Bob Novella

Yes, it is.

No, they don't.

Nobody said that, Steve.

But that's not a perfect analogy, of course, but it was helpful for me at least.

So in these quantum systems, we're obviously not talking about swings.

We're talking about electrons and atoms, even quasi-particles.

The changing magnetic field applied to them is a precisely timed push.

it doesn't just disturb the system.

It can actually kind of reorganize what kind of behaviors are even allowed, right?

So the system essentially enters a different quantum phase, they refer to it as.

And with that new phase comes new motion patterns,

new topological properties, lots of different things can happen that wouldn't happen otherwise, especially under a static magnetic field.

None of this would happen, but under this precisely time-changing magnetic field, these changes do happen, can happen.

So when I say quantum phase, I don't mean like the phase like a wave crest or a trough.

It means like phase as in like state of matter.

That's kind of the analogy there.

Think of like ice or liquid water, right?

They're both H2O, but they've got dramatically different behaviors because they're different phases.

So that's kind of a way to think about this as well.

You're putting these quantum systems into a different phase that gives it all these different types of patterns of behavior, right?