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<\/p>\nScientists at Australian National University (ANU) have reported the first confirmed observation of atoms engaged in one of the most perplexing behaviours known to modern physics: the apparent ability to exist in two entirely separate places at once.<\/p>\n
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The phenomenon, known as entanglement, could be more accurately described as the inability of any particle to be described independently from the state of others, representing the primary feature of quantum physics that is absent in its classical counterpart.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sean Hodgman, a physicist with the ANU Research School of Physics, said that thinking about our universe and its mechanics in this context is often difficult to comprehend.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can read about it in a textbook, but it\u2019s really challenging to think that a particle can be in two places at once<\/em>,\u201d Hodgman said in a statement.<\/p>\n In order to bring this quantum quirk out of the realm of physics theory and into real-world observations, Hodgman and his colleagues used helium atoms rather than photons, as most past similar experiments have done. This is significant, since helium atoms are quite large, and offer physicists a few important advantages, including the degree to which they can be manipulated, which includes using gravitational fields.<\/p>\n Yogesh Sridhar Arthreya, a Ph.D. researcher and lead author of a study detailing the Australian team\u2019s findings, said that past efforts show how difficult attempting to demonstrate entanglement has proven to be.<\/p>\n \u201cExperimentally, it\u2019s extremely hard to demonstrate this<\/em>,\u201d Arthreya said. \u201cSeveral people have tried in the past to show these effects, and they have always come short<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n However, where others have failed to do so, the team\u2019s novel approach employing helium atoms garnered success, and opens new paths toward studying some of the most significant questions in modern physics. These include how quantum mechanics phenomena, at the smallest scales, relates to things like gravity and general relativity at much larger universal scales.<\/p>\n Fundamentally, the team says its observations have now confirmed more than a century of predictions about this intriguing quantum phenomenon.<\/p>\n \u201cThis result confirms the predictions of over a century ago that matter can be in two locations at once<\/em>,\u201d Hodgson said in a statement, adding that their findings prove that matter can also \u201cinterfere with itself even in those locations<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n