The Experiment of My Dreams

LUCA ABRAHAO PAIVA

Nothing is achieved alone.I am what and where I am because of all of those who crossed my path.Without all the good and the bad, I would not be here.I want to deeply thank all of those who joined me in this amazing experience.More specifically... To my mother who have always supported me in every decision I made, who let me walk on my own, but made me sure she was always there for what I needed.To my father, that always taught me the value of education and dedication.To my brother, to all the coffee and many gestures of love and appreciation.I hope I can inspire you, the same way you inspire me.À minha avó, que não somente me ensinou a ler, mas também com quem aprendi muito sobre amor, família e perseverança.To my friends who have been with me throughout all these years, sharing dreams, wins, loses but always there for each other.Specifically, those who started with me this journey in Physics, Rafael e Vitória, and are a fundamental part of my trajectory.Also, all my colleagues from the Quantum Adventures group, that quickly became a second family.To my friend and advisor, Thiago.It was out of pure chance I ended up in that interview and sent you an email.Now, two years later, I can see the difference it has made and how much you helped me through all of it, not only academically.It was a pleasure share these last two years.And hopefully, many to come. At last, I want to thank my beloved girlfriend Clara.There is no overstating the importance you have in my life.A great part of what I am, is due to you.And that part is certainly the best of me.Love you dearly.

Bernard d’Espagnat

Karl Hess

When I took a first glance at Bell’s paper, I got the impression that all of Bell’s statements were mathematically straightforward and simply true for numbers and, therefore, a mathematically proven truth, a theorem for numbers, just as Tony’s equation was. Both Walter and I could not see why this theorem could be applied to the actual experiments. I realized that it would be a lot of work to understand the physical significance of Bell’s ideas, and I first had to convincemyself that it was reallyworthwhile.What I askedmyself was whether Bell’s ideas had any consequences for engineering and technology and not just for the esoteric questions related to the battle between Einstein and Bohr. While I still was fond of my childhood dream to make a contribution in mathematical physics, I had worked too long in areas of applied physics and engineering to attack a problem that had no applications in the foreseeable future.

Kenji Ohmori

It is observed in a double-slit experiment by Tonomura and coworkers that single electrons recorded as dots on a detector screen build up to show an interference pattern, which is delocalized over the screen [1]. This observation indicates that a delocalized wave function of an isolated electron interacts with the screen, which is a bulk solid composed of many nuclei and electrons interacting with each other, and becomes localized in space. This change, referred to as “collapse” in quantum mechanics, is often accepted as a discontinuous event, but a basic question arises: when and how the delocalized wave function becomes localized? It could be hypothesized that the wave function is delocalized over many particles in the screen just after the arrival of an electron, and the interaction among those many particles promotes localization of this delocalized wave function continuously, but very fast as if it changed discontinuously. My dream is testing this hypothesis by observing the spatiotemporal evolution of a wave function delocalized over many particles interacting with each other. Having this dream in mind, we have developed an experimental toolbox in which ultrafast wave-packet interference in a molecule is visualized and controlled by tailored laser fields with precisions on the picometer spatial and attosecond temporal scales [2-5].