By definition, elementary particles can't be broken into smaller pieces. But in a new theoretical study published in Physical Review Letters, Johannes Skaar and colleagues have revealed what would happen if you tried anyway for a single photon. The answer is deeply strange: attempting to cut a photon in two wouldn't produce two smaller photons, but instead conjure an infinite number of them out of thin air.
  • tristynalxander@mander.xyzEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    Not a physicist, but after reading I’m pretty sure they said it creates an whole bunch of possible positions, which is distinctly different from creating a whole bunch of new particles.

    • TachyonTele@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      15 hours ago

      Also not a physicist, probability is far too complex for journelists to be able to explain in a short headline, and often full articles. So we get things like this.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    1·
    1 day ago

    Rather than producing a photon on one side and a vacuum on the other, the shutter generates something far more strange and complex: a superposition of states containing infinitely many photons simultaneously.

    This happens because, in quantum mechanics, empty space isn’t truly empty—in reality, it seethes with fluctuations in the electromagnetic field. By rapidly switching the shutter, the team found that these fluctuations are disturbed—and in doing so, they spontaneously create new photons. Crucially though, if you were to look only at the region immediately either side of where the shutter operated, the state would appear deceptively normal: indistinguishable from a single photon on one side, and a simple vacuum on the other.