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Physicists squeezed the quantum jitter of an atom, restoring sharpness to interference fringes.
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Even at absolute rest, atoms emit a faint noise — unavoidable quantum jitter. In the debates between Einstein and Bohr, this noise, like an unceasing whisper, blurs the interference fringes from an atomic slit. Overcoming this limit was considered impossible.
Squeezing quantum noise resembles muting interference in a radio: turning down the volume of one frequency inevitably boosts another. Here, they "turned down the volume" of the component that gave away the particle's path.
First, the atom was deliberately excited with optical tweezers, then a special protocol squeezed its vibrations. Information about the trajectory was erased, and the fringes achieved a contrast of 0.938 — 10 standard deviations above the previous limit (0.819). The whisper nearly vanished, and sharpness soared. This is how ultra-precise quantum sensors are born.