Nothing is Real- Science says so

[z1ggy]

http://www.gizmag.com/quantum-theory-reality-anu/37866/

Researchers working at the Australian National University (ANU) have conducted an experiment that helps bolster the ever-growing evidence surrounding the weird causal properties inherent in quantum theory. In short, they have shown that reality does not actually exist until it is measured – at atomic scales, at least.

Associate Professor Andrew Truscott and his PhD student, Roman Khakimov, of ANU's Research School of Physics and Engineering conducted a version of John Archibald Wheeler's delayed-choice thought experiment – a variation of the classic double-slit experiment, where light is shown to display characteristics of both waves and particles – where an object moving through open space is provided the opportunity (some would say "a choice") to behave like a particle or a wave.

In this instance, however, the ANU team replicated Wheeler's experiment using multiple atoms, which was much more difficult to do than a test using photons. This extra difficulty is due to the fact that, as they have mass, atoms tend to interfere with each other, which can theoretically influence the results.

"An atom is a much more classical particle," Associate Professor Truscott said. "For the theory to hold with a single atom is significant because it proves that it works for particles with mass."

To carry out the experiment, the ANU team initially trapped a collection of helium atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (a medium in which a dilute gas is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero), and then forcibly ejected them from their containment until there was only a single atom left behind.

This remaining atom was then released to pass through a pair of counter-propagating laser beams (that is, beams moving in opposite directions), which created a pattern to act as a crossroads for the atom in the same way that a solid diffusion grating would act to scatter light.

After this, another laser-generated grating was randomly added and used to recombine the routes offered to the atom. This second grating then indiscriminately produced either constructive or destructive interference as if the atom had journeyed on both paths. Conversely, when the second light grating was not randomly added, no interference would be introduced, and the atom would behave as if it had followed only one path.

However, and this is the really weird part, the arbitrary number generated to determine if the grating was added or not was only generated after the atom had passed through the crossroads. But, when the atom was measured at the end of its path – before the random number was generated – it already displayed the wave or particle characteristics applied by the grating after it had completed its journey.

According to Truscott, this means that if one chooses to believe that the atom really did take a particular path or paths, then one also has to accept that a future measurement is affecting the atom's past.

"The atoms did not travel from A to B. It was only when they were measured at the end of the journey that their wave-like or particle-like behavior was brought into existence," said Truscott. "It proves that measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it.”

Even though the findings of the experiment add to the perceived weirdness of quantum theory, the results also validate it. But, even without regard to the weird aspects, quantum physics almost certainly governs the world at the atomic level, and this existence has enabled the development of quantum technologies ranging from cryptography to solar cells.

From an everyday point of view, our minds perceive that an object should behave like a wave or a particle, quite independently of how it is measured. However, as this experiment supports, quantum physics predicts that it doesn’t seem to matter if a particle or object should show wave-like behavior or particle-like behavior; it all depends on how it is actually measured at the end of its journey.

"Quantum physics' predictions about interference seem odd enough when applied to light, which seems more like a wave, but to have done the experiment with atoms, which are complicated things that have mass and interact with electric fields and so on, adds to the weirdness," said Roman Khakimov.

The first time ever that Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment has been conducted using a single atom, the quantum weirdness represented by this experiment much more closely approaches the macro world in which humans perceive reality, which adds to the significance of the findings.

The results of this research were recently published in the journal Nature Physics

 

[z1ggy]

So, since nothing is actually real... Whose stuff can I have after they go on a hooker and coke binge?!?!

:awe:

 

[clamum]

We're all in a simulation.

 

[dank69]

Sounds like an efficient method to render "reality" if we were part of a simulation. Only render the parts that need to be rendered.

 

[mrjminer]

Reminds me of this argument I had with someone in middle school. I told him time didn't exist until we invented it. He disagreed.

This is close enough for me to declare victory.

 

[z1ggy]

Sounds like an efficient method to render "reality" if we were part of a simulation. Only render the parts that need to be rendered.

I think what was most interesting was kind of alluding to the fact that future measurements potentially were altering past choices. Kind of like reverse time travel of sorts.

 

[IronWing]

This is most excellent grounds to argue exam results, "My answer was not incorrect until you checked it."

 

[ElFenix]

... but the girl

 

[dank69]

I think what was most interesting was kind of alluding to the fact that future measurements potentially were altering past choices. Kind of like reverse time travel of sorts.

Yeah, that's also interesting as well.

 

[Anubis]

This is most excellent grounds to argue exam results, "My answer was not incorrect until you checked it."

this goes right with "nothing is illegal until you get caught"

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Doesn't matter what quantum mechanics says about the state of my bank account when it's not being observed. As soon as I try to withdraw anything the balance is checked, reality kicks in and those potential billions disappear.

 

[PokerGuy]

I read the article and sadly must conclude I'm just too dumb to understand the discussion

 

[z1ggy]

I read the article and sadly must conclude I'm just too dumb to understand the discussion

The hard part is trying to describe extremely complex experiments and theory in layman's terms.

 

[SlitheryDee]

We're all in a simulation.

So the computer is conserving resources by only generating a result when there is someone there to observe it? Makes sense. It's more or less how we deal with limited computational resources in video games right?

 

[Genx87]

So when a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around not only does it not make a sound. It may not even fall until it is seen?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I read the article and sadly must conclude I'm just too dumb to understand the discussion

I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. ~~ Richard Feynman

Even Einstein didn't get it. He called quantum entanglement "spooky action at a distance" as a way of brushing it off as nonsense because it seemed too weird and violated some of his ideas.

 

[dank69]

So when a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around not only does it not make a sound. It may not even fall until it is seen?

The tree doesn't even exist.

 

[Genx87]

The tree doesn't even exist.

That is a great point.

 

[Pens1566]

Everything is being lazy loaded?

 

[zephyrprime]

So the computer is conserving resources by only generating a result when there is someone there to observe it? Makes sense. It's more or less how we deal with limited computational resources in video games right?

We do limit processing in games by not drawing invisible things (occlusion culling) and turning off the simulation of distant things. I guess there are lots of situations in games akin to this quantum physics simulation where the state of an object is not determined until right when the player reveals said object and needs to interact with it.

 

[clamum]

So the computer is conserving resources by only generating a result when there is someone there to observe it? Makes sense. It's more or less how we deal with limited computational resources in video games right?

I think so. I'm a developer but only business-type applications so far, no games.

My response was only half-serious, but Bostrom's Simulation Argument is pretty wild, and seems logical.

 

[Phoenix86]

OK Jaden Smith, Whatever You Say.

 

[Matthiasa]

Breaking causality seems legit... that or just very poorly worded.

 

[Crono]

Don't blink.

 

[Red Squirrel]

There is no spoon.


... They're all in the dishwasher.