. 24/7 Space News .
TIME AND SPACE
Historic Delft experiments tests Einstein's 'God does not play dice' theory
by Staff Writers
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Oct 22, 2015


This is an artistic impression of the entanglement between electrons. Image courtesy ICFO. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Random number generators developed at ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences, by the groups of ICREA Professors Morgan W. Mitchell and Valerio Pruneri, played a critical role in the historic experiment was published online in Nature by the group of Ronald Hanson at TU Delft. The experiment gives the strongest refutation to date of Albert Einstein's principle of "local realism," which says that the universe obeys laws, not chance, and that there is no communication faster than light.

As described in Hanson's group web the Delft experiment first "entangled" two electrons trapped inside two different diamond crystals, and then measured the electrons' orientations. In quantum theory entanglement is powerful and mysterious: mathematically the two electrons are described by a single "wave-function" that only specifies whether they agree or disagree, not which direction either spin points.

In a mathematical sense, they lose their identities. "Local realism" attempts to explain the same phenomena with less mystery, saying that the particles must be pointing somewhere, we just don't know their directions until we measure them.

When measured, the Delft electrons did indeed appear individually random while agreeing very well. So well, in fact, that they cannot have had pre-existing orientations, as realism claims. This behaviour is only possible if the electrons communicate with each other, something that is very surprising for electrons trapped in different crystals.

But here's the amazing part: in the Delft experiment, the diamonds were in different buildings, 1.3 km away from each other. Moreover, the measurements were made so quickly that there wasn't time for the electrons to communicate, not even with signals traveling at the speed of light.

This puts "local realism" in a very tight spot: if the electron orientations are real, the electrons must have communicated. But if they communicated, they must have done so faster than the speed of light. There's no way out, and local realism is disproven. Either God does play "dice" with the universe, or electron spins can talk to each other faster than the speed of light.

This amazing experiment called for extremely fast, unpredictable decisions about how to measure the electron orientations. If the measurements had been predictable, the electrons could have agreed in advance which way to point, simulating communications where there wasn't really any, a gap in the experimental proof known as a "loophole."

To close this loophole, the Delft team turned to ICFO, who hold the record for the fastest quantum random number generators. ICFO designed a pair of "quantum dice" for the experiment: a special version of their patented random number generation technology, including very fast "randomness extraction" electronics.

This produced one extremely pure random bit for each measurement made in the Delft experiment. The bits were produced in about 100 ns, the time it takes light to travel just 30 meters, not nearly enough time for the electrons to communicate.

"Delft asked us to go beyond the state of the art in random number generation. Never before has an experiment required such good random numbers in such a short time." Says Carlos Abellan, a PhD student at ICFO and a co-author of the Delft study.

For the ICFO team, the participation in the Delft experiment was more than a chance to contribute to fundamental physics. Prof. Morgan Mitchell comments: "Working on this experiment pushed us to develop technologies that we can now apply to improve communications security and high-performance computing, other areas that require high-speed and high-quality random numbers."

With the help of ICFO's quantum random number generators, the Delft experiment gives a nearly perfect disproof of Einstein's world-view, in which "nothing travels faster than light" and "God does not play dice." At least one of these statements must be wrong. The laws that govern the Universe may indeed be a throw of the dice.

"Loophole-free Bell inequality violation using electron spins separated by 1.3 kilometres"


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences
Understanding Time and Space






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
TIME AND SPACE
Evolution of the universe in an unmatched precision
Munich, Germany (SPX) Oct 22, 2015
Within modern cosmology, the Big Bang marks the beginning of the universe and the creation of matter, space and time about 13.8 billion years ago. Since then, the visible structures of the cosmos have developed: billions of galaxies which bind gas, dust, stars and planets with gravity and host supermassive black holes in their centres. But how could these visible structures have formed from the ... read more


TIME AND SPACE
Europe-Russia Lunar mission will make them friends again

Mound near lunar south pole formed by unique volcanic process

Lunar Pox

Space startup confirms plans for robotic moon landings

TIME AND SPACE
Landing site recommended for ExoMars 2018

You too can learn to farm on Mars

The Martian Astrobiologist

Opportunity parked for solar panels to charge up for winter

TIME AND SPACE
Hold on to your hoverboard: 'Back to the Future' is now

Journaling: Astronauts chronicle missions

Brands eye big bucks with 'Back to the Future' nostalgia

Russian Cosmonauts Taste 160 Meals Ahead of Space Station Expedition

TIME AND SPACE
China aims to go deeper into space

Latest Mars film bespeaks potential of China-U.S. space cooperation

Exhibition on "father of Chinese rocketry" opens in U.S.

The First Meeting of the U.S.-China Space Dialogue

TIME AND SPACE
RSC Energia patented inflatable space module for ISS

Clearing the Space Fog on ISS

International Space Agencies Meet to Advance Space Exploration

Meet the International Docking Adapter

TIME AND SPACE
ORBCOMM Announces Launch Window For Second OG2 Mission

10th Anniversary of the Final Titan

China puts new communication satellite into orbit for HK company

ISRO to Launch 6 Singapore Satellites in December

TIME AND SPACE
Cosmic 'Death Star' is destroying a planet

Most earth-like worlds have yet to be born, according to theoretical study

Airbus DS ready to start testing exoplanet tracker CHEOPS

Hubble Telescope Spots Mysterious Space Objects

TIME AND SPACE
U.S. Air Force long-range radar systems reach full operational capability

A 'hot' new development for ultracold magnetic sensors

Mother-of-pearl's genesis identified in mineral's transformation

Exciting breakthrough in 2-D lasers









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.