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Angelique Randt

Ad van Bever

Engels

Innovative or simply Post-Modern? New paradigms in the Study of Quantum

Mechanics

Up until 1900s scientists believe the universe ran on relatively simple laws. Laws of gravity
dictated most if not everything. These, along with other theories are the fundamental laws of
nature.
At the beginning of the 1900s scientists discovered exceptions to this rule. In specific,
subatomic particles; such as electrons and neutrons.

These are the building blocks of atoms. But these particles often contradicted the physical world
that was understood. One of the biggest developments came in 1909. This was the year where
Albert Einstein proposed the wave duality of light physics theory.
Einstein proposed that Quantum mechanics tells us that light can behave simultaneously as
a particle or a wave.
When UV light hits a metal surface, it causes an emission of electrons. Albert Einstein
explained this "photoelectric" effect by proposing that light thought to only be a wave is
also a stream of particles.

In physics and chemistry, wave-particle duality holds that light and matter exhibit properties of
both waves and of particles. A central concept of quantum mechanics, duality addresses the
inadequacy of conventional concepts like "particle" and "wave" to meaningfully describe the
behaviour of quantum objects.
A quick example of this could be the water particle field theory. If one could imagine a calm
pond with leaves on the surface. If a stone was dropped onto the water, it makes a series of
circular waves which when they would reach the leaves would cause them to bob up and down;
but otherwise the leaves remain in the same position. Its the same with the water particles, the
waves move through them, not carrying the particles along with it.
This field practice roughly illustrates the difference between waves and particles.

A particle has mass and other measurable properties such as charge, whilst waves do not.
Waves typically, but not always need to move through another medium.
This is the reason why for instance in space; no sound is able to be heard. This is due to the
fact that there is no air for the sound waves to move through.

This brings us back to Einsteins theory about light in specific. Light has shown itself to possess
energy and momentum. Which are properties of particles, and waves. Whilst, it has no mass;
which in theory, is the number one property of mass. Hence, the contradiction.
This prompted physics to turn on its head.

In 1929 Gilbert Lewis named these mass-less particles photons. And thus, Quantum
Mechanics was born.
Through this, light as a photon can be used to have a mass-like property, to be able to move
objects, instead of through them. This is only possible due to the fact that light, as mentioned
earlier, has momentum.
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This is shown in our current modern-day science through solar sails. Solar sails are a form of
spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. A useful
analogy may be a sailboat; the light exerting a force on the mirrors is akin to a sail being blown
by the wind.
The solar sails are being used in space to move objects long distances. This works because
the light hits one side of the sail, which is a mirrored surface. That mirror reflects away the
photons reflecting from the sun. In this process, the momentum of the photons is transferred
to the sail. And in space, where there is no friction to slow the process down, the small bits of
momentum start to build up. This is one way how light, photons, can move objects.

Continuing, we are going to discuss the photophoresis effect.


When an atom is heated up at one side by photons, the gas molecules on that side of the
particle get excited. That causes them to move faster, and as a result they bounce of that side
of the particle surface at a higher velocity. Essentially creating a force that pushes that atom
away from the light.
This isnt just speculation, anymore. In our post-modern world scientists have recently tested
the photophoresis effect on tiny objects; moving nails, beads and even blocks with nothing but
the power of light.

More excitingly, photons arent exclusively only used to move matter, but they can also create
matter. Objects can be made from mass-less light particles. It seems as if it would make no
sense in physics.
Studies recently showed that Harvard and MIT students, have coaxed photons into binding
together into molecules. Per scientists Mikhail Lukin: They created a special medium in which
photons interacted so strongly that they began to act as though they had mass and banded
together.
The end result of this, light creating three-dimensional structures akin to crystals.
The photonic light tangles itself up with the atoms in the air so much, that the properties in the
atom get passed on to the photons. At that point the photons mimic an atom; creating solidified
light. A light crystal. Scientists in 2013, also created crystals solely derived from light.

So in the end, these new paradigms in the Study of Quantum Mechanics, dating back to 1909
when Einstein first introduced the wave duality of light are still of integral importance to physics
as a whole. It is helping us not only to actively create new matters, but introducing a way to
understand the universe and its working in better ways. Allowing us an escape to dictate how
things work outside of our known world the universe, and space as a whole.
Furthermore, we are only touching on the brink of what these physics entail, of what they have
in store for us. But its an incredible journey and path that scientists choose to continue
expanding on daily.

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