Definition
Quantum reflection became an important branch of physics in the 21st century. In a workshop about quantum reflection, the following definition of quantum reflection was suggested:
Quantum reflection is a classically counterintuitive phenomenon whereby the motion of particles is reverted "against the force" acting on them. This effect manifests the wave nature of particles and influences collisions of ultracold atoms and interaction of atoms with solid surfaces.
Observation of quantum reflection has become possible thanks to recent advances in trapping and cooling atoms.
Read more about this topic: Quantum Reflection
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“One definition of man is “an intelligence served by organs.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)