From the Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California
Some of the most fascinating people that you meet at American Physical Society meetings are not actually physicists, and Bruce Rosenbaum is no exception. Based in Massachusetts, Rosenbaum is a maker of beautiful steampunk objects and he is in Anaheim with a quantum-related creation (see figure).
At first glance Rosenbaum’s “quantum engine” fits in nicely at a conference exhibition that features gleaming vacuum chambers and other such things. While this lovely artistic object is meant to be admired, rather than being a functioning machine, a working version could be made — at least in principle.
At the centre of the object is a small vacuum chamber that could hold a single trapped ion – which could be operated as a quantum engine. Lasers are pointed at the ions through the chamber windows and the chamber is surrounded by a spherical structure that represents both the Bloch sphere of quantum physics and an armillary sphere. The latter being used to demonstrate the motions of celestial objects in the days before computers. But as someone who, many years ago, did some electron spectroscopy, the rings are more reminiscent of Helmholtz coils that would screen the ion from Earth’s magnetic field.
