112. Quantum Entanglement & the Cosmic Bell Test | THUNK

Quantum physics is weird as hell, but this entanglement experiment using stars is simply beautiful.

-Links for the Curious-

[BarryKort]

@7:40 "Bell proved mathematically that if the particles were switching between values _in synch_ according to some "hidden variable" then you would have to see a straight line of correlation ...."

Therein lies the rub. The assumption that the time-varying hidden variables are _in synch_ requires the assumption of a common master clock that pervades the cosmos.

But from General Relativity, we know that clocks are affected by gravity. If there are any gravitational gradients, then the twin particles don't age in perfect phase-locked synchrony. In the derivation of Bell's Inequality, one would be obliged to introduce a residual non-zero "beat frequency" that doesn't vanish from the math.

This is why Bell's Inequality is violated. We live in a cosmos permeated by gravitational gradients, so that timekeeping is not uniform everywhere and everywhen in the cosmos.
Time itself is the not-so-hidden variable that cannot be overlooked or ignored.

Einstein might have called that "spooky timekeeping at a distance."

[Proxyneta]

I did the math of light getting to earth and I'm getting 1.28sec, how did you get 1.8sec at 5:42 ?

[ericemanalang]

We know that entanglement works no matter what, so I believe its much like randomly sending you one glove and me the other. Although the routes can be random or ever changing, none of this matters because we will eventually receive the gloves, one left and other a right hand glove. This way, light being present as well as many other factors are completely irrevelant and we need not maintain any form of communications, because no matter where we end up or where will be, I will always have the opposite glove that you do. So my theory states that nothing is necessarily predetermined, however, even in complete randomness, something entangled is nothing more than an equally and opposite pairing. It wouldn't matter when we choose to take any measurements or even to know where the gloves are currently located in spacetime, because no matter what happens, this never changes the fact that there are opposite gloves. With this being said, it is proven that no matter what happens after the gloves are sent out; no matter how or where they end up or how they got there is not needed to be known and we instantly know upon seeing one of the gloves that the other glove has to be the left if the first was right, and vice versa. So, if you consider this type of information as being faster than the speed of light, provided that we are covering greater distances than light can travel from the source to the other glove than me "realizing" which glove you possess; it is actually true in the sense of "realization" that you have the opposite glove from me, assuming both gloves are father apart in space than it would take light to travel that same distance. However, going a bit deeper, we can also say that although I may be able to realize that the glove I receive is the invert of the other faster than light can travel that same distance, this doesn't mean that I can communicate this information faster than the speed of light to the other glove's physical location, or even to any other location for that matter, proving that my knowledge of which glove you have is irrevelant and uninportant since I have no way to communicate anything to you instantaneously after seeing which glove I have. So, in conclusion, this is no phenomenon or "spooky action" but rather a fact of life, proving that it does me absolutely no favors at all to know the state of the other electron, since I cannot "communicate" anything that I "realize" faster than the speed of light. This is the same reason why the sun immediately disappearing would have no immediate effect on us at all, but rather, we wouldn't be affected until after about 8 minutes later when the information reaches us in the form light, at the speed of light! One benefit that we may be able to one day exploit due to entanglement would be the "consciousness" of a catastrophic event before it happens, even long before it happens if we knew the location of an electron entangled at that event compared to one here on earth. For example, the sun disappearing could be "realized" instantly, giving us in that scenario an approximated 8 minute head start on preparation.

[String.Epsilon]

Coolest experiment ever? Delayed Choice Quantuum Eraser.

[LeeCarlson]

I love it when somebody gets on board Einstein's "hidden variable" theory.

[alexozzie]

Would it be possible to use entangled particles to learn about black holes and vice versa? Like throw one half of an entangled pair into a hypothetical black hole, then see what the corresponding particle makes of itself afterwards.

[Theox]

Should have mentioned that you can't use spooky action at a distance to convey information faster than the speed of light. This is the reason why people usually say that entanglement doesn't violate relativity.

[tn]

This also makes Epistemology more difficult than it already is...

[MartinLichtblau]

String theory allows many explanations. If there are other dimensions particles could communicate through them or only seem like they are apart while still being on the same point. #StringTheory #Multiverse #Hyperspace

[NyteRazor]

Has there been any experiment to prove/disprove that information is/is not being sent between the particles? Maybe it's the same particle but in two places at the same time? Also, can we entangle particles in a way to use them as a communication device? That would be fascinating.

[judgeomega]

at 8:15 you gloss over the most crucial and key aspect of the entire subject. how does the curve from experimental data imply faster than light travel? iv have been searching for this answer all morning and NOONE gets right down to experimental results. i thought you were gonna do it, everything in your video looked like this was it... until it wasnt

[jaredmistretta]

If the universe is deterministic then entanglment IS observation and vice versa. It's not that the particles have "planned" their behavior in advance or that they are comunicating with eachother at greater then the speed of light. The results are emergent of the unobservable deterministic rule set by which values are resolved and discretized.

The uncertinaty principle is not a result of probability functions but from the discrete nature of our universe. The universe can only be resolved to a planke length, beyond that we are unable to discretize the value of the observation.

[bdbs]

What are the implications of all this to causality, that central tenant of all the natural sciences? Haven't philosophers like Hume, Kant, Popper, etc. firmly established that causality is a construct that, albeit useful to us, is not logically true? Does entanglement finally show us an instance of the limits of causality in explaining natural phenomena?

Great video btw! Should do more on fundamental questions of physics and philosophy.

[noddwyd]

So the answer is its both predetermined and random?

[boajlp]

Quantum Entanglement doesn't contradict relativity. C is the speed limit on information. When A is measured to be vertical, B does NOT "know" to be horizontal because it received information from A faster than light. It is just the wave function collapse than moves faster than light... Which is fine. Just as a shadow can 'move' (in a sense) faster than light.

[rondavison]

Not buying the straight line should be argument between the triangle and Gaussian curve that looks like a cosine cycle.
As the angle approaches 90 degrees the ability to tell +-3 degrees is washed out by the fact that the polarization and polariziser angles are so close to one over a large angles relative to the precision relative to its quantum companion accuracy at the zero crossing that provides little error when polarizer and polariized are othogonal.
Just an SOS-EE's thought's...
have fun shooting them down with your quanta of thoughts, correlated or not!

[aBigBadWolf]

that was very good, thanks. a little more on the math of the experiment would have been nice too. maybe there is something wrong in their experiment setup? and should this not disprove ideas like the pilot wave theory?

[Ensivion]

If this experiment proves that the wavefunction is a "real" thing, doesn't that mean that electrons in an atom are just a "smear" around the nucleus? In my chem courses, we said that the probability technically went to infinity (those pretty pictures of s p d f orbitals actually went to infinity). If the wavefunctions went to infinity, couldn't the entangled particles ALWAYS be interacting with each other (even if the overlap is really small) thus the information was always communicating. The premise that I'm questioning is that when you separate the particles, that they actually are communicating.

[chickenmonkey]

Not a physicists by far, but I have wondered for a while now if particles acting like waves and seeming to be in multiple places at once is a function of relativity. A photon moves in a straight line at the speed of light, but doesn't it also move in a wave? If so, in its wave like motion, isn't it moving faster than the speed of light? Maybe that causes it to be in multiple places at once like a Lorentz transformation or like its motion has exceeded the frame rate of reality and so now it's in multiple places at the same time. I'm sure I'm way off base somehow, but it's always seemed like an interesting idea to me.

[cyclerical]

More, more, more, MORE!!!! Like this :)