A Mechanical Device Behaves as a Quantum System Right Before Your Eyes
Schrodinger would be pleased When we think of quantum mechanics, we often think of the very small and the very theoretical. Take Schrodinger's Cat for instance; it's an interesting thought exercise but not an experiment one would want to actually execute in his or her apartment. But a researcher at UC Santa Barbara has brought quantum systems down from the chalkboard and into plain sight, creating the first mechanical device large enough to be observed with the naked eye that behaves as a true quantum system, bridging the divide between the macro world of mechanical systems and the micro domain of quantum physics. To create such a quantum mechanical system, physics researcher Andrew Cleland and his team had to cool the system to its quantum ground state to eliminate all thermal static. They did so by creating a mechanical resonator with an extremely high oscillation frequency -- something like 6 billion cycles...