Particles is additionally quantum entangled through time in addition as space [Mad Science]

Quantum entanglement says that two particles can become intertwined in order that they always share a similar properties, even supposing they’re separated in space. Now it kind of feels particles would be entangled in time, too. Who’s ready for some serious quantum weirdness?

Of all of the ideas in modern physics, quantum entanglement is a major contender for the absolute strangest. Basically, entangled particles share all their quantum properties, although they’re separated by massive distances in space. The really odd part is that any changes made to the properties of one particle will instantly occur inside the other particle. There are some subtle the explanation why this doesn’t actually violate the rate of light, but here’s the fast version: that is all very, very bizarre.

But all experiments in quantum entanglement have focused exclusively on spatial entanglement, because seriously…isn’t this already weird enough? Apparently not for physicists S. Jay Olson and Timothy C. Ralph of Australia’s University of Queensland, who have discovered a chain of thought experiments about the way to entangle particles across time.

Now, what the hell does that mean? Well, Olson explains:

” Essentially, a detector during the past is in a position to ‘capture’ some information on the state of the quantum field previously, and carry it forward in time to the longer term – here’s information that might ordinarily escape to a distant region of spacetime at the rate of light. When another detector then captures information on the state of the sector at a similar spatial location, the two detectors can then be compared side-by-side to work out if their state has become entangled within the usual sense that folks are conversant in – and we find that indeed they must be entangled. This process thus takes a seemingly exotic, new concept (timelike entanglement inside the field) and converts it into a well-recognized one (standard entanglement of two detectors at a given time sooner or later).”

That should still be a bit of confusing, so think of it this manner. The detectors are basically taking up the properties of their particles – if they share an identical properties, then the particles themselves are entangled. The first, ” past” detector stores one set of quantum properties, and then the second, ” future” detector measures a new set of properties at an analogous location as the first. The two sets of quantum properties are affecting each other a dead ringer for spatially entangled particles share a similar properties, but now it’s happening across time instead. Once the two detectors are brought together in time, the entanglement becomes the more normal (well, relatively speaking) style of spatial entanglement.

This could appear difficult to realize – I know I’m being affected by it – but that’s because we’re familiar with temporal events always being completely independent of one another. Both kinds of entanglement are counter-intuitive, to make certain, but it surely’s easier for us to imagine particles sharing properties in numerous parts of space than it really is different parts of time because we ourselves move through space so easily. And yet, from a physics perspective, there isn’t all that much of a difference between space and time, and definitely not enough to rule out temporal entanglement.

Now, it really is all still just hypothetical in the intervening time, but there is a theoretical basis for this and it could soon be possible to probe these ideas further with some experiments. Still, in case you’re up for just a little extra credit weirdness, here’s Olson and Ralph’s thought experiment for teleportation through time. Let’s say you might want to move a quantum state, or qubit, through time. You’ll need one detector coupled to a field inside the ” past” and another coupled to an analogous field in the ” future.” The first detector stores the information on the qubit and generates some data on how the qubit can be found again. The qubit is then teleported through time, effectively skipping the period in between the past and future detectors.

The first detector is removed and the second detector is put in precisely the same place, keeping the spatial symmetry in tact. The second detector eventually receives the necessary information from the first, and then it uses this to bring the qubit back, reconstructing it at some point. There’s a peculiar time symmetry to all this – let’s say the qubit is teleported at 12:00 and the first detector gather its information at 11:45. That fifteen-minute gap must exist in both direction, and it’s impossible to reconstruct the qubit until 12:15 rolls around.

Obviously, these are all deeply strange, epically counter-intuitive ideas right at the bleeding edge of what modern physics can conceptualize. But it surely’s also very awesome. And as soon as I even begin to grasp it, I’m sure it’ll get even more awesome.

[ arXiv ]

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This post is tagged: distances in space, entangled particles, quantum entanglement, quantum properties, quantum weirdness, thought experiments, university of queensland