Quantum mechanics
hideQuantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the submicroscopic scale (at the atomic level). Notable among these principles are simultaneous wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation ("Wave–particle duality"), and the prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certainties. Classical physics can be derived as a good approximation to quantum physics, typically in circumstances with large numbers of particles. Thus quantum phenomena are particularly relevant in systems whose dimensions are close to the atomic scale, such as molecules, atoms, electrons, protons and other subatomic particles. Exceptions exist for certain systems which exhibit quantum mechanical effects on macroscopic scale; superfluidity is one well-known example. Quantum theory provides accurate descriptions for many previously unexplained phenomena such as black body radiation and stable electron orbits. It has also given insight into the workings of many different biological systems, including smell receptors and protein structures.
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News tagged with quantum mechanics
Scientists demonstrate 'universal' programmable quantum processor
Nov 15, 2009 |
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Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics -- th ...
Quantum gas microscope offers glimpse of quirky ultracold atoms
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, ...
Study Shows Time Traveling May Not Increase Computational Power
Oct 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 50 years, physicists have been intrigued by the concept of closed time-like curves (CTCs). Because a CTC returns to its starting point, it raises the possibility of traveling backward in time. ...
3 Questions: Steven Nahn on the elusive Higgs boson
Oct 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Troubles at the Large Hadron Collider have led some physicists to suggest the Higgs boson is sabotaging its own discovery. Nahn explains why he disagrees.
Physicist wins Packard Fellowship
Oct 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero has won a 2009 David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, an award he will use to study a new class of materials that could have applications in the semiconductor ...
Field experiment on a robust hierarchical metropolitan quantum cryptography network
Oct 16, 2009 |
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Key Laboratory of Quantum Information (CAS), University of Science and Technology of China has recently demonstrated a metropolitan Quantum Cryptography Network (QCN) for Government Administration in Wuhu, China. The project ...
Quantum Computer Chips Now One Step Closer To Reality
Oct 15, 2009 |
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In the quest for smaller, faster computer chips, researchers are increasingly turning to quantum mechanics -- the exotic physics of the small. The problem: the manufacturing techniques required to make quantum devices have ...
Scientists use math modeling to predict unknown biological mechanism of regulation
Oct 14, 2009 |
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A team of scientists, led by a biomedical engineer at The University of Texas at Austin, have demonstrated - for the first time - that mathematical models created from data obtained by DNA microarrays, can ...
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Oct 07, 2009 |
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Chaotic behavior is the rule, not the exception, in the world we experience through our senses, the world governed by the laws of classical physics.
To peer inside a living cell
Oct 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Quantum mechanics could help build ultra-high-resolution electron microscopes that won't destroy living cells, according to MIT electrical engineers.
Building a better qubit: Combining 6 photons together results in highly robust qubits
Oct 05, 2009 |
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Exploiting quantum mechanics for transmitting information is a tantalizing possibility because it promises secure, high speed communications. Unfortunately, the fragility of methods for storing and sending ...
Schrodinger's Cat Experiment Proposed
Sep 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the classical problems in quantum mechanics concerns a man and his feline companion. The man has placed his cat in an opaque tank and is slowing pumping it full of poison. Now until ...
Physicists make discovery in quantum mechanics
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have made an important advance in quantum mechanics using a superconducting electrical circuit. The finding is reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
In brief: A tiny, tunable well of light, and a string theorist's toolbox
Sep 21, 2009 |
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Promising photonic devices, and theorists attempt to determine whether particle physics and string theory can be reconciled.
Atoms don't dance the 'Bose Nova'
Sep 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Hanns-Christoph Naegerl's research group at the Institute for Experimental Physics, Austria, has investigated how ultracold quantum gases behave in lower spatial dimensions. They successfully ...
