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Entanglement - Linked fates: Eerie Quantum Phenomenon
“spooky action at a distance.” - Albert Einstein
LINKED FATES First proposed 75 years ago, the eerie quantum phenomenon called entanglement, represented here by far-flung but linked coin flips, has moved from the realm of theory to that of experiment. Now it stands poised to come out of the lab, inspiring new ways to handle information. Michael Morgenstern
Researchers are creating entanglement that can be sent across the globe, entanglement that can link new kinds of objects and even entanglement that can connect gaggles of objects instead of just two. And physicists are upsizing objects that exhibit what Einstein dismissed as “spooky action at a distance.”
In 2008, for instance, Gisin and colleagues measured entangled photons 18 kilometers apart at exactly the same time and calculated that any secret signal between the two would have to travel 10,000 times faster than the speed of light.
The long-distance record is held by a team of physicists including Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna, who measured entangled photons 144 kilometers apart on two Canary Islands. A plan to break that record involves sending an entangled photon from Earth to the International Space Station. Quantum information beamed by satellites orbiting the planet might ultimately lead to new, powerful ways to communicate across the globe.
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If the Manning brothers were quantum physicists as well as NFL quarterbacks, one of them could win his game’s opening coin toss every time. The night before they played, the brothers would take two coins from a special quantum box to use the next day. If Peyton’s game came first, after learning the outcome of his coin toss, he would know without a doubt how his brother’s coin would land. Say Peyton’s came up heads; he could text “tails” to his little brother. Eli would correctly call tails in his later game and win the toss (not that it would do the Giants much good).
Such a creepy connection of the fates of far apart coins does not yet threaten the integrity of football. But in the microworld, where the players are atoms and photons, this long-distance connection — technically called quantum entanglement — is as real as instant replay. In fact, entanglement is at the very heart of reality. No mere quantum quirk of interest only to physicists, its peculiar possibilities have caught the attention of investment bankers and information entrepreneurs.
“We believe that there’s a second quantum revolution going on right now,” says physicist Chris Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in College Park.
In a 1935 paper, inspired by a thought experiment proposed the same year by Albert Einstein and collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. The thought experiment demonstrated that when two objects interact in a particular way, quantum physics requires them to become connected, or entangled, so that measuring a property of one instantly reveals the value of that property for the other, no matter how far away it is.
Now, laboratories around the world routinely create and study entanglement, pushing the limits on the types and sizes of objects that can be entangled. Some studies are attempting to clarify the mysterious boundary separating the strange realm of quantum weirdness from the macroscopic world of football.
“spooky action at a distance.” - Albert Einstein
LINKED FATES First proposed 75 years ago, the eerie quantum phenomenon called entanglement, represented here by far-flung but linked coin flips, has moved from the realm of theory to that of experiment. Now it stands poised to come out of the lab, inspiring new ways to handle information. Michael Morgenstern
Researchers are creating entanglement that can be sent across the globe, entanglement that can link new kinds of objects and even entanglement that can connect gaggles of objects instead of just two. And physicists are upsizing objects that exhibit what Einstein dismissed as “spooky action at a distance.”
In 2008, for instance, Gisin and colleagues measured entangled photons 18 kilometers apart at exactly the same time and calculated that any secret signal between the two would have to travel 10,000 times faster than the speed of light.
The long-distance record is held by a team of physicists including Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna, who measured entangled photons 144 kilometers apart on two Canary Islands. A plan to break that record involves sending an entangled photon from Earth to the International Space Station. Quantum information beamed by satellites orbiting the planet might ultimately lead to new, powerful ways to communicate across the globe.
-----
If the Manning brothers were quantum physicists as well as NFL quarterbacks, one of them could win his game’s opening coin toss every time. The night before they played, the brothers would take two coins from a special quantum box to use the next day. If Peyton’s game came first, after learning the outcome of his coin toss, he would know without a doubt how his brother’s coin would land. Say Peyton’s came up heads; he could text “tails” to his little brother. Eli would correctly call tails in his later game and win the toss (not that it would do the Giants much good).
Such a creepy connection of the fates of far apart coins does not yet threaten the integrity of football. But in the microworld, where the players are atoms and photons, this long-distance connection — technically called quantum entanglement — is as real as instant replay. In fact, entanglement is at the very heart of reality. No mere quantum quirk of interest only to physicists, its peculiar possibilities have caught the attention of investment bankers and information entrepreneurs.
“We believe that there’s a second quantum revolution going on right now,” says physicist Chris Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in College Park.
In a 1935 paper, inspired by a thought experiment proposed the same year by Albert Einstein and collaborators Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. The thought experiment demonstrated that when two objects interact in a particular way, quantum physics requires them to become connected, or entangled, so that measuring a property of one instantly reveals the value of that property for the other, no matter how far away it is.
Now, laboratories around the world routinely create and study entanglement, pushing the limits on the types and sizes of objects that can be entangled. Some studies are attempting to clarify the mysterious boundary separating the strange realm of quantum weirdness from the macroscopic world of football.
