Posted on 08/16/2008 11:39:34 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Physicists sent two photons down optical fibers toward different destinations, and found that the photons could instantly sense each other's behavior.
After performing multiple tests on two entangled photons, physicists have yet again found that the photons seem to be communicating faster than the speed of light - at least 100,000 times faster. The researchers hope that their results might encourage theorists to come up with new explanations for the strange quantum mechanical effect. The physicists, led by Nicolas Gisin from the University of Geneva, arranged their experiment by sending two photons down fiber optic cables to detectors in two Swiss villages located 18 km apart. Both photons started in Geneva, with one heading toward Satigny and the other toward Jussy. The study, which is published in Nature, builds on previous tests published a few months ago in Physical Review Letters.
When the researchers measured several properties of each photon at its destination, they found that the particles could instantly sense the other´s behavior without any known communication. Although this correlation obeys the laws of quantum mechanics, it seems to defy the nature of space and time, at least from humans´ everyday perspectives.
The physicists ruled out several possible classical explanations for the instantaneous communication. For one thing, they showed that the photons did not share information before leaving Geneva, and so they didn´t travel knowing about each other´s properties.
In another test, the scientists showed that no communication could have occurred through a different reference frame, as might happen because of the photons´ high speeds. According to Einstein´s theory of relativity, observers moving at high speeds can get different measurements of the same event because they have different reference frames. But, by performing tests over a complete rotation of the Earth, the researchers ruled out this possibility.
For now, Gisin´s team doesn´t have a good explanation as to how the seemingly instant correlations happen. Even though it doesn´t make sense to them, they hope that others might one day find a better understanding.
In a Nature News story, theorist Terence Rudolph at Imperial College London suggested that humans think that the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time that we´re used to should be the same everywhere, on all scales. But, he says, some things in quantum mechanics might transcend our view of space-time, and we just don´t get to see the whole picture.
"We think space and time are important because that´s the kind of monkeys we are," he said.
More information: Salart, D., Baas, A., Branciard, C., Gisin, N. & Zbinden, H. Nature, 454, 861-864 (2008).
No longer would we be bound by the speed of light in our communications.
In fact, this could be a wonderfully useful item in reducing the time it takes for solar flare information to arrive on Earth from a remote satellite or in even just with communicating information from halfway around the world without delay.
Ping for your String Theory group.
Did your series of experiments arrive at the same conclusion?
Because it’s the same photon (electron)!
They are two entangled photons, separated by many kilometers.
When one is affected, the other switches its spin with a time latency 100,000 times less than the speed of light, if light was somehow otherwise communicating the change.
Those pesky extra dimensions... Keeping the Universe in order.
I’m Bohmian about the whole thing. It’s not Spooky Action at a Distance, it’s an Enfolded Holographic Universe.
http://quantumweird.wordpress.com/quantum-weirdness-a-matter-of-relativity-part-5/
http://quantumweird.wordpress.com/quantum-weirdness-a-matter-of-relativity-part-5/
These sorts of statements, and the whole article is filled with them, are futile. They are an attempt to provide a classical heuristic for Quantum Kinematics, i.e. Quantum Laws, which are beyond the reach of classical conception.
... and what is this? Physics night?
"Your-great-learning-has-made-you-mad" alert.
This is an odd phenomena, and perhaps “odd” is the biggest understatement of all time.
Now Einstein and his followers were convinced that it was not possible, because at the time, there was no way to measure it. So he and his group speculated about “hidden variables”, in other words things like maybe an electron has more states that just it’s mass and charge and momentum.
Now Bell comes along. He proves:
Either Einsteins theory of locality was true, or quantum logic was true. There was no middle ground.
He also proves:
There is no “hidden variable” theory that could be added to classical or relativistic mechanics that would match the predictions of quantum logic.
So...
Bell, in an odd way, proved the multiverse theory. The universe is not a single thing sitting there, not a single set of rules.
There are rules that apply to things that are entirely consistent. There are other sets of rules that apply to the same time/place that are also entirely consistent.
Nothing in the first rule set invalidates anything in the second set, or vice versa.
The universe is pink.
The universe is blue.
Depends on where you are.
Also depends on who you are.
Also depends on where you are going and how fast.
Thanks for the post. Fascinating.
BTW, there is somewhat of a negative to the whole faster than light thingie.
Faster than light means we are not bound by space, but neither are we bound by time.
So if you get up in the morning and go out the front door and there’s a pterodactyl waiting there who rips your right arm off and flies away... well chit happens and it would be consistent with all the stuff Bell proved!
Faster than light means ALL space might be connected, and ALL TIME as well.
There is no instant communication at a distance faster than light. This will not lead to sending signals instantly throughout the universe. The scientists are seeing a phenomenon that they can’t explain, and are trying to explain it by saying stupid things.
My view is at the core of all things, be it matter, energy, photons, quarks, or something even smaller, exists “something” that pre-exists the Big Bang (cannot be created or destroyed). These things are “half-in and half-out” our universe. To me, this explains the phenomena of why linked photons appear to communicate faster than light - their communication link bypasses the universe’s 3-dimensional space (i.e., they communicate outside the universe, probably within the interstices between universes). Since “time” is within the universe, and “notime” is outside it, communication between any two points within the universe becomes instantaneous from our point of view.
This explains God’s omniscience - how he’s able to know anything, anywhere in the universe, as it happens. This also partially explains the bizarre biblical description that God commands inanimate objects (i.e., instead of doing an active action on an object, he commands it, expecting the “inanimate” object to both comprehend him and do what he commands).
Of course, Joseph Smith back in the 1830s came up with the idea of the “uncreated intelligence” that all things are built around, including our spirits, that is co-eternal with God and cannot be created or destroyed, not even by him, so it’s hardly original with me.
Now my head hurts and I’m dizzy...thanks a lot!
Of course, there's one other thing.
Maybe to get accurate answers, you just need the wave function for the entire universe, and work from that.
...and here's a pencil and two reams of paper. Good luck.
Cheers!
I read your interesting linked article. I was wondering if the relativistic effects the author attributes to photons travelling at c would be suspended if they were forced to travel slower than c, as in a solid medium. The last paragraph seems to indicate that solids don’t effect the behavior. I suspect that’s related to the strange fact that, even when slowed down, a photon can instantly “accelerate” back to c when it leaves the slow medium.
If you willing to read the discussion of the corellations and put a little energy into understanding it you will see that quantum mechanical theory correctly predicts the results of the experiment described in the article. That result, while counter-intuitive, is not surprising to anyone who understands quantum mechanics. But of course nobody actually understands quantum mechanical theory - they just know how to predict it's consequences.
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