Bob Novella

But

if you push it with the right force, with the right rhythm, those small pushes can build into large, stable swinging motion that wouldn't happen, anything like that, on its own.

Do they call that the rhythm method?

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?