The Quantum Sandwich

Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is ‘heat wave’.

This week’s contribution comes from Chiara De Giorgi. Chiara is an Italian author and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She writes fiction, with a focus on children’s literature and science fiction.

 

The Quantum Sandwich

by Chiara De Giorgi

 

created with Canvas

It was a hot summer day in the town of Borgarvogur. The hottest on record, as a matter of fact. The town was gripped by a heat wave that made it difficult even to breathe, the hot air felt almost solid, and people could barely function. The air conditioners were on full blast everywhere, but most people still could do nothing but nap.

This was not the case at the International Borgarvogur Centre for Quantum Research, where four workaholic scientists could not stop discussing the equation around which their next study would focus. The purpose of their research was not very clear, to tell the truth, yet they were optimistic. Quantum research usually worked and did not work at the same time until the very last moment, but that was precisely why they were paid.

Ensconced in the basement laboratory, the air conditioner turned up to the highest setting and the refrigerator filled with containers of radioactive materials and energy drinks, they argued animatedly.

“…therefore, if we insert the indistinguishable particles in the eigenvalue equation, the angular momentum will be—uhm… Σ plus the pseudovector B, plus, hem… “

“No, no, no, that’s not how it works! Where did you leave the adiabatic approximation?”

“You mean the anti-symmetrization.”

“You’re all wrong! We need to apply a modified version of the no-cloning theorem for a quantization of the wave-particle—”

“But why bring up the eigenvalue equation in the first place? It’s an unnecessary complication, and—”

“My highly respected colleagues!” Jon's voice drowned out the others’. Despite the blaring A/C, he was sweating profusely under a ten-week-beard and ten-month-hair. “We’ve been discussing, calculating, equalizing, and quantizing for six hours straight. I say, let’s take a break, eat a sandwich, make small talk, watch the geese scene in The Aristocats, drink coffee and start again. Who’s with me?”

Grumbling, mumbling, and sighing, Ruth, Ken, and Svetlana put the cap on their markers and retrieved their sandwiches.

The four scientists cleared some space on the table, moving books, folders, the plates for the double split experiment, stickers with the center’s logo, and so on, and sat down. Each of them had their sandwich in front of them. It was their tradition to take the first bite together at the same time—a kind of superstition based on the quantum question of whether the sandwich was bitten and not bitten at the same time. Every day, they diligently proved that the sandwich was bitten.

But on that very hot summer day, something happened just a moment before the four scientists could grab their sandwiches. There was a power cut. Suddenly, the air conditioner stopped humming, the old refrigerator stopped squeaking, the quantum computers stopped vibrating, and the lamps stopped providing light. Silence and darkness fell in the basement.

“Oh no. My laptop was charging… And now we can’t watch The Aristocats!”

“I am more concerned that we will die from the heat with no A/C.”

“I have a fan in my backpack! Of course, I would need to locate it first—Do any of you have your phones with you? To turn on the flashlight. Mine has zero battery; I haven’t charged it for two days.”

“Same.”

“Same. Wait… How long have we been down here, exactly?”

“No idea.”

“Hey, do we still have those radium bars in the fridge? We can use them and have some light until they start the emergency generator.”

“Why would we have radium bars in the fridge?”

“What do I know, maybe to keep them out of the way so we don’t trip over them?”

“I think I saw a radium bar yesterday when I took an expired yogurt out of the fridge.”

“Expired yogurt? What flavor?”

“Strawberry, I believe. But it was a little hard to decipher the flavor. And it was a weird shade of green.”

As suddenly as it had gone out, the power was back on. The laboratory filled with the usual noises and buzzing and lights.

A surprise—or a mystery—awaited the four scientists. The sandwich in front of Jon had been bitten.

“Hmpf, you just couldn’t wait, could you?”

“But it wasn’t me! Someone bit my sandwich!”

“No, we didn’t.”

“Sure, now the sandwich ate itself.”

“Maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. We should set up an experiment to check.”

“Seems elaborate. And it’s unbearably hot.”

“Oh, listen guys, who cares. We can’t spend the day like this, after a sandwich. Let’s split what we have so that we can all eat the same amount of sandwich.”

Everyone liked the idea, and rulers, compasses, and calculators promptly appeared. The three whole sandwiches plus the one with the bitten piece were dissected with pinpoint accuracy, and they finally started to eat.

Thus satiated, they drank a coffee laughing together with Amelia and Abigail, the geese of The Aristocats, and finally went back to discussing entanglement, entropy, qubit, and so on.

After an unsuccessful X-basis measurement, they estimated that the workday could be said to be over. They did not have a single working watch between the four of them, but they were scientists and agreed that their sense of time was very good, refined by years of experiments. They were all wrong, but they didn’t know.

When they stepped outside, the air was still scorching hot, and they each hurried to their car to drive home and take a cold shower.

The next morning, they met in front of the lab door as usual. They always entered together, to test the quantum assumption that they were all four in and all four out of the lab at the same time. Which, given that it was exactly what they did, was usually confirmed.

Another surprise awaited them. Another mystery, rather.

In the middle of the table, was the missing piece from Jon’s sandwich.

 

The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/