{"id":89446,"date":"2019-04-11T14:22:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/infinite-number-of-quantum-particles-gives-clues-to-big-picture-behavior-at-large-scale"},"modified":"2019-04-11T14:22:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:22:41","slug":"infinite-number-of-quantum-particles-gives-clues-to-big-picture-behavior-at-large-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/infinite-number-of-quantum-particles-gives-clues-to-big-picture-behavior-at-large-scale","title":{"rendered":"Infinite number of quantum particles gives clues to big-picture behavior at large scale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/infinite-number-of-quantum-particles-gives-clues-to-big-picture-behavior-at-large-scale.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents an external observer from measuring both the position and speed (referred to as momentum) of a particle at the same time. They can only know with a high degree of certainty either one or the other\u2014unlike what happens at large scales where both are known. To identify a given particle\u2019s characteristics, physicists introduced the notion of quasi-distribution of position and momentum. This approach was an attempt to reconcile quantum-scale interpretation of what is happening in particles with the standard approach used to understand motion at normal scale, a field dubbed classical mechanics.<\/p>\n<p>In a new study published in <i>EPJ ST<\/i>, Dr. J.S. Ben-Benjamin and colleagues from Texas A&amp;M University, USA, reverse this approach; starting with quantum mechanical rules, they explore how to derive an infinite number of quasi-distributions, to emulate the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/classical+mechanics\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">classical mechanics<\/a> approach. This approach is also applicable to a number of other variables found in quantum-scale particles, including particle spin.<\/p>\n<p>For example, such quasi-distributions of position and momentum can be used to calculate the quantum version of the characteristics of a gas, referred to as the second virial coefficient, and extend it to derive an infinite number of these quasi-distributions, so as to check whether it matches the traditional expression of this physical entity as a joint distribution of position and momentum in classical mechanics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-04-infinite-quantum-particles-clues-big-picture.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents an external observer from measuring both the position and speed (referred to as momentum) of a particle at the same time. They can only know with a high degree of certainty either one or the other\u2014unlike what happens at large scales where both are known. To identify [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89446","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\/89446","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\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}