近日，奥地利维也纳大学Markus Arndt团队实现了用纳米粒子物质波干涉法探测量子力学。该项研究成果发表在2026年1月21日出版的《自然》杂志上。

量子叠加原理是物理学中的一个基本概念，也是众多量子技术的基础。然而，其往往被视为违反直觉，因为人们在日常生活的宏观尺度上并未观测到其关键特征。因此，这引发了一个有趣的问题：当增大物体的尺寸并增加其复杂性时，量子特性会保持不变还是发生变化呢？这个问题可通过物质波干涉法来进行模型测试，其中单个大质量粒子的运动会变得离域，且需要用一个覆盖范围远大于粒子本身的波函数来描述。多年来，人们通过一系列越来越重、越来越复杂的物体来进行相关研究，并且有一个不断壮大的社群致力于将其推向更大的极限。

研究组展示了一个实验平台：其将物质波干涉现象拓展到大型金属团簇，这开创性地开辟了一种用于量子实验的定性新材料类别。该研究特别展示了钠纳米粒子的量子干涉现象，每个纳米粒子可包含超过7000多个原子，且其质量均超过170000道尔顿。这些纳米粒子以一种宏观度为μ=15.5的“薛定谔猫”态进行传播，比以往实验结果高出一个数量级。

附：英文原文

Title: Probing quantum mechanics with nanoparticle matter-wave interferometry

Author: Pedalino, Sebastian, Ramrez-Galindo, Bruno E., Ferstl, Richard, Hornberger, Klaus, Arndt, Markus, Gerlich, Stefan

Issue&Volume: 2026-01-21

Abstract: The quantum superposition principle is a fundamental concept of physics1 and the basis of numerous quantum technologies2,3. Yet, it is still often regarded counterintuitive because we do not observe its key features on the macroscopic scales of our daily lives. It is, therefore, interesting to ask how quantum properties persist or change as we increase the size and complexity of objects4. A model test for this question can be realized by matter-wave interferometry, in which the motion of individual massive particles becomes delocalized and needs to be described by a wave function that spans regions far larger than the particle itself5. Over the years, this has been explored with a series of objects of increasing mass and complexity6,7,8,9 and a growing community aims at pushing this to ever larger limits. Here we present an experimental platform that extends matter-wave interference to large metal clusters, a qualitatively new material class for quantum experiments. We specifically demonstrate quantum interference of sodium nanoparticles, which can each contain more than 7,000 atoms at masses greater than 170,000Da. They propagate in a Schrdinger cat state with a macroscopicity10 of μ=15.5, surpassing previous experiments5,9,11 by an order of magnitude.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09917-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09917-9