One of the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics is that objects can be described as waves, whether they are electrons, atoms, light, anything really, even your cat (or that of Erwin Schrödinger). And of course, if the equations that describe their wavefunctions are identical, objects will behave in the same way. Even if they are fundamentally different physical entities.
Two papers published this week highlight just how far this analogy can go. In one study a gas of ultracold atoms behaves like electrons in a crystal, whereas in the other study the ultracold atoms show quantum effects known from laser physics. Atoms behaving like electrons as well as light.
Welcome to my personal blog, where I write about the latest exciting developments in the natural sciences and bring my own perspective to scientific trends in these areas.
August 19, 2010
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