Discover how the fundamental quantum properties of sound, known as phonons, are being researched to unlock the potential of a new type of quantum computer. Learn about recent experiments that involve beam splitters and how phonons can exist in a superposition state, just like photons.
When you turn on a lamp to brighten a room, you are experiencing light energy transmitted as photons, which are small, discrete quantum packets of energy. These photons must obey the sometimes strange laws of quantum mechanics, which, for instance, dictate that photons are indivisible, but at the same time, allow a photon to be in two places at once.
Similar to the photons that make up beams of light, indivisible quantum particles called phonons make up a beam of sound. These particles emerge from the collective motion of quadrillions of atoms, much as a
