Now this is, IMHO, one of the most significant science stories all year
Over the decades of reading about scientific results, Ive been building up a qualitative model of atoms and what makes up an atom in a physical sense. For the last decade Ive been saying that **IF** you could build a kind of strobe-light that could put out a short enough pulse of light, youd be able to see exactly how the electron behaved. Seems like they are getting close to achieving that http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-quantum-behavior.html If the attached image doesnt come thru, go to the weblink and look there The image on the RIGHT is what would normally be seen; the image on the left shows a rippled area in the center which is showing the quantum mechanical behavior heres the caption to go with the images: Pulsed quantum optomechanics can directly probe quantum mechanical behavior, which is seen as the central rippling in this representation of a Schrödinger-cat state (left). Under constant observation these quantum features are washed out (right). Credit: VCQ/University of Vienna So the strobe light being used in the research above is capturing the object at a specific instant in time. When the object is illuminated for too long a time, the behavior averages out and you lose resolution (image on the RIGHT). This is exactly what one would expect when the object is oscillating at a much higher frequency than the pulse of light illuminating it. I now want to see the following experiment: - Hold a single H atom in a fixture so that it is not physically touching anything else. This can be done in a vacuum chamber and using electric and/or magnetic fields to hold and position it. These fields would also likely orient the atom in a consistent way. - With the EXTREMELY fast strobe light (ultra-ultra short pulse laser), slowly tune the frequency of the strobe-light and eventually it will equal the frequency of oscillation of the electron, or a subharmonic of it, and you will have a very high resolution image of that electron ***AND***, it will appear to be motionless. Anyone who has used a strobe-light to set the ignition timing on a car knows exactly what Im talking about. - Now with the phase-delay knob on this strobe-light, we slowly adjust it and you will view what appears to be a slow-motion movie of the electrons movement. To use the car-timing analogy, turn the distributor slowly and the timing-mark on the flywheel slowly moves in one direction. According to my model, I would be willing to bet that one would see the electron move thru the nucleus with every oscillation but it traverses the center region much more quickly than when it reaches the outer bounds of its oscillation where it has to slow down and reverse direction. I hope the scientists get this done before its my time to go! -Mark
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