Demonstration of ‘weird quantum effect’ that transforms the matter to invisible

Posted by Kapil on November 30th, 2021

Exhibition of decades old weird quantum

A strange quantum effect that has been predicted for decades has finally been proven. According to quantum theory, if a cloud of gas is sufficiently cold and dense enough, it will become invisible.

Lasers were employed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to squeeze and cool lithium gas to densities and temperatures low enough to scatter less light. It becomes absolutely undetectable if they can cool the cloud to absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or -273.15 degrees Celsius).

The strange effect is the first known example of Pauli blocking, a quantum mechanical phenomena.

“What we’ve found is one very particular and basic sort of Pauli blocking,” said senior author Wolfgang Ketterle, an MIT physics professor, “which prevents one atom from doing what all atoms would naturally do, which is scatter light.” He went on to say that this is the first clear observation of the impact and that it reveals a novel physics phenomena.

The novel method could be used to create light-suppressing materials for quantum computers to prevent data loss.