IN THE quantum world, simply measuring temperature can cool things down.
Quantum systems normally exist in a superposition of several states at once, but collapse into a single state when observed. Two years ago physicists came up with the prediction that gauging the temperature of quantum objects could cause this collapse to occur in a way that cooled the object. Now of the National University of Córdoba in Argentina and his colleagues have put this prediction to the test.
The team looked at the alignment of the spins of carbon and hydrogen nuclei in molecules of methyl…
