The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.
About the Nobel Laureates
Alain Aspect
Professor at Université Paris-Saclay and École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France.
Born 1947 in Agen, France.
PhD 1983 from Paris-Sud University, Orsay, France.
John F. Clauser
Research Physicist, at J.F. Clauser & Assoc., Walnut Creek, CA, USA.
Born 1942 in Pasadena, CA, USA.
PhD 1969 from Columbia University, New York.
Anton Zeilinger
Professor at University of Vienna, Austria.
Born 1945 in Ried im Innkreis, Austria.
PhD 1971 from University of Vienna, Austria.
(Unfortunately, no women laureates among the 4 so far this week; let’s hope that changes).
Quantum Physics and Quantum Entanglement
Quantum Physics is not easy to describe or to understand. We all have a general idea about the “Schrödinger's cat” thought experiment, where the cat’s state, whether it is dead or alive, can be ascertained only after observing it (or making a measurement). Until then, it may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead. That is the unintuitive consequence of Quantum Physics.
Similarly, particles (esp. photons) can be created with quantum entanglement, where the 2 particles behave like a single unit even when separated. Measuring the state of one of the photons immediately determines the state of the other photon, at vast distances, “faster than the speed of light.”
These 2022 Physics Nobel Laureates developed experimental tools that harnessed these properties of particles in entangled quantum states to give rise to new quantum based technologies, which is leading to the development of applications like quantum computers, quantum networks and secure quantum encrypted communication.
What are Bell inequalities and how are they violated? You can learn more about such things at the links below. For some of the daunting mathematics behind this, follow the “Advanced information” link.
More on Quantum Entanglement
www.quantamagazine.org/… has an excellent explanation of quantum physics and quantum entanglement, its history and its future -
Entanglement lay at the heart of a fiery clash in the 1930s between physics titans Albert Einstein on one hand and Niels Bohr and Erwin Schrödinger on the other about how the universe operates at a fundamental level. Einstein believed all aspects of reality should have a concrete and fully knowable existence. All objects — from the moon to a photon of light — should have precisely defined properties that can be discovered through measurement. Bohr, Schrödinger and other pioneers of the nascent quantum mechanics, however, were finding that reality appeared to be fundamentally uncertain; a particle does not possess certain properties until the moment of measurement.
Entanglement emerged as a decisive way to distinguish between these two possible versions of reality. The physicist John Bell proposed a decisive thought experiment that was later realized in various experimental forms by Alain Aspect and John Clauser. The work proved Schrödinger right. Quantum mechanics was the operating system of the universe.
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It was Einstein, along with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, who first described quantum entanglement in a now-infamous 1935 paper. The phenomenon, which Einstein disparagingly dubbed “spooky action at a distance,” was an unavoidable consequence of the nascent theory of quantum mechanics. Einstein suspected that entanglement would prove the death knell of quantum mechanics because it seemed to fly in the face of a central tenet of relativity — that no information could travel faster than the speed of light. No measurement of one electron should be able to instantly influence a measurement in some distant place.
Instead, their paper would lay the foundation for a complete rethinking of reality and a radical new field of research.
Also, take a look at this thread ...
Additional Coverage
The Laureates in their own words
A h/t to the new generation.
Telephone interviews today -
Nobel Prize Awards Schedule
- PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE – Monday, 3 October (awarded)
- PHYSICS – Tuesday, 4 October (awarded)
- CHEMISTRY – Wednesday, 5 October
- LITERATURE – Thursday, 6 October
- PEACE – Friday, 7 October
- THE SVERIGES RIKSBANK PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN MEMORY OF ALFRED NOBEL – Monday, 10 October
Epilogue
Congratulations to these pioneers and may the future be driven by science and logic, not politics.
Let’s hear from those of you here who have a deeper understanding of this field and additional insights into the life and career of these luminaries.
Further Reading
- www.nobelprize.org
- The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Svante Pääbo, pioneer in Palaeogenetics — www.dailykos.com/...