Quantum Entanglement Explained-Long Distance Teleportation and Communication
What is quantum entanglement?
In simple words, quantum entanglement is a way of changing the state of a particle by changing the state of another particle, which may be separated by a large distance. The idea behind it is that one particle becomes entangled with the other one or create a sort of bonding with the other particle with which it get entangled. One surprising thing about this phenomena is that both the particles taking part in the entanglement do not transmit any data or information between them, instead one takes another one as a reference to change its state so as both can maintain sameness with their states.
A pair of entangled particles always acts like a single object in the sense that both of them will have the same states or in some way they are co-related. It may surprise you that how the two particles separated by some distance may have the exact states since information can only travel with the speed of light, which cannot be surpassed according to special theory of relativity. But the speed of light plays a role when you deal with the locality of a particle. Non-locality is the property of quantum mechanics, which does not rely on locality concept of the classical physics .So, in this case there is no question for information to pass between the particles in order to maintain the same states, even when you change the state of one particle the other one change its state simultaneously. To better understand quantum states, you may need to read about quantum superposition, which explains how the state of a partical changes when an observer look at it.
Note: locality means the state of an object get influenced by the states of its surrounding objects and environments. Quantum physics or mechanics is considered to be the theory of physics that was established after Newtonian or classical physics.
Has quantum entanglement been proven scientifically?
Yes, entanglement of particles is a part of quantum mechanics and it has been proven experimentally. There is no dispute in the scientific community about the acceptance of this property as a fundamental part of quantum mechanics.
Some facts you need to know to fully understand entanglement process
- Classical physics rely on locally to explain the interaction between particles.
- Quantum mechanics is based on the principle of non-locality, which means that the two objects to form entanglement do not necessarily have to be on the same place. They can be thousands mile apart yet share the same kind of state.
- By measuring the states of one particle you can know the state of the other particle that is entangled with the first one or vice versa.
- When you try to measure the state of a particle only then it has a measurable or determined state. In other words, the position of particles do not have any determined or specific state before the measurement; it becomes conscious of your measurement when you try to do so-this concept might be a bit difficult to digest but this really happens in the quantum world.
- By the term measuring states I mean the measurement of position and polarity of a particle.
- In order to quantum entanglement take place there is no need to pass any kind of information between the particles. This happens instantaneously. So, this speed of light has no function to play with this phenomenon.
- The entangled particles work as a single object as far as their states are connected. When you measure the state of one particle you can readily know the state of the other particle irrespective of the distance between them and this distance can be of any imaginable number.
Things you need to know about particles
Electron and proton cannot transfer energy. To transfer energy they need the help of some sort of energy carrier particles. These energy carrier particles are photons-the light bearer. In simple words, photons carry energy for us. Photon is a mass-less particle which has wave like properties. To understand entanglement of quantum states you need to understand the two properties of photon: its spin and polarization. As you know our earth spins on its own axis, exactly the same way a photon has its spin. Another property of photon is polarization which is basically its direction of vibration between the two extreme points. Normally, polarization takes in a plane that is perpendicular to the path of propagation of a photon. So, when a photon starts its journey, say in a straight line, it will have spin, polarization.
Entanglement: it means any two particles can have a correlation between its states: spin and polarization. If you measure one of them in a room, then you can know the spin and polarization of the other one located millions of miles apart. But before the correlation both the particles need to make a pair by entanglement which happens at the quantum level and it has the property of non-locality. The level of entanglement can be physically measured and verified.
Practical applications of quantum entanglement?
Based on the particle entanglement theory, the quantum computing is nearly on the pipeline of the production process. The other important practice application of it is quantum teleportation, and cryptography. Unlike the way we normal people conceive of teleportation, quantum teleportation is all about the state teleportation.
Quantum entanglement is an essential part of quantum physics and in the first place it is really an esoteric concept to get a concrete grasp with .I hope this article helps you to learn more about quantum physics.