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Explain this and win a Nobel prize.....
- Thread starter Leongsam
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The Logic-Defying Double-Slit Experiment Is Even Weirder Than You Thought
By simply observing the process of the experiment, everything changes.
Institute of Physics
Ever hear of the double-slit experiment? It’s one of the most bizarre experiments in modern physics, and cuts to the heart of the weirdness of quantum mechanics. Basically, waves that pass through two narrow, parallel slits will form an interference pattern on a screen. This is true for all waves, whether they’re light waves, water waves, or sound waves.
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But light isn’t just a wave—it’s also a particle called a photon. So what happens if you shoot a single photon at the double slits? Turns out, even though there’s only one photon, it still forms an interference pattern. It’s as if the photon travels through both slits simultaneously.
It gets weirder: As an episode of PBS’s Space Time shows, just by observing the double-slit experiment, the behavior of the photons changes.
The idea behind the double-slit experiment is even if the photons are sent through the slits one at a time, there’s still a wave present to produce the interference pattern. The wave is a wave of probability, because the experiment is set up so the scientists don’t know which of the two slits any individual photon will pass through.
But if they try to find out by setting up detectors in front of each slit to determine which slit the photon really goes through, the interference pattern doesn’t show up at all. This is true even if they try setting up the detectors behind the slits. No matter what the scientists do, if they try anything to observe the photons, the interference pattern fails to emerge.Yes, it gets even weirder than that.
A group of scientists tried a variation on the double-slit experiment, called the delayed choice experiment. The scientists placed a special crystal at each slit. The crystal splits any incoming photons into a pair of identical photons. One photon from this pair should go on to create the standard interference pattern, while the other travels to a detector. Perhaps with this setup, physicists might successfully find a way to observe the logic-defying behavior of photons.
But here’s the weirdest part: It still doesn’t work, regardless of when that detection happens. Even if the second photon is detected after the first photon hits the screen, it ruins the interference pattern. This means observing a photon can change events that have already happened.
Scientists are still unsure how, exactly, this whole thing works. It’s one of the greatest mysteries of quantum mechanics. Perhaps someday, someone will finally be able to solve it.
Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics
04 Oct 2022 Hamish Johnston
Winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics: Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger. (CC BY-SA Royal Society; CC BY-SA John Clauser; CC BY-SA Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics. The trio won “for their experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell’s inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.
The prize will be presented in Stockholm in December and is worth 10 million kronor ($900,000). It will be shared equally between the winners.
Working independently, the three laureates did key experiments that established the quantum property of entanglement. This is a curious effect whereby two or more particles display much stronger correlations than are possible in classical physics. Entanglement plays an important role in quantum computers, which in principle could outperform conventional computers at some tasks.
Bell’s inequality
All three of the experiments measured violations of Bell’s inequality, which places a limit on the correlations that can be observed in a classical system. Such violations are an important prediction of quantum theory.The first experiment was done in 1972 at the University of California at Berkeley by Clauser, who measured the correlations between the polarizations of pairs of photons that were created in an atomic transition. He showed that Bell’s inequality was violated – which meant that the photon pairs were entangled.
However, there were several shortcomings or “loopholes” in this experiment, making it inconclusive. It is possible, for example, that the photons detected were not a fair sample of all photons emitted by the source – which is the detection loophole. It is also possible that some aspects of the experiment that are thought to be independent were somehow causally connected – which is the locality loophole.
Ten years later, in 1982, Aspect and colleagues at the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, improved on Clauser’s experiment by using a two-channel detection scheme. This avoided making assumptions about the photons that were detected. They also varied the orientation of the polarizing filters during their measurements. Again, they found that Bell’s inequality was violated.
Third loophole
The locality loophole was closed in 1998 by Zeilinger and colleagues at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. They used two fully independent quantum random-number generators to set the directions of the photon measurements. As a result, the direction along which the polarization of each photon was measured was decided at the last instant, such that no signal travelling slower than the speed of light would be able to transfer information to the other side before that photon was registered.As well as confirming a fundamental prediction of quantum mechanics, the three experiments laid the groundwork for the development of modern quantum technologies.
Speaking at the press conference when the prize was announced, Zeilinger said he was “very surprised” to receive a call from the Nobel committee. “This prize is an encouragement to young people and the prize would not be possible without more than 100 young people who have worked with me over the years. I alone could not have achieved this.”
Zeilinger also said he hoped the prize would encourage young researchers.
“My advice to young people would be do what you find interesting and don’t care too much about possible applications. On the other hand, this recognition is very important for the future development of possible applications. I am curious what we will see in the next 10–20 years.”
A profound impact
Sheila Rowan, president of the Institute of Physics, which publishes Physics World, congratulated the trio on their “well-deserved” recognition. “This is an area of physics with ongoing, profound impact, at a fundamental level to help understand the world around us and being explored for use in highly novel technologies for sensing and communication today,” she added.Quantum physicist Artur Ekert from the University of Oxford says that while he is “happy” to see the field and the trio being recognized with this year’s Nobel, he adds that it is a “pity” that John Bell, who formulated the inequalities, missed out given that he died in 1990 and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.
Ekert adds that the advent of quantum cryptography has provided an additional motivation to push the Bell inequality experiments to their limits. “From the foundations of science perspective, I think the Bell inequality experiments simply had to be done — they refute a certain world view and so they are important,” adds Ekert. “Fixing all the loopholes in such experiments is another story. This is probably more important for the quantum cryptography perspective as if we want to use Bell inequalities to detect eavesdropping we have to close the loopholes.”
Indeed, congratulations also came from those who are trying to use the work of Aspect, Clauser and Zeilinger for practical applications. In a joint statement, Ilyas Khan and Tony Uttley, chief executive and president, respectively, of the quantum technology firm Quantinuum, noted they were thrilled” by the announcement.
“This recognition of the power of quantum information systems is timely on many counts, but above all is a wonderful acknowledgement of the fact that experimental advances underpin the quantum technologies revolution that we are embarking upon.”
A life in science
Aspect was born in Agen, France, on 15 June 1947. He passed the “agrégation” – the national French exam – in physics in 1969 and received his Master’s degree from the Université d’Orsay two years later. He then embarked on a PhD at Orsay, working on experimental tests of Bell’s inequalities, which he completed in 1983.Following a lectureship at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, which Aspect held while he was doing his PhD, in 1985 he worked at Collège de France in Paris. In 1992 he then moved to the Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l‟Institut d’Optique at the Université Paris-Saclay.
Clauser was born in Pasadena, California, on 1 December 1942. He received his Bachelor’s degree in physics from California Institute of Technology in 1964 and a Master’s in physics two years later. In 1969 he received a PhD in physics from Columbia University.
From 1969 to 1975 Clauser was a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and from 1975 to 1986 worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Following a stint as a senior scientist at the US firm Science Applications International Corporation, in 1990 he moved to the University of California, Berkeley until 1997 where he then focused on his research and consultancy firm J F Clauser & Associates.
boss is a geek. Besides, such complex subjects are above our lowly pay grade.
boss is a geek. Besides, such complex subjects are above our lowly pay grade.
I don't understand it either I just find it wildly mind boggling. It makes everything else trivial in comparison.
Yalor. I am thankful I can eat, read, shit, talk cock here, post news, play nintendo, jeesiao people on WhatsApp, Telegram, Wechat, beo chiobu, buy a little Toto and 4D, and I very happy already.boss is a geek. Besides, such complex subjects are above our lowly pay grade.
That's comforting! I was beginning to think @strawberry and I are daft. Heng ah.
you don't have playstation ah? That one is very important, need to add to our daily things to do.Yalor. I am thankful I can eat, read, shit, talk cock here, post news, play nintendo, jeesiao people on WhatsApp, Telegram, Wechat, beo chiobu, buy a little Toto and 4D, and I very happy already.
The scientists don't understand the phenomenon either. What they do understand is the mathematics that predicts an outcome and why it does or does not reflect actual experimental observations.
Science never stands still. When we think we understand something a situation will invariably occur where conventional wisdom is blown out of the water.
This is why I pour scorn on climate change and the claim that the science is "settled". Science is never settled and never will be.
yep, science is always evolving, new evidence is found, verified and added to the collective knowledge database. Climate change is a farce and no cause for concern, it has always taken place as part of the geologic history of our planet.
Nobel prize is too far-fetched for a simpleton like moi. I'll take Nabeh prize anyday.
In the case of quantum theory we had a situation in the mid 20th century where great minds came together in opposing camps to challenge or support the prevailing superstar of the time. Neither side tried to cancel their opposition. The battle was fought out in the hallowed halls of great institutions with nothing more than grey matter and a chalkboard.
Perhaps, physic is a dead end.
Quantum Entanglement, or High-Tech Divination? [Occult Scientism]
the Truth is stranger than fiction...
Many people today are questioning the occult agenda behind projects such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider, wondering if it might indeed be some kind of monstrous device of modernized witchcraft, opening demonic portals, etc. But what of quantum physics in general? What about earlier experiments such as the well-known "double-slit experiment"?
Are these legitimate empirical tests of the physical world, or is possible that the entire history of atomic theory and quantum physics has been far more "entangled" with the supernatural realm all along...?
Quantum Entanglement, or High-Tech Divination? [Occult Scientism]
the Truth is stranger than fiction...
Many people today are questioning the occult agenda behind projects such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider, wondering if it might indeed be some kind of monstrous device of modernized witchcraft, opening demonic portals, etc. But what of quantum physics in general? What about earlier experiments such as the well-known "double-slit experiment"?
Are these legitimate empirical tests of the physical world, or is possible that the entire history of atomic theory and quantum physics has been far more "entangled" with the supernatural realm all along...?
The highest levels of science dovetails with spirituality (not to be confused with religion).
Similar to 'the force' in Star Wars.
There are two things that nobody understands no matter how smart they are :
1. Consciousness.
2. The results of the double slit experiment ie quantum theory at work.
I'm convinced that they are somehow linked. Our minds are quantum devices. Thoughts rely on quantum physics in order to arise. It is far more than just chemical and electrical activity.
