^{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...

By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Light and matter are an amazing ensemble and laden with a lot of interesting physics. Scientists have always pondered upon new and exciting effects that could be created using light-matter interaction and one of the related curiosity-driven questions is whether light and matter can coexist as a single entity. New research conducted at TU Wien’s Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck shows the possibility that it might do after all [1].

Utilizing the high polarizing ability of a laser, atoms were configured in a way that measurements resembled, in an unprecedented scenario, a special state of light and matter, much like a light-matter molecule.

Generally, dynamic atoms are in a high energy state which makes it difficult for a measurement to reveal an inherent attractive force between them. In order to overcome this challenge, the researchers...

^{Lando Calrissian Heads to Hyperspace. An accelerating object, such as a spaceship traveling at relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light), should generate showers of faintly glowing particles, according to the predicted phenomenon known as the Unruh effect.}

^{By Dr. Ines Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Einstein’s principle of equivalence states that gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable from each other. The best example to see this, is to place oneself inside an elevator. Initially it is static in a floor, and when it starts to move upwards (i.e., it accelerates or changes its speed) one feels pushed towards the floor, as if one is pulled by gravity, even though the effect comes from an acceleration in the opposite direction.

Now, let us imagine that an object is in space, in a perfect vacuum; a supposedly friction-less environment, and it accelerates suddenly. The first question that arises is … how can it even move, if there is...