Long-awaited magnetic interferometer might probe quantum gravity

clinton21 (44) in hive-160342 • 3 years ago

Credit: scitechdaily

An Israeli-led collaboration has used atom-chip technology to build a magnet-based interferometer. The collaboration’s research, which combines aspects of two famous physics experiments from the past, reveals that the division of particle spins into two populations – as observed by Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach a century ago – involves pure quantum states. In the future, the new interferometer could be used to investigate quantum gravity as well as theories about a possible fifth force of nature.Read more

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3 years ago by clinton21 (44)

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primevaldad (59) · 3 years ago

In a previous study, the researchers observed interference using a simpler set-up known as a half-loop Stern-Gerlach interferometer, in which they separated the wave packets and then allowed them to expand over time until they overlapped. In contrast, the new “full-loop” interferometer actively brings the wave packets back together, and detects interference through variations in spin population rather than a spatial fringe pattern. The researchers say that this more complex technique should make it possible to observe the interference more quickly, and without the need for high-resolution imaging.

I don't understand a lot of the terminology used here, but for me, this paragraph summarized nicely the significance of the new ability researchers have to observe interference patterns. Taken by itself, there is a lot left out here, but this intuitively makes some sense.

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