Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

NASA Researchers Put New Spin On Einstein's Relativity Theory
Science Daily | NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ^ | 10 April 2003

Posted on 04/10/2003 11:37:49 AM PDT by sourcery

Albert Einstein might be astonished to learn that NASA physicists have applied his relativity theory to a concept he introduced but later disliked namely that two particles that interact could maintain a connection even if separated by a vast distance. Researchers often refer to this connection as "entanglement."

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have discovered that this entanglement is relative, depending on how fast an observer moves with respect to the particles, and that entanglement can be created or destroyed just by relative motion. This might change the way entanglement is used on future spacecraft that move with respect to Earth or with each other.

"Imagine a particle on Earth entangled with a particle light years away," said Dr. Christoph Adami, principal scientist in the Quantum Computing Technologies Group at JPL. "Whatever happens to particle A on Earth happens to particle B, even if it is on another planet. Einstein referred to this connection as 'spooky'."

Einstein thought this connection violated the relativity rule that information can't travel faster than the speed of light. Adami and Dr. Robert Gingrich, also of JPL, are the first to apply Einstein's relativity theory to quantum entanglement between particles. They compared the amount of entanglement when the particles were at rest to when they were given a boost. Their findings show that while speeding up ordinary entangled pairs would lead to a loss of the precious entanglement, certain special pairs can be created whose entanglement is increased instead. This increases the connection between them.

Understanding how some of the characteristics of a particle can become entangled through relative motion alone when they seemed to be unentangled or unconnected when at rest could have many applications. For example, entangled particles could be used to synchronize atomic clocks, which are essential for navigating spacecraft in deep space.

"One of the amazing things about entanglement is that it connects objects over arbitrary distances, so that in principle the two clocks could be started and stopped simply by acting on only one of them," said Adami. "However, no workable protocol has been found to date to achieve that."

Because the creation of entanglement in the laboratory is usually a delicate matter, discovering new ways to create entanglement is always a goal of the quantum technology community.

"If you can create entanglement just by moving with respect to what you're measuring, then seemingly you've created something from nothing," said Gingrich.

Another possible application of entanglement is quantum teleportation: the ability to transfer the precise quantum state of one microscopic object to another, while using only traditional communications, such as a phone line. This technique, which has been demonstrated experimentally, requires that the sender and receiver share pairs of entangled particles. But until now nobody knew what would happen to these pairs if the sender and receiver move with respect to each other, or if an observer moves with respect to them. This new theory gives researchers a whole new outlook on what happens to particle pairs when you apply the relativity theory.

The research also has ramifications for ongoing work in the area of quantum computation, which seeks to use the subtle effects of quantum mechanics to build faster and more efficient computers.

"Whenever new ground is treaded by theory, new applications are sure to follow in its wake," said Adami.

Gingrich and Adami's findings appeared in a paper they co-authored titled, "Quantum Entanglement of Moving Bodies," which appeared in the December 2002 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

The Quantum Computing Technologies Group at JPL investigates the design and capabilities of hypothetical computing and measurement devices that use delicate quantum effects for enhanced power and accuracy for future space missions.

More information is available at http://cs.jpl.nasa.gov/qct/qat.html.

NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C. provided funding for this work. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.


TOPICS: Technical
KEYWORDS: crevolist; realscience; stringtheory
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

1 posted on 04/10/2003 11:37:49 AM PDT by sourcery
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: A tall man in a cowboy hat; Libertarianize the GOP; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Free the USA
FYI
2 posted on 04/10/2003 11:38:48 AM PDT by sourcery (The Oracle on Mount Doom)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
The king and queen of the free ride

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD-
It is in the breaking news sidebar!



3 posted on 04/10/2003 11:42:35 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
"If you can create entanglement just by moving with respect to what you're measuring, then seemingly you've created something from nothing," said Gingrich.

Newt, stop it; it sounds like you're talking to your "ex" again...

4 posted on 04/10/2003 11:44:10 AM PDT by meandog (tR)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
Ya, sure... no problem...

Elementary actually...
5 posted on 04/10/2003 11:50:58 AM PDT by sit-rep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
Einstein thought this connection violated the relativity rule that information can't travel faster than the speed of light.

Good article. Quantum entanglement is a hot field.

Einstein's model concerned the apparent speed of propagation of electromagnetic phenomena--photons. He threw in gravity effects for reasons known only to him. If you are talking about electric and magnetic fields, they propagate at a natural speed which is c in a vacuum. Einstein also gave photons a certain amount of validity. Photons are still debateable as to whether there is any such particle. Point is, if you are using E-M effects to transmit information, the natural speed is c, but you can generate other speeds using phase shift propagation. If some other fields besides electromagnetic fields are used, speeds might be different. Not enough data as yet.

6 posted on 04/10/2003 11:51:24 AM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
You beat me to it. I just posted this, but it got pulled for being a duplicate.
7 posted on 04/10/2003 11:53:59 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
God works in "spooky" ways.
8 posted on 04/10/2003 11:55:10 AM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightWhale
The photoelectric effect would seem to indicate that the photon behaves like a particle in some cases.
9 posted on 04/10/2003 11:55:37 AM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: VadeRetro; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; *crevo_list; RadioAstronomer; Scully; Piltdown_Woman; ...
Ping (this is the original thread, my duplicate is gone).

[This ping list is for the evolution -- not creationism -- side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. To be added (or dropped), let me know via freepmail.]

10 posted on 04/10/2003 11:55:39 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry
There is always the risk that between the time one searches to see whether an article has already been posted, and the time at which one can post the article oneself, that someone else may post the same article.

A two-phase commit architecture would solve the problem--but I don't think it would be worth the effort :-)
11 posted on 04/10/2003 12:05:07 PM PDT by sourcery (The Oracle on Mount Doom)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
Didn't George Washington warn us about this? Have we learned nothing??
12 posted on 04/10/2003 12:06:25 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: *RealScience
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
13 posted on 04/10/2003 12:13:16 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Doctor Stochastic
The photoelectric effect

Yes.

Nevertheless, I am unalterably opposed to the tyranny of the theory of relativity. I cannot accept the word of authorities in this matter.

14 posted on 04/10/2003 12:13:37 PM PDT by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
....of course this could be explained by entanglement.
15 posted on 04/10/2003 12:16:14 PM PDT by taxed2death (A few billion here, a few trillion there...we're all friends right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Doctor Stochastic
The photoelectric effect would seem to indicate that the photon behaves like a particle in some cases.

Carver Mead disagrees ...

16 posted on 04/10/2003 12:19:27 PM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee (const vector<tag>& theTags)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: taxed2death
Or by relativistic effects messing around with the clocks in our respective reference frames (or is that HTML frames?) :-)
17 posted on 04/10/2003 12:27:26 PM PDT by sourcery (The Oracle on Mount Doom)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
"However, no workable protocol has been found to date to achieve that."

Hey, just wing it:


18 posted on 04/10/2003 12:44:38 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
There is always the risk that between the time one searches to see whether an article has already been posted, and the time at which one can post the article oneself, that someone else may post the same article.

This is known as the Uncertainty Principle. :-)

19 posted on 04/10/2003 1:15:40 PM PDT by Diddley (It's all relative.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: sourcery
There is always the risk that between the time one searches to see whether an article has already been posted, and the time at which one can post the article oneself, that someone else may post the same article.

My duplicate posting was only 7 minutes after yours, so I don't know how the problem could have been avoided. I did a search (on Einstein and on NASA), and nothing turned up.

20 posted on 04/10/2003 1:24:32 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson