Invisibility cloaks theorized to work for quantum effects

MIT Technology Review : Optical cloaking has recently been demonstrated to work on large scales. Taking invisibility in an entirely different direction, a new paper from Jeng Yi Lee and Ray-Kuang Lee of the National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan suggests it may be possible to hide objects from quantum mechanical interactions at the nanoscale. They say that the same concepts that allow invisibility to the electromagnetic spectrum can be applied to quantum effects by using Schrödinger’s equation instead of Maxwell’s equations. The goal would be to construct a device that reduces to zero the probability distribution of the presence of a specific quantum effect within the shielded area. However, it would only be effective for specific versions of the equation, so one shield could hide an object from the quantum properties of electrons but nothing else. Although the paper is theoretical, the researchers suggest that current technologies are advanced enough to create real versions of their theorized nanoshells.