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DEFINITION. “Multipole moments are the coefficients of a series expansion of a potential due to continuous or discrete sources (e.g., an electric charge distribution). All atoms and molecules (except S-state atoms) have one or more non-vanishing permanent multipole moments.” https://lnkd.in/eZKMH75i View in LinkedIn

PHOTONS + META-ATOMS. “One of the most powerful tool for such an analysis is the multipolar expansion method. Within this method, the electromagnetic field inside and outside the scatterer of an arbitrary shape is described by a superposition of vector spherical harmonics (VSHs) forming a complete set of basis functions known as multipoles.” https://lnkd.in/e5fJZNfb View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Metamaterials are artificial structures with unusual and superior properties that come from their carefully designed building blocks -- also called meta-atoms.” (Programmable matter). https://lnkd.in/eD7iFAGi View in LinkedIn

THE NEED. “The accurate description of light interaction with individual meta-atoms and their small clusters is of high interest to the nanophotonics community as it opens a way for effective engineering the nanophotonic structures with predesigned optical properties.” https://lnkd.in/e5fJZNfb View in LinkedIn

THE THESIS. “I will defend a variant of the traditional reading of Bohr in which (1) the answer to what an object is (quantum or classical) depends on the experimental context; and (2) in principle, any physical system can be treated quantum-mechanically but not all systems can be treated that way at the same time.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

“Snails usually have a spiral-shaped shell which is wound around a spindle. This is the snail shell which they retract their soft bodies into when there is danger. Because of this, they are asymmetrical, and this asymmetry is mirrored inside their bodies. The snail shell is al- ways constructed in the same way. The direction of the spiral is typi- cal for a particular species.” https://lnkd.in/e63P9ske View in LinkedIn

BOHR’S POSITION. “Recently, however, a consensus seems to be emerging among careful commentators on Bohr to the effect that he, after all, did subscribe to some version of quantum fundamentalism.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

TWO WORLDS. “Bohr’s conception of quantum mechanics has traditionally been seen as opposed to such a view, not least because of his insistence on the necessity of the concepts of classical physics in the account of quantum phenomena.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

A QUANTUM WORLD? “The spectacular successes of quantum physics have made it a commonplace to assert that we live in a quantum world. This idea seems to imply a kind of “quantum fundamentalism” according to which everything in the universe (if not the universe as a whole) is fundamentally of a quantum nature and ultimately describable in quantum-mechanical terms.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

AUTHOR. “Henrik Zinkernagel has a degree in theoretical physics and a doctorate in philosophy of science. He is a full professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Granada.” https://lnkd.in/emyq2BPE View in LinkedIn