Since its inception, quantum theory has presented us with many strange and seemingly paradoxical phenomena. One of the oddest examples is the quantum Cheshire cat effect, in which properties of quantum objects become disembodied from the objects themselves. Now, two of the researchers who predicted the effect have shown that it is even weirder than they first thought: not only can quantum properties become detached from their parent objects, these properties can also move of their own accord and interact with distant regions even if the object itself never travels there.
The concept of a quantum Cheshire cat was introduced in 2013 by a team of researchers from Israeli and UK universities who took their inspiration from the eponymous disappearing cat in Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Just as Carroll’s Cheshire cat can vanish at will, leaving nothing but a grin behind, a quantum particle may become completely separated from its own properties. While the idea may seem outlandish at first, the effect has since been demonstrated experimentally by separating a beam of neutrons from their magnetic moments.
To read more, click here.