On October 4, 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 to Alain Aspect (France), John F. Clauser (USA) and Anton Zeilinger (Austria) for their work on quantum mechanics.
- The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities, and pioneering quantum information science.
Key points
- The 2022 physics laureates’ development of experimental tools has laid the foundation for a new era of quantum technology.
- Being able to manipulate and manage quantum states and all their layers of properties gives us access to tools with unexpected potential.
- Intense research and development are underway to utilise the special properties of individual particle systems to construct quantum computers, improve measurements, build quantum networks and establish secure quantum encrypted communication.
- This year’s Nobel Prize laureate John Clauser built an apparatus that emitted two entangled photons at a time, each towards a filter that tested their polarisation. The result was a clear violation of a Bell inequality and agreed with the predictions of quantum mechanics.
- Alain Aspect developed a setup to close an important loophole. He was able to switch the measurement settings after an entangled pair had left its source, so the setting that existed when they were emitted could not affect the result.
- Anton Zeilinger researched entangled quantum states. His research group has demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation, which makes it possible to move a quantum state from one particle to one at a distance.
- The 2022 Nobel Prize laureates in physics have conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated. The results have cleared the way for new technology based upon quantum information.
Quantum entanglement
- Albert Einstein referred to the phenomenon of quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance.” Einstein was describing a counterintuitive property of certain pairs of tiny particles of matter or light which, when created under specific conditions in a laboratory, will react in tandem even if they are too far apart to affect each other.
- For example, if the polarization of a single photon in an entangled pair is changed, the other photon’s polarization will also change instantaneously — even though the two photons may be separated by a large distance.
- All three researchers (now Nobel laureates ) fundamental discoveries provided a new understanding of nature at the quantum scale and a foundation for new technologies such as quantum computers, secure communications and networks that transmit information through entanglement.
