[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good Grief......here is the shocker:

***********************EXCERPT***************************

Along the way, the researchers made another possible discovery as significant as the QSL: they believe they’ve observed fractionalised quantum states.

Quantum states are generally assumed to exist only as whole numbers – after all, the basis of quantum physics is that the quantum is the smallest possible change in state that can exist.

[techcor]

That is interesting bump.

[zeugma]

Good Grief......here is the shocker:

No doubt. If their observations hold up, that's groundbreaking in a pertty fundamental sense.

[steve86]

You mean quantum states are analog? So future quantum wall clocks can still have hands?

[AFPhys]

“Quantum states are generally assumed to exist only as whole numbers – after all, the basis of quantum physics is that the quantum is the smallest possible change in state that can exist.”

-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—

This is not totally accurate, and is widely misquoted and misunderstood. It is true for simple systems.

When a system is not a classic “energy well”, the idea of quantum state being integer multiples of the ground state is not accurate; and of course, the further the system goes from being “ideal”, the less constrained and the further from integer multiple becomes evident.

If that were not true, semiconductor switching (for example) would be much more precise, voltages would transition perfectly sharply, and that is a pretty darned ideal system.

The existence of fractionalized states has been long known - example is “spins” of some elementary particles, and even the 1/3 charge of quarks, and I recall seeing some theoretical constructs.

It has been 20 years since I’ve studied/taught this, so I can’t go into much detail about this without a lot of study and thought (and writing time).