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Math Science

The Geometry of An Electron Determined For the First Time (spacedaily.com) 59

Physicists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel have now developed a method by which they can spatially determine the geometry of electrons in quantum dots. Space Daily reports: A quantum dot is a potential trap which allows to confine free electrons in an area which is about 1000 times larger than a natural atom. Because the trapped electrons behave similar to electrons bound to an atom, quantum dots are also known as "artificial atoms." The electron is held in the quantum dot by electric fields. However, it moves within the space and, with different probabilities corresponding to a wave function, remains in certain locations within its confinement.

The scientists use spectroscopic measurements to determine the energy levels in the quantum dot and study the behavior of these levels in magnetic fields of varying strength and orientation. Based on their theoretical model, it is possible to determine the electron's probability density and thus its wave function with a precision on the sub-nanometer scale. "We are able to not only map the shape and orientation of the electron, but also control the wave function according to the configuration of the applied electric fields. This gives us the opportunity to optimize control of the spins in a very targeted manner," says one of the researchers. The spatial orientation of the electrons also plays a role in the entanglement of several spins. Similarly to the binding of two atoms to a molecule, the wave functions of two electrons must lie on one plane for successful entanglement. With the aid of the developed method, numerous earlier studies can be better understood and the performance of spin qubits can be further optimized in the future.
The research has been published in two papers in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review B.
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The Geometry of An Electron Determined For the First Time

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  • Did the also resolve the eternal dogfight of whether an electron flows to the negative or the positive? Inquiring minds want to know!!!!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      What is the potential that this thread will die.

  • Atoms are made of Zoloft, who knew?

  • I just talked to my pet electron, and it said it was promised there'd be no math involved. So stop forcing geometry on electrons.
  • They determined that they are round.
  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2019 @10:15PM (#58710888)

    The Geometry of An Electron Determined For the First Time

    First I read that as "Election" and though, "Wait, what?"
    Then I rubbed my eyes and read "Erection" and thought, "Wait, WHAT?"

    Finally, I read it as "Electron" and realized my first two attempts were more interesting.

  • by Zorpheus ( 857617 ) on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @01:54AM (#58711328)
    All experiments that looked for the acutal structure of the electron did not find any. It does not have a size or any shape or substructure.
    What they talk about is the shape of the wavefunction.
    • Thank you for explaining that. I went down all the comments to see if i had to write something to explain the above, but you have already. The headline let my hair stand on end. I quickly scanning the PRL abstract and it confirms that headline is BS. Order restored.

      If you have mod points MOD PARENT UP please

    • by gotan ( 60103 ) on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @05:38AM (#58711742) Homepage

      The title suggests, that we learned more about electrons, about some structure of the elementary particle.

      But this really is about artificial electron orbitals in some kind of gate arrangement.

      Typically localized electron orbitals are found in atoms, like those s,p, d ...- orbitals depicted in chemistry books. They describe where the electron is found, when it is in a specific energy state, as a probability density. But electrons aren't necessarily bound to single atoms, e.g. when they form bonds between atoms, or in solids where some orbitals may extend over larger regions.
      Such orbitals are e.g. what we "see" when investigating some surface with scanning tunneling microscopy.
      https://www.iap.tuwien.ac.at/w... [tuwien.ac.at]

      But here they are looking at an orbital created in a semiconductor device on a nanometer scale, where the orbital is confined (and can be manipulated) by an arrangement of electrodes surrounding some region. Note that the whole device consists of many atoms, all with their electrons, but the other electrons in the immediate vicinity are tighter bound, so at the energies with which they are operating they are kind of "fixed". That allows to manipulate and investigate this orbital in particular.

      • But this really is about artificial electron orbitals in some kind of gate arrangement.

        Yup. About halfway down one of the paragraph headers explicitly states:
        Only possible in artificial atoms

        So we learn nothing about the structure of electrons, and nothing about electrons in the real physical world.Who knew that clickbait for chemists was a thing?

    • by dissy ( 172727 )

      All experiments that looked for the acutal structure of the electron did not find any. It does not have a size or any shape or substructure.

      Possibly somewhat off topic, but just some silly questions..

      Isn't a "point" considered a shape in geometry? Or is it just an axiom of the math?
      Also is this not what is meant by "elementary point particles"?

      Not to imply I know anything of QM, but in basic math a point means zero spacial dimensions, which would certainly mean it has no size, takes up no space, and can't have structure (at least physically), so it makes sense it wouldn't have any defining shape either.

      But then in geometry they go back on that

  • by sinequonon ( 669533 ) on Wednesday June 05, 2019 @09:40AM (#58712446)
    In reading the article is seems more appropriate to say that they learned about the geometry of an "electron wave function", rather than the electron itself. My understanding is that an electron displays no "shape" other than a perfect spherical symmetry.
  • On the way to atomic transport.

    Beam me up CowboyNeal!

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