The quantum age; how the physics of the very small has transformed our lives

THE QUANTUM AGE PHYSICS OF THE VERY SMALL HAS TRANSFORMED OUR LIVES HOW THE BRIAN CLEGG www.pdfgrip.com Published in the UK in 2014 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP email: info@iconbooks.com www.iconbooks.com Sold in the UK, Europe and Asia by Faber & Faber Ltd, Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA or their agents Distributed in the UK, Europe and Asia by TBS Ltd, TBS Distribution Centre, Colchester Road, Frating Green, Colchester CO7 7DW Distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball, Office B4, The District, 41 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock 7925 Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, PO Box 8500, 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, NSW 2065 Distributed in Canada by Penguin Books Canada, 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2YE www.pdfgrip.com Distributed to the trade in the USA by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution The Keg House, 34 Thirteenth Avenue NE, Suite 101 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413-1007 ISBN: 978-184831-664-5 Text copyright © 2014 Brian Clegg The author has asserted his moral rights No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher Typeset in Melior by Marie Doherty Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc www.pdfgrip.com Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Enter the quantum Quantum nature The electron’s realm QED Light and magic Super beams Making light work Resistance is futile Floating trains and well-chilled SQUIDs 10 Spooky entanglement 11 From bit to qubit 12 It’s alive! 13 A quantum universe www.pdfgrip.com Index www.pdfgrip.com About the author Science writer Brian Clegg studied physics at Cambridge University and specialises in making the strangest aspects of the universe – from infinity to time travel and quantum theory – accessible to the general reader He is editor of www.popularscience.co.uk and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts His previous books include Inflight Science, Build Your Own Time Machine, The Universe Inside You, Dice World and Introducing Infinity: A Graphic Guide www.brianclegg.net www.pdfgrip.com For Gillian, Chelsea and Rebecca www.pdfgrip.com Acknowledgements With thanks as always to my editor, Duncan Heath, for his help and support, and to all those who have provided me with information and assistance – you know who you are One person I would like to mention by name is the late Richard Feynman, whose books enthralled me and who turned quantum theory from a confusing mystery to an exciting challenge www.pdfgrip.com Introduction The chances are that most of the time you were at school your science teachers lied to you Much of the science, and specifically the physics, they taught you was rooted in the Victorian age (which is quite probably why so many people find school science dull) Quantum theory, special and general relativity, arguably the most significant fundamentals of physics, were developed in the 20th century and yet these are largely ignored in schools, in part because they are considered too ‘difficult’ and in part because many of the teachers have little idea about these subjects themselves And that’s a terrible pity, when you consider that in terms of impact on your everyday life, one of these two subjects is quite possibly the most important bit of scientific knowledge there is Relativity is fascinating and often truly mind-boggling, but with the exception of gravity, which I admit is rather useful, it has few applications that influence our experience GPS satellites have to be corrected for both special and general relativity, but that’s about it, because the ‘classical’ physics that predates Einstein’s work is a very close approximation to what’s observed unless you travel at close to the speed of light, and is good enough to deal with everything from the acceleration of a car to planning a Moon launch But quantum physics is entirely different While it too is fascinating and mind-boggling, it also lies behind everything All the objects we see and touch and use are made up of quantum particles As is the 10 www.pdfgrip.com Lukin, Mikhail 259 Ma, Xiasong, 241 macroscopicity 27 maglev trains 196–200 magnetic fields 178–9 expulsion 178–9 magnetism 47–9 Maiman, Theodore 141–8, 150 Manhattan Project 95 masers 129, 130–2, 134 matrix mechanics 20 matter forms of 270–1 interaction with light see QED mattress effect 182–3 Maxwell, James Clerk 50–2, 88–9, 178 Meissner, Walther 178–9 307 www.pdfgrip.com Meissner effect 178–9, 180 memory 66–9 Menabrea, Luigi 227 mercury 74, 90, 174 metals 54–6 metamaterials 189–90 MHCs 169–70 Michelson, Albert 89–91 Millikan, Robert 176 mirrors 80–1, 99–105 Misener, Don 252 Mlodinow, Leonard 273 MLX–01 197 models, versus realities 273–4 Moore, Gordon 229 Moore’s Law 229 Morley, Edward 89–91 308 www.pdfgrip.com MOSFET 63 MRI scanners 195–6, 203, 239 Napier, James 88 National Ignition Facility 154–5 neutrons 110 Newton, Isaac 82–4, 114–16 Nimmrichter, Stefan 26 nitrogen, liquid 186–7 ‘no cloning theorem’ 216–17, 221–2, 238 nuclear fusion 2, 33–5, 154–5, 188, 193 Occam’s razor 80, 105–6 Ochsenfeld, Robert 178–9 oil drops 271–3 OLEDs 75 one time pads 219 Onnes, Heike Kamerlingh 173–80, 192, 251–2 optical pumping 133, 136, 141 309 www.pdfgrip.com optical storage 67 orbitals 55 orchestrated objective reduction 42 oxygen 39 Parke, Stephen 111 Pauli exclusion principle 253 Peel, Robert 49 Penrose, Roger 42, 111 phase 97 philosophy 273 phlogiston theory 39 phonons 181–2, 183, 188 phosphors 70, 74 photoelectric effect 12, 13–14, 120 photons 14 absorption 17, 99 emission 17, 99 310 www.pdfgrip.com interference 23, 25, 106 pairs of 259–60, 261–2 as qubits 238–9, 240 scattering 117, 123 virtual 108 photosynthesis 38–41, 119 photovoltaic cells 120–1 piezoelectricity 57 pigeons 41–2 pixels 73–4, 124 Planck, Max 8–9, 11, 13, 108 plasma 193–4, 270 plasma screens 74 plenum 81–2 Podolsky, Boris 212 polarisation 72–3, 87, 215–16 Pons, Stanley 188 311 www.pdfgrip.com postmodernism 274 Price, Vincent 221 Priestley, Joseph 38–9 prism 83 probability 22–3 Prochorov, Alexander 128–32, 149 protons 18, 33–4, 110 public key/private key system 233–4 QCD (quantum chromodynamics) 110 QED (quantum electrodynamics) 7, 92, 96–7, 256 quanta 9, 11, 13, 266–8 quantum algorithms 233–6 quantum annealing 245–6 quantum chromodynamics (QCD) 110 quantum computers 230–49, 257–8, 261 adiabatic 245–7 quantum dots 240–1 312 www.pdfgrip.com quantum electrodynamics (QED) 7, 92, 96–7, 256 quantum entanglement 213–23, 238, 241, 243, 247, 264 quantum keys 248, 253–6 quantum solvents 254–5 quantum stations 264–5 quantum teleportation 217, 221–2, 238, 241 quantum tunnelling 34, 35–6, 69, 246 quantum vibrations 181–4 quarks 110 qubits 43, 231–2, 237, 239–49, 257–8 quench 191 radiation 199 radios 58–9 rainbow hologram 161 RAND 140 rare earth elements 185 Reagan, Ronald 139 313 www.pdfgrip.com reflection 80–1, 99–105 partial 114–15 reflection hologram 161 refraction 85, 102, 189 refraction grating 105 refractive index, negative 189 relativity 1, 11, 90 general special 1, 11 resistance 173–7 zero 175, 177, 179 resistors 56 Rivest, Ronald 234 Rizkallah, Pierre 169–70 Rosen, Nathan 212 Royal Institution 47–9, 87–8 RSA 233–4, 266 314 www.pdfgrip.com rubies 135, 141, 142–5, 146–7 Rutherford, Ernest 16 Rydberg atoms 261 Sandberg, Herbert 142 scattering 117, 123, 144 scattering amplitude 111–12 Schawlow, Arthur 131–5, 138, 142–4, 146, 149 Schrieffer, Robert 181, 183 Schrödinger, Erwin 20, 213 Schrödinger’s cat 25–7, 261 Schwinger, Julian 96 search algorithms 234–5 search engines 65 selenium 62 semiconductor lasers 155–6 semiconductors 61–3 Senebier, Jean 39 315 www.pdfgrip.com sewage treatment 204–6 Shamir, Adi 234 Shaw, Bob 255 Shelburne, Earl of 38 ship engines 199–200 Shockley, William 59 Shor, Peter 233 Shor algorithm 233, 239, 243, 246, 265 sight 79–80 silicon 63, 120 silicon dioxide 63 ‘slow glass’ 255–9 Smolyaninov, Igor 189–90 Smolyaninova, Vera 189–90 solar cells 120–1 solar system 17, 18 Solvay, Ernest 211 316 www.pdfgrip.com Solvay Congresses 211 sound 85 space travel 214 special relativity 1, 11 spectroscopy 254 spectrum 91–2 spin 41, 253 spotlights 115 square roots 20–1 SQUIDs 200, 202–4, 240 Star Trek 221 static electricity 45 steam age Stoney, George 53–4 storage 67–9 sum over paths 106 Sun 1–2, 30, 122, 136, 193 317 www.pdfgrip.com superconductors 174–90, 252–3 applications 191–207 materials 184–7 operational temperature 184–90 type II 192 superfluids 251–9 superposition 25–7, 261 Swan, Joseph 113–14 synchrotrons 166–72 T-cells 169–70 tasers 153 Taylor, Tommy 111 Technical Research Group (TRG) 137–40, 142 Tesla, Nikola 114 thermionic valves 56–9, 61 Thomson, J.J 15–16, 52–4 Thomson, William (Lord Kelvin) 7–8, 31–3 318 www.pdfgrip.com thymine 36 tokomaks 193–5 Tomonaga, Sin’Itiro 96 Toshiba 68 Townes, Charles 130–2, 133–8, 149 trains 196–200 transistors 59, 61, 63–4, 134, 135, 230 floating-gate 68–9 transmission loss 177, 206 transporters 221–2 triode valve 56–7 Turing, Alan 228–30 twistors 111 two-slit experiment 19, 105–6 Uncertainty Principle 24–5 undulators 167 universal computer 229–30 319 www.pdfgrip.com Upatnieks, Juris 159 uranium 182 UXOs 203–4 valence bands 61–2 valves 56–9, 61 voting 43 Vuletic, Vladan 259 walkers 271–3 water 204–6 Watson, Thomas J Snr 7–8, 58 wave mechanics 20 waves, transverse 86 weather 30 Weber, Heinrich 12 Weinberg, Steve 266–8 Westinghouse 114 Wheatstone, Charles 87–8 320 www.pdfgrip.com uploaded by [stormrg] wigglers 167 William of Ockham 105–6 Wollaston, William 48 world lines 93–4 worm casts 170–1 writing 121–3 Wu, Maw Kuen 184 X-ray crystallography 168–9 Young, Thomas 9–10, 86–7 Young’s slits 9–10, 23–6, 86, 272 yttrium 185 Zeilinger, Anton 201, 263–5 zinc oxide 120 321 www.pdfgrip.com .. .THE QUANTUM AGE PHYSICS OF THE VERY SMALL HAS TRANSFORMED OUR LIVES HOW THE BRIAN CLEGG www.pdfgrip.com Published in the UK in 2014 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus... to you how Nature is – and if you don’t like it, that’s going to get in the way of your understanding it … The theory of quantum electrodynamics [the theory governing the interaction of light... illustrations of the amount of emptiness in an atom is that if you imagine the nucleus of an atom to be the size of a fly, the whole atom will be about the size of a cathedral – and apart from the vague