Quantum auto-mechanic just ca n’t keep from getting freaky . The latest thing is damaging clock time , and how light go through a cloud of molecule might appear to come out before it goes in . unluckily , it is not atime machine – your practiced stake there is still a DeLorean – but a curious phenomenon with intriguing import for optical applications .
Imagine that you are get off a pulse of Light Within across a swarm of atoms . The particle are at a temperature close to absolute zero , just ten of micro - degrees above it . Light slip away through them would commonly interact with them . The photon would be absorbed ( creating an atomic excitation ) and then reemitted . Overall , the light would gain a group delay .
What ’s playfulness is that this grouping delay can theoretically be in the negative . The squad used light whose frequence is close to the atomic resonance frequency of the atoms in the swarm – that think of that excited particle take a long clip to release their photon . But in this experiment , the group wait can end up being damaging : something unearthly is going on .
evidently , the photons – particles of illumination – are not time traveling . The experimental apparatus is indicating thequantumweirdness of the interaction of a specific light source with a specific set of atoms . The conception of " now " in quantum terminal figure is a little less desexualise , make this interaction seem unacceptable for our standard vista of time as alinear progressionfrom the past to the future . The atoms pass a negative fourth dimension in an excited country ; or simply , the photons do not roll up any holdup passing through – actually , they come out before they got in .
“ It took a positive amount of time , but our experimentation observing that photon can make atoms seem to spend a * minus * amount of time in the aroused state is up ! ” aged writer Aephraim Steinberg , from the University of Toronto , wrote on X.
The study awaits peer - review but raises a good point about the concept of negative time . The team argue that “ [ these ] results suggest that electronegative values take by times such as the chemical group holdup have more physical signification than has generally been apprize . ”
The preprint , which is yet to undergo peer - followup , is usable on thearXiv .
[ H / T : Scientific American ]
