Photon is their friend – Newspaper Kommersant No. 184 (7385) dated 10/05/2022
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The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022 is awarded to researchers in the field of quantum mechanics who have carried out “experiments with entangled photons, where two separated particles behave as one.” The $1.1 million award will be shared by French and American physicists Alain Aspe and John Clauser, as well as Austrian scientist Anton Zeilinger. The experiments of the laureates made it possible to conduct research with quantum computers and networks, the Nobel Committee explained. Anton Zeilinger also studied quantum teleportation, but assured that the achievements of current science would not allow instantaneous teleportation of people.
The Nobel Laureates in Physics are awarded for pioneering experiments “using entangled quantum states where two particles behave as one even when separated.” Their research “paved the way for new technologies” based on quantum mechanics, explained in the Nobel committee. “One of the main factors is how quantum mechanics allows two or more particles to exist in a state of so-called entanglement. What happens to one of the particles in a pair determines what happens to the other particle, even if they are far apart,” the committee said.
The laureates’ developments were built around an inequality or Bell’s theorem (discovered in the 1960s by mathematician John Stuart Bell). The theorem states that regardless of the presence of hidden parameters that affect the physical characteristics of a quantum particle, it is possible to conduct an experiment whose results will confirm or disprove the presence of such hidden parameters. John Clauser, 79, who heads the research company J. F. Clauser and Associates, managed to conduct such an experiment: he created a device that simultaneously launches two entangled photons (a particle that can only exist by moving at the speed of light). As a result, John Clauser succeeded in proving a violation of Bell’s inequality. Professor of the University of Paris-Saclay, 75-year-old Alain Aspe managed to modify the device so that its initial settings do not affect the final result. Finally, a professor at the University of Vienna, 77-year-old Anton Zeilinger, studied states of quantum entanglement. His group has managed for the first time to implement quantum teleportation (moves a quantum state from one particle to another at a distance).
The Nobel Committee emphasized that the foundations of quantum mechanics are “not just a theoretical or philosophical question.” “The unspeakable effects of quantum mechanics are already beginning to find applications. There is a vast area of research, including quantum computers, quantum networks, and secure communication with quantum encryption,” the committee said in a press release. Anders Irbeck, chairman of the Nobel Committee, added: “It is becoming increasingly clear that a new kind of quantum technology is emerging.”
Aleksey Fedorov, head of the scientific group at the Russian Quantum Center, called the award to the three scientists “long awaited.” “Their experiments helped to test for the first time theoretical concepts, including wave-particle duality, non-locality, entanglement, which are the basis for systems of quantum communication, sensing and computing,” said TASS Mr Fedorov. Igor Zakharov, Senior Research Fellow at the Skoltech Laboratory for Quantum Information Processing, considered the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics as a sign that “the world has entered the era of quantum information processing.” Mr. Fedorov recalled that in 2017 Anton Zeilinger took part in the Chinese experiment with the Mo Tzu communications satellite, during which a distance record for quantum teleportation was set – 1.2 thousand km.
It is noteworthy that Mr. Zeilinger himself rejected the possibility of teleportation of people at a press conference of the Nobel Committee in Stockholm.
The Austrian scientist doubts that the achievements of quantum physics “will ever make it possible to instantly move people in space.”
“Through the use of the phenomenon of particle entanglement, it is possible to transfer all the information that an object carries on itself to another place where it is reassembled. But it is currently impossible to imagine such actions in relation to large physical bodies,” he explained.
The Nobel Prize will be awarded on December 10 in Stockholm: the laureates will share 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million). The first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1901 to the German Wilhelm Roentgen for the discovery of radiation named after him. Soviet and Russian physicists became laureates in this nomination 12 times. In 2021, Shukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselman and Giorgio Parisi received the award in this field for their research on physical modeling of the Earth’s climate and prediction of global warming.
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