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Physicists prove that matter can be in two places at once
Insight on the News, July 15, 1996 by Phil Berardelli
12Next ..Quantum mechanics has held that matter can be both particle and wave, but researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have 'smeared' one atom in two places at the same time.
Splitting atoms has been a routine task for nuclear physicists for the past half-century, ever since the first uranium reactor was created for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Smearing atoms, however - allowing them to appear in two places at once - is a different story
Scientists long have known, theoretically, that matter exhibits mind-boggling behavior. In the field of quantum mechanics, which encompasses the behavior of individual atoms and their constituents, particles can pass through one another. Others can react to the same stimulus instantly, even though separated by great distances. And the same atom can appear in two places concurrently.
Welcome to the "world of the weird," as some physicists call it, where matter manifests itself simultaneously as particles and waves. But as well-understood as these properties are - vestiges of quantum theory first were postulated at the turn of the century - they have eluded most experimental attempts to verify them.
Part of the problem is that the mere act of observing at the quantum level affects the results of the observation (see Skinning Schrodinger's Cat). Nevertheless, a team working at the National Institute Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., has succeeded in controlling a single atom to an unprecedented degree.
The researchers isolated a beryllium ion (an atom given an electrical charge by removing one of its two normal electrons) in an electromagnetic trap and pinpointed its position using a technique called laser cooling. Then, using two laser beams, each precisely tuned to a different frequency, they gently "smeared" the atom into a split condition called a superposition
By measuring interference patterns in the laser beams, the scientists established that the atom occupied two locations. They determined it was separated by about 80 nanometers, or 800 times its original diameter. At human scale, it would be as if a person suddenly split into twins and appeared simultaneously a quarter mile apart.
It turns out that atoms, far from being the tiny billiard balls we commonly see in illustrations, are more like multilayered, discrete, shimmering clouds. Each layer contains proportionately enormous amounts of energy and shimmers - a different but precise electromagnetic frequency. Only when atoms interact with one another in large numbers do they behave as expected in their "classical" state, as scientists call the visible world.
According to Christopher Monroe, one of the physicists who performed the experiment, smearing could have important implications for the real world. The team is investigating the possibility of using superpositioned ions as time-measuring devices of extreme accuracy. Such devices could improve navigation of deep-space probes. Closer to home, global-mapping satellites could narrow their margins of error from feet to inches.
Also intriguing is the prospect of developing a quantum-, or `Q-,' computer, which would use individual ions as data storage bits. A small group of superpositioned ions, each with two available states, would permit trillions of combinations. That's enough power, according to computer experts, to overcome the most complex security codes and message cryptography - something that worries financial institutions and security agencies.
The technical challenge is daunting, however. First, the system must isolate and store individual quantum bits - whimsically called "qubits" by the scientists. The ion trap built by Monroe and the team accomplishes this, although it currently takes a great deal of effort to capture, store and separate just one ion. Nevertheless, says Monroe, his group is looking into stringing multiple ions together, perhaps 50 of them, which would provide about one quadrillion data combinations.
Second, the ions would need a system of interconnections so they could perform computations - "wiring" at the atomic level. The trap would provide the proximity needed, but the means to connect the ions thus far is unknown.
Monroe believes a Q-computer can be built. "It may be that we can only string about 10 ions together," which would allow only about a million variations. Not much computing power, but it would prove its potential. Now, "it's an engineering issue," Monroe says.
