Einstein's "Spooky Action at a Distance" Proven

science.nasa.gov

Two entangled particles can appear to influence one another instantaneously,
whether they're in the same room or at opposite ends of the Universe. Pretty
spooky indeed.  Entanglement occurs when two or more particles interact in a
way that causes their fates to become linked: It becomes impossible to
consider (or mathematically describe) each particle's condition independently
of the others'. Collectively they constitute a single quantum state.
This bit of science is important for several reasons.

First, Einstein more or less created the field of quantum mechanics, even though he disparaged his own creation with comments like, "God doesn't play dice with the universe".  Without getting into a field of science that I certainly don't understand, it's my understanding he said this because quantum mechanics is based on probabilities of happenings in the sum-atomic realm.  This made the big guy uncomfortable.  Well, Einstein was wrong.  It turns out that God does play dice with the universe.

Second, his comment about "spooky action at a distance" wasn't meant as an explanation, it was disparaging, again mirroring his discomfort with the whole thing.  Again, I don't pretend to understand the details, but the basic idea is that in some unexplained way if you do something to a particle here, the effects of the something show up on a linked particle over there despite no obvious physical connection between the two particles.  Really weird stuff.

Well, researchers at Griffith University have devised an experiment that confirms Einstein's original idea.  Basically, again, by twiddling a particle here and seeing an effect there.

All in all, this sort of work confirms the observation by J.B.S. Haldane that, "not only is the universe queerer than we know, it is queerer than we can know."  Amen to that, brother.

Now that someone has figured out how to demonstrate spooky action, what are the implications of this technique into the future?  That's where writers of fiction so often come into the story. 

So here's the facts; do with them as you will.
*  *  *  *  *

Quantum experiment verifies
Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'

An experiment devised in Griffith University's Centre for Quantum Dynamics has for the first time demonstrated Albert Einstein's original conception of "spooky action at a distance" using a single particle.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, CQD Director Professor Howard Wiseman and his experimental collaborators at the University of Tokyo report their use of homodyne measurements to show what Einstein did not believe to be real, namely the non-local collapse of a particle's wave function.

According to quantum mechanics, a single particle can be described by a wave function that spreads over arbitrarily large distances, but is never detected in two or more places.

Brilliant Blunders:
From Darwin to Einstein -
Colossal Mistakes by Great
Scientists That Changed Our
Understanding of Life and
the Universe
by Mario Livio

Click on image to order
This phenomenon is explained in quantum theory by what Einstein disparaged in 1927 as "spooky action at a distance," or the instantaneous non-local collapse of the wave function to wherever the particle is detected.

Almost 90 years later, by splitting a single photon between two laboratories, scientists have used homodyne detectors -- which measure wave-like properties -- to show the collapse of the wave function is a real effect.

This phenomenon is the strongest yet proof of the entanglement of a single particle, an unusual form of quantum entanglement that is being increasingly explored for quantum communication and computation.

"Einstein never accepted orthodox quantum mechanics and the original basis of his contention was this single-particle argument. This is why it is important to demonstrate non-local wave function collapse with a single particle," says Professor Wiseman.

"Einstein's view was that the detection of the particle only ever at one point could be much better explained by the hypothesis that the particle is only ever at one point, without invoking the instantaneous collapse of the wave function to nothing at all other points.

"However, rather than simply detecting the presence or absence of the particle, we used homodyne measurements enabling one party to make different measurements and the other, using quantum tomography, to test the effect of those choices."

"Through these different measurements, you see the wave function collapse in different ways, thus proving its existence and showing that Einstein was wrong."
Related stories:
 *  *  *  *  *
Story Source:  Materials provided by Griffith University.  Maria Fuwa, Shuntaro Takeda, Marcin Zwierz, Howard M. Wiseman, Akira Furusawa. Experimental proof of nonlocal wavefunction collapse for a single particle using homodyne measurements. Nature Communications, 2015.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 20, 2015 at 11:22 PM

    E=mc^2 is a proven theory, the faster you go the more mass you gain and require ever more energy to go faster, hence it is impossible to go faster than light. In a physical world and by conventional means that is.Thanks for giving information about quantum entanglement ..Keep posting

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim FisherApril 22, 2015 at 2:20 PM

    My pleasure. Just wished I understood more of what they're talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sophie GraceAugust 13, 2020 at 12:36 AM

    This was among the best posts and episode from your team it let me learn many new things. I recomment this site tiktok videos

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An unexpected way to recover from a breakup

Image
Breaking up is truly hard to do. And recovery from a breakup can be even harder. Your friends may counsel you to put the whole thing out of your mind. But new research suggests that repeatedly reflecting on a break-up -- even through participation in a research study -- actually speeds emotional recovery. "Breakups are ubiquitous -- most adults have experienced at least one in their life -- and are typically very distressing," says Grace Larson of Northwestern University. After studying divorce and breakups for years using longitudinal, multi-method designs, Larson and her then-adviser David Sbarra of the University of Arizona wanted to study whether these research techniques on their own were affecting participants. One concern they had was that the studies could be harming participants, Larson says. "At first glance, it might seem like repeatedly reminding participants that they had just broken up -- and asking them to describe the breakup over and over --
Read more

Greek Bronze Age ended 100 years earlier than thought

Image
Source: www.shef.ac.uk The charred remains of Assiros Toumba in Greece. Writing historical fiction set in the Greek Bronze Age?  Or simply enjoy reading this genre'?  Here's a study you may find interesting. C onventional estimates for the collapse of the Aegean civilization may be incorrect by up to a century, according to new radiocarbon analyses. While historical chronologies traditionally place the end of the Greek Bronze Age at around 1025 BCE, this latest research suggests a date 70 to 100 years earlier. www.weather-forecast.com Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham selected 60 samples of animal bones, plant remains and building timbers, excavated at Assiros in northern Greece, to be radiocarbon dated and correlated with 95.4% accuracy using Bayesian statistical methodology at the University of Oxford and the Akademie der Wissenschaften Heidelberg, Germany. Researcher Dr Ken Wardle says, 'These new results tell a story that is totall
Read more

Mood Instability and Your Characters

Image
You're putting together a character who's mood simply bounces all over the place, happy one moment, in a fit of rage the next.  Researchers at King's College London note that this sort of mood instability is part of a number of mental health disorders.  So how do you structure the personality and behavior of a character like this?  Below is the King's College report, along with a brief description from mentalhealth.com, of typical behavior, sometimes in the extreme, of a person who is very emotionally unstable.  This is offered strictly as a guide for crafting character in fiction - and NOT for the amateur diagnosis of the state of someone's mental health.  That is always best left to trained professionals. Another note about emotionally unstable behavior:  as any parent will tell you, this is how adolescents and teen-agers often behave.  It's a normal part of growing up - but it is a matter of degree .  In the extreme, however, this behavior can be diag
Read more

How the lives of Georgian gaolbirds and highwaymen shaped modern Britain

Image
Writing historical fiction requires solid research of available materials and databases.  The key word here is available.   So news of a new publicly accessible database that allows an author to research a very interesting past era is priceless almost beyond words.   I expect some exciting fiction to come out of this announcement. Here's the story, with a link to the source in the attribution. *  *  *  *  * London Lives, a landmark project led by Professor Bob Shoemaker from the University of Sheffield and Professor Tim Hitchcock from the University of Sussex, has uncovered a mass of extraordinary new evidence which reveals how the lives of thousands of 18th-century poor and criminal Londoners helped shape modern Britain. Based on evidence made available in a publicly available database, the study sheds new light on the everyday lives of thieves, prostitutes, vagrants, highwaymen, con-men, paupers and jailbirds, revealing how their daily fight for survival led to t
Read more

Remember faces but not names? You got it wrong.

Image
Source:   Daily Excelsior So, you think you're good at remembering faces, but terrible with names? New research has revealed we are actually better at remembering names than faces The cringe-worthy experience of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name leads many of us to believe we are terrible with names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. With the Christmas party season fast approaching, there will be plenty of opportunity to re-live the familiar, and excruciatingly-awkward, social situation of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name. This cringe-worthy experience leads many of us to believe we are terrible at remembering names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. The authors of the study, from the University of York, suggest that when we castigate ourselves f
Read more