An oscilloscope in an electronic test laboratory
Uwe Moser / Alamy
Microwaves seem to be able to spend “imaginary time” in a material, but this bizarre phenomenon has never been shown that it corresponds to something real and measurable in the laboratory – so far.
When a radiation impulse, such as microwaves or light, moves through a material, interaction with the atoms of the material can slow it down, creating a delay. In 2016, a team of researchers calculated that this deadline can be imaginary – chewing the numbers and that you get a certain number of seconds multiplied by the square root of -1, or the imaginary number called I. We do not meet such figures in nature, but Isabella Giovannelli and Steven Anlage at the University of Maryland have found a way to measure them in an experience anyway.
“It’s a bit like a hidden degree of freedom that people have ignored,” said Anlage. “I think what we have done is bring it out and give it physical meaning.”
The researchers sent a microwave impulse through a set of coaxial cables, the ends of which were connected to form the shape of a ring. They had a lot of control over the impulse which entered this ring, and they very precisely collected and analyzed the microwave impulse which was released. The team used an oscilloscope and other devices to determine not only how long it persisted in cables, but also how its other properties, such as frequency, have changed.
They found that the so-called imaginary time manifests itself as a little physical change. Microwaves do not spend much time in cables; They just throw themselves through this at a slightly offset frequency. Indeed, the energy and the intensity of the microwave change when they travel and interact with the interior of the cables, explains Konstantin Bliokh to the Donostia International Physics Center in Spain, which worked on the 2016 calculation.
Imaginary delays have been ignored in past experiences because the researchers assumed that they were not physical. Giovannelli says that these small frequency changes are also very difficult to detect. “It was very difficult. Part of the reason we were able to measure this was because we have some of the best oscilloscopes in the world, “she said.
Franco Nori from Riken in Japan, which was also involved in the 2016 work, says that the new experience is “original, thoughtful, carefully executed and important”. He and his colleagues had only tested the true – non -imaginary – part of the process, therefore the work of anlage and Giovannelli completes the way in which the materials can sculpt radiation pulses.
“Several decades ago, these effects were considered tiny, but now they play an important role in nanosciences,” said Bliokh. If they are generalized to include more complex systems, they could be used in certain detection devices, he said. Nori says that the results could also help improve devices that use light for storage, as some computer memories do.
The team now plans to explore how the frequency changes they have measured relate to the way in which information carrying information, such as those used for communication, can be corrupt when they travel through materials.
“It’s like a hammer that we have invented, and now we can find nails,” explains Anlage.
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