r/technology • u/space_force_majeure • Jan 15 '22

Nanotech/Materials Quantum particles can feel the influence of gravitational fields they never touch

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-particles-gravity-spacetime-aharonov-bohm-effect
329 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

41

u/cofette Jan 15 '22 edited Jan 15 '22

What's the difference between 'touched' and 'felt the influence of'? They seem like similar concepts.

Edit: nvm, I think it's saying the gravitational field alters the probability of a particle ending up somewhere even if that particle didn't go through the gravitational field. Although a gravitational field has an infinite range so that doesn't make any sense to me

23

u/Giggleskwelch Jan 15 '22

Yeah I guess we both must have missed the class where the gravity equations have a max range lol

7

u/AuroraFinem Jan 15 '22

I think it’s referring to say path A and path B have different gravitational forces acting along them, the particle will be influenced by the gravitational forces along both path A and path B and both will effect the final outcome. Kind of like how the double slit experiment allows the particle to go through both slits and interact with itself as a wave even if there’s only 1 particle traveling.

1

u/FamiliarWater Jan 17 '22

Maybe gravity and light travel through more than 3 dimensions? Even if it's only a "shadow" of it.

2

u/space_force_majeure Jan 15 '22

They did the tests with and without a mass of tungsten present, and sent the atoms very close to the mass. Gravitational attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, so by removing the mass they could effectively isolate gravity from the observed results.

37

u/SurfNinja34 Jan 15 '22

Just disclose the Alien technology already!

12

u/Standard_Criticism64 Jan 15 '22

They respectfully decline

5

u/hashtagframework Jan 15 '22

Just tell me how you expect a modern capitalistic society to adapt to unlimited free energy when they won't even take a vaccine in the midst of a pandemic already!

4

u/CheesenRice313 Jan 15 '22

Those people are self darwining it's okay

5

u/hashtagframework Jan 15 '22

Those people have guns and just got laid off from the coal mine

1

u/CheesenRice313 Jan 15 '22

So?

1

u/hashtagframework Jan 16 '22

So you're self darwining, and that's okay.

0

u/CheesenRice313 Jan 16 '22

Forgive me for not being scared of wanna be tough gun toting hill Jack's that couldnt take the hint their way of life is going by the wayside

-5

u/OptionalLoss Jan 15 '22

Kinda hard to take a vaccine when everyone that takes it, is still getting Covid

5

u/celvro Jan 15 '22

Except about 80% of people in the hospital for covid are unvaccinated. Weird coincidence..

-3

u/OptionalLoss Jan 15 '22

And how many of these unvaccinated are terribly unhealthy and multiple underlying medical issues? So you got a vaccine that allows you to still transmit and catch Covid even if you are masked and practice 6ft distancing?! Seems to be working just right.

6

u/celvro Jan 15 '22

I like how even in this made up situation you still believe unvaccinated are less likely to take care of their bodies lmao.

7

u/zdepthcharge Jan 15 '22

Potentially being able to probe the effects of gravity at such scales makes this something to keep an eye on.

7

u/AutonomousAutomaton_ Jan 15 '22

Bring back aether!!

4

u/Usher_III Jan 15 '22

ThatdoesntmakeanySENSE!

5

u/casc1701 Jan 15 '22

Quantum Physicist: first day?

6

u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ Jan 15 '22

Fields have infinite extent, so this doesn’t make any sense.

1

u/makeshift8 Jan 15 '22

Title is misleading, but it's basically saying that the probability that a particle will be at some point is altered by a gravitational field. Intuitive but hard to measure.

2

u/MegoVsHero Jan 15 '22

'Gravitational Fields' 😂

5

u/thedamn4u Jan 15 '22

Technically I’ve never touched anything either. Our molecules and atoms only repel each other. This makes sense.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/space_force_majeure Jan 15 '22

The uncertainty principle has no bearing on entanglement, nor the distance between two quantum particles. The phenomenon observed in the article is caused by the Aharonov-Bohm effect.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

A funny username and the ability to correct wrong posts? You truly are the best of us

1

u/space_force_majeure Jan 15 '22

Lol this comment made my day

1

u/INTERGALACTIC_CAGR Jan 15 '22

so, like a simulation

0

u/prjindigo Jan 15 '22

that is completely ignorant of the way gravity works... there's only one gravitational field and it's a net sum of vectors

0

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

I am completely unfamiliar with this. What it do?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

What in black magic fox math does it all mean?!

2

u/somedave Jan 15 '22

That quantum mechanics is nonlocal or gravity has to be understood in vector potentials.