Macroscopic quantum tunneling wins 2025's Nobel Prize in physics
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Macroscopic quantum tunneling wins 2025's Nobel Prize in physics
"Here in the classical world, if you throw a ball against a solid wall, that wall will be impenetrable, and the ball will bounce right back. Do it a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times, and the result will always be the same. As long as the wall remains intact, the ball will always remain on that same, initial side of the wall."
"For a long time, many thought that this type of quantum phenomenon would only be important on tiny, microscopic scales. But with the right setup, quantum tunneling can be observed in macroscopic systems, including in electronic circuits. This enables not just large-scale observations of inherently quantum effects, but the ability to create a new kind of computer: a quantum computer."
In classical physics, a ball thrown at a solid wall will always bounce back and remain on its initial side as long as the wall stays intact. In quantum physics, subatomic particles such as electrons can sometimes tunnel through physical or energy barriers they classically could not overcome. The tunneling probability depends on particle energy and speed, barrier height and thickness, and quantum mechanical laws. Quantum tunneling can be engineered in macroscopic systems like electronic circuits, producing observable large-scale quantum behavior and enabling quantum computing architectures. Decades of research into macroscopic tunneling paved the way for modern quantum devices and recent Nobel recognition.
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