{"id":200374,"date":"2024-11-28T15:24:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T21:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/quantum-breakthrough-atoms-held-in-quantum-superposition-for-more-than-23-minutes"},"modified":"2024-11-28T15:24:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T21:24:25","slug":"quantum-breakthrough-atoms-held-in-quantum-superposition-for-more-than-23-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/quantum-breakthrough-atoms-held-in-quantum-superposition-for-more-than-23-minutes","title":{"rendered":"Quantum Breakthrough: Atoms held in quantum superposition for more than 23 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/quantum-breakthrough-atoms-held-in-quantum-superposition-for-more-than-23-minutes2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Quantum mechanics, a realm of the incredibly small, is often characterized by its paradoxical nature. One such paradox is the concept of superposition, where a quantum particle can exist in multiple states simultaneously. These delicate states, however, are notoriously fragile, often collapsing into a single, definite state within mere fractions of a second. Yet, a recent breakthrough has pushed the boundaries of quantum stability, achieving a record-breaking 23-minute lifespan for a specific type of superposition known as a cat state.<\/p>\n<p>The term \u201ccat state\u201d is a whimsical reference to Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s famous thought experiment, where a cat is placed in a box with a device that could randomly kill it. Until the box is opened, the cat is both alive and dead, a superposition of two states. In quantum mechanics, cat states manifest when a quantum object, such as an atom or a photon, exists in multiple states simultaneously, defying classical intuition.<\/p>\n<p>While researchers have previously created cat states in laboratories, these states have been fleeting, quickly succumbing to the disruptive influence of their environment. However, a team led by Zheng-Tian Lu at the University of Science and Technology of China has managed to extend the lifespan of a cat state dramatically. They achieved this feat by manipulating a cloud of 10,000 ytterbium atoms, cooled to near absolute zero and trapped by laser light. By carefully controlling the atoms\u2019 quantum states, the researchers were able to induce a superposition where each atom existed in two distinct spin states simultaneously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quantum mechanics, a realm of the incredibly small, is often characterized by its paradoxical nature. One such paradox is the concept of superposition, where a quantum particle can exist in multiple states simultaneously. These delicate states, however, are notoriously fragile, often collapsing into a single, definite state within mere fractions of a second. Yet, a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}