A new report published inPhysical Review Asuggests that , somewhat counterintuitively , quantum particles have a chance of moving backwards , even when pushed forwards .
The study was carry out by scientists from the Universities of York , Munich , and Cardiff . They were enquire the idea of “ backflow ” , that quantum atom can move oppositely to their impulse .
“ We have shown that backflow can always happen , even if a force is acting on the quantum particle while it trip , ” lead author Dr Henning Bostelmann from the University of York said in astatement . “ The backflow force is the result of wave - subatomic particle wave-particle duality and the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics , and it is already well understood in an idealised case of force - free move . ”
This idea has been boast for a while , but this is the first time it has been discussed with regards to particle that are have a force . Previous framework had look only at free particle , those that do not have an external force acting on them .
“ This means that external power do n’t destroy the backflow event , which is an exciting novel discovery , ” study co - author Dr Daniela Cadamuro from the Technical University of Munich said in the instruction .
Quantum particles are basically those that operate on the pocket-sized scale potential . At these scales , some pretty weird physics take office , including the idea that unclouded particle can act both as awave and a atom .
This work shows a further weird effect . A quantum particle can mull over a force acting upon it , leading to increase backflow . This is essentially the move of particle back towards the focal point they were follow from .
“ opine I have a very large elbow room full of people and I instruct them all to move towards the door and leave the room , ” Jonathan Halliwell from Imperial College London , who was not involved in the enquiry , toldGizmodo . “ Classically , the entire mass of people in the way would steadily lessen . But in quantum mechanics , the entire mass of mass in the room could INCREASE , even though each mortal has a positivistic outward speed . ”
The bailiwick does n’t say that quantum particles will always move backwards . Rather , it say they always have a probability of doing so . We just wo n’t always know which . But the effect was regain to be very small , which is why we have n’t notice it before .
While this was fundamentally only a thought experimentation , it ’s potential it could be tested in the science lab in the future . It ’ll also earmark researchers to compute out what configuration of quantum corpuscle experiences the maximum amount of backflow .
