature, but until now, a change in dimension had not been experimentally observed.

We live in three dimensions; up-down, front-back and left-right are the options. A sound wave, for example, "exists" in three dimensions and propagates in all of these directions simultaneously. If we could take a picture it would look like an expanding balloon. A wave in two dimensions looks like ripples on the surface of a pond. Ripples propagate on the surface only; they don't propagate perpendicular to the surface, which is the third dimension.

"As often happens in science, we found something we weren't looking for," said Marcelo Jaime, an experimental physicist at the magnet lab's Pulsed Field Facility in Los Alamos, N.M. "Much to our surprise, we found that when the temperature is low enough, the transition into the new magnetic state occurs in an unexpected way."

The experiment was performed at the magnet lab's DC Field Facility at Florida State University by Neil Harrison from the Pulsed Field Facility and Suchitra Sebastian from Stanford University, in collaboration with a team of scientists from these institutions.

They observed that at high magnetic fields (above 23 tesla) and temperatures between 1 and 3 degrees Kelvin (approximately -460 degrees Fahrenheit), the magnetic waves in three-dimensional crystals of Han purple "exist" in a three-dimensional world as per conventional wisdom. However, below those temperatures, near the quantum limit, one of the dimensions is no longer accessible, with the unexpected consequence that magnetic ripples propagate in only two dimensions. (Kelvin is the temperature scale used by scientists; zero degrees Kelvin is absolute zero, a temperature so low it is experimentally unreachable.)

33 posted on 06/07/2006 10:25:05 AM PDT by Ben Mugged (If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged; Physicist; RadioAstronomer; Quark2005; longshadow

A more appropriate title would have been "Riders of the Purple Wave" :)


34 posted on 06/10/2006 12:47:03 PM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is to conservatism what Howard Dean is to liberalism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged

Why this down right, flat out ... purple. I wonder, is this see 'just the 2D shadow' of a 3D thing?


35 posted on 06/10/2006 1:01:09 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Leatherneck_MT

Is that kind of like 'you can't prove a negative'?


36 posted on 06/10/2006 1:03:51 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: QwertyKPH

It's some kind of crystal effect like a polarizer. This particular substance may have been chosen as one among many substances with metal content; many other substances would also have been tested just to see what happens. 3 K is approximately the background temperature of the universe at microwave frequencies, so this Bose-Einstein condensate is colder.


37 posted on 06/10/2006 1:11:10 PM PDT by RightWhale (Off touch and out of base)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN

Could be :)


38 posted on 06/10/2006 1:46:30 PM PDT by Leatherneck_MT (In a world where Carpenters come back from the dead, ALL things are possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson