Heisenberg Under the Microscope

Image of the experimental setup, detail of the optics used to direct and manipulate light trapping the nanoparticle. Lorenzo Magrini/Aspelmeyer Group/University of Vienna) - The quantum movements of a small glass sphere could be controlled for the first time in Vienna by combining microscopy with control engineering, setting the course for future quantum technologies. A football is not a quantum particle. There are crucial differences between the things we know from everyday life and tiny quantum objects. Quantum phenomena are usually very fragile. To study them, one normally uses only a small number of particles, well shielded from the environment, at the lowest possible temperatures. Through a collaboration between the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and TU Wien, however, it has now been possible to measure a hot glass sphere consisting of about one billion atoms with unprecedented precision and to control it at the quantum level.