New state of matter - topological states & topocunductors

It’s all a bit misleading.

Traditional states of matter (gas, solid, liquid, plasma) are defined by the organization and arrangement of the atoms that make up the matter. In other words, by the way the atoms are arranged in space.

But you can have matter that’s in one of those states (say, solid) that also has a “topological” state. Topological states are not determined by the spatial arrangement of the atoms, but are instead determined by the quantum relationship between the particles in the matter.

The topological states is determined by the pattern of the quantum entanglement between the particles. There are multiple possible topological states, all of which require extreme cold - near absolute zero - to be possible.

As for quantum entanglement, that refers to the spooky fact that for certain tiny particles, a property of one particle is tied to a property of another particle. If one particle spins one way, the other has to spin the other. (It gets spookier because you can do experiments that prove that neither particle’s spin is actually determined until you measure it, and once you measure one, the other suddenly has the opposite spin, even thought the two particles are not near each other and cannot have communicated with each other).
 
hmm so rather than the arrangement of atoms in what we traditionally call physical space, it’s about the arrangement of the particle wave’s (that make up the atoms) entanglement with each other?
 
Ender said:
hmm so rather than the arrangement of atoms in what we traditionally call physical space, it’s about the arrangement of the particle wave’s (that make up the atoms) entanglement with each other?
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Essentially, yes.
 
I've never been able to wrap my head around that spooky action at a distance - in fact, every time I get entangled with the idea, my brain collapses...

It would seem to me that we are missing something in that story, like a separate factor, orthogonal to the spin, that is linked to the spin direction and is created/determined at the time of entanglement (freezing), as (unobserved) part of the particle, ensuring that at the time of collapse/measurment, the two particles end up with opposite spin...???
 
Cmaier said:
As for quantum entanglement, that refers to the spooky fact that for certain tiny particles, a property of one particle is tied to a property of another particle. If one particle spins one way, the other has to spin the other. (It gets spookier because you can do experiments that prove that neither particle’s spin is actually determined until you measure it, and once you measure one, the other suddenly has the opposite spin, even thought the two particles are not near each other and cannot have communicated with each other).
Click to expand...

This is just the developers of the simulation who implemented an optimisation they didn't expect to matter for the effects or for us to figure out. "Just render the accurate spin whenever anyone looks at it, until then it doesn't matter". Like LODs
 
cbum said:
I've never been able to wrap my head around that spooky action at a distance - in fact, every time I get entangled with the idea, my brain collapses...

It would seem to me that we are missing something in that story, like a separate factor, orthogonal to the spin, that is linked to the spin direction and is created/determined at the time of entanglement (freezing), as (unobserved) part of the particle, ensuring that at the time of collapse/measurment, the two particles end up with opposite spin...???
Click to expand...

having taken classes in post-graduate-level quantum mechanics, the trick to wrapping your head around it is to just accept it and not try to analogize it to anything you are physically used to. Once I decided that the concept of physical space is just an illusion that quantum particles aren’t subject to, my grades improved. :-) (Same applies to the concept of time, though the experiment where measuring one particle at time X causes the probability wave to collapse for another particle at time X-1 didn’t happen yet by the time I took quantum).
 
Cmaier said:
having taken classes in post-graduate-level quantum mechanics, the trick to wrapping your head around it is to just accept it and not try to analogize it to anything you are physically used to. Once I decided that the concept of physical space is just an illusion that quantum particles aren’t subject to, my grades improved. :-) (Same applies to the concept of time, though the experiment where measuring one particle at time X causes the probability wave to collapse for another particle at time X-1 didn’t happen yet by the time I took quantum).
Click to expand...

For weird abstract thinking like this I strongly recommend listening to/reading some material by Donald Hoffman.

en.wikipedia.org

Donald D. Hoffman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Specifiically his "MUI theory".

Not specifically quantum physics related but a mind bending theory on how our senses evolved and how they have absolutely no bearing on physical reality, just what our bodies have determined to be the minimum of useful information to survive. Because things that aren't useful for our brain to perceive and process are just burned energy (and thus, more expense in terms of energy requirements, etc.) for nothing useful. e.g., we can't see in ultraviolet or infrared (like some animals) because for us it is evolutionarily irrelevant to our needs.

With that out of the way, as above - quantum physics is something our brains can't really comprehend (probably because we've never evolved to deal with it), but experimental evidence suggests is legitimate. Just accept the weirdness :D

I'm not a physicist but I suspect the "spooky action at a distance" is essentially because the entangled particles are still "connected" together via a dimension other than time or space(?). i.e., you can move them as far as you like in the 3d space, but without relocating them in some other dimension we can not perceive, they're still "connected".
 
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