Precision Sensing Experiment Manipulates Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
Physicists in Australia and the UK have found a new way to manipulate Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in experiments on the vibrational mode of a trapped ion.
Although still at the laboratory stage, the work could lead to improvements in ultra-precise sensor technologies like those used in navigation, medicine, and astronomy.
Heisenberg's principle says that if two operators – for example, position x and momentum, p – do not commute, then one cannot simultaneously measure both of them to absolute precision.
Team leader Ting Rei Tan of the University of Sydney's Nano Institute explains that their result shows that one can instead construct new operators – namely 'modular position' x̂ and 'modular momentum' p̂.
- Improvements in ultra-precise sensing
- Applications in navigation, medicine, and astronomy
Author's summary: Physicists manipulate Heisenberg's uncertainty principle for ultra-precise sensing.