Quantum mechanics is a fascinating subject. From the famous Schrodinger’s cat to superposition principle to quantum entanglement, none of these topics fail to amaze us. But apart from these well-known phenomenons, there exist some lesser-known concepts that are equally exciting. And one such phenomenon is that of the quantum Zeno effect.
The classical Zeno paradox
Before moving to what the Zeno effect signifies in the quantum world, it’s an excellent option to build up a base by understanding it in the classical world. The Zeno’s paradox in the macroscopic world was first put forth by an ancient philosopher, Zeno of Elea, who presented his thoughts about how motion should be logically impossible.
Suppose you have to travel from point A to B by covering some finite distance. To reach your distant destination point, you have to cross half of the distance to that point. Then, again to cover that half distance, you have to cross half of that distance as well: Further, half of that distance and so on. This means that while making your journey from A to B, you have to cross an infinite number of half-distances. In this manner, one can never actually make it to the final point.
In another paradox, Zeno’s arrow paradox, Zeno states that for a motion to occur, an object must change its position with time. And to explain this, Zeno took an example of an arrow in flight. He stated that at any one instant of time, the arrow is not moving at all. Since no time elapses place at a significantly small instant of time, the arrow cannot move at all. This means that at every moment of time, there is no motion occurring. So if everything is motionless at every instant, and time is entirely composed of instants, then motion is impossible.
In this way, Zeno stated that motion is impossible, which came to be known as the Zeno paradoxes in the classical world.
The quantum Zeno effect
Although Zeno’s paradox didn’t succeed in dismantling the foundations of motion, unknowingly, Zeno’s ideas helped name an effect widely observed in the quantum realm. The statement of quantum Zeno effect says that “a particle’s time evolution can be arrested by measuring it frequently enough concerning some chosen measurement settings.” Sometimes, it is also interpreted as “a system cannot change while you are watching it.” In other words, it indicates that one can freeze the evolution of a quantum system by measuring it frequently enough in its known initial state.
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Origin of quantum Zeno effect
The quantum Zeno effect was first presented in a 1977 paper called “The Zeno’s Paradox in Quantum Theory,” written by Baidyanaith Misra and George Sudarshan. In the article, the authors described a scenario of a radioactive particle to represent an unstable quantum system. As per the quantum theory, there is a probability for a radioactive particle to decay from an unstable state to a stable one as time evolves. So following the Zeno paradox, Misra and Sudarshan proposed a situation in which repeated observation of the particle prevents its transition into the decaying state, thereby representing the quantum Zeno effect.
The Science behind quantum Zeno effect
An unstable quantum system is mainly described by two states: the initial state and the final state. The initial state, say A, is the un-decayed state and is the unstable one, while the final state, say B, is the decayed and stable one.
If the system is not being observed, it will evolve from the un-decayed state into a superposition of state A and state B over time. The probability of it being in either of these states is based on the time evolved. Eventually, when a new observation is made, the wavefunction describing the superposition of states will collapse into either state A or B depending upon the time evolved.
However, let’s make a series of observations after short intervals of time. The probability that the system will be in state A during each measurement will be higher than the probability that the system will be in state B. Thereby, following the trend, the system will keep on collapsing back into the undecayed state, and eventually, it will never have time to evolve into the decayed state. In this way, frequent observations will arrest the time evolution of the system under consideration.
Experimental evidence of Zeno effect
Because every unstable system in this universe always tends to achieve a stable configuration, the quantum Zeno effect is quite difficult to digest in the real world. But the quantum Zeno effect is not just a claim. Researchers have also found several experimental pieces of evidence in support of this.
One such experimental proof involves shining an imaging laser on an atom. Being an outside force, the laser disrupts the sensitive balance of quantum systems and eventually reduces tunneling. Surprisingly, it was found that as the measurements made by the imaging laser became brighter and more frequent, the tunneling was dramatically reduced. And this behavior was indeed per the quantum Zeno effect.
Moreover, it was realized that the quantum Zeno effect persists in the many-worlds and relative-states interpretations of quantum mechanics. However, the story of the quantum Zeno effect doesn’t end here itself. Apart from the Zeno effect, an anti-Zeno effect also exists, which is contrastingly different from the earlier explained Zeno effect. As per the anti-Zeno effect, frequent measurements can alternatively cause a process to speed up. Being experimentally confirmed, this effect also forms the heart of many twenty-first-century advancements, including those in quantum computation.
Like most other phenomenons in quantum physics, the quantum Zeno effect is quite uncanny. Still, it has found applications around us, including its use in commercial atomic magnetometers and magnetoreception, a natural magnetic compass sensory mechanism possessed by birds.
Although the Heisenberg uncertainty involved in time limits an infinite number of measurements that can be made, the quantum Zeno effect is still an exciting phenomenon to feed upon for advanced research.
More in Quantum Physics:
- A cool experiment to derive the value of Planck’s constant at home.
- How one man challenged Einstein’s theory of hidden variables in quantum mechanics
- What does the Schrödinger’s cat experiment tell us about quantum mechanics?
Editor at ‘The Secrets Of The Universe’, I have completed my Master’s in Physics from Punjab, India and I am currently pursuing my doctoral studies on Radio Emissions of Exoplanets in Barcelona, Spain. I love to write about a plethora of topics concerned with planetary sciences, observational astrophysics, quantum mechanics and atomic physics, along with the advancements taking place in the space industry.
Like Schrodinger’s cat this is simply another “FAKE” paradox.
I say that full in the face of all those physicists who will stupidly try and cram it back down my throat.
These are not true paradoxes – any of them, they are simply expressions of the limitation of human languages and especially where they intersect mathematics and the physical world.
In particular the use of the concept of infinity is abused in this so called paradox and twisted to seemingly state that progressive operations at half intervals will never reach their destination – because of course their are an infinite number of them.
That is simply a failure to understand the real world limitations of the use of the concept of infinity.
And Schrodingers cat is either dead or alive at any given moment, not both simply because we don’t know or can’t determine which state he is in.
It is one or the other and our ability to perceive which ever it is in no way affects his actual deadness or aliveness.
Once again it is a stupid and incorrect tautology that plays on our own ignorance of the limitations of the symbols and words we use and our failure to understand their limitations.