Wave Function of an Electron is Divided and Trapped Within Bubbles

Could the wave function of an electron be divided? That may just be the case. While electrons are elementary particles, which means that they are essentially unbreakable, scientists have found that the electron's quantum state can be separated into many parts.

In quantum mechanics, particles do not have a distinct position in space. Instead, they exist as a wave function, which is a probability distribution that includes all of the possible locations where a particle might be found. In this case, scientists conducted experiments on the quantum state of an electron-the electron's wave function.

"We are trapping the chance of finding the electron, not pieces of the electron," said Humphrey Maris, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's a little like a lottery. When lottery tickets are sold, everyone who buys a ticket gets a piece of paper. So all these people are holding a chance and you can consider that the chances are spread all over the place. But there is only one prize-one electron-and where that prize will go is determined later."

The researchers found that the electron's wave function can be shattered into pieces, and those pieces can be trapped in tiny bubbles of liquid helium. Mind that this isn't the electron being broken apart, but instead represents finding the electron in several locations.

"The experiments we have performed indicate that the mere interaction of an electron with some larger physical system, such as a bath of liquid helium, does not constitute a measurement," said Maris. "The question then is: What does?"

The fact that the wave function can be split into two or more bubbles is also strange. If a detector finds the electron in one bubble, what happens to the other bubble? The new findings raise all kinds of interesting questions, and the scientists are looking forward to investigating further.

The findings are published in the Journal of Low Temperature Physics.