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Spooky Quantum Action Passes Test
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Spooky Quantum Action Passes Test

Recent experiments quash the hope that the unsettling phenomenon of quantum entanglement can be explained away

Ronald Hanson and Krister Shalm
Scientific American, 2018
References: Hensen et al. (2015) , Giustina et al. (2015) , Shalm et al. (2015)
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Quantum theory is at once one of the most reliably tested and counterintuitive elements of physics. While photovoltaic cells light prople’s homes, and pictures of black holes lit by Hawking radiation populate news feeds, people still struggle to make intuitive sense of quantum phenomena. In an absorbing and accessible paper, Ronald Hanson and Krister Shalm outline the experiments that have demonstrated the validity of quantum entanglement and how it will form the basis of many new communication and measurement technologies.

Take-Aways

  • Quantum entanglement is one of the strangest phenomena that has challenged physicists.
  • After decades of experiments, scientists ruled out an alternative explanation.
  • With quantum entanglement, novel advances in cryptography, precision timing, computing and astronomy beckon.

About the Authors

Ronald Hanson is a physicist at Delft University of Technology and scientific director of its QuTech research center, a collaboration with the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), focused on quantum computing and quantum Internet technology. Krister Shalm is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder, where he develops tools to test foundational issues in quantum mechanics.

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