Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Atom Tunneling and Photon Propagation But Were Afraid to Ask

This colloquium talk by Aephraim Steinberg from the University of Toronto explores the counterintuitive aspects of quantum tunneling and photon propagation through atomic clouds. Delve into fascinating quantum mechanical phenomena including how long atoms spend inside potential barriers during tunneling, what happens when observing particles in barriers, and the surprising discovery that atoms can spend negative time in excited states when interacting with photons that aren't absorbed. Learn about novel "spin textures" in tunneling clouds that reveal features of cold-atom magneto hydrodynamics and upcoming experiments on quantum measurement timescales in tunneling scenarios. The presentation references multiple published studies on these topics, including work published in Nature and Physical Review Letters, providing a deep exploration of quantum retrodiction and challenging conventional understanding of quantum mechanical processes.