Physicists Create 'Quantum Knots' (amherst.edu) 51
New submitter Kekke writes with news that researchers from Amherst College and Aalto University have figured out a way to create knotted solitary waves in a quantum-mechanical field. They call their creation "quantum knots". Professor David Hall said, "First we cooled a gas of rubidium atoms down to billionths of a degree above zero, at which point it became a superfluid—a tiny, well-ordered environment in which these particle-like objects can exist. Then we exposed the superfluid to a rapid change of a specifically tailored magnetic field, which tied the knot in less than a thousandth of a second." Research group leader Mikko Möttönen added, "For decades, physicists have been theoretically predicting that it should be possible to have knots in quantum fields, but nobody else has been able to make one. Now that we have seen these exotic beasts, we are really excited to study their peculiar properties."
they're not knots (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That'd be handy for shoe laces. Except the reverse... they're only knots when you don't look at them.
Re:they're not knots (Score:5, Funny)
That'd be handy for shoe laces.
Ya, until they get entangled.
Re: they're not knots (Score:2)
Which causes you to spin.
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Tie a knot in it.
There are other things in the world besides politics, Horatio.
Not sure of the importance (Score:4, Informative)
I read TFA and I'm still not sure what the importance or application of this is. Is this just to make therotical physicists sqee or are there anticipated important properties or applications?
Re:Not sure of the importance (Score:5, Insightful)
AFAIK there are no directly anticipated applications. However, knotted fields are incredibly cool and interesting physical objects (if you're into that kinda thing). Of course, formation of novel magnetic fields could have applications in fusion research or quantum computing, but the idea behind theoretical physics research like this is to figure out how things work, and let the engineers and applied physicists figure out the applications (if they exist) later on. It's worked pretty well so far. And confirming that nature actually works like it's been predicted to work is a worthy endeavor in and of itself, even if it turns out to have no applications at all.
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Thank you. I agree that science for science sake is actually a good thing. The problem I was having as not being a physics type of geek was that the information wasn't reaching my level.
Knotted Fields (Score:2)
OK, can we start calling these things Warped Fields, or Warp fields yet? :) Now we just have to start factoring them (I suggest a metric scale of 1 to 10)!
Though I know not really related to this quantum topic, but as far as applied physics, if I remember correctly (and I perhaps don't) that new exotic fusion reactor that the Germans built, used warped magnetic fields to contain plasma... Or it could be they just use magnetic fields to contain plasma and the reactor itself is warped shaped, which I guess wo
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But what would I know, I know just enough to think this when I read the article, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Actually knot theory, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics (not to mention other fields) have deep connections. Knot theory is unreasonably effective.
Just to whet the appetite for our readers .....
Unreasonable Effectiveness of Knot Theory [maa.org]
Mathematicians Link Knot Theory to Physics [nytimes.com]
Re:Not sure of the importance (Score:5, Insightful)
I read TFA and I'm still not sure what the importance or application of this is. Is this just to make therotical physicists sqee or are there anticipated important properties or applications?
What use is a newborn baby?
-- attributed in various forms to Benjamin Franklin and to Michael Faraday
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What use is a newborn baby?
They're a great reminder for guys to wear a condom.
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What use is a newborn baby?
-- attributed in various forms to Benjamin Franklin and to Michael Faraday
It grows up to be a person; that much has been established since prehistory. Like you I'm not against research for its own sake, but that was a really awful way of arguing for it.
I think you misunderstood.
Franklin and Faraday used the quote as an ironic and rhetorical reply to any question that resembles "What use is new discovery X?" Like a newborn baby, a new discovery may not have an obvious use, but it deserves a chance to mature and show the world what it can accomplish.
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A newborn can be a pain in the ass. They aren't good for anything except keeping adults sleep-deprived and busy. Fortunately, about the time the parents are deciding to ship them somewhere in Afghanistan, and are wondering whether or not to have breathing holes in the box, they learn to smile.
A newborn is pretty much all potential. They're very high-maintenance, and it takes them a while to figure out that they have arms, and then more time to figure out that they have legs. I don't have any regrets.
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A newborn baby satisfies one's instinctual need to care for another living thing. It also injects a feeling of significance into a person's life, which is another important psychological need. Lastly, it elevates one's status within many social circles.
There are other benefits (such as tax benefits and gifts and the like), but they are overcompensated-for by the costs, so I don't think they qualify.
My point being...the question was intended as rhetorical, and yet it isn't, as it it has a solid answer.
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A newborn baby satisfies one's instinctual need to care for another living thing. It also injects a feeling of significance into a person's life, which is another important psychological need. Lastly, it elevates one's status within many social circles.
Fair points, but consider this:
A new scientific discovery satisfies one's instinctual need to find things out. It also injects a feeling of significance into a person's life, which is another important psychological need. Lastly, it elevates one's status within many social circles.
They both fit, don't they?
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A newborn will also learn the humans that take care of it in root fashion and develop a deconstructed model of their parent' interface at an intuitive level.
In short, newborns eventually teach parents more about themselves than the parents can learn without them.
Kind of like science. Each new scientific discovery teaches us more about ourselves. We learn what we do with novel ideas. Mostly exploit, dominate, and divert ourselves and each other, but hey, we're only human.
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This is the first step toward creating quantum shampoo, so you can wash the entanglements out of your quantum threads.
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Not sure of the importance
You don't belong here [tumblr.com]
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wouldn't be the first time a concept was discovered and not exploited in an application for years, sometimes decades.
Careful now. (Score:1)
If you keep picking at it you're gonna undo reality.
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One small twitch... (Score:1)
Supercooled gasses... What is space filled with?
It will be at least 100 years before we understand the implications of this. Unless someone gives it to us.
String theory (Score:5, Funny)
A string walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and yells, "Get out! We don't serve your kind in here."
The string walks out and walks back in a few minutes later looking beat up and disheveled. The bartender looks at him and says menacingly, "Aren't you that string that was in here a couple minutes ago?"
The string looks at the bartender and says, "No. I'm a frayed knot."
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THIS got voted funny? One of the 3 jokes banned from rec.humor.funny? One of the jokes that reached every corner of the pre-EternalSeptember Internet, never to be successfully wiped out?
Get offa my lawn you young punk upvoters!
(and don't even THINK about posting bell-ringer or mouse-ball jokes)
But first (Score:2, Funny)
They've got one intern and a 20 gallon drum of eye drops. Fingers crossed (or knotted).
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Really? Do they at least also have a thunderbolt->headphone adapter so that people can use their own choice of headphones, or are they locking people into using either bluetooth-only or lightning headphones?
Also, there are other devices than headphones that plug into the headphone jack...
I, for one ... (Score:3)