We have all dreamed of walking through walls just like superheroes in comics do. Although some subatomic particles can perform this feat through quantum tunnels, the effect has not yet been achieved with larger corpuscles. Now, a team of physicists from Aalto University (Finland) has designed a mechanism to try to get macroscopic objects through obstacles.
To do this, the researchers have designed a dwarf trampoline with a metal plate in which they would place a graphene membrane. By applying an electrical voltage the membrane would adopt two possible positions: one in which it would tilt slightly, and another in which it would bend enough to come into contact with the metal plate. By applying electrical and mechanical forces, an energy barrier would be created between those two positions. According to the researchers, if the membrane were cooled to a sufficient temperature, its energy would be so diminished that the only form of transition between the two positions would be the quantum tunnel. Of course, it would take several years to achieve temperatures as low as required.
The experiment, the design of which has been published in Physical Review B , will likely be difficult to carry out, and the dream of going through walls will remain something of science fiction. Quantum mechanical calculations show that for objects the size of a person, the probability of passing through a wall through a quantum tunnel is so small that one would have to wait at least until the end of the Universe.
