Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) have found a potential way to transmit sound through space – under certain conditions, sound can “jump” from one body to another. The results of the study were: presented in the journal Communications Physics.
In 2010, physicists first challenged the claim that sound cannot be transmitted in vacuum. They hypothesized that sound waves could “jump” from one solid object to another through a submicron-thick vacuum gap. This effect is called “vacuum phonon tunneling”. These are quasiparticles, energy quanta of vibrational motion of the atoms of the body, forming an ideal crystal lattice. A phonon can “jump” from one crystal lattice to another in vacuum.
The authors of the new study decided to test this and conducted an experiment. The physicists used two identical piezoelectric (which gets electrified during deformation) crystals based on zinc oxide. The team placed the crystals opposite each other in a special vacuum setup—they were separated by a vacuum cavity.
Sound vibration creates mechanical stress, but these crystals can convert this voltage into an electric field. If the second crystal is within range of the first crystal, it can convert electrical energy back into mechanical energy and the sound wave overcomes the vacuum.
According to the scientists, the phenomenon is similar to the quantum mechanics tunneling effect, so the results of the study could help study other areas of physics besides quantum computing.
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