Squeezing electons into 'one-dimensional' wires yields quantum effects

Scientists have witnessed quantum effects in electrons after squeezing them into "one-dimensional" wires.
Researchers created so-called "quantum wires" out of the semiconducting material gallium arsenide. The wires were used to bridge the gaps between 6,000 narrow strips of metal. Scientists manipulated the magnetic field and voltage to narrow the available pathways across the bridges.
When the scientists squeezed the electrons onto the quantum wire bridges, they created a traffic jam -- triggering a wave-like quantum effect.
Researchers likened this wave-like passage of subatomic information to the physics of an overcrowded trolley car, i.e. if someone tries to get in a door, they have to push the people closest to them along a bit to make room. In turn, those people push slightly on their neighbors, and so on.
But electrons don't just have directional momentum, they also have spin. Scientists were able to design the quantum wire to carry the energy of these quantum spin waves -- in addition to their charge waves.
Scientists have devised a variety of theoretical ideas about how quantum spin waves are passed across a chain of electrons. The latest research allowed scientists to test their theories. Their tests confirmed predictions that different interactions between quantum-mechanical particles would produce a hierarchy of different spin wave "modes" -- some stronger than others.
The tests also confirmed the prediction that the strongest spin waves would be measured across the shortest quantum wires.
These findings may help scientists better understand the behavior of quantum-mechanical particles, and allow physicists to better control electrons in quantum computers.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/201...al-wires-yield-quantum-effects/9441473956491/

 

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A hierarchy of quantum spin is of particular interest to some ideas I'm still beginning to form, and there is no way these kinds of results could be guessed from first mathematical principles because the theory to support it just isn't there yet. It is reassuring to see that at least a few researchers believe as I do that the mathematics to explain physical effects must be scaffolded and extended if possible after the physical effects are observed, and that this does not always work as well or at all in the reverse. So it was with Special Relativity. So must it always be. Observe first. Then count and/or account for what was observed. Any other order of scientific or mathematical explanation isn't science. It's at best sheer speculation, or worse, mysticism.

 

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I thought the title said elections, and though this was another thread on Clump.

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