SYMMETRY MAGAZINE | EXPLAIN IT IN 60 SECONDS

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|| EXPLAIN IT IN 60 SECONDS | WAVE PARTICLE DUALITY ||

Wave–particle duality is a concept in particle physics that ascribes two seemingly contradictory traits to a single object .

Think of it this way : If you had never seen a seahorse before , you might imagine an animal made of two parts , half fish and half horse . But when you actually saw one , you would discover that a seahorse is a different thing altogether .

Similarly , quantum objects such as electrons and quarks are often described as being both waves and particles , but really they are neither . They have wave-like and particle-like properties but are fundamentally unlike anything in our everyday experience .

These quantum objects are fuzzy , distributed and indistinct as they propagate through space , and they are rigid , undiminished and indivisible when they collide . They are not quite waves and not quite particles .

The best visualization of how an electron or a quark actually behaves is a surreal one .

Imagine that you make a splash in the ocean at Virginia Beach :

The wave spreads out across the ocean , mixing with other waves , losing its identity as a distinct object . Then on the other side , in Cape Town , Casablanca or Reykjavik , your splash pops up in its original form and douses someone on the seashore .

While this may seem counterintuitive , that is how nature works at its most fundamental level .

Jim Pivarski | Fermilab

|| EXPLAIN IT IN 60 SECONDS | TABLE OF CONTENTS ||

|| 1 ||

Wave-particle duality | Quantum entanglement | Baryonic acoustic oscillations | Neutrinoless double beta decay | Force carriers | Unification of forces | Plasma acceleration | Spin | Spectroscopy | Bosons | Decay channel | Gravitational waves | Klystron | Sigma | Standard candle | The muon | Cosmic microwave background | Symmetry | Synchrotron radiation | Discovery

|| 2 ||

Big bang | Redshift | Charged leptons | Neutrino | Shielding | Scintillators | Intensity Frontier | Cherenkov light| Virtual particles | Charm quark | Neutralino | Particle accelerators | Magnet quench | Neutrino masses | Z boson | Rare decays | W boson | Terascale | Jets | Theory

|| 3 ||

Dark energy | Particle event | String theory | Positron | Dark matter | Simulations | Postdocs | Acceleration of particles | X-ray lasers | Higgs boson | Elementary particle physics | Standard Model | Light sources | Quarks | Luminosity | B factories | The Grid | CP violation | Superconductors | International Linear Collider

|| 4 ||

Extra dimensions | Neutrino mixing | Large Hadron Collider | Supersymmetry | E=mc2 | Gravitational lenses | Antimatter

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