Waves, particles and fullerenes

摘要

Can the fundamental concepts of quantum physics apply to everyday 'classical' objects as well as those in the atomic and subatomic regime? Can we meaningfully attribute wave properties to an everyday object such as a football, or does quantum theory break down at some level? In one guise or other these questions have been asked ever since the quantum theory was invented. On page 680 of this issue, Arndt et al., a group working under the direction of Anton Zeilinger in Vienna, report experiments showing that molecules of the fullerene C_(60) have wave as well as particle properties, just as predicted by quantum theory. A fullerene such as C_(60) is of course very much smaller than a football, but it does have a mass at least an order of magnitude greater than that of any other object whose wave properties have been previously observed.