Even if cooled to a temperature of absolute zero, all objects will retain a fundamental jitter in their physical positions due to quantum 'zero-point' fluctuations. Oskar Painter and his colleagues at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have, for the first time, detected this motion in a tangible object and measured an asymmetric property that arises from it.

The researchers patterned a one-micrometre-wide silicon beam to allow for a strong interaction between laser light sent into the beam and the motion of the beam. As the beam was cooled to below 1 Kelvin, a striking asymmetry emerged. The energy of the laser photons increased the motion of the beam, but, as per the laws of quantum mechanics, the beam's fundamental jitter could not add to the energy of the laser photons.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033602 (2012)