Physicists split bits of sound using quantum mechanics

Mechanical waves can be put into superposition, the ability of quantum systems to be in multiple states at the same time until they are measured. Superposition has been demonstrated for quantum particles such as electrons and photons. Quantised sound waves called phonons can also live parallel quantum lives when they’re faced with an acoustic beam splitter, a barrier that phonons can either pass through or bounce back from. It's a step towards building quantum computers that can encode and process information in phonons.