A new quantum device defies the concepts of ‘before’ and ‘after’
The apparatus works by putting particles of light through a series of two operations
One thing leads to another. It sounds obvious, but in the quantum realm, the saying doesn’t always ring true. A new quantum device can jumble up a sequence of two events so that they take place in both orders simultaneously, researchers report in a paper in press in Physical Review Letters.
“In everyday life, we are used to thinking of events having a definite order,” says physicist Jacqui Romero of the University of Queensland in Australia. For example, in the morning, you might brush your teeth before washing your face, or vice versa. But in the quantum realm, both can be true simultaneously.