Tag: Quantum

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A super position by John Hawkhead

quantum superpositioning myself in her g-B-o-A-o-D-d books

by John Hawkhead

Quantum superposition is the principle that a quantum system can exist in many states simultaneously until it is measured or observed directly. Measurement forces the system to ‘collapse’ to a single, definite state. The concept is demonstrated by the ‘double’-slit experiment which shows that light and matter can act as waves and particles at the same time.

Perhaps the most famous thought experiment associated with this phenomenon is Schrödinger’s Cat which illustrates superposition. In quantum superposition theory a cat, locked in a box with poison in a flask and a radioactive source that may or may not release the poison, is both alive and dead at the same time until the box is opened and reveals the definite state of the cat. The poem is a light hearted response to the theory.

Further reading:

‘Quantum superposition’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@haikuhawk.bsky.social) is a writer and artist from the south-west of England. His work has been published globally over the last 25 years, including three books of haiku / senryu: ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’ (available from Alba Publishing. http://www.albapublishing.com/) and ‘Four Horse Parable’ (available from Nun Prophet Press).

Read more of John’s sciku here!

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Many endings by John Hawkhead

quantum worlds
every possibility
has an ending

by John Hawkhead

The Quantum World Theory (or Many Worlds Interpretation) of quantum mechanics posits that every quantum event with multiple possible outcomes causes reality to branch into separate, parallel universes, where each distinct outcome occurs. The theory suggests that all possible outcomes are physically real but exist in distinct, non-interacting, worlds. The single uniting expectation is that all parallel universes and worlds will have an ending. This parallels all human existences coming to an end no matter how long science can extend a lifetime.

Further reading:

‘Many-worlds interpretation’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

‘The Many-Worlds Theory, Explained’, 2020, Gribbin, J., The MIT Press Reader, available: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-many-worlds-theory/

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@haikuhawk.bsky.social) is a writer and artist from the south-west of England. His work has been published globally over the last 25 years, including three books of haiku / senryu: ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’ (available from Alba Publishing. http://www.albapublishing.com/) and ‘Four Horse Parable’ (available from Nun Prophet Press).

Read more of John’s sciku here!

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ToE… by Tony Williams

rockpool physics…
I dip my ToE
in the unfathomable water

by Tony Williams

A Theory of Everything (ToE) is a hypothetical framework in physics that aims to unify all fundamental forces (electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces, and gravity) and all fundamental particles into a single, comprehensive theoretical model. It seeks to reconcile the principles of quantum mechanics, which governs the subatomic world, with general relativity, which describes gravity and the cosmos on a large scale.

While a complete ToE remains one of physics’ greatest unsolved challenges, proposed candidates include string theory and loop quantum gravity, though these are incomplete and not considered true Theories of Everything in their current forms. The biggest hurdle for a ToE is the inherent incompatibility between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Physicists believe a complete understanding of the universe requires a single theory to explain its vast diversity, but whether a complete ToE is achievable or even necessary is a subject of debate among physicists.

Further reading:

‘Theory of Everything’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything

Author bio:

Tony Williams from Scotland, UK, started writing haiku and senryu in 2020. Since then he has been published widely in many fine journals and picked up several awards. Tony takes inspiration from spending time in nature. He is not unhappily retired.

Read another sciku by Tony here: ‘Spooky Action’.

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Spooky Action… by Tony Williams

splitting a hosta…
a question
of quantum entanglement.

by Tony Williams

In simple terms: Quantum entanglement is a special connection between particles that makes them act like they are one unit, even when they are far apart. Measuring one particle instantly reveals the state of the other, but there’s no actual information transfer happening between them. They are linked in such a way that they share the same fate, no matter how far apart they are.

Further reading:

‘What is Entanglement and Why is it Important?’, Caltech Science Exchange, available: https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/quantum-science-explained/entanglement

‘Quantum entanglement: A simple way to fully grasp this ‘impossible’ concept’, 2025, Ralls, E., Earth.com, available: https://www.earth.com/news/quantum-entanglement-a-simple-way-to-grasp-this-impossible-concept-carl-kocher/

Author bio:

Tony Williams – Scotland, UK, started writing haiku and senryu in 2020. Since then he has been published widely in many fine journals and picked up some awards. Tony takes inspiration from spending time in nature. He is not unhappily retired.

Read another sciku by Tony here: ‘ToE…’.

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Future is in Superposition by Scott Edgar

Your future is in
Superposition so breathe
Be present today

by Scott Edgar

Rooted in the idea of quantum superposition, this haiku reminds us that the future is not fixed, only possible. Obsessing over what might happen pulls us out of the only place we have any power — the present. In trying to control tomorrow, we lose today.

Superposition in quantum mechanics means that, until something is observed or measured, it doesn’t have one definite state — instead, it exists in all possible states at once. But once it’s observed, it’s forced to “choose” one state, and that’s the one we see.

Here’s a simplified breakdown:

  • Imagine a particle (like an electron) can be in State A or State B.
  • In superposition, before you look at it, the particle isn’t in A or B — it’s in both A and B at the same time.
  • The moment you measure or observe it, the superposition “collapses,” and it becomes either A or B — but never both anymore.

This is the heart of the famous thought experiment Schrödinger’s cat:

  • The cat in the box is both dead and alive (a superposition) until someone opens the box.
  • Opening the box (observing) collapses the superposition into one outcome.

Further reading:

‘What Is Superposition and Why Is It Important?’, Caltech Science Exchange, available: https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/quantum-science-explained/quantum-superposition

Author bio:

Scott Edgar is a father of five amazing, adventurous children, he is an attorney and a poet. He has published two collections of poetry (available here) and is the host of the podcast, The Poet (delayed), which is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts here: https://blessed-pine-5317.fireside.fm You can follow Scott on Instagram @poetdelayed.

Read more of Scott’s sciku here.

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Muse of Meow, Meow… by Pravat Kumar Padhy

fog outside
Schrödinger’s cat
I wish it alive

by Pravat Kumar Padhy

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) was an Austrian-Irish Physicist. His landmark research on wave function led to the theory of ‘quantum entanglement’, which he coined in 1935.

He imagined an experiment in which a hypothetical cat was placed inside a sealed box with a flask of poison and a radioactive source. The thought experiment defined that the cat remained in a quantum superposition state of being dead and alive until one opened the box and observed it. This led to the much-debated quantum physics of modern times.

Further reading:

‘Schrödinger’s cat’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

‘Erwin Schrödinger’, Wikipedia article, available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger

Author bio:

Pravat Kumar Padhy, based in Bhubaneswar, India, holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, ISM Dhanbad. He is a mainstream poet and a writer of Japanese short forms of poetry. His essay “Haiku: The Poetry of Science and Soul” will be featured this year in the UK-based journal, Presence. He served as a panel judge of ‘The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems.’

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Particles/Waves by John Hawkhead

particles or waves?
moving from a dream state
to awakening…

by John Hawkhead

Fundamental particles such as photons and electrons display the characteristics of particles AND waves depending on the experiments we use to measure them. Particles have momentum and position so we can identify the effect when they interact with other particles. On the other hand, a wave can pass over, around or through physical objects. They are oscillations that transfer energy from one location to another.

So matter can be considered to be waves and particles depending on the method of measurement (see The Copenhagen Interpretation of Bohr and Heisenberg). Other theories have competed for our understanding of how subatomic matter behaves, such as the Many Worlds interpretation, but the duality of the Copenhagen Interpretation is still a strong contender for explaining how the subatomic world works.

Dreams can seem very real, sometimes involving all of our senses. They often involve people we know, sometimes in bizarre events that nevertheless can leave us strongly impacted upon awakening from sleep. Some dreams can be very closely related to current events in one’s life and so seem to take on a significance that we may try to rationalise in relation to our waking lives.

Two great thinkers on this subject, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, both considered dreams as important in understanding the human psyche, whether as repressed desires or as messages from the unconscious that inform our waking lives. So are dreams real? Are they as much a part of our existence as the waking world? Is there a duality of existence in waking and dreaming? Perhaps we go somewhere else when we dream that is just as real as in the conscious world.

Further reading:

‘Elementary particle’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle

‘Copenhagen interpretation’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation

‘Many-worlds interpretation’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

‘Sigmund Freud’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

‘Carl Jung’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@haikuhawk.bsky.social) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/).

Read more of John’s sciku here!

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Quantum Worlds by John Hawkhead

quantum worlds
my shadow as real
as I am

by John Hawkhead

One of the experimental tests used to determine the nature of fundamental quanta such as photons is the ‘double-slit aperture test’.

A stream of photons is projected towards a barrier with two slits. The result is an interference pattern on a screen beyond the slits that demonstrates the wave-particle duality of the photon.

One explanation for this duality applies the multiverse concept and theorises that particles from parallel universes interact with the photons being projected towards the slits. In this multiverse concept, the shadow areas in the aperture pattern ‘hide’ alternative universes. The theory is that ‘shadow photons’ are affecting the the photons in the double-slit experiment.

Similarly, the terms shadows and shades are often used to describe the dead when seen crossing back into this world from the ‘other side’ as ghosts or spirits. Is it possible that our shadows are experienced in alternative universes..?

Further reading:

‘Double-slit experiment’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

‘Many worlds interpretation’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/).

Enjoyed John’s sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Dark matter’, ‘Chirality’, ‘Spooky Interaction’, ‘Dancing’, ‘Planetarium’, ‘Empty Space’, ‘Averages’, ‘New Beginning’, ‘Interactions’, ‘Surface Tension’ and ‘Shell Game‘.

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Shell Game by John Hawkhead

waterfall rainbows
gnats scribble probabilities
in atomic shells

by John Hawkhead

In atomic physics and chemistry, electron shells (and subshells) are thought of as a series of ascending orbits that electrons occupy around an atom’s nucleus. Shells correspond to principal quantum numbers or are labelled alphabetically with the letters used in X-ray notation. Each row on the periodic table of elements represents an electron shell.

Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons. The numbers of electrons that can occupy each shell and subshell arise from equations in quantum mechanics, which state that no two electrons in the same atom can have the same values of the four quantum numbers that describe an electron in an atom completely:

  • Principal quantum number (n)
  • Azimuthal quantum number (ℓ)
  • Magnetic quantum number (mℓ)
  • Spin Quantum number (ms)

Further reading:

‘Electron shells’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_shell

‘Quantum number’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_number

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/). Read more of John’s sciku here!

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String Theory by Jonathan Aylett

string theory lesson
she plucks threads on her sweater
and I unravel

by Jonathan Aylett

This is a love haiku, a narrative poem in which the subject can’t concentrate on school because of their unrequited love for a classmate. It also alludes to string theory and the universal interconnectedness the theory points to.

Further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory

Author bio:

Jonathan has been writing and publishing poetry for several years. His work has featured in journals dedicated to haiku, and broader literary journals, and won competitions across both disciplines. His collection ‘Goldfish’ – a mix of haiku and long form poetry, will be published by Stairwell books in spring 2024. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram here: @jonathanaylettpoetry 

Read other sciku by Jonathan here: ‘Light’, ‘Moss’, ‘Dusty Shoulders’, and ‘Attraction’.

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Light by Jonathan Aylett

coming through in waves
or particles, I can’t tell
October sunlight

by Jonathan Aylett

A classically structured haiku using the kigo “October sunlight”, which refers to the well known double slit experiment of quantum physics.

Further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

Author bio:

Jonathan has been writing and publishing poetry for several years. His work has featured in journals dedicated to haiku, and broader literary journals, and won competitions across both disciplines. His collection ‘Goldfish’ – a mix of haiku and long form poetry, will be published by Stairwell books in spring 2024. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram here: @jonathanaylettpoetry 

Read other sciku by Jonathan here: ‘String Theory’, ‘Moss’, ‘Dusty Shoulders’, and ‘Attraction’.

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Empty Space by John Hawkhead

bar talk
his atoms and mine
mostly empty space

by John Hawkhead

Atoms are 99% empty space, comprised of electrons in orbits around a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons. It follows then that approximately 99% of the human body is empty space with the remaining 1% (the electrons, neutrons and protons) being particles that have existed for billions of years.

At least this is the common mental image of an atom – the planetary model, originally proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1911 and further refined by Niels Bohr in 1913. And yet…

Researchers increasingly understand that whilst electrons occupy discrete energy levels, they don’t always behave like discrete particles. Electrons are quantum objects – an electron is partly a wave and partly a particle. Under normal conditions an individual electron isn’t traveling in an orbital path through nothingness around its nuclei, but is instead spread out in an electron cloud.

As astrophysicist Dr Ethan Siegel says, “Inside your body, you aren’t mostly empty space. You’re mostly a series of electron clouds, all bound together by the quantum rules that govern the entire Universe.”

Further reading:

‘Due to the Space inside Atoms, You Are Mostly Made up of Empty Space’, Trevor English, Interesting Engineering: https://interestingengineering.com/science/due-to-the-space-inside-atoms-you-are-mostly-made-up-of-empty-space

‘Rutherford model’, Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/science/Rutherford-model

‘You Are Not Mostly Empty Space’, Ethan Siegel, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/04/16/you-are-not-mostly-empty-space/

Author bio:

John Hawkhead (@HawkheadJohn) has been writing haiku and illustrating for over 25 years. His work has been published all over the world and he has won a number of haiku competitions. John’s books of haiku and senryu, ‘Small Shadows’ and ‘Bone Moon’, are now available from Alba Publishing (http://www.albapublishing.com/). Read more of John’s sciku here!

This sciku was previously published in MahMight haiku journal 2021.

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Quantumku by James Penha

and soon haiku too
will wiggle syllables through
computer wormholes

By James Penha

“In an experiment that ticks most of the mystery boxes in modern physics, a group of researchers announced on Wednesday that they had simulated a pair of black holes in a quantum computer and sent a message between them through a shortcut in space-time called a wormhole… In their report, published Wednesday in Nature, the researchers described the result in measured words: ‘This work is a successful attempt at observing traversable wormhole dynamics in an experimental setting.'”

Quote from The New York Times article ‘Physicists Create ‘The Smallest, Crummiest Wormhole You Can Imagine’ from November 30, 2022.

Further reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/30/science/physics-wormhole-quantum-computer.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05424-3

Author bio:

Expat New Yorker James Penha  (he/him?) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on Twitter @JamesPenha

Read more of James’ sciku here.

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A Troika of Quantum Sciku by Jeffery Shevlen

Pauli Exclusion Principle

No suborbitals
Take electron pairs whose spins
consent to agree

Aufbau Principle

Electrons always fill
The lowest energy
Sub-orbitals first

Hund’s Rule

Before forming pairs
Electrons first fill each sub-
Orbital alone

These poems are broadly about the properties of atoms. More specifically they describe three simple rules that came from of the flowering of quantum discovery roughly 100 years ago. Each describes how electrons can populate the zones around an atom’s nucleus which are called orbitals. To me haikus, scikus, wonderfully compliment the subtle interactions of the subatomic realm. Egoless nature, all the way down.

Wikipedia devotes three pages to each of the three axioms. For a more detailed explanation wikipedia is a fine place to start:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufbau_principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hund%27s_rule_of_maximum_multiplicity

Jeffrey Shevlen is a stay at home dad and therefore a lifelong, if somewhat bruised, learner. He sends greetings from Ontario, Canada, formerly “Your’s to Discover”, now “A Place to Grow”.