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Solid Light

tyr_13

Penultimate Amazing
tyr_13
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Aug 8, 2008
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Researchers at MIT have created solid photons, a new form of matter. Photonic matter isn't simply science fiction now that they've outlined the findings in the journal Nature.

Now I'm not an expert on such things, far from it. What it seems like they did was take advantage of the Rydberg blockade effect using very rubidium to quantum link photos. These photons, once interacting, behave more like traditional matter and less like photons. The obvious use would be in quantum computing. Photons are a great medium for information after all. Then there are the crystal structures that could be formed. I'm excited to see replication of the technique by others so that the properties of this new form of matter can be explored. Who knows what else this could be good for. Converting electricity to light? Extremely hard? Very pretty?

What do you all think?
 
I read about this, and found it to be one of the worst-written science stories in years. Different statements within the story about what happened seem to completely contradict each other and the headline. There are several ways I can think of to interpret bits & pieces of this, but they all falsify the other bits & pieces.
 
Delvo said:
I read about this, and found it to be one of the worst-written science stories in years. Different statements within the story about what happened seem to completely contradict each other and the headline. There are several ways I can think of to interpret bits & pieces of this, but they all falsify the other bits & pieces.
Click to expand...

I've read some pretty horrible articles on it as well. When I say horrible, I mean horrible. I briefly mentioned what I think happened, but let me expand.

They found a way to make photos interact with each other as if they had mass. These photons interacting form photonic matter and are stable enough that it's plausible for them to form complex structures like crystals.

That's why I linked to the journal abstract directly. Hopefully some replication will spark better reporting. Does anyone subscribe to Nature?
 
So I guess that hard-light holographic projectors like Arnold Rimmer's aren't going to be out in stores by Christmas then?
 
solid light

so what are the properties of these photons that act like matter?

do they always move at the speed of light?
i.e. can you make them slow down and if you can can you stop them and if you can what is their rest mass?

can they bounce off each other?
i.e. can you shine two beams of solid photons at each other and make them bounce off each other?

if the answer to both questions is no, in what sense are they like matter?
if the answer is yes, are you sure they are photons?

"it's always the questions you ask never the answers" (Excentral)
 
Spellbreaker said:
so what are the properties of these photons that act like matter?

do they always move at the speed of light?
i.e. can you make them slow down and if you can can you stop them and if you can what is their rest mass?

can they bounce off each other?
i.e. can you shine two beams of solid photons at each other and make them bounce off each other?

if the answer to both questions is no, in what sense are they like matter?
if the answer is yes, are you sure they are photons?

"it's always the questions you ask never the answers" (Excentral)
Click to expand...

The "photons" in the experiment are kind of a complex dance involving the electromagnetic field and the atoms in the gas. They move much slower than the speed of light in a vacuum; the group velocity is about 400 m/s, of the same order of magnitude as sound waves in air at STP.

They do appear to interact with each other, though not bounce off each other (it's more like they attract each other).
 
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