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BootinUp

(48,769 posts)
Thu May 16, 2024, 01:15 PM May 2024

Researchers call for a new measurement of time for tunneling particles

In an amazing phenomenon of quantum physics known as tunneling, particles appear to move faster than the speed of light. However, physicists from Darmstadt believe that the time it takes for particles to tunnel has been measured incorrectly. They propose a new method to stop the speed of quantum particles.

In classical physics, there are hard rules that cannot be circumvented. For example, if a rolling ball does not have enough energy, it will not get over a hill, but will turn around before reaching the top and reverse its direction.

In quantum physics, this principle is not quite so strict: a particle may pass a barrier, even if it does not have enough energy to go over it. It acts as if it is slipping through a tunnel, which is why the phenomenon is also known as "quantum tunneling." What sounds magical has tangible technical applications, for example, in flash memory drives.

In the past, experiments in which particles tunneled faster than light drew some attention. After all, Einstein's theory of relativity prohibits faster-than-light velocities. The question is therefore whether the time required for tunneling was "stopped" correctly in these experiments. Physicists Patrik Schach and Enno Giese from TU Darmstadt follow a new approach to define "time" for a tunneling particle.

Continued https://phys.org/news/2024-05-tunneling-particles.html

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Researchers call for a new measurement of time for tunneling particles (Original Post) BootinUp May 2024 OP
I admit I do not know physics well, but perhaps language holds the key. GreenWave May 2024 #1
The wave/particle question has to do with BootinUp May 2024 #2

GreenWave

(8,869 posts)
1. I admit I do not know physics well, but perhaps language holds the key.
Thu May 16, 2024, 01:50 PM
May 2024

They say nothing can go faster than the speed of light. (I have way too much to say about our bias in that,) So the somethings get locked into this speed law, at least in our neck of the woods. But what about the nothings?We have said that nothing can go faster, so do it nothing! Go faster.And if the outskirts of our cosmos are nothing yet or not even three dimensional that speed law may not pertain to it.

Now if particles, despite their solid sounding name, are compacted waves with eerie properties and have nothing solid in them perhaps they too are not bound by a law that pertains to solids

BootinUp

(48,769 posts)
2. The wave/particle question has to do with
Thu May 16, 2024, 02:24 PM
May 2024

Probability and unknown position of particles. In this article/paper they are saying that atomic particles and photons cannot travel faster than light and that is generally accepted I believe. Not a physicist either.

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