The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, the story of quantum entanglement is really easy to understand
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(Taro Kotani: university teacher and science writer)
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Dr. Alain Aspe of France (1947-), USA, for his successes in establishing the field of quantum information by demonstrating that Bell’s inequality is violated by experiments using entangled quantum photons. Dr. John F. Krauser (1942-) from Austria and Dr. Anton Zeilinger (1945-) from Austria.
What is “quantum entanglement”? What is “Bell’s inequality”? What is the significance of their successes?
Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon like collecting all the wonders of “quantum mechanics” and boiling them in a crystal. Our common sense and intuition do not apply to quantum mechanics, which is the physical law of microscopic objects. Quantum entanglement and Bell’s inequality emerged. If we can control quantum entanglement, we will be able to control the microscopic world and create unlimited quantum computers. It is said.
However, the explanation for this problem is either a super difficult story sprinkled with quantum-mechanical unique spells like “bra” and “ket”, or as a result of avoiding mathematical formulas, it becomes a vague and incomprehensible story. it tends to be.
So let’s try to give an accurate explanation without using terms that are as difficult as possible. If you are frustrated with either explanation, please try again. (If it still doesn’t work … I’ll write again.)
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First, let me explain the historical significance of quantum entanglement experiments.
About 100 years ago, the structure of quantum mechanics, which is the physical law of microscopic objects, was developed by geniuses such as Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) and Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) L ‘we built in a short period of time.
The laws of physics were so strange that they contradicted the common sense of physics up to that point, and there were many people who could not accept such a strange claim. For example, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is one of them.
If we try to accurately determine the “position” or “momentum” of one microscopic particle, the other becomes uncertain. A microscopic particle whose velocity is measured does not know its exact location. If we measure the position of that particle, it will now have an indeterminate speed.
Thus, according to quantum mechanics, two physical quantities (depending on the combination) cannot be precisely determined simultaneously. This is impossible in principle, and is said to be impossible no matter how much experimental equipment has been devised. The laws of the universe prohibit determining both position and speed at the same time.
