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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Move a Centimeter-Scale Object Using Quantum Spin for the First Time

Quantum mechanics usually operates in a world far removed from our everyday experience. Electrons, atoms and other tiny particles can behave in ways that seem completely unfamiliar compared with the objects we see around us.

Now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have taken an important step toward connecting that strange quantum world with the larger objects of everyday physics.

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that a quantum effect can directly move a centimeter-scale mechanical object against gravity. The experiment used the quantum spin of electrons trapped inside a diamond to produce a tiny force that shifted a levitated object weighing about 100 milligrams.

The achievement, published in Science Advances, could provide scientists with a new way to investigate the boundary between quantum mechanics and classical physics. It could also eventually contribute to extremely sensitive technologies for detecting phenomena such as dark matter and gravitational waves.

Bringing Quantum Physics Into the Macroscopic World

Quantum mechanics has been remarkably successful at explaining the behavior of extremely small systems. Technologies such as lasers, MRI scanners, modern semiconductors and quantum computers all depend on principles discovered through quantum physics.

But demonstrating quantum behavior in much larger objects is considerably more difficult.

Small particles can be isolated from their surroundings relatively easily. Larger objects, however, constantly interact with their environment through heat, vibrations, electromagnetic fields and other disturbances. These interactions can destroy delicate quantum states before scientists have a chance to observe them.

Gravity creates another challenge.

At very small scales, gravitational forces are extremely weak compared with other forces. Scientists therefore have difficulty creating experiments in which both quantum effects and gravity become important.

The OIST team approached the problem from a different direction.

Instead of starting with an extremely tiny object and trying to make it larger, the researchers began with a relatively large object and used magnetic levitation to isolate it from physical contact.

Professor Jason Twamley, from OIST's Quantum Machines Unit, described the experiment as a major step because the mechanical response was produced by a quantum force acting on an object many orders of magnitude more massive than objects used in previous spin-mechanical experiments.

A Diamond Becomes a Quantum Engine

The central component of the experiment was a special type of diamond.

The diamond contained billions of microscopic defects known as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. These defects occur when a nitrogen atom replaces a carbon atom in the diamond lattice and a neighboring position is left empty.

What makes NV centers particularly useful is that they contain unpaired electrons whose quantum spin can be controlled.

You can think of electron spin as a tiny quantum magnetic property. Researchers can manipulate these spins using carefully controlled laser light and magnetic fields.

In this experiment, the scientists illuminated the diamond with a green laser. This prepared the electron spins inside the NV centers into a particular state.

When enormous numbers of these tiny quantum spins were controlled together, they generated a measurable magnetic effect.

That effect produced a tiny force on the diamond.

The force itself was incredibly small, but the researchers had designed the experiment so that the small quantum force could create a detectable mechanical response.

How Can a Centimeter-Scale Object Float?

The researchers used diamagnetic levitation to suspend the mechanical system.

Diamagnetism is a property in which certain materials respond to magnetic fields in a way that allows them to be pushed away from regions of strong magnetic field.

This principle is powerful enough to help levitate relatively large objects.

The OIST setup combined a levitated graphite plate with a mirror. The plate was connected through a carbon rod to a diamond positioned above a magnet.

This arrangement effectively created a mechanical system that could respond to the tiny force generated by the diamond's quantum spins.

Because the entire structure was levitated, the researchers could avoid much of the friction and mechanical interference that would occur if the object were sitting on a physical surface.

The setup therefore allowed an extremely small quantum force to influence a much larger mechanical object.

Measuring a Tiny Movement

Detecting such a small movement was another major challenge.

The researchers used an interferometer, an extremely sensitive optical measurement system.

A laser beam was reflected from a tiny mirror attached to the levitated graphite plate. When the plate moved, even by an incredibly small amount, the reflected laser light changed.

By analyzing these changes, the scientists could determine how far the object had moved.

The measurement sensitivity reached the picometer scale.

A picometer is one trillionth of a meter. That means the researchers were capable of detecting movements vastly smaller than the width of a human hair.

This extreme sensitivity was crucial because the quantum-generated force was tiny compared with ordinary forces acting on the system.

Why Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers Matter

NV centers are particularly attractive for quantum experiments because they can retain quantum information for relatively long periods.

This property is known as quantum coherence.

In simple terms, coherence allows a quantum system to maintain its delicate quantum state instead of quickly losing it because of environmental disturbances.

An important advantage of NV centers is that they can maintain useful quantum behavior even at room temperature. Many other quantum systems require extremely cold environments to preserve their quantum states.

That makes diamond-based quantum systems especially interesting for future experiments involving larger mechanical objects.

The researchers believe the technology could eventually help create quantum superpositions involving much larger objects.

One Step Toward Schrödinger's Cat

One of the most famous ideas in quantum physics is Schrödinger's cat.

The thought experiment imagines a cat existing in a strange quantum state where it is simultaneously alive and dead until someone observes it.

Real cats obviously have never been placed into such a quantum state.

The deeper question, however, is important: How large can an object become while still displaying genuine quantum behavior?

Scientists have successfully demonstrated quantum superposition with increasingly complex systems, but creating such behavior in truly macroscopic objects remains extraordinarily difficult.

The OIST experiment does not mean that a centimeter-sized object has been placed into a full quantum superposition.

Instead, it demonstrates something important: a measurable mechanical response can be generated by controlling quantum spins in a relatively large system.

That provides researchers with a new experimental platform for pushing quantum effects toward larger scales.

Could This Help Explain Quantum Gravity?

One of the biggest unanswered questions in modern physics is how quantum mechanics and gravity fit together.

Einstein's general relativity provides our best description of gravity and large-scale structures such as planets, stars and black holes. Quantum mechanics, meanwhile, describes the microscopic world.

Both theories work extremely well within their respective domains, but combining them into a single consistent theory has remained one of physics' greatest challenges.

Experiments involving increasingly massive quantum objects could eventually help scientists investigate this boundary.

If researchers can make a sufficiently large object enter a quantum superposition while gravity becomes significant, they could potentially test competing ideas about the relationship between gravity and quantum mechanics.

The current experiment is still far from that goal, but it represents an important technological step.

A New Generation of Ultra-Sensitive Sensors

The implications may extend beyond fundamental physics.

Because the system can detect extraordinarily small forces and movements, similar technologies could potentially become highly sensitive sensors.

Future versions might help scientists search for extremely weak signals associated with dark matter, gravitational waves or other unknown physical phenomena.

The basic idea is simple: if a sensor can remain extremely isolated while responding to tiny forces, it may detect signals that conventional instruments cannot easily see.

The researchers now want to improve the system further, reduce environmental noise and increase its quantum sensitivity.

Their ultimate ambition is much bigger than simply moving a diamond.

They want to push quantum behavior from the microscopic scale toward the centimeter scale, bringing researchers closer to experimentally exploring the mysterious boundary between quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of gravity.

For decades, quantum physics has seemed like a world belonging to atoms and subatomic particles. This experiment suggests that its influence can reach much farther.

A quantum spin too small to see has now been used to move an object large enough to hold in your hand's scale. The next challenge is to discover just how far this quantum influence can be pushed.

Reference: Anshuman Nayak et al, Spin-force from a Nitrogen-Vacancy ensemble drives a 100 mg levitated resonator, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh0566. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeh0566

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