quantized
- Adjective:
- Relating to or involving quantum mechanics: Describes something that is expressed or exists in discrete, indivisible units (quanta) rather than as a continuous quantity.
- Existing in discrete, distinct states: Specifically, often used to describe a system or property that can only take on specific, separate values, not a smooth continuum.
- Adjective:
- The energy levels in an atom are quantized. (They exist only at specific, fixed values.)
- In digital electronics, a signal is quantized into a series of binary states. (It is converted into discrete numerical values.)
- The theory describes a quantized field. (A field that interacts in discrete packets of energy.)
"Quantized Hall effect": A quantum-mechanical version of the Hall effect observed in two-dimensional electron systems under low temperature and strong magnetic fields, where the Hall conductance exhibits precise quantized plateaus.
- The discovery of the quantized Hall effect led to a new standard for electrical resistance.
"Quantized angular momentum": The property in quantum mechanics where the angular momentum of a system is restricted to integer or half-integer multiples of a fundamental constant (ħ).
- The electron's orbit has quantized angular momentum.
Quantize (verb): To restrict a variable to taking on only certain discrete values.
- The software will quantize the audio sample to 16-bit depth.
Quantization (noun): The process of making something quantized; the act of converting from a continuous to a discrete form.
- The quantization of light energy was a revolutionary concept.
Quantum (noun): The fundamental, discrete unit or packet of a physical quantity involved in interactions.
- A photon is a quantum of light.
- Discrete: Individually separate and distinct.
- Digitized: (In specific technical contexts) Represented in a numerical, discrete form.
"Quantized energy levels": The specific, allowed energy states that a physical system, such as an electron in an atom, can occupy.
- An electron can jump between quantized energy levels by absorbing or emitting a photon.
"Space is quantized": A theoretical concept in some physics models suggesting that space itself may have a discrete, granular structure at the smallest scales.
- of or relating to a quantum or capable of existing in only one of two states