In the
world of quantum physics, there is a well-known theory that states that
particle’s behavior tends to change depending on whether or not there is an
observer. It pretty much suggests that
this reality is a kind of illusion that only exists when we are looking at
it. There have been a numerous different
quantum experiments that have been conducted in the past that also showed that
this may indeed be the case.
Physicists
at the Australian national University have now been able to find even more
evidence for the illusory nature of our reality. They went on to create an experiment called
the John Wheeler’s delayed-choice, and with the findings of this experiment the
physicists were able to determine that our reality really doesn’t exist until
it is measured, at least on the atomic scale of things.
Some
electron and photon particles can actually behave both as particles and
waves. Yet that tends to raise the question
of what exactly makes an electron or a photon act as either a wave or a
particle? That is the question asked
that brought about the Wheeler’s experiment.
The
Austrailian scientists’ results, which were published by the journal Nature
Physics, showed evidence that the choice is highly determined by the way the
object is measured, which goes side by side in accordance with what quantum
theory predicts.
In a
press release, the lead researcher Dr. Andew Truscott said,
“It proves that measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality
does not exist if you are not looking at it.”
What exactly was the experiment?
In the
original version of John Wheeler’s experiment that was proposed back in 1978
involved different light beams that were bounced by mirrors. It was a difficult experiment to implement
and get any conclusive results due to the level of technology that the
scientists had access to back then. Now
with our new technology, it has become highly possible to successfully recreate
this experiment by the use of helium atoms that have been scattered by laser
light.
Dr.
Truscott and his team were able to force a hundred different helium atoms into
a state of matter that they called Bose-Einstein condensate. Once they were able to get to this stage,
they then ejected all of the atoms until there was, but one left.
The
researchers were then able to use a pair of laser beams to create a type of
grating pattern, which would then scatter an atom that passed through the beam
exactly how a solid grating scatters light.
With this, the atom would either act as a way that would then pass
through both lasers or act as a particle and pass through one beam.
A
second grating, thanks to a random number generator was then randomly added in
order to be able to recombine the paths.
Yet this could only be done after the atom had already passed the first
gate.
As a
result of this experiment and the addition of the second grating, caused an
interference in the measurement, showing that the atom had then traveled down
both paths, thus it behaved like a wave.
The same experiment, which did not include the second grating, produced
results that there was no interference and the atom simply appeared to have
traveled only one path.
What do these results mean?
Well when
the second grating was added into the experiment only after the atom add passed
through the first gate, it would have been reasonable to suggest that the atom
had not yet ‘decided’ whether it was going to be a wave or particle before the
second measurement was taken.
According
to the work of Dr. Truscott, there may be two possible interpretations of these
new results. Either the atom has
‘decided’ how to behave based on the measurement or a future measurement
affected the photon’s past. He went on
to say that,
“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.”
“If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t
understood it yet.”
~Niels Bohr
Source :
themindunleashed.org