Quantum Phenomena Observed During Near Absolute Zero Conditions

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Quantum Phenomena Observed During Near Absolute Zero Conditions

Quantum theory (including subfields such as quantum mechanics and quantum electro and thermo dynamics) is at least to say, is a relatively new field of physics, having been born just over a century ago. It can be described as one of the most powerful theory ever to be proposed in the history of physics, even today our knowledge on this subject is regularly updated with new ideas and as we progress further into this subject we begin to discover basically, the many secrets of our universe. In the early 1900s, mankind had basically been able to answer nearly all of the questions concerning physics with the knowledge gained from giants such as Newton. However 10% were unanswerable, they simply could not figure out what was going on and why certain things did not obey rules set down by classical physics. In order to overcome this problem, scientists had to propose some new radical ideas regarding the relationship between matter and energy. Surprisingly a selection of these many dreamt up ideas worked and so quantum theory was born. As said by one of the forefathers of this theory, Erwin Schrödinger (famous for his thought experiment),

“I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it.”

One from the “Great Dane”, Niels Bohr,

“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”

And lastly one from the Richard Feynman,

“I think it is safe to say that no one can understand quantum mechanics.”

Generally quantum phenomena can only be observed in atomic and sub-atomic scale, it is rare to see such observations on a large scale. Of the various interpretations of quantum theory that have been proposed, most physicists accept the Copenhagen Interpretation, however this does not mean it does not have any faults or lead to any paradoxes. This brings us onto Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment which criticises the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, stating that the interpretation would just collapse when applied to objects on a large scale, in his case, a feline mammal. If atoms can exist in a state of superposition then is it reasonable to say that larger bulkier objects can since it is also made from atoms? He points of that such as theory would state that a cat can be dead and alive at the same time, which seems impossible. Now we introduce the observer effect, which makes this problem a little bit disturbing, many have talked about the act of measurement as the moment that causes the collapse of superposition, leading to an outcome. Furthermore some scientists even believe that human consciousness is necessary to trigger the collapse, resulting in questions about the roles of consciousness in our universe. For example, if we turn our back on an object, does that object even exist anymore; was it just a part of our imagination, a virtual reality?

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However, we are not here to discuss about such philosophical subjects, as I mentioned before, there are some special cases where certain objects can be seen with one’s naked eyes obeying the rules governed by quantum theory. Once such example is the rather strange state of matter, BEC or Bose-Einstein Condensates, named after the two people who predicted the existence of such matter. It is regarded as an example of a superfluid, we will talk more about those later. The basic formation of a superfluid involves cooling down a sample such as helium gas (helium IV) just above -217oC ...

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