^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

The foundations of quantum mechanics is a sub-discipline of quantum physics that essentially deals with questions concerning the nature of the wave function, whether the wave function represents an ontic or an epistemic state, the measurement problem and wavefunction collapse process, etc. One would come across several interpretations that have been proposed to address these problems, however, there’s a lack of substantial consensus among the physics community even after decades of work.  

Physicists and philosophers of physics continue to create novel models to explain quantum phenomena and bring about an interpretation that they believe to explain the internal dynamics of such phenomena. Recently, two physicists Carlo Roselli and Bruno Raffaele Stella proposed a thought experiment namely the Dead-Alive Physicist (DAP) and claimed that it falsifies the von Neumann...

^{Credit: IOP Publishing}  

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

The magnetic moment of an electron is essentially an inherent property that emerges from the particle’s charge and spin. Physicists know that elementary particles like electrons display two kinds of angular momentum: orbital and spin which collectively is known as the spin-orbit coupling. This collective dynamical behavior further gives rise to the magnetic dipole moment or simply the magnetic moment. In fact, the magnetic dipole moment can also appear separately as spin and orbital magnetic dipole moment.  

In general, the magnetic moment can be described as a representation of the strength of any magnetic source. Consider a classical representation of an electron. Due to the charge distribution of the electron, which is essentially rotating, there is a creation of a magnetic dipole or in other words, the electron behaves as a microscopic bar magnet which...

^{Credit: Shutterstock/Getty Images} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

We are quite aware of the directionality of time. Everything we know of seems to follow a particular pattern and all events tend to move in a unidirectional path. In other words, it is conventionally known that once a particular event has occurred, there’s no chance that it can be reversed. The physical reason is simple and that is the arrow of time. In general, the arrow of time points in a single forward direction and this is one of the major unsolved challenges of the foundations of physics because physicists are uncertain of why the nature of time is such. 

Time as an entity can’t be controlled or manipulated. However, we can manipulate a physical system’s evolution in time and evaluate its metamorphosis from one state to another by careful observation, at least in the classical world. In the quantum domain, even...

^{Credit: Argonne National Laboratory} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

What happens when a high-speed jet displays motion that is essentially higher than the velocity of sound? One would hear a cracking sound commonly known as a sonic boom. Analogous to this phenomenon, there might exist something similar in the case of electromagnetic radiation as light and sound have a lot of commonalities considering their physical effects. In fact, there does exist a similar phenomenon in the case of light.  

When a charged particle like an electron travels faster than the phase velocity of light inside a water-bound nuclear reactor, there is an intense emission of blue light. This effect is called the Cherenkov effect named after the Soviet physicist Pavel Cherenkov who observed it for the first time in 1934. In a way, this is an optical analogue of the sonic boom effect that essentially relies upon shock waves. A full mathematical...

^{Source: QuantumComputingInc} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

It is quite conventional that the working of classical computers is affected immensely by heat and one might have come across this situation in their lives when their computer failed to function properly due to excessive heating. 

But what about quantum computers? Do thermodynamical factors influence the workings of a quantum computing device? Well, the answer is yes, quantum computers operate using quantum bits or qubits that essentially are in a superposed state exchanging information in binary code. An interesting fact about qubits is that they not only exchange information using 0 and 1 but also intermediate values between 0 and 1. These qubits are very sensitive, in that excessive heat generation could cause work-related defects which in a sense can cause harm to the device as a whole. Another crucial point is that in order to retrieve significant information...

^{Credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF; NASA, STScI}

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation}

A black hole by its own intrinsic nature has an extremely strong gravitational attraction and the intensity of which is primarily decided by mass as well as the nature of the astrophysical object that was crushed to form the respective black hole. In other words, the gravitational pull of a black hole is directly proportional to mass. Although the initial formation of a black hole results in a fixed mass, which principally depends on the mass of a star during its end stage, it continually grows in size by devouring stellar systems and other astrophysical objects floating in its vicinity.

Moreover, considering the black hole area theorem propounded by Hawking, the overall area of a black hole can never decrease so considering the classical scenario wherein it merges with another black hole, the area would always increase as the two black holes would form a single...

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

Neutrinos are elementary particles that are essentially produced during radioactive decay and are named so because they do not carry any charge and hence are electrically neutral. Neutrinos are ever-present, fluctuating around us all the time, and penetrate the earth with little-to-no interaction. Essentially, they travel at the velocity of light and are not deflected in presence of magnetic fields. All these properties make the detection of neutrinos a troublesome enterprise.  

One of the concerning uncertainties surrounding neutrinos is whether they carry mass, though a phenomenon called neutrino oscillation does provide some hint that they possess a small mass. These puzzling particles originally come in three flavors (electron, muon, and tau) and their oscillation explicitly involves the transition of one flavor into another. Interestingly, neutrino oscillation indicates that neutrinos have...

^{Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI and NASA/JPL-Caltech} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the earliest glow of radiation present in the universe that apparently dates back to the time when the universe came into being. Similar to this radiation, there is another glow that is lesser heard of and that corresponds to the light emitted in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, mainly by all astrophysical sources outside the milky way. This radiation encompassing the universe is termed the cosmic optical background (COB). From a technical standpoint, the COB is an ensemble of photons, strictly in the visible spectrum, over the volume of the observable universe. One can infer a significant amount of information about galaxies, stellar clusters, etc from the COB. Furthermore, the phenomena involving mass accretion by black holes associated with the galactic and stellar systems also count within reach...

^{Credit: Science/AAAS} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

Quantum states generally represent the possible conditions of a quantum system in terms of a mathematical entity. For example- the spin of an electron can be either up or down so there are two quantum states and this can further be represented as a superposition using Bra-Ket or Dirac notation.  

In principle, quantum states are categorized into two types: pure states and mixed states. A pure state is principally the natural state of a quantum system and carries with it the exact information of the overall system. On the other hand, a mixed state has limited information about a particular quantum system and is usually an ensemble of probabilities. Talking of their representation, pure states are denoted by a ray in a Hilbert space over complex numbers whereas mixed states are represented by density matrices.  

Inspired by the infamous Schrodinger’s cat...

^{Credit: University of Liverpool} 

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation} 

Atomic Nucleus is the central component of atoms comprising of protons and neutrons bound together by the strong nuclear interaction, one of the four fundamental forces and the most powerful of all.  

Just like atomic structure, there is a nuclear structure and various models have been propounded in order to approximate the behavior and interactions of atomic nuclei. Some of these models are the liquid drop model, the nuclear shell model, and the collective model proposed by Aage Bohr and co-workers concerning the non-spherical geometry of nuclei. 

With reference to the shell model propounded by physicists Goeppert Mayer and Jensen, who won the Nobel prize in 1963 for their work, it says that the atomic nucleus just like the atoms has energy levels that are characterized by the Pauli exclusion principle of quantum mechanics. They found that the main crux...