![]() Quantum boomĪnton Zeilinger has demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation. In theory, such machines could run calculations that no normal computer can. Quantum computers would use bits of information that are each a blend of one and zero. Normal computers process data using ones and zeroes. Quantum computers are another technology that would rely on entangled particles. The effect involves sending information from one place to another about a quantum object. This isn’t like people popping from one place to another in science fiction and fantasy. Zeilinger has also pioneered another use for entanglement. That means nobody can spy on a quantum message without getting caught. So, anyone trying to peek at secret quantum information would break the particles’ entanglement as soon as they snooped. ![]() Here’s how it works: Interacting with one entangled particle affects another. For instance, he has used entanglement to create absolutely secure encryption and communication. Zeilinger’s experiments show the practical uses of these effects. But Clauser and Aspect’s work showed that quantum effects could not be explained by classical physics. Jérémy Barande/Collections École Polytechnique/Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY-SA 3.0)Įntanglement is fragile and hard to maintain. This was true no matter how far apart the photons got.Īlain Aspect’s work helped rule out the possibility that the strangeness of quantum mechanics could be explained by classical physics. Measuring the features of one instantly revealed those of the other. That is, they kept acting as a single, extended object. As the photons moved apart, they stayed entangled. ![]() This meant the particles acted like a single object. Aspect ran another test that ruled out any chance quantum strangeness could be cleared up by some hidden explanation.Ĭlauser and Aspect’s experiments involved pairs of light particles, or photons. Linked particles just are.īut Clauser’s test had some loopholes. His results supported Bell’s idea about entanglement. Clauser was the first one to develop an experiment to run this test. In the 1960s, physicist John Bell came up with a test to prove there was no hidden communication between quantum objects. Some particles could just become perfectly linked, and that was that. Quantum particles had no hidden back channels for sending information. Other scientists believed there was no secret to entanglement. University of California Graphic Arts/Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory John Clauser developed the first practical experiment to show there are no secret channels of communication among quantum particles. He spoke at an October 4 press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. “It’s the real world that we all live in.” Hansson is a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics, which chose the winners. “Today, we honor three physicists whose pioneering experiments showed us that the strange world of entanglement … is not just the micro-world of atoms, and certainly not the virtual world of science fiction or mysticism,” said Thors Hans Hansson. ![]() He has taken advantage of the quantum strangeness confirmed by Aspect and Clauser to develop new technologies. Explainer: Quantum is the world of the super smallĪnton Zeilinger, the third winner, works at the University of Vienna in Austria. These two confirmed that the rules of quantum physics really do rule the world. Another is John Clauser, who runs a company in California. He works at the Université Paris-Saclay and École Polytechnique in France. Or quantum computers that solve problems that stump any ordinary computer.Įach of this year’s winners will take home a third of the prize money, which totals 10 million Swedish kronor (worth roughly $900,000). Completely secure systems of communication, for instance. And it could lead to many new technologies. This year’s Nobel Prize winners show that, in fact, it does. But there should be no way such linked particles could exist in the real world. Math might allow entanglement in theory, they thought. When this idea was first proposed, physicists like Albert Einstein were skeptical. This is true even when the linked particles are very far apart. If you know the state of one particle, then you know the state of the other. One especially strange feature of quantum physics is “entanglement.” When two particles are entangled, everything about them - from their speed to the way they spin - is perfectly connected. Such itty-bitty bits of matter don’t obey the same rules as larger objects. It governs how atoms and even tinier particles behave. Quantum physics is the science of super small things. For their tests of quantum weirdness and its real-world uses, three scientists will share the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics.
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