An explanation of quantum physics. Quantum physics and reality. What is more real - consciousness or matter

Ajudeik Fleck, the Polish epistemologist and microbiologist who inspired Thomas Kuhn to introduce the concept of "paradigm," observed that when beginning students first look at preparations under a microscope, they fail at first. They simply do not see what lies on the glass slide.

On the other hand, they often see what is not there. How is this possible? The answer is simple: the fact is that perception - especially its complex forms - requires training and development. After some time, all students see what lies on the glass slide.

The quantum physics

Guess I'm not wrong
if I say that quantum mechanics
no one understands.

— Richard Feynman, 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of quantum electrodynamics.

The one who wasn't shocked
when first introduced to quantum theory,
obviously just didn't understand.
— Niels Bohr, 1922 Nobel Prize winner for his work on the structure of the atom.

On the one hand, this theory is full of paradoxes, riddles and confusion in terms. On the other hand, we do not have the opportunity to discard it or neglect it, since in practice it has proven itself to be the most reliable tool for predicting the behavior of physical systems.

— David Albert, PhD

If Nobel Prize winners in physics don't understand quantum theory, what can we hope for? What to do if reality knocks on your door and tells you something completely incomprehensible, stunning, puzzling? How you react, how you live on, what options you see in front of you - all this says a lot about you, but we will discuss this in the next chapter. And now let's talk about electrons, photons, quarks, and how such a tiny object (if it is an object at all) can be so incomprehensible, and at the same time able to tear at our often perfectly organized and so understandable world.

On the border between the known and the unknown

Classical Newtonian physics is based on the observation of dense objects that are familiar to us from everyday experience, from falling apples to orbiting planets. Over the centuries, its laws have been repeatedly tested, confirmed and expanded. They are quite understandable and make it possible to predict the behavior of physical objects well, as evidenced by the achievements of the industrial revolution. But at the end of the 19th century, when physicists began to develop tools for studying the smallest constituents of matter, they were confused: Newton's physics no longer works! She could neither explain nor predict the results of their experiments.

Over the next hundred years, an entirely new description of the world of tiny particles developed. Known as quantum mechanics, quantum physics, or simply quantum theory, this new knowledge does not displace Newtonian physics, which still perfectly describes large, macroscopic objects. However, the new science is bravely going where Newton's physics is blocked: into the subatomic world.

“Our universe is very strange,” says Dr. Stuart Hameroff. “Apparently, there are two sets of laws that govern it. Our everyday, “classical” world, the world of our usual spatial and temporal scales, is described by Newtonian laws of motion formulated hundreds of years ago. However, when we move on to atomic level objects, a completely different set of laws comes into play. These are quantum laws."

Facts or fiction?

The implications of quantum theory are startling (we'll take a closer look at the five major shocks below) and are reminiscent of science fiction: a particle can be in two or more places at the same time! (One of the recent experiments showed that a particle can be in three thousand places at once!) The same object can appear as a particle legalized in one place, or as a wave propagating in space and time.

Einstein claimed that nothing can travel faster than light, however, quantum physics has shown that subatomic particles exchange information. instantly, through any distance in space.

Classical physics is characterized determinism: given a certain set of initial conditions (such as the coordinates and speed of an object), we can determine exactly where it will move. The quantum physics probabilistic: we never we do not know exactly how a particular object will behave.

classical physics mechanistic: it is based on the assumption that only through the understanding of individual parts is it possible to understand the whole. New physics holistic: it depicts the universe as a whole, the parts of which are interconnected and influence each other.

And, perhaps most importantly, quantum physics erased the clear Cartesian boundary between subject and object, observer and observed, which dominated science for 400 years.

In quantum physics, the observer affects to the observed object. There are no isolated observers of the mechanical Universe - everyone and everything participates in the Universe. (This point is so important that we will devote a separate chapter to it).

The term "quantum" was first used in science by the German scientist Max Planck in 1900. This Latin word means "quantity", however, it is now used to refer to the smallest amount of matter or energy.

One of the deepest philosophical differences between classical mechanics
and quantum mechanics lies in the fact that classical mechanics from its very foundation to the top is built on the idea, which, as we now know, is
nothing more than a fantasy. This is the idea of ​​the possibility of passive observation ... And quantum mechanics has resolutely refuted this idea.

— David Albert, PhD

Shock #1 - Empty Space

Let's start with something familiar to most of us. One of the first cracks in the building of Newtonian physics was the discovery that atoms—the supposedly solid particles that make up the universe—are made up mostly of empty space. How empty? If we enlarge the nucleus of a hydrogen atom to the size of a basketball, then the electron revolving around it will be at a distance of thirty kilometers, and between them - nothing. So, as you look around, remember that reality is actually tiny dots of matter surrounded by emptiness.

However, not quite so. This supposed "emptiness" is not empty at all: it contains a colossal amount of subtle, but extremely powerful energy. We know that energy density increases as we move to ever finer levels of reality (for example, nuclear energy is a million times more powerful than chemical energy). Scientists now say that one cubic centimeter of empty space contains more energy than matter in the entire known universe. Although scientists cannot measure this energy directly, they can see the results of this colossal sea of ​​energy. Intrigued? Ask what "van der Waals forces" and "Casimir effect" are.

Down the particle rabbit hole
When Schrödinger was formulating his wave equation, Heisenberg was solving the same problem using what was then advanced "matrix mathematics". However, his calculations turned out to be too incomprehensible, they did not correlate in any way with everyday experience and with such ordinary language words as “wave”, so the “wave” equation was preferred over “matrix transformations”. However, these are all just analogies.

The world behaves exactly as I thought when I was little. What can be said about a little boy with his dreams and fantasies? That he is in captivity of illusions? Maybe. However, it is suspicious that there is no less magic in quantum mechanics. The question is: where is the boundary between the fantastic and shaky quantum world and the world of large objects that seems so solid to us? Ever since I was a teenager, I've wondered if I'm made of subatomic particles that can do the most fantastic things, maybe I can do fantastic things too?

— Mark

Shock number 2 - particle, wave or wave particle?

Not only are elementary particles separated by vast “spaces,” but as they penetrate deeper and deeper into the atom, scientists have discovered that subatomic particles (of which the atom is composed) are not solid bodies. Apparently, they have a dual nature. Depending on how you observe them, they behave either like particles or like waves. Particles are separate solid objects that have a certain position in space. Waves, on the other hand, are not solid objects and are not localized in space, but propagate in it (for example, sound waves, waves on water).

As a wave, an electron or photon (a particle of light) does not have an exact position in space, but exists as a "field of probabilities". As a particle, the probability field collapses (or "collapses") into a solid object whose position in time and space can be determined.

Surprising as it may seem, the state of the particle depends on the very act of measurement or observation. An unmeasured and unobservable electron behaves like a wave. It is worth subjecting it to observation in the laboratory, and it "collapses" into a particle whose position can be localized.

How can something be both a solid particle and a soft fluid wave? Perhaps this paradox can be resolved by remembering what we talked about above: elementary particles behave like waves or like particles. But "wave" is just an analogy. Like the "particle" - just an analogy from our familiar world. The idea of ​​the wave properties of particles developed into quantum theory thanks to Erwin Schrödinger, who, in his famous “wave equation”, mathematically described the probabilities of the wave properties of a particle even before they were observed.

To emphasize that they don't really know what they're dealing with and have never seen anything like it before, some physicists have decided to call this phenomenon a "wave particle."

As long as a subatomic object is in a wave state, it is impossible to determine what it will become when it is observed and becomes localized in space. It exists in a state of "multiple possibilities" called superposition. It's like flipping a coin in a dark room. From a mathematical point of view, even after it falls on the table, we cannot determine whether it landed heads or tails. But as soon as the light comes on, we collapse (“collapse”) the superposition, and the coin becomes either heads or tails. Observing the wave, we — just like turning on the light in the above example — collapse the quantum superposition and the particle finds itself in a “classical” state that can be measured.

Shock #3 - Quantum Leaps and Probability

When studying the atom, scientists discovered that, leaving its orbit around the atomic nucleus, the electron moves through space in a different way than ordinary objects - it moves instantly. In other words, it disappears from one place, from one orbit, to appear in another orbit. This phenomenon has been called quantum leap.

Moreover, it turned out that it is impossible to determine exactly where an electron will appear or when it will make a jump. The maximum that can be done is to designate the probability of a new location of the electron (the Schrödinger wave equation). “Reality as we know it is recreated every moment from an ocean of possibilities,” Dr. Satinover says. “But the most mysterious thing is that the factor that would determine which opportunity from this ocean is realized, does not belong to the physical universe. There is no process that determines this."

It is often phrased as follows: quantum events are the only truly random events in the universe.

Shock #4 - The Uncertainty Principle

In classical physics, all the attributes of an object, including its position and speed, can be measured with an accuracy that is limited only by the technological capabilities of the experimenter. But at the quantum level, by measuring one indicator, such as speed, you cannot simultaneously obtain the exact values ​​of other indicators, such as coordinates. If you know where an object is, you cannot know how fast it is moving. If you know how fast it moves, you don't know where it is. And no matter how accurate and modern your equipment is, it is not possible to look beyond this veil.

The uncertainty principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum physics. This principle states that no matter how hard you try, you cannot accurately measure the speed and position of a quantum object at the same time. The more we focus on one of these indicators, the more uncertain the other becomes.

Shock #5 - Nonlocality, EPR, Bell's Theorem, and the Quantum Paradox

Albert Einstein did not like quantum physics (to put it mildly). Here is one of his statements about the probabilistic nature of quantum processes: "God does not play dice with the Universe." To which Niels Bohr replied: “And you don’t tell God what to do!”

In an attempt to disprove quantum mechanics, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) proposed a thought experiment in 1935 to show how ridiculous the new theory was. They pretty cleverly played with one of the conclusions of quantum mechanics, which other scientists did not pay attention to: if you provoke the formation of two particles at the same time, they will be directly connected to each other, or will be in a state of superposition. If we then shoot them at opposite ends of the universe and after some time somehow change the state of one of the particles, the second particle will also instantly change to come to the same state. Instantly!

This idea seemed so absurd that Einstein called such a phenomenon "spooky action at a distance." According to the theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than light. And here the speed of information exchange is infinite! Moreover, the idea that one electron could follow the fate of another, located at the other end of the universe, simply contradicted the generally accepted ideas about reality, based on common sense.

Then in 1964, John Bell proposed a theorem that states that the EPR assumption fair! This is exactly how things happen, and the idea that objects are local - that is, they exist only at one point in space - is wrong. Everything in the world is non-local. Elementary particles are closely related to each other at some level. outside of time and space.

In the years that have passed since the publication of Bell's theorem, his ideas have been repeatedly confirmed in the laboratory. Try to take it in your mind for a moment. Time and space, the most fundamental features of the world we live in, are somehow superseded in quantum theory by the notion that all objects are always related to each other. It is no coincidence that Einstein believed that such a conclusion would lead to the death of quantum mechanics. - it's just pointless.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that this phenomenon belongs to the operating laws of the Universe. Actually, Schrödinger once said that the close relationship between objects is not one of interesting aspects of quantum physics, but the most important aspect. In 1975, theoretical physicist Henry Stapp called Bell's theorem "the most profound discovery in science". Note: he said in science, not in physics.

My question is not why is quantum physics so interesting?, but why are SO MANY PEOPLE interested in quantum physics? It undermines the very foundations of our understanding of the world. She argues that the most obvious things we KNOW for sure are simply not true. And yet, it has fascinated millions of people who do not even "have a scientific streak."

I nearly drove Mark and Will crazy by asking “Why the hell am I supposed to do this a thousand times a day? What does this have to do with me? Why should I be interested in this idiotic world of quants - isn't there enough idiotism in my own world? I'm still not sure I understand all this. But Dr. Fred Alan Wolf once told me: “If you think you understand everything, then you didn’t hear what you were told at all!” What we have learned from exploring all this quantum madness is to enjoy chaos and accept the unknown, for truly great experiences are born from it!

What is the sound of a single electron collapsing?

Quantum physics and mysticism

It is easy to see the points of contact between physics and mysticism. Objects are separated in space, but are closely related to each other (non-locally); electrons move from point A to point B, but do not pass between these points; matter is (from a mathematical point of view) a wave function that collapses (that is, takes on existence in space) only when it is measured.

Mystics have no difficulty accepting all these ideas, most of which are much older than particle accelerators. Many of the founders of quantum mechanics were seriously interested in spiritual questions. Niels Bohr used the Yin-Yang symbol in his personal coat of arms; David Bohm had long discussions with the Indian sage Krishnamurti; Erwin Schroednger lectured on the Upanishads.

But does quantum physics serve proof mystical worldview? Ask physicists about this and you will get a full range of answers. If you ask this question at a party of physicists and start to firmly defend any one position, it’s quite probably(after all, probability plays an important role in quantum theory) that a fight will start.

With the exception of hardcore materialists, most scientists agree that we are still at the stage of analogies. The parallels are too clear to ignore. Both quantum physics and Zen tend to take a paradoxical view of the world. As Dr. Radin, already mentioned by us, said: “However, suggested and a different view of the world: indicates quantum mechanics".

Questions about what causes the collapse of the wave function and whether quantum events are really random have not been answered so far. Of course, we would like to create a truly unified concept of reality that will certainly include ourselves, but we cannot but heed the admonition of modern philosopher Ken Wilber:

The work of these scientists - Bohm, Pribram, Wheeler and others - is too important to be weighed down by the unbridled reasoning of mystics. And mysticism is too deep to be tied to this or that stage of scientific theorizing. May they appreciate each other, and may their dialogue and exchange of ideas never end.

Thus, in criticizing some aspects of the new paradigm, I do not seek to cool interest in its further development. I am simply calling for clarity and precision in the presentation of all these issues, which, by the way, are exceptionally complex.

We have billions of genetic lifetimes behind us that have given us this perfect genetic body and perfect genetic brain. Thousands and thousands of years were required for their evolution to such a level that you and I could have these conversations about the abstract. If it is given to us to incarnate in the greatest evolutionary machinery that has ever existed - in our bodies, which have a human
brain means we have earned the right to ask “what if...” questions.

— Rapa

conclusions

Conclusions? Yes, you are joking! If you have any findings, please share with us. But in any case, welcome to the world of abstract thought full of disputes, riddles, tasks and revelations. Science, mysticism, paradigms, reality - just look how wide the scope of human research, discovery and debate!

See how the human mind explores this amazing world where we happen to live.

AT this our true greatness.

Think about it...

- Recall an example from your life when you were convinced by experience of the action of Newtonian physics.

— Has Newtonian physics defined your paradigm so far?

— When you learned about the unsteady fantastic quantum world, did your paradigm change? If yes, how?

Are you ready to go beyond the known?

— Recall an example of the quantum effect in your life.

- Who or what is there an "observer" who determines the nature and location of the "particle"?

Despite the sonority and mystery of today's topic, we will try to tell what does quantum physics study in simple words, what sections of quantum physics have a place to be and why quantum physics is needed in principle.

The material offered below is accessible to anyone for understanding.

Before ranting about what quantum physics studies, it would be appropriate to recall how it all began ...

By the middle of the 19th century, mankind had come to grips with the study of problems that could not be solved by using the apparatus of classical physics.

A number of phenomena seemed "strange". Some questions were not answered at all.

In the 1850s, William Hamilton, believing that classical mechanics is not able to accurately describe the movement of light rays, proposes his own theory, which entered the history of science under the name of the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism, which was based on the postulate of the wave theory of light.

In 1885, after arguing with a friend, the Swiss physicist Johann Balmer derived empirically a formula that made it possible to calculate the wavelengths of spectral lines with very high accuracy.

At that time, Balmer could not explain the reasons for the revealed patterns.

In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen, while studying cathode rays, discovered radiation, which he called X-rays (later renamed rays), which was characterized by a powerful penetrating character.

A year later, in 1896, Henri Becquerel, studying uranium salts, discovered spontaneous radiation with similar properties. The new phenomenon was called radioactivity.

In 1899, the wave nature of X-rays was proved.

Photo 1. The founders of quantum physics Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Niels Bohr

The year 1901 was marked by the appearance of the first planetary model of the atom, proposed by Jean Perrin. Alas, the scientist himself abandoned this theory, not finding confirmation of it from the standpoint of the theory of electrodynamics.

Two years later, a scientist from Japan, Hantaro Nagaoka, proposed another planetary model of the atom, in the center of which there should have been a positively charged particle, around which electrons would orbit in orbits.

This theory, however, did not take into account the radiation emitted by electrons, and therefore could not, for example, explain the theory of spectral lines.

Reflecting on the structure of the atom, in 1904 Joseph Thomson was the first to interpret the concept of valence from a physical point of view.

The year of birth of quantum physics, perhaps, can be recognized as 1900, associating with it the speech of Max Planck at a meeting of the German Physics.

It was Planck who proposed a theory that united many hitherto disparate physical concepts, formulas and theories, including the Boltzmann constant, linking energy and temperature, Avogadro's number, Wien's displacement law, electron charge, Boltzmann's law of radiation ...

He also introduced the concept of the quantum of action (the second - after the Boltzmann constant - the fundamental constant).

The further development of quantum physics is directly connected with the names of Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Ernst Rutherford, Arnold Sommerfeld, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac, Enrico Fermi and many other remarkable scientists, created in the first half of the 20th century.

Scientists managed to understand the nature of elementary particles with unprecedented depth, study the interactions of particles and fields, reveal the quark nature of matter, derive the wave function, explain the fundamental concepts of discreteness (quantization) and wave-particle duality.

Quantum theory, like no other, brought mankind closer to understanding the fundamental laws of the universe, replaced the usual concepts with more accurate ones, and made us rethink a huge number of physical models.

What does quantum physics study?

Quantum physics describes the properties of matter at the level of micro-phenomena, exploring the laws of motion of micro-objects (quantum objects).

The subject of quantum physics are quantum objects with dimensions of 10 −8 cm or less. It:

• molecules,
• atoms,
• atomic nuclei,
• elementary particles.

The main characteristics of micro-objects are rest mass and electric charge. The mass of one electron (me) is 9.1 10 −28 g.

For comparison, the mass of a muon is 207 me, a neutron is 1839 me, and a proton is 1836 me.

Some particles have no rest mass at all (neutrino, photon). Their mass is 0 me.

The electric charge of any micro-object is a multiple of the electron charge equal to 1.6 · 10 −19 C. Along with the charged ones, there are neutral micro-objects, the charge of which is equal to zero.

Photo 2. Quantum physics forced to reconsider the traditional views on the concepts of waves, fields and particles

The electric charge of a complex micro-object is equal to the algebraic sum of the charges of its constituent particles.

Among the properties of micro-objects is spin(literally translated from English - "to rotate").

It is customary to interpret it as the angular momentum of a quantum object that does not depend on external conditions.

The back is difficult to find an adequate image in the real world. It cannot be represented as a spinning top due to its quantum nature. Classical physics cannot describe this object.

The presence of spin affects the behavior of micro-objects.

The presence of spin introduces significant features into the behavior of objects in the microcosm, most of which - unstable objects - spontaneously decay, turning into other quantum objects.

Stable micro-objects, which include neutrinos, electrons, photons, protons, as well as atoms and molecules, can only decay under the influence of powerful energy.

Quantum physics completely absorbs classical physics, considering it as its limiting case.

In fact, quantum physics is - in a broad sense - modern physics.

What quantum physics describes in the microcosm cannot be perceived. Because of this, many provisions of quantum physics are difficult to imagine, in contrast to the objects described by classical physics.

Despite this, new theories have made it possible to change our ideas about waves and particles, about dynamic and probabilistic description, about continuous and discrete.

Quantum physics is not just a newfangled theory.

This is a theory that has managed to predict and explain an incredible number of phenomena - from processes occurring in atomic nuclei to macroscopic effects in outer space.

Quantum physics - unlike classical physics - studies matter at a fundamental level, giving interpretations to the phenomena of the surrounding reality that traditional physics is not able to give (for example, why atoms remain stable or whether elementary particles are really elementary).

Quantum theory gives us the ability to describe the world more accurately than was accepted before its inception.

The Significance of Quantum Physics

The theoretical developments that make up the essence of quantum physics are applicable to the study of both unimaginably huge space objects and extremely small elementary particles.

quantum electrodynamics immerses us in the world of photons and electrons, focusing on the study of interactions between them.

Quantum theory of condensed matter deepens our knowledge of superfluids, magnets, liquid crystals, amorphous bodies, crystals and polymers.

Photo 3. Quantum physics has given humanity a much more accurate description of the world around us

Scientific research in recent decades has focused on the study of the quark structure of elementary particles within the framework of an independent branch of quantum physics - quantum chromodynamics.

Nonrelativistic quantum mechanics(the one that is beyond the scope of Einstein's theory of relativity) studies microscopic objects moving at a relatively low speed (less than), the properties of molecules and atoms, their structure.

quantum optics engaged in the scientific study of the facts associated with the manifestation of the quantum properties of light (photochemical processes, thermal and stimulated radiation, photoelectric effect).

quantum field theory is a unifying section that incorporates the ideas of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Scientific theories developed within the framework of quantum physics have given a powerful impetus to the development of quantum electronics, technology, quantum theory of solids, materials science, and quantum chemistry.

Without the emergence and development of the noted branches of knowledge, it would be impossible to create spacecraft, nuclear icebreakers, mobile communications and many other useful inventions.

A new experiment could shed light on the surprising hidden mechanics of quantum superpositions.

Superposition- the concept that tiny objects can exist in several places or states at the same time - is the cornerstone of quantum physics. A new experiment is trying to shed light on this mysterious phenomenon.

The main question in quantum mechanics, to which no one knows the answer: what actually happens in a superposition - a kind of state in which particles are in two or more places or states at the same time? A group of researchers from Israel and Japan have proposed an experiment that will finally allow us to know something precise about the nature of this mysterious phenomenon.

Their experiment, which the researchers say could be done within months, should allow scientists to understand where an object - in the specific case, a particle of light called a photon - is actually located when it is in superposition. And the researchers predict that the answer will be even stranger and more shocking than "two places at once."

A classic example of superposition involves shooting photons through two parallel slits in a barrier. One of the fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics is that tiny particles can behave like waves, so that those passing through one slit "interfere" with those passing through another, their undulating ripples, magnifying or changing each other, creating a characteristic structure on the detector screen. The strange thing, however, is that this interference occurs even if only one particle is fired at a time. The particle seems to pass through both slits at once. This is the superposition.

And this is very strange: measuring which slit a particle passes through invariably indicates that it passes through only one slit, in which case the wave interference (“quantum”, if you will) disappears. The very act of measurement seems to "destroy" the superposition. " We know something weird happens in superposition says physicist Avshalom Elitzer of the Israel Institute for Advanced Study. “But you can't measure it. This is what makes quantum mechanics so mysterious.”

For decades, researchers have stalled at this apparent impasse. They cannot tell exactly what a superposition is without observing it; but if they try to look at it, it will disappear. One possible solution, developed by Elitzur's former mentor, Israeli physicist Yakir Aaharonov at Chapman University and his collaborators, suggests a way to learn something about quantum particles before measurement. The Aharonian approach is called the two-state formalism (TSVF) of quantum mechanics, and the postulates of quantum events are in a sense determined by quantum states not only in the past but also in the future. That is, TSVF assumes that quantum mechanics works the same way both forward and backward in time. From this point of view, causes seem to be able to propagate backward in time, appearing after effects.

But this strange concept should not be taken literally. Most likely, in TSVF one can get retrospective knowledge of what happened in a quantum system: instead of simply measuring where the particle ends, the researcher chooses a specific place to look. This is called post-selection, and it provides more information than any unconditional view of the results. This is due to the fact that the state of the particle at any moment is evaluated retrospectively in the light of its entire history up to the measurement, including the measurement. It turns out that the researcher - simply by choosing a specific result for the search - then comes to the conclusion that the result should occur. It's a bit like if you turn on the TV at the moment when your favorite program should be broadcast, but your very act causes that program to be broadcast at that very moment. “It is generally accepted that TSVF is mathematically equivalent to standard quantum mechanics,” says David Wallace, a philosopher of science at the University of Southern California who specializes in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. "But it leads to some things not being seen differently."

Take, for example, a variation of the two-second experiment developed by Aharonov and collaborator Lev Vaidman in 2003, which they interpreted using TSVF. The pair described (but did not build) an optical system in which one photon acts as a "shutter" that closes the slit, causing another "probing" photon to approach the slit to be reflected as it appeared. After measuring the probe photon, as shown by Akharonov and Vaidman, one can notice a photograph of the shutter in a superposition that simultaneously closes (or even arbitrarily many) slits at the same time. In other words, this thought experiment in theory would make it safe to say that the gate photon is both "here" and "there" at the same time. Although this situation seems paradoxical from our everyday experience, it is one well-studied aspect of the so-called "non-local" properties of quantum particles, where the whole notion of a well-defined position in space dissolves.

In 2016, physicists Ryo Okamoto and Shigeki Takeuchi of Kyoto University experimentally confirmed the predictions of Aharonov and Weidman using a light-guided circuit in which shutter photography is created using a quantum router, a device that allows one photon to control the route of another. “It was a groundbreaking experiment that allowed us to establish the simultaneous position of a particle in two places,” says Elitzur's colleague Eliahu Cohen of the University of Ottawa in Ontario.

Now Elitzur and Koen have teamed up with Okamoto and Takeuchi to come up with an even more mind-blowing experiment. They believe that this will allow researchers to know with certainty more about the location of a particle in a superposition at a sequence of different points in time before any actual measurements are made.

This time the path of the probe photon will be divided into three parts by mirrors. Along each of these paths, it can interact with the gate photon in superposition. These interactions can be thought of as being done in boxes labeled A, B, and C, each located along each of the three possible photon paths. By considering the self-interference of the probe photon, it will be possible to retrospectively conclude with certainty that the gate particle was in a given box at a certain time.

The experiment is designed in such a way that the probe photon can only show interference in the case of interaction with the gate photon in a certain sequence of places and times: namely, if the gate photon was in both blocks A and C at some time (t1), then at a later time (t2) - only at C, and even later (t3) - both at B and at C. Thus, interference in the probing photon would be the final indication that the gate photon is indeed passing through this strange sequence of disparate phenomena among boxes at different times is the idea of ​​Elitzur, Cohen and Aharonov, who proposed last year that one particle passes through three boxes at the same time. "I love how this article asks questions about what's going on in terms of whole histories, not instantaneous states," says physicist Ken Wharton of San Jose State University, who is not involved with the new project. "Talking about 'states' is an old pervasive bias, whereas full stories tend to be much richer and more interesting."

This is exactly what Elitzur claims the new TSVF experiment gives access to. The apparent disappearance of particles in one place at a time - and their reappearance in other places and times - suggests a new and unusual vision of the underlying processes involved in the non-local existence of quantum particles. Thanks to the TSVF lens, Elitzur says, this shimmering, ever-changing existence can be understood as a series of events in which the presence of a particle in one place is somehow "cancelled" by its own "opposite side" in the same place. He compares this to a concept introduced by the British physicist Paul Dirac in the 1920s, who argued that particles have antiparticles, and if put together, particle and antiparticle can annihilate each other. This picture at first seemed to be just a manner of speaking, but soon led to the discovery of antimatter. The disappearance of quantum particles is not "annihilation" in the same sense, but it is somewhat similar - these supposed opposite particles, Elitzur believes, should have negative energy and negative mass, allowing them to cancel their counterparts.

So while the traditional "two places at the same time" superposition may seem rather odd, "perhaps the superposition is a collection of states that is even crazier," says Elitzur. "Quantum mechanics just tells you about their average state." The subsequent selection allows you to isolate and test only some of these states at a higher resolution, he suggests. Such an interpretation of quantum behavior would be, in his words, "revolutionary" because it would entail a hitherto unacceptable menagerie of real (but very strange) states underlying contradictory quantum phenomena.

The researchers say doing the actual experiment will require fine-tuning the performance of their quantum routers, but they hope to have their system ready for it in three to five months. While some observers expect it with bated breath. "The experiment should work," says Wharton, "but it won't convince anyone because the results are predicted by standard quantum mechanics." In other words, there is no good reason to interpret the result in terms of TSVF.

Elitzur agrees that their experiment could have been conceived using the conventional view of quantum mechanics that reigned decades ago, but that never happened. " Isn't that a good indication of the reliability of the TSVF? he asks. And if anyone thinks they can formulate a different picture of "what's really going on" in this experiment, using standard quantum mechanics, he adds: " Okay, let them try!»

Hello dear readers. If you do not want to lag behind life, to be a truly happy and healthy person, you should know about the secrets of quantum modern physics, at least have a little idea of ​​​​what depths of the universe scientists have dug out today. You have no time to go into deep scientific details, but you want to comprehend only the essence, but to see the beauty of the unknown world, then this article: quantum physics for ordinary dummies or, one might say, for housewives, is just for you. I will try to explain what quantum physics is, but in simple words, to show clearly.

"What is the connection between happiness, health and quantum physics?" you ask.

The fact is that it helps to answer many incomprehensible questions related to human consciousness, the influence of consciousness on the body. Unfortunately, medicine, relying on classical physics, does not always help us to be healthy. And psychology can't properly tell you how to find happiness.

Only deeper knowledge of the world will help us understand how to truly cope with illness and where happiness lives. This knowledge is found in the deep layers of the Universe. Quantum physics comes to the rescue. Soon you will know everything.

What does quantum physics study in simple words

Yes, indeed, quantum physics is very difficult to understand because it studies the laws of the microworld. That is, the world at its deeper layers, at very small distances, where it is very difficult for a person to look.

And the world, it turns out, behaves there very strangely, mysteriously and incomprehensibly, not as we are used to.

Hence all the complexity and misunderstanding of quantum physics.

But after reading this article, you will expand the horizons of your knowledge and look at the world in a completely different way.

Briefly about the history of quantum physics

It all started at the beginning of the 20th century, when Newtonian physics could not explain many things and scientists reached a dead end. Then Max Planck introduced the concept of quantum. Albert Einstein picked up this idea and proved that light does not propagate continuously, but in portions - quanta (photons). Prior to this, it was believed that light has a wave nature.

But as it turned out later, any elementary particle is not only a quantum, that is, a solid particle, but also a wave. This is how corpuscular-wave dualism appeared in quantum physics, the first paradox and the beginning of discoveries of mysterious phenomena of the microworld.

The most interesting paradoxes began when the famous double-slit experiment was carried out, after which the mysteries became much more. We can say that quantum physics began with him. Let's take a look at it.

Double slit experiment in quantum physics

Imagine a plate with two slots in the form of vertical stripes. We will put a screen behind this plate. If we direct light onto the plate, we will see an interference pattern on the screen. That is, alternating dark and bright vertical stripes. Interference is the result of the wave behavior of something, in our case light.

If you pass a wave of water through two holes located side by side, you will understand what interference is. That is, the light turns out to be sort of like it has a wave nature. But as physics, or rather Einstein, has proven, it is propagated by photon particles. Already a paradox. But it's okay, corpuscular-wave dualism will no longer surprise us. Quantum physics tells us that light behaves like a wave but is made up of photons. But the miracles are just beginning.

Let's put a gun in front of a plate with two slots, which will emit not light, but electrons. Let's start shooting electrons. What will we see on the screen behind the plate?

After all, electrons are particles, which means that the flow of electrons, passing through two slits, should leave only two stripes on the screen, two traces opposite the slits. Have you imagined pebbles flying through two slots and hitting the screen?

But what do we really see? All the same interference pattern. What is the conclusion: electrons propagate in waves. So electrons are waves. But after all it is an elementary particle. Again corpuscular-wave dualism in physics.

But we can assume that at a deeper level, an electron is a particle, and when these particles come together, they begin to behave like waves. For example, a sea wave is a wave, but it is made up of water droplets, and on a smaller level, molecules, and then atoms. Okay, the logic is solid.

Then let's shoot from a gun not with a stream of electrons, but let's release electrons separately, after a certain period of time. As if we were passing through the cracks not a sea wave, but spitting individual drops from a children's water pistol.

It is quite logical that in this case different drops of water would fall into different slots. On the screen behind the plate, one could see not an interference pattern from the wave, but two distinct impact fringes opposite each slit. We will see the same thing if we throw small stones, they, flying through two cracks, would leave a trace, like a shadow from two holes. Let's now shoot individual electrons to see these two stripes on the screen from electron impacts. They released one, waited, the second, waited, and so on. Quantum physicists have been able to do such an experiment.

But horror. Instead of these two fringes, the same interference alternations of several fringes are obtained. How so? This can happen if an electron flies simultaneously through two slits, and behind the plate, like a wave, would collide with itself and interfere. But this cannot be, because a particle cannot be in two places at the same time. It either flies through the first slot or through the second.

This is where the truly fantastic things of quantum physics begin.

Superposition in quantum physics

With a deeper analysis, scientists find out that any elementary quantum particle or the same light (photon) can actually be in several places at the same time. And these are not miracles, but the real facts of the microcosm. This is what quantum physics says. That is why, when shooting a separate particle from a cannon, we see the result of interference. Behind the plate, the electron collides with itself and creates an interference pattern.

Ordinary objects of the macrocosm are always in one place, have one state. For example, you are now sitting on a chair, weigh, say, 50 kg, have a pulse rate of 60 beats per minute. Of course, these indications will change, but they will change after some time. After all, you cannot be at home and at work at the same time, weighing 50 and 100 kg. All this is understandable, this is common sense.

In the physics of the microcosm, everything is different.

Quantum mechanics asserts, and this has already been confirmed experimentally, that any elementary particle can be simultaneously not only at several points in space, but also have several states at the same time, such as spin.

All this does not fit into the head, undermines the usual idea of ​​​​the world, the old laws of physics, turns thinking, one can safely say it drives you crazy.

This is how we come to understand the term "superposition" in quantum mechanics.

Superposition means that an object of the microcosm can simultaneously be in different points of space, and also have several states at the same time. And this is normal for elementary particles. Such is the law of the microworld, no matter how strange and fantastic it may seem.

You are surprised, but these are only flowers, the most inexplicable miracles, mysteries and paradoxes of quantum physics are yet to come.

Wave function collapse in physics in simple terms

Then the scientists decided to find out and see more precisely whether the electron actually passes through both slits. All of a sudden it goes through one slit and then somehow separates and creates an interference pattern as it passes through. Well, you never know. That is, you need to put some device near the slit, which would accurately record the passage of an electron through it. No sooner said than done. Of course, this is difficult to implement, you need not a device, but something else to see the passage of an electron. But scientists have done it.

But in the end, the result stunned everyone.

As soon as we start looking through which slit an electron passes through, it begins to behave not like a wave, not like a strange substance that is located at different points in space at the same time, but like an ordinary particle. That is, it begins to show the specific properties of a quantum: it is located only in one place, it passes through one slot, it has one spin value. What appears on the screen is not an interference pattern, but a simple trace opposite the slit.

But how is that possible. As if the electron is joking, playing with us. At first, it behaves like a wave, and then, after we decided to look at its passage through a slit, it exhibits the properties of a solid particle and passes through only one slit. But that's the way it is in the microcosm. These are the laws of quantum physics.

Scientists have seen another mysterious property of elementary particles. This is how the concepts of uncertainty and collapse of the wave function appeared in quantum physics.

When an electron flies towards the gap, it is in an indefinite state or, as we said above, in a superposition. That is, it behaves like a wave, it is located simultaneously at different points in space, it has two spin values ​​\u200b\u200b(a spin has only two values). If we didn’t touch it, didn’t try to look at it, didn’t find out exactly where it is, if we didn’t measure the value of its spin, it would fly like a wave through two slits at the same time, which means it would create an interference pattern. Quantum physics describes its trajectory and parameters using the wave function.

After we have made the measurement (and it is possible to measure a particle of the microworld only by interacting with it, for example, by colliding another particle with it), then the wave function collapses.

That is, now the electron is exactly in one place in space, has one spin value.

One can say that an elementary particle is like a ghost, it seems to exist, but at the same time it is not in one place, and with a certain probability it can be anywhere within the description of the wave function. But as soon as we begin to contact it, it turns from a ghostly object into a real tangible substance that behaves like ordinary objects of the classical world that are familiar to us.

"This is fantastic," you say. Sure, but the wonders of quantum physics are just beginning. The most incredible is yet to come. But let's take a break from the abundance of information and return to quantum adventures another time, in another article. In the meantime, reflect on what you learned today. What can such miracles lead to? After all, they surround us, this is a property of our world, albeit at a deeper level. Do we still think we live in a boring world? But we will draw conclusions later.

I tried to talk about the basics of quantum physics briefly and clearly.

But if you don’t understand something, then watch this cartoon about quantum physics, about the experiment with two slits, everything is also told there in an understandable, simple language.

Cartoon about quantum physics:

Or you can watch this video, everything will fall into place, quantum physics is very interesting.

Video about quantum physics:

How did you not know this before.

Modern discoveries in quantum physics are changing our familiar material world.

Empty space is not empty

Modern research has shown that empty space is not empty. It is filled with tremendous energy. In every cubic centimeter of absolute vacuum there is as much of this energy as is not contained in all material objects of our Universe!

What if we dig even deeper? Thousands of years before Democritus, Indian sages knew that beyond the reality that is perceived by our senses, there is another, more "important" reality. Hinduism teaches that the world of external forms is only maya, an illusion. It is not at all the way we perceive it. There is a "higher reality" - more fundamental than the material universe. All the phenomena of our illusory world come from it, and it is somehow connected with human consciousness.

In essence, nothing has any meaning - everything is absolutely illusory. Even the most massive objects are all immaterial matter, very similar to thought; in general, everything around is concentrated information. — Jeffrey Satinover, MD

Quantum physics has come to the same point today. Its provisions are as follows: the basis of the physical world is an absolutely "non-physical" reality; it is the reality of information, or "probability waves," or consciousness. More specifically, it should be expressed as follows: at its deepest levels, our world is a fundamental field of consciousness; it creates information that determines the existence of the world

Scientists have found that the atomic system - the nucleus and electrons - is not a collection of microscopic material bodies, but a stable wave pattern. Then it turned out that there was no need to talk about stability: an atom is a short-term mutual superposition (condensation) of energy fields. Add to this the following fact. The ratio of the linear dimensions of the nucleus, electrons and the radii of the electron orbits is such that we can safely say that the atom consists almost entirely of emptiness. It's amazing how we don't fall through a chair when we sit down on it - after all, it is one continuous emptiness! True, the floor is the same, and the earth's surface ... Is there anything in the world that is "filled" enough so that we do not fail?!

What is more real - consciousness or matter?

Andrew Newberg, MD, has researched the spiritual experiences of various people as a neuroscientist and has described the results of his work in the books Why Doesn't God Leave? The Science of the Brain and the Biology of Faith” and “The Mystical Mind. A Study in the Biology of Faith". “A person who has experienced spiritual insight,” he writes, “feels that he has touched the true reality, which is the foundation and cause of everything else.” The material world is a kind of superficial, secondary level of this reality.

“We need to carefully examine the relationship between consciousness and the physical universe. Perhaps the material world is derived from the reality of consciousness; perhaps consciousness is the basic material of the universe.” Dr. Newberg

Is reality the result of choice?

Or maybe our moment-to-moment interpretations of reality in everyday life are simply the result of the choice of the “democratic majority”? Or, to put it another way, is what most people think is real? If there are ten people in a room and eight of them see a chair and two of them see a Martian, which one of them is crazy? If twelve people perceive the lake as a mass of water closed in its shores, and one considers it to be a solid solid body on which one can walk, which of them is delirious?

Returning to the concepts of the previous chapter, we can now say that a paradigm is simply a generally accepted model of what is considered real. We vote for this model with our actions and it becomes our reality. But then the Great Question arises: "Can consciousness create reality?" Is it because no one has ever given an answer to this question, because reality itself is the answer?

Emotions and perception of the world

There is purely anatomical evidence that information about the world is given to us by the brain, not by the eyes. There are no visual receptors at the point in the eyeball where the optic nerve runs to the back of the brain. Therefore, one would expect: if we close one eye, we will see a black spot in the center of the “picture”. But this does not happen - and only because the “picture” is drawn by the brain, not the eye.

Moreover, the brain does not distinguish between what a person really sees and what he imagines. It seems that he does not even see the difference between the performed and the imaginary action.

This phenomenon was discovered in the 1930s by Edmund Jacobson, M.D. (the creator of the gradual relaxation technique to relieve stress). He asked subjects to imagine certain physical actions. And I found that in the process of visualization, their muscles contracted subtly, in exact accordance with the movements that were performed mentally. Now athletes all over the world use this information: they include visual training in their preparation for competitions.

Your brain does not see the difference between the outside world and the world of your imagination. — Joe Dispenza

Research by Dr. Perth from the National Institutes of Health (USA) suggests that a person's perception of the world is determined not only by his ideas about what is real and what is not, but also by his attitude to information supplied by the senses.

It largely depends on the latter whether we perceive something, and if we perceive it, then how. The doctor says: “Our emotions determine what is worth paying attention to ... And the decision about what will reach our consciousness, and what will be discarded and remain at the deep levels of the body, is made at the moment when external stimuli affect the receptors.”

So, the essence of the matter is more or less clear. We ourselves create the world that we perceive. When I open my eyes and look around, I see not reality "as it is", but the world that my "sensory equipment" - the sense organs - can perceive; the world that my faith allows me to see; a world filtered by emotional preferences.

Fundamentals of quantum mechanics

The known meets the unknown

Over the next century, an entirely new science emerged, known as quantum mechanics, quantum physics, or simply quantum theory. It does not replace Newtonian physics, which perfectly describes the behavior of large bodies, i.e. objects of the macrocosm. It was created to explain the subatomic world: Newton's theory is helpless in it.

The universe is a very strange thing, says one of the founders of nanobiology, Dr. Stuart Hameroff. “There seem to be two sets of laws governing it. In our everyday, classical world, everything is described by Newtonian laws of motion, discovered hundreds and hundreds of years ago... However, upon transition to the microcosm, to the level of atoms, a completely different set of "rules" begins to operate. These are quantum laws.”

Facts or fiction? One of the deepest philosophical differences between classical and quantum mechanics is this: classical mechanics is built on the idea that it is possible to passively observe objects… quantum mechanics has never been wrong about this possibility. — David Albert, PhD

Facts or fiction?

A particle of the microworld can be in two or more places at the same time! (One of the most recent experiments showed that one of these particles can be in 3000 places at the same time!) One and the same "object" can be both a localized particle and an energy wave propagating in space.

Einstein postulated that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. But quantum physics has proven that subatomic particles can exchange information instantly - being at any distance from each other.

Classical physics was deterministic: given initial conditions like the location and speed of an object, we can calculate where it will move. Quantum physics is probabilistic: we can never say with absolute certainty how the object under study will behave.

Classical physics was mechanistic. It is based on the premise that only by knowing the individual parts of an object can we ultimately understand what it is. Quantum physics is holistic: it paints a picture of the universe as a single whole, the parts of which are interconnected and influence each other.

And, perhaps most importantly, quantum physics has destroyed the idea of ​​a fundamental difference between subject and object, observer and observed - and yet it dominated the minds of scientists for 400 years!

In quantum physics, the observer influences the observed object. There are no isolated observers of the mechanical Universe - everything takes part in its existence.

Observer

My conscious decision about how to observe the electron will, to some extent, determine the properties of the electron. If I am interested in him as a particle, then I will get an answer about him as a particle. If I take an interest in it as a wave, I will get an answer about it as a wave. Fridtjof Capra, physicist, philosopher

The observer influences the observed

Before an observation or measurement is carried out, the microworld object exists in the form of a probabilistic wave (more strictly, as a wave function).

It does not occupy any definite position and has no speed. The wave function is simply the probability that, when observed or measured, an object will appear here or there. It has potential coordinates and speed - but we won't know them until we start the observation process.

“Because of this,” writes theoretical physicist Brian Greene in The Fabric of the Cosmos, “when we determine the position of an electron, we are not measuring an objective, pre-existing property of reality. Rather, the act of measurement is tightly woven into the creation of the measurable reality itself.” Fridtjof Kapr's statement logically completes Green's reasoning: "The electron has no objective properties independent of my consciousness."

All this blurs the line between the "outside world" and the subjective observer. They seem to merge in the process of discovery - or creation? - the world around us.

Measurement problem

The idea that the observer inevitably influences any physical process he observes; that we are not neutral witnesses of what is happening, simply observing objects and events, was first expressed by Niels Bohr and his colleagues from Copenhagen. This is why these provisions are often referred to as the Copenhagen Interpretation.

Bohr argued that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle implies something more than the impossibility of precisely simultaneously determining the speed and position of a subatomic particle.

This is how Fred Alan Wolf describes his postulates: “It's not just that you can't measure something. This "something" does not exist at all - until you start observing it.

Heisenberg believed that it exists on its own.” Heisenberg hesitated to admit that there was no "something" before the observer was involved in the process. Niels Bohr not only asserted this, but also decisively developed his assumptions.

Since particles don't come into being until we start observing them, he said, reality doesn't exist at the quantum level until someone observes and measures it.

Until now, there is a heated debate in the scientific community (it should rather be called a fierce debate!) About whether it is the human consciousness of the observer that causes the “collapse” and the transition of the wave function to the state of a particle?

Writer and journalist Lynn McTaggart expresses this idea in this way, avoiding scientific terms: “Reality is an unhardened jelly. It is not the world itself, but its potentiality. And we, by our involvement in it, by an act of observation and reflection, make this jelly harden. So our life is an integral part of the process of creating reality. It is determined by our attention."

In the Einstein Universe, objects have exact values ​​for all possible physical parameters. Most physicists would now say that Einstein was wrong. The properties of a subatomic particle appear only when they are forced to do so by measurements... In those cases when they are not observed... the parameters of a microsystem are in an indefinite, "foggy" state and are characterized solely by the probability with which this or that potential possibility can be realized. — Brian Greene, The Fabric of Space Why

quantum logic

Quantum Logic To the question of whether the electron remains unchanged, we are forced to answer: "No." If we are asked whether the position of an electron changes with time, we should say, "No." If we are asked the question whether the electron remains at rest, we answer: "No." To the question of whether the electron is in motion, we say: "No." — J. Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb

The quantum logic of John von Neumann revealed the main part of the measurement problem: only the decision of the observer leads to the measurement. This decision limits the degrees of freedom of a quantum system (for example, the wave function of an electron) and thus affects the result (reality).