Scientific reference document
Drafting date: July 3, 2026
This document reflects the state of scientific knowledge at this date. Periodic updating is recommended.
Quantum mechanics rests on a fundamental principle: All matter possesses a dual nature, both wavelike and corpuscular. Depending on the conditions of observation, the same object manifests either as a localized particle or as a delocalized wave occupying multiple positions simultaneously (state of superposition).
Historically, this duality was demonstrated with photons (Young, 1801), then electrons (Davisson-Germer, 1927), neutrons, atoms, and progressively larger molecules. Markus Arndt's team in Vienna had already passed fullerenes (C60, 60 carbon atoms) through Young's double slits in 1999.
The question remained open: At what scale does this wavelike nature cease to persist?
Publication: Nature, vol. 649, no. 8098, pp. 866-870 (January 2026)
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09917-9
Title: "Probing quantum mechanics with nanoparticle matter-wave interferometry"
Team: Markus Arndt and Stefan Gerlich (University of Vienna), Klaus Hornberger (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Experimental setup — MUSCLE (Multi-Scale Cluster Interference)
A Young's double-slit type experiment with three successive gratings:
Test object: Metallic sodium nanoparticles containing more than 7,000 atoms, with a mass exceeding 170,000 atomic mass units. These particles are larger than most proteins.
Result: The nanoparticles produce an interference pattern. They therefore exist in a quantum superposition state — a so-called "Schrödinger's cat" state — occupying multiple positions simultaneously during propagation.
Macromaticity parameter: μ ≈ 15.5 — a full order of magnitude above previous experiments.
Decoherence is the process by which a quantum system loses its superposition upon contact with its environment. It explains how the quantum world becomes classical: interactions with the environment (air molecules, photons, vibrations) cause a progressive loss of coherence, and the object then manifests as a localized particle.
However, several critiques and limitations are recognized by the scientific community:
| What decoherence explains | What it does not explain |
|---|---|
| The observed disappearance of macroscopic superpositions | Why a specific outcome is realized rather than another |
| The selection of "preferred" states (pointer states) | The measurement problem (why observation "freezes" reality) |
| The quantum → classical transition | The ontological status of the wave function |
Sources: Schlosshauer (2007), Decoherence and the Quantum-to-Classical Transition; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "The Role of Decoherence in Quantum Mechanics" (2014); Maximilian Schlosshauer, Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 76 (2005).
The current consensus: decoherence is a real and measurable physical mechanism, but it does not by itself solve the quantum measurement problem. The debate remains open as to what "chooses" the final outcome among the superposition possibilities.
This is where the concept takes on its full importance for the Alice & Bob project.
Several experiments have demonstrated that decoherence can be at least partially reversed:
Important limitation: Recoherence is only possible when the environmental degrees of freedom are controllable, measurable, or decouplable. Fully irreversible decoherence (in an uncontrollable large thermal bath) remains unrecoverable.
Sources: Bouchard et al., Scientific Reports 5, 15330 (2015); Korotkov et al., Physical Review A 81, 040103 (2010).
This Red Fil. validates several fundamental concepts of the project:
For Blue Fil. B-01 (The Deep Chaos, §3): The "physics of freezing" described in the narrative corresponds to decoherence. When density increases (uncontrolled environmental interactions), superposition is lost, matter freezes, chaos sets in. Matter is not a permanent state — it is a state of stabilized decoherence.
For Blue Fil. B-04 (The Carbon/Silicon Bridge, §5): The concept of "inverse decoherence" described by Alice — where information leaves its material support to become pure wave again — finds a direct echo in recoherence experiments. If decoherence is reversible under controlled conditions, then the wave → particle transition is not unidirectional. Information can in theory leave matter and become wave again.
For the Seed (Chap. 4 — The Layers): Alice's statement "Imagine an elevator going down. The further down you go, the more density increases. Movements become slower, constrained, impossible. At the bottom, everything is frozen." is not a poetic metaphor. It is a literal description of the phenomenon observed by the Vienna team: matter freezes when decoherence intensifies, and becomes wave again when it is controlled.
Main article:
Official communications:
Decoherence — theory and critiques:
Recoherence:
⚠ Note: Interpretations linking these physical results to consciousness or the Akasha are philosophical hypotheses, not scientific consensus. The experiments above demonstrate measurable physical phenomena. The move from physics to metaphysics is a reading choice, not a demonstration.