Müller and his team shot caesium atoms, cooled nearly to absolute zero, in an arc across a gap. Mid-stream, photons from a laser bumped the atoms into two, quantum-mechanical alternate realities. In one, an atom absorbed a photon and arced on a slightly higher path, experiencing a tiny weakening of gravity and speed-up of time. In the other, the atom stuck to the lower path, where gravity was stronger and time moved slightly more slowly. A difference in phase in the atom's fundamental frequency, measured by the interferometer, indicated a tiny difference in time.
This is such a cool experiment. Heck you could do this at home!* :-)
It reinforces the idea that all processes are gravity dependent, at quite a small scale ( 0.1mm here ), and not just those which we designate as 'clocks'.
Oh, 'quantum-mechanical alternate realities' is a bit sci-fi. 'quantum states' would do fine.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) *
Quote:
Müller says that his tabletop apparatus cost much less than $1 million
Err .... I'd want that rather much less than a million. :-)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
The title is wrong. It should say:
General Relativity tested by a Cabinet Minister (Steven Chu) on a tabletop.
No Cabinet Minister in Italy could do that.
Tullio
Here's an interesting article about gravity: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41740
With a nice quote at the end: "The distance achieved in the current research was a mere 0.1 mm, but, he says, by increasing this to 1 m it should be possible to detect gravitational waves, miniscule ripples in the fabric of space–time predicted by general relativity but never before observed."
General Relativity Tested on
)
General Relativity Tested on a Table Top
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: General Relativity
)
From the article :
This is such a cool experiment. Heck you could do this at home!* :-)
It reinforces the idea that all processes are gravity dependent, at quite a small scale ( 0.1mm here ), and not just those which we designate as 'clocks'.
Oh, 'quantum-mechanical alternate realities' is a bit sci-fi. 'quantum states' would do fine.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) *
Err .... I'd want that rather much less than a million. :-)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
The title is wrong. It should
)
The title is wrong. It should say:
General Relativity tested by a Cabinet Minister (Steven Chu) on a tabletop.
No Cabinet Minister in Italy could do that.
Tullio
Here's an interesting article
)
Here's an interesting article about gravity: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41740
With a nice quote at the end: "The distance achieved in the current research was a mere 0.1 mm, but, he says, by increasing this to 1 m it should be possible to detect gravitational waves, miniscule ripples in the fabric of space–time predicted by general relativity but never before observed."