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Kultur Dokumente
SPRING 2011
Quantum entanglement is one of the most out-of-the-box areas of study in physics today,
including research into cool sounding things such as quantum cryptography, quantum
computing, and quantum teleportation. But whereas lots of big things can become entangled,
like your ball of yarn or your hair, quantum entanglement refers to how tiny quantum entities
like photons (particles of light) can come together, bond, and share quantum bits of
information (or qubits, as they are called in the bizz). Once these particles have become
entangled, they continue to share information no matter how far apart they become in space
and, perhaps, in time as well.
The term “entanglement,” used in physics to describe this inseparable relationship between
quantum systems, was first introduced by the physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1935. At the
time, there were many profound discussions and interpretations of the revolutionary new
science of quantum mechanics and its implications. Schrodinger believed that entanglement
was one of the most important aspects of the quantum world, describing it as “the
characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from
classical lines of thought.” One of the interpretations of quantum mechanics that Schrodinger
disagreed with was the Copenhagen Interpretation, which suggested that in the quantum
world all potentials exist simultaneously until one potential is observed. In an effort to
illustrate the absurdity of such a notion, he decided to create a thought experiment, an
imaginary experiment where he could model in mind what he could not do in a laboratory. His
thought experiment came to be known as “Schrodinger’s Cat.”
He put an imaginary cat in a box along with some radioactive material. If the material decayed,
it would set off a Geiger counter which would trigger a little hammer which would hit a vial of
poison and kill the cat. The material had a 50-50 chance of decaying, so Schrodinger posed
that his fictional cat would be both dead and alive until someone looked into the box! Absurd!
Or not . . .
Albert Einstein created a thought experiment in 1935 as well. His thought experiment was
designed to discredit Schrodinger’s idea of quantum entanglement. Einstein posed the
question: what if two photons were entangled and then shot off in different directions, each
traveling at the speed of light, which only photons can do, and you were to observe and
measure one — would the other “know” instantaneously and change as a result? Of course not,
reasoned Einstein, who was dedicated to the notion that nothing can travel faster than the
speed of light, including information.
By the early 1980s science had evolved to the point that Einstein’s thought experiment could
actually be done in a laboratory setting. French physicist Alain Aspect conducted a series of
experiments which tested the nature of entangled photon pairs and how they might share
information. What he found was amazing! In fact, the measurement of one photon did affect
the state of its entangled partner, instantaneously! What Einstein had formerly called rather
derisively “spooky action at a distance” was actually a quantum mechanical fact.
Since Aspect’s initial experiment, many scientists all over the world have continued to explore
the implications and possible applications of quantum entanglement. In May of 2010, Chinese
scientists successfully achieved the quantum teleportation of information over a distance of
10 miles. In January of 2011, physicists S. Jay Olson and Timothy Ralph of Australia’s
University of Queensland produced the mathematics to support the quantum teleportation of
information through time, from the past to the future. And an international team of physicists
led by Stephanie Simmons and John Morton of Oxford University published a paper (January
19, 2011 in Nature online) outlining their ability to produce 10 billion entangled pairs of
phosphorous within a medium of crystalized silicon. Given that silicon is widely used in
conventional computers, this achievement is considered by many to be a significant step in
the development of a solid state, siliconbased quantum information processor.
Who knows where quantum entanglement is taking us next? Maybe we should create a
thought experiment . . .
If particles can be in two places at once, what if you had the ability to be in two places at once?