Posted on: 23 December 2020
As we approach that magical time of the year again when Santa Claus will set off on his merry way, bringing gifts to children around the world, that familiar question arises:
How on Earth does he visit all those different places in a single night?
In many sceptics’ minds Santa seems to defy the laws of physics. But for quantum physicists there is no issue. The most modern theory, according to Professor John Goold and Dr Mark Mitchison (of the TCD QuSys research group in Trinity), is that Santa Claus is in fact exploiting quantum mechanics to deliver the gifts.
In a nutshell, quantum mechanics allows objects (and Santa, Rudolph and co.) to be in many places simultaneously. That is the key ingredient, which allows for his extraordinarily efficient delivery on Christmas Eve.
Quantum physics describes the basic building blocks of the stuff we can see around us. It explains almost everything we understand about the world: how the sun shines, why metal looks and feels different from plastic or wood, and very many other things. But quantum physics also makes some bizarre predictions, starting with the fact that objects can be in “superposition”, meaning that they exist in many different places at the same time!
Professor Goold, Assistant Professor and Royal Society URF in Physics at Trinity,, said:
“Experiments show that these weird states describe tiny things – like atoms – but also much larger things too. In fact, an important part of our job as physicists is trying to put bigger and bigger objects into superpositions, which we think will help us to build ultra-fast computers and a more secure Internet in the future. But we still haven’t learned to do it as well as Santa can!
“There is little doubt now to quantum physicists that Santa is exploiting what we know as ‘macroscopic quantum coherence’, which is precisely the same resource used by cutting-edge quantum technologies to outperform technologies based on classical physics.”
Einstein vs Santa
Historically the idea that an object can be in a macroscopic superposition has led to significant controversy. In fact, it has led many scientists over the years to question if quantum physics can really be true. Probably the most famous critic was Albert Einstein, who helped to discover quantum physics over 100 years ago, but then spent the rest of his life arguing that it was incomplete.
However, an intriguing rumour that has been circulating since Einstein’s time is that he hated Christmas (basically, the rumour, which may or may not have originated at the North Pole, implies he was a Grinch who didn’t like Santa Claus). Even after sparking a revolution in physics and establishing himself as the smartest man in history, Einstein still wasn’t as famous as Santa…
Green with envy, some believe Einstein tried to discredit Santa by arguing that quantum superpositions were impossible so no one could possibly visit all the children in the world in one night. Nowadays, scientists don’t take Einstein’s ideas about quantum physics seriously and it is widely accepted that superpositions are real – along with Santa Claus.
Santa’s advanced tech
Even if we agree that Santa uses quantum physics to bring gifts to all the children in the world on the same night, we still don’t understand exactly how he does it.
Dr Mark Mitchison said:
“When we observe a quantum object, we only ever find it in one place at a time. This tells us that superpositions are very fragile. Just looking at them causes them to ‘collapse’, which means the object ends up in just one place and all the other possibilities vanish.
“We are pretty sure that Santa has developed some advanced technology to protect his quantum superposition and stop such a collapse from ruining Christmas. But – just in case – we advise children the world over to go to bed early on Christmas Eve and suggest they don’t try to catch a glimpse of him and risk collapsing his merry superposition!”
