Physics Nobel Prize Winners’ Research Shows Quantum Particles Can Communicate Faster Than the Speed of Light, Regardless of Distance

This year’s Physics Nobel Prize was awarded to the trio of quantum researchers John Clauser, Alain Aspect, and Anton Zeilinger "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities." 

The award marks the unpredictable evolution of quantum theory, whose debuts were marked by scepticism and controversy.  The three physicists have developed experimental tools to study quantum entangled states, where particles impact each other when separated. Their results have also laid the foundations for a new era in quantum information that could allow technologies like quantum computers and quantum cryptography. 

Once dubbed as “spooky action at distance” by Einstein himself, the phenomenon of entanglement explains how two particles can maintain opposite states- up or down- even at a great distance. This means if you have two entangled particles, by measuring the state of one particle, you can discern  the state of the second particle. No explanation for this “communication” has been found yet, but what is known is that this information passes between particles faster than the speed of light- the fastest known speed at which anything can travel. This means the contactless connection goes against principles of causal locality, which state objects can only be influenced by their immediate surroundings and that signalling cannot propagate faster than the speed of light.

Once two particles are entangled, any state modification in one of them will cause its partner to adopt the opposite state. 

In 1964, John Stuart Bell developed the theorisations that bear his name and laid the foundations of this year’s Nobel Prize. His questioning of quantum mechanics’ existence imagined a set of concrete scenarios that could prove quantum theory wrong or right, and argued that the only way quantum mechanics could explain their defiance of his reasoning was if it was ‘non-local’ due to hidden variables yet explained by physics. 

John Clauser started experimenting with Bell’s theorem less than half a decade later. His results proved Bell’s inequalities wrong, and thus supported quantum mechanics. With his daring work, Clauser was the first to prove the existence of quantum entanglement through practical experiments. 

In the 80s, Alain Aspect refined John Clauser’s experiment by reducing bias in measurement by regulating the entangled pairs’ setup. Aspect explains his aim was to “find the limits of quantum mechanics” and had to conclude that “yes, quantum mechanics resist all possible attacks”.

Quantum entanglement was then considered undisputable, which allowed Anton Zeilinger to manipulate it. His research team achieved many of the firsts in quantum information, including the ground-breaking discovery of quantum teleportation, where movement in the quantum state of one particle can impact that of its entangled partner.  Despite his numerous breakthroughs, Zeilinger declares “the very question “What does this really mean?”- in a basic way, is still unanswered in my eyes”.  

This remarkable ensemble of work is particularly promising for the development of quantum information technologies. Research is growing in this exciting field and could revolutionise the security and exchange of information, playing with the limits of our conception of matter.