Entanglement beats gravitational test

Gravity and entanglement

When does a quantum measurement end?

Surprisingly, quantum physicists cannot agree. Some say the measurement ends when you register a result on a piece of classical equipment such as a photomultiplier. Others says the measurement ends when the information in the quantum system has irreversibly leaked into the environment. There are still more who believe in the manyworlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and say a quantum measurement never ends but exists ad infinitum in several parallel universes.

This may sound like an ineffectual academic scrap but it actually has hugely important consequences for the quantum property of entanglement.

Entanglement is the state in which two physically separated particles share the same quantum existence, so that a measurement on one instantaneously affects the other. Yep, that’s instantaneously. It’s what Einstein described as “spooky action at distance”.

For some years, physicists have been measuring this “spooky action at a distance” in tests known as Bell experiments.

These tests depend crucially on the measurement ending quickly. Because if it were to drag on, the particles might be able to communicate at light speed by some currently unknown mechanism.

But because nobody has actually determined when a measurement ends, all the experiments to date are potentially open to this loophole.

Perhaps there is no spooky action at a distance after all, just long quantum measurements during which the particles communicate at the speed of light in some quite ordinary way.

Now Nicolas Gisin and colleagues at the University of Geneva have closed this loophole using the ideas of the Oxford theorist Roger Penrose. A few years ago, he suggested that the end of a quantum measurement is realted to the gravitational energy of the mass distribution of the resulting quantum superposition. In other words, the measurement ends when a massive object receives a decent kick.

So Gisin and buddies set up a Bell experiment which involved sending entangled photons in each direction from the midpoint of an 18 km fibre. At the ends of the fibre were piezoelectric actuators attached to small but massive mirrors. When the photons hit, they triggered the actuators causing the mirrors to move and deflect a beam of light.

The experiment was carefully set up so that the mirrors were heavy enough to please Penrose and far enough apart that no light speed signal could travel between them in the time it took for a pair of entangled photons to “kick” them.

The result? Gisin’s team confirmed that “spooky action at a distance” still governs the behaviour of the entangled photons.

If you believe Penrose, this is the first experiment to ever prove “spooky action at a distance”. Impressive, huh?

More interesting, is the idea of gravity and quantum mechanics coming under the microscope in the same experiment for the first time.

It won’t be the last. There are plenty of other mysteries about gravity that quantum mechanics can probe. It’s about time physicists bit the bullet and started testing them.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0803.2425: Space-like Separation in a Bell Test assuming Gravitationally Induced Collapses

2 Responses to “Entanglement beats gravitational test”

  1. Zephir says:

    The entanglement is semi-classical effect, in fact. By Aether Wave Theory (AWT) it can be demonstrated even for undulating droplets floating in low gravity conditions (i.e. the oil droplets inside of lava lamp, for example). The AWT is mechanical approach for explanation of relativity and quantum mechanics phenomena.

    So, whenever we’ll split such undulating droplet into two halves by wire, the resulting parts will remain undulate at phase with respect to the center of their common mass. The smaller dropplets will therefore remember the state of the original droplet in certain extent, so they can serve as a memory. Such pair will create their own “local universe” by Everett interpretation. because it’s members are “entangled” at the distance – and as you can see, nothing “spooky” is on such entaglement, in fact.

    Note that even though you can combine the different droplet pairs with the same surface amplitude or even frequency, such reconnection will not restore the original surface wave, until the phase of the surface waves will not remain exactly the same – from this the quantum cryptography and qubit computing follows.

  2. R.Mirman says:

    There is no action-at-a-distance. For a discussion of the mistakes leading to that belief see the QM,QFT book. QM forbids nonlocality.

    The proof that physics, a universe, would be impossible in any dimension but 3+1 (strangely agreeing with reality) is clear and unavoidable. Stunning is that a change of any number in any of the formulas by even 1 would make any dimension, thus any universe, impossible.

    That the universe allows, and has, galaxies, stars, planets, even life, thinking life, that all the conflicting conditions do not conflict and are met, is beyond stunning.

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    I. IS OUR UNIVERSE REALLY POSSIBLE?
    Existence is the greatest mystery, not only that it is but that it can be. Conditions are too many, too strict, too conflicting. Outlandishly we are, yet that we are impose upon us the responsibilities of loneliness. Horrendously our most basic need is to hate, hurt and kill, to horribly misuse that awesome, and likely unique, gift of intelligence — destroying, dishonoring, the most magnificent constituent of nature.

    II. MYSTERIES OF THE MERE NUMBERS THAT GIVE US LIFE
    The most elementary arithmetic, just counting, should make a universe impossible. Why then does one actually exist? Just counting, not even concepts of numbers and arithmetic are needed, just nothing, but in that nothing there is so much, so much that is so necessary. Nothing, but that nothing gives everything, existence itself. Why can, why should, our invention, mathematics, tell nature that it can be, what it must be? Is it counting or is it physics? Is it physics or just mere numbers? Yet mathematics extends almost infinitely beyond numbers, our mathematics that we create. That is the strangest part of being human: we can — and do — create rules for nature. And nature obeys. There is no reason that we should even have mathematical talent, no reason for it to have developed. Humans have immense, but quite unreasonable, talents not only in mathematics — totally unreasonable but true. Why? And they work.

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    We look, we see, but do not notice. The nothingness that is space much requires noticing — the opulent structure of the emptiness is essential, even for just a universe. There is so much to see, especially because there is nothing to see. We should learn, and we should look.

    IV. HOW TURNING AROUND CREATES SPACE AND TIME
    What do we mean when we say that space is 3+1-dimensional, that the space part of space is 3-dimensional, and that there is also another dimension, time? Couldn’t we say that space is 3-dimensional and that time is an independent dimension? Why do we even say that space is 3-dimensional rather then space having 3 independent dimensions? And why is temperature not like time? So we have to consider how to turn around, even between space and time. If space is 3+1-dimensional some distances, and masses, are real, some imaginary. There must be a boundary: the boundary cone, unfortunately called the light cone. Light and gravity (these only) travel on it and only on it. Why?

    V. WHY THE WORLD MUST BE UNCERTAIN
    Atrocities nurtured by twisted views of the universe emphasize that they are not merely wrong but deeply malevolent, deeply malignant, and the overriding moral imperative of correct understanding and acceptance of the realities of nature. What are these realities, what are physical objects including people? Not particles, not waves, meaningless words here. However unpleasant it is, we must accept what all objects, all people, must be, whether we or nature wishes it so. Thus nature must be quantum mechanical, probability, uncertainty, are inherent, unavoidable. Yet it is causal, quite sensible, quite understandable even elementary. And physics must have axioms: physical objects. Quantum mechanics emphasizes how dangerous language is.

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    Because it is so special, and in so many ways. Yet it is not just that it is special but that it is possible at all seems so implausible. Physical laws, and the vagaries of chance, conspire to allow it — quite, quite difficult — and then to make it true, and thus very special.

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    To emphasize our implausibility and our peril, our dangerousness, we must consider the often immensity of the most minute, so the moral and ethical implications of mathematics. From the most fundamental laws of nature to the distribution of dirt on asteroids, the slightest change and we would not exist, perhaps intelligence would not exist in nature. Chance has been very kind. We are children of chance.

    X. LIFE — WAS IT REALLY NECESSARY?
    Life is a precarious balance between altruism and selfishness. The necessity for both, from the beginning, emphasizes how difficult it is for life to arise. A review of the complexity, the intelligence, the linguistic ability, required of even the simplest cells, of what life is, shows that it, even the most primitive, is very likely extremely rare. We see also the absurdity of the concepts of genetic determinism, nature vs. nurture, even survival of the fittest. Looking at the huge number of potential forms of life, and of the small number of actual ones, emphasizes the immense improbability of a specific type, like one with intelligence, especially humans. We should be thankful to the universe for allowing life (seen clearly dreadfully hard), and to chance for actually creating it, and humans.

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    Intelligence is rare — is it toxic? These arguments, including what nerves and brains are like, show strongly why it is, why it is so disadvantageous. The evolution of humans, even intelligence, emphasizes the huge number of accidents, the luck, needed. It is clear why only (placental) mammals have even hope of thought: MOTHERS.

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    XIII. A UNIVERSE OF WONDER
    Our universe is a strange and wonderful place, almost impossible, as are we. But we do not care about these great gifts given us by the unbelievable beneficences of chance. We apply them, not gratefully, but to destroy and diminish, to show our contempt for that life likely so rare, perhaps unique. Our gifts are used not to enhance this life with such incredible talents that we are part of, but to satisfy what is so clearly the most basic human needs, to hate and to kill — hatred, this cancer of the human soul, is fundamental. We are part of a universe of great rationality and grandeur, exceedingly kind and exceedingly cruel, that has made us, and made us what we are. We should be thankful, yet are contemptuous.

    A. DOES SPACE MATTER FOR MATTER?
    Laws of physics are (perhaps completely) consequences of geometry. Nature, God and we are all governed by geometry. Some of those that we are most aware of, like conservation of energy (with obvious major effects on daily life), are required by geometry (and its monotony). Why? How does geometry enforce these; what do they mean? And how does it restrict turning around?

    B. ASTONISH PEOPLE WITH YOUR BRILLIANCE BY BABBLING
    See how to impress your friends with your mastery of the secrets of the universe without really knowing anything, especially by misusing language. There are many reasons for the strange stupidity of the errors about quantum mechanics, including often saying it requires that which it forbids (as with wave-particle duality and the vacuum). A major one is that words are not only wrong, meaningless, misleading, but say just the opposite of what we think they say. Quantum mechanics makes complete sense; often language makes none and makes it seem that quantum mechanics (even nature in general) is weird. Language is very dangerous. Weirdness is a confession of incompetence, or dishonesty. It is an interesting psychological question why so many physicists feel so compelled to flaunt their incompetence and complete misunderstanding of their own field.

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    by R. Mirman

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