“Quantum Time Flip” a scientific discovery that will bend your mind
In a groundbreaking world first, physicists have made light appear to move both backwards and forwards in time simultaneously.
Two separate teams of scientists have done something incredible- they’ve made light appear to move backwards and forwards in time at the same time. This phenomenon is called a ‘quantum time flip’.
To do this, the physicists used a type of optical crystal that could split photons. Photons are elementary particles that are essentially tiny packets of light.
The ‘time flip’ was created as a direct result of two different principles in quantum mechanics.
Quantum superposition allows particles to exist in more than one state simultaneously until observed, while CPT (charge, parity and time-reversal) symmetry dictates that any system of particles will follow the same laws of physics even if their charges, spatial co-ordinates or movements through time are reversed.
Experiments like this one could pave the way for new quantum discoveries in the future.
“A nice way to put it is to say that our experiment is a simulation of exotic scenarios where a photon might evolve forward and backward in time,” Oxford University physicist Giulio Chiribella told Live Science.
“What we do is an analogue to some experiments that simulate exotic physics, such as the physics of black holes or time travel.”
Source Unexplained Mysteries
