Quantum Locked: Physicists Demonstrate "Weeping Angel" Effect

A team of physicists from Cornell has shown that rapid, repeated measurements can freeze matter in place, in a paper recently accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters. The phenomenon, called the quantum Zeno effect (after the Greek philosopher famous for posing tricky questions about arrows and tortoises), limits the quantum tunneling ordinarily exhibited by confined particles.By using constructive and destructive interference of laser light, the scientists constructed an optical latt...