We. Live in a world where objects, have permanence. And. We. See cause then. Effect. But. A startling, phenomenon. Is revealing, that this is not how the universe works, at the smallest scales, of atoms and tiny particles. Albert. Einstein argued, it couldn't, possibly be real, einstein, was like a jack-in-the-box every, day he pop up with a new challenge but, after a century of disputes, and discoveries, the. Experiment, just beautiful, we're. Using it to create revolutionary. New technologies. What. We have here is a, quantum, playground, we. Want to push the technology, as both, possible, it's perhaps the strangest concept. In physics we're, left with conclusions that make no sense whatsoever yet. It could be what forms the very fabric, of our cosmos, in the end we just have this quantum, mechanical, world there's no space anymore it's. Like being an Alice in Wonderland everything. Is possible, could. It be real. It's. Einstein's, quantum. Riddle, right. Now on, Nova. Major. Funding for Nova is provided by, the, following. Is. Reality, and illusion. Could. Something here. Mysteriously. Effect something, there. A century. Of discoveries, in physics reveals. A strange counterintuitive. Microworld. Of atoms and tiny particles, that. Challenges, our intuitive, understanding. Of the world we see around us. It's. Known as quantum, mechanics. This. Strange, theory, has enabled us to develop the remarkable, technologies. Of our digital, age. But. It makes a very troubling, prediction. Called. Quantum, entanglement. Entitlement. Is this very, powerful but. Strange, connection, that. Exists between pairs of particles. Even. If they very far apart in, the way they're always coordinated. Nature's. Fundamental. Building blocks could be connected, and influence. Each other instantaneously. As if. The space between them doesn't, exist as, if. Two, objects, can mirror each other without, any apparent, connection. Einstein. Called it spooky, action at, a distance he. Rejected the idea I tried, to prove it couldn't, be real you, could have situations, where the, cause and the effect happen, at the same time. But. If entanglement, isn't real, cutting-edge. Technologies. Could be in jeopardy, quantum. Computers, quantum, encryption they, depend, on entanglement being a fact in the world. Underlying. It all is a profound, question. Do. We live in Einstein's universe. Of common-sense laws. Or. A bizarre, quantum. Reality, that, allows spooky, connections, across, space, and time. 300. Miles off the coast of West Africa on. One of the Canary Islands, a team.
Of Physicists, is, setting up a remarkable, experiment, that will use almost the entire breadth, of the universe. To. Settle the question. Is. The seemingly, impossible, phenomenon. Of quantum entanglement an illusion. Or. Is it actually, real. Leading. The team is Anton, Zeilinger. In, towards, the rock. Gideros ChaCha's. It's, perfect, today. It's. A precarious, undertaking. They've. Got a short window on two of Europe's largest telescopes. Each. One will simultaneously focus. On a different quasar, an, extremely. Distant galaxy, emitting. Huge amounts, of light from its core. This. Light will, be used to control precise, equipment, that, must be perfectly, aligned to, make measurements on tiny subatomic, particles. And. If, that isn't tricky enough the. Weather on the mountain is notoriously unpredictable. The. Team needs perfect, conditions, for the experiment, to work. In the end it could be running smoothly for. This. Little bit a couple decisions, made you. Know in, the extracted, state in the last instance. With. The experiment finally. Set up the. Team takes their positions. David. Kiser has worked on this experiment with his colleagues Jason, Colicchio and Andy, Friedman for, four years. Coordinating. It all is Dominic Roush, the. Experiment, is his thesis project, and it's, been years, in the making but. As. Darkness falls, temperatures. On the mountain begin to drop. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's bad news they, have been told to leave the villain partial because the road will be so dangerous too dangerous so they have to go, down there yeah. The. Next day the. Team prepares for, another attempt. They. Verify, the equipment, hasn't been affected by the weather. But, now the, air is thick with clouds. Yes, the humidity, with the various telescopes, and you see the. Humidity, is all that percent so. As long as this. Lasts. We. Can't do much. The. Teams at both telescopes. Wait. But. The clouds don't, clear. All, the preparation, has, come to nothing. Time. On these huge telescopes, is precious and, theirs. Has, run out, this. Ambitious, test of quantum entanglement must. Wait. Why. Are physicists. So determined, to put this bizarre, aspect, of quantum mechanics, to the ultimate, test to. Explore. The beginning of the story David, Kaiser has come to Brussels. The. City that Albert Einstein, traveled to in 1927. To, attend, a meeting about a new theory, that described, the microworld of atoms and tiny particles. Quantum. Mechanics. Quantum. Mechanics is one of those amazing, intellectual. Achievements, in human history. For. The first time scientists. Were able to probe. A world, that was until. Then quite, invisible to us looking. At the world at the scale of atoms a million. Times smaller than the, width of a human hair one. Way to think about the scales is that if you take an everyday object like a soccer ball. And. You. Enlarge, that soccer ball so that actually you can see the, individual, atoms you're, if you have to make it the. Size of the earth and. Then. Move, into that planet. Then. You are in, the world of atoms and particles. It. Was the nature of fundamental. Particles, which make up the world we, see around us, that, Einstein, had come to Brussels, to discuss and. It. Was here that Einstein, entered into a heated debate that. Would lead to the discovery of quantum. Entanglement. A concept. That would trouble him for, the rest of his life. David. Kiser has come to the place where it all began. This. Is the original Solvay, Institute, building, beautiful. Grand building, and this is the place, back in October. 1927. Where. The fifth Sauve conference was held, there's. An amazing, week, long series of discussions, on really, what the world is made of on the nature of matter the, new quantum, theory and these. Steps, are, the very steps. On. Which this famous. Group, photograph, was taken is. A collection, of some, of the most brilliant, people in the world here. In the front row we, see Albert Einstein, and the great Marie Curie INBOX plunk in the back row standing, the dapper, Aaron Schrodinger, and he's could have brash 20 year olds in mid 20s Verner, Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli. These. Scientists. Were the pioneers of quantum, mechanics, I had. A huge, version, of this photograph up on the wall was a poster, in my college dorm room my roommates. Had their favorite bands and I had to the 1927. Solvay conference which. Says a lot, this. Was one of the greatest meetings, of minds in history. More. Than half were, or would become, Nobel.
Prize Winners. Their. Experiments. Were showing that. Deep inside matter, tiny. Particles, like, atoms and, their orbiting, electrons, were. Not solid, little spheres. They. Seemed fuzzy, and, undefined. So. This, group here this these these were the folks who had just been. Plumbing. Deeper, and deeper and deeper to. Find what, they hope will be a bedrock, of what the world is made of and to, their surprise they found things, less and less solid, as they dug in this, world was not tiny, little bricks that got smaller smaller at some point the bricks gave way to this mush, and what. Looked like solidity, solidness, in fact became very confusing, and and kind, of a whole new way of thinking about nature. The. Theory of quantum mechanics. Presented, at the meeting was. Strange. It. Said that a particle like, an electron, isn't. Physically, real, until. It's observed. Measured. By an instrument that can detect, it. Before. It's detected, instead. Of being a solid, particle an electron. Is just, a fuzzy, wave a, wave. Of, probability. These. Objects. Like electrons, are atoms, when we describe mathematically. Their. Behavior, the only thing we can describe is the probability. Of being, at one place, or another, it's. Like a wave of all those different possibilities, it's. Not that the electron is in, one place or the other we just don't know is that, the electron really, is a combination. Of every possible, place it could be until. We look at it. Quantum. Mechanics, only, tells us the probability of a particles, properties, like. Location. Laws. Of nature were no longer definite. Statements, about what's going to happen next, they, were just statements, about probabilities, and. Einstein, thought well that's defeat, you're, giving up on the, heart of what physics, has been namely. To give a complete, description of reality. For. Einstein. The. Idea that particles, only pop, into existence when, they're observed, is. Akin to magic. It, said he asked, do, you really believe the moon is not there when you are not looking at it. Outside. Of the formal setting of the conference. He. Challenged, the most vocal supporter, of these ideas, the. Great Danish, physicist, Niels Bohr. Eyesight. Would show up to breakfast, at the hotel and, Niels, Bohr would be there and Iceland.
Would Present his latest challenge Niels. Bohr was sort of mumble, and Wonder, and and, confer, with his younger colleagues, they'd head off to the formal, meeting at the Institute and somehow. Every, night by suppertime Bohr, would have an answer one. Of the observers said that Einstein, was like a jack-in-the-box every, day he'd pop up with a new challenge and Bohr. Would flip, this way in that in the end by supper have crushed that one and it would start all over again. -. Bohr and his colleagues, quantum. Mechanics, not only explained, experimental. Results, it's. Mathematics. Were elegant, and beautiful. And. Since. Einstein hadn't. Found flaws in their equations, they. Left the solve a meeting feeling, more confident, than ever in their ideas. But. Einstein, didn't, give up his conviction, that quantum, mechanics was. Flawed and. In. His refusal to accept the weird implications. Of the theory, he. Would wind up uncovering, something, even, weirder. In. 1933. With, the Nazi Party in power in Germany, Einstein. Chose to settle in America and took. A position at the Institute, for Advanced Study in, Princeton New, Jersey. He. Recruited two physicists, to help him Nathan. Rosen and Boris. Podolsky and. In. 1935. At afternoon, tea. The. Three men spotted a possible, flaw in quantum, mechanics that. Would shake the very foundations. Of the theory. They. Noticed that the mathematics, of quantum mechanics. Led. To a seemingly, impossible, situation. Today. Robert. Dygraf, is the director, of the Institute. Apparently. Poodles can say well professor Einstein this. Is very important, in your arguments. Showing. That quantum. Theory is incomplete. So. The god is very animated, discussion, and what happened. Still is now you have a bunch of scientists. Discussing, and at some point someone. Says let's write a paper together so. They did. Their. Paper known. Today as EPR. Argued. That the equations, of quantum mechanics. Predicted. An impossible, connection. Between particles. A. Seemingly. Magical effect. It. Would be like having two particles. Each. Hidden, under a cup. Looking. At one. Mysteriously. Causes, the other to, reveal itself - with. Matching, properties. Quantum. Theory suggested, this effect could happen in the real world. For. Example with particles, of light. Photons. The. Equations, implied that a source of photons, could. Create pairs, in, such a way. That, when we measure one. Causing. It to snap out of its fuzzy state. The. Other mysteriously. Snaps out of its fuzzy state at the same instant, with, correlated. Properties. The. 1935. Paper that described, this effect has. Become Einsteins, most, referenced, work of all. It. Has captivated, generations. Of physicists. Including. Anton. Zeilinger. The. Einstein-podolsky-rosen. Paper, fascinated. Me and I, had to read it at, least five or six times until I finally understood, what's going on and, then it didn't, let. Me go again. Another. Way to think of the paired particles, is, to imagine a game of chance that somehow, rigged, I, suppose. I, had, a. Pair. Of quantum, dice I. Put. These two quantum, dice in my little. Cup. Throw. Them. Now. Look at them they show the same number six I put. Them again in the chart throw. Them again.
Now. They both show three, I put. Them in again, so. Again. Now. They both show one. Point. Now being what I see here is I see. Two. Random. Processes namely, each die showing. Some number but, these two random, processes to, the same. It's. Really mind-boggling. How. Could two particles, act in unison. Even. When they're separated from each other. Essential. To the EPR argument, is that these particles, can be separated. At, an arbitrary distance, one could be here at Princeton one can be in the Andromeda galaxy and yet, according, to quantum mechanics a choice. To measure something here is somehow. Instantaneously. Affecting, what, could be said about this other particle, you can't, go from Princeton to Andromeda instantly, and yet that they argued is what the equations, of quantum mechanics, seemed to imply and that, they said so much the worse for quantum, mechanics the world simply can't operate that way. For. Einstein, this. Strange, effect, conflicted. With the most basic concept. We use to describe reality, space. For. Him objects. Particles. Everything. That exists, is located. In space. Space. Together, with time was. The key ingredient in his theory of special relativity. With. Its famous equation, e equals. MC. Squared Einstein. Of. Course was the master of space-time. He. Thought that if something happened here, that shouldn't, immediately. And instantaneously. Change something that is going on over there the principle, of locality as, we, currently call it. For. Einstein, it's. Simply, common sense that if objects, are separated. In space. For. One to affect the other something. Must travel between them. And. That. Traveling. Takes time. Quantum. Particles, acting in unison could. Be explained, if they were communicating. One. Particle, instantly. Sending a signal to the other telling. It what properties, it should have. But, that would require a signal. Traveling, faster, than the speed of light, something. Einstein's, theory, of special relativity had. Proven, impossible. And it, would mean the particles, were fuzzy and undefined. Until. The moment they were observed. Instead. I'm, Stein thought the particles, should, be real all along. They. Must carry with them a hidden layer of deeper physics that. Determines, their properties, from the start. Almost. The way that magic, tricks, while. Appearing mysterious. Have. A hidden explanation. But. This hidden, physics, was missing, from quantum, theory so. Einstein Podolsky. And Rosen argued. That quantum, mechanics was. Incomplete. Podolski. Was very enthusiastic about, this, project in fact he was so, enthusiastic that, he ran.
To The New York Times and told. Them the news so, Einstein was, really upset with Podolski and apparently. He didn't speak to him anymore. When. Niels Bohr heard of Einstein's paper he. Wrote an obscure, response. Arguing. That one particle, could somehow, mysteriously, influence. The other. This. Seemingly, impossible phenomenon. Became. Known as quantum. Entanglement. But, Einstein dismissed. It as spooky, actions, at a distance. No, one could think of an experiment, to test whether Einstein, or Bohr was correct. But. That didn't, stop physicists. And engineers from. Making use of quantum, mechanics, to, do new things in. The. 30s, and 40s the, debate. Around the EPR, paper sort, of dies down but. Quantum theory actually takes off. The. Mathematics. Leads to all kinds of amazing, developments. Entanglement. Aside the. Equations, of quantum mechanics, enabled the scientists. Of the Manhattan Project to develop, the atomic bomb, and in. The years after the Second World War. Researchers. At Bell Labs in New Jersey used. Quantum, theory to develop one of the first lasers, in, our laboratories. Men experiment, with a light once, undreamed-of, in the natural world and build. Small, devices, that. Could control, the flow of electricity. Transistors. It's, destined to play a vital role in your future, their. Electronic, future. Transistors. Became, the building, blocks of the burgeoning field of electronics. Computers. Disk, drives the, entire digital. Revolution, soon followed, all, made, possible by, the equations. Of quantum theory. Yet. Einsteins questions. About entanglement, and what, it implied about, the incompleteness, of quantum mechanics, remained. Unanswered. Until. The 1960s. When. A physicist, from Northern, Ireland made. A remarkable, breakthrough. John. Bell. Bell. Was a very, talented young physics, student but he quickly grew dissatisfied, with what he considered almost almost a kind of dishonesty, among his teachers. Bell. Insisted. That Einsteins, questions, about quantum, mechanics had not been addressed, you. Got the shouting, matches with his professors, don't tell, us that Borah solved all the problems this really deserves further, thought, quantum. Mechanics, has been fantastically. Successful, so. It is a very intriguing, situation. The. Foundation, of, all that impressive. Success. There, are these. It's. A very strange thing that ever since the 1930s. The. Idea of sitting and thinking hard by the foundations, of quantum mechanics, has been disreputable. Among. Professional, physicists, when, people tried to do that they were kicked out of physics departments, and so, for someone like Bell he, needed to have a day job doing. Ordinary particle. Physics but, at night you know hidden away he could do work on the foundations, of quantum mechanics. Bell. Became, a leading particle, physicist, at CERN in Geneva but. He continued, to explore, the debate between Einstein, and Bohr. And in. 1964. He, published an astonishing. Paper. Bell proved, that, bores and Einsteins ideas made, different, predictions. If. You could randomly perform. One of two possible, measurements, on each particle, and, check. How often the results, lined up, the. Answer, would reveal whether we lived in Einsteins, world. The. World that followed common-sense laws, or. Bohr's. A world. That was deeply, strange and allowed, spooky. Quantum, connections, we. Now know with hindsight this was one of the most significant, particles in the, history of physics not just the history of 20th century physics in the history of of the, field as a whole. But. Bell's article, appears in this you know sort of out of the way journal in fact the journal itself folds, a few years later this is not central. To the physics community it sort, of dutifully, filed on library shelves and then forgotten, it literally, collects dust on the shelf, a, few. Years later completely. By chance a brilliant. Experimental. Physicist, stumbled, upon Bell's article, I. Thought. This is one of the most amazing, papers. I had ever read in my whole life. And. I. Kept wondering well gee, this is wonderful, but, where's, the experimental. Evidence. John. Worked on Bell's theory, with fellow physicist, Abner Simoni and at. The University, of California, Berkeley started. Work on an experiment, to test it. He. Had a talent for tinkering, in the lab and building. The parts he needed but, used to rummage around here, and scavenge, from dumpster-dive, for old equipment. He. Knew where to find hidden storage, rooms like this which. He could raid to salvage spare parts for his experiments. And. This was a, power. Supply for a diet lasers, that looks. Like something I built. Here's. A picture of the, experiment. I did I had. More hair in those days, here's. Another picture. This. Is Steve Friedman working, on it with me. Piece. By piece, John, clauser and Stuart Friedman, constructed.
The World's, first bail test experiment. They. Focused a laser on two calcium, atoms, causing. Them to emit pairs of photons that. The equations, of quantum theory suggested. Should, be entangled. They. Recorded, whether or not the photons passed through filters, on each side and. Checked. How often, the answers, agreed. After. Hundreds, of thousands, of measurements, if the, pairs were more correlated, than Einsteins, physics, predicted, they. Must be spookily, entangled. We. Saw the stronger, correlation, characteristic. Of quantum mechanics. We. Measured it and that's what we got the. Outcome, was exactly, what Bohr's quantum, mechanics, predicted. The. Experiment, appeared to show that the spooky connections, of quantum, entanglement, did. Exist, in the natural world. Could. It be that the great Albert Einstein, was. Wrong. Remarkably. The. First people to react to this extraordinary, result, were, not the world's, leading physicists. Ronald. Reagan's definition, of a hippie well. Someone who dresses, like Tarzan. Has, hair like Jane, and smells like cheetah. A. Small. Group of free thinking physicists, at the heart of San Francisco's, New Age scene. Got. In touch with John. They. Call themselves the fundamental, physics group they spelled physics with an F some. Members, would experiment with psychedelic. Drugs I mean they were they were kind of in the flow of the, kind of hippie scene and that group was just mesmerized by. The question of entanglement. The, idea was just to discuss fringe subjects, with an open mind and I, thought of sure, that's. Kind of what I do. They. Were doing, their best to, link. Eastern. Mysticism, with. Quantum, entanglement. They. Sold a lot of popular, textbooks, there were a lot of followers. Their. Books became, bestsellers. Like, the, Dow of physics, which. Highlighted, that Eastern, philosophy, and quantum, entanglement, both. Described, the deep connectedness, of things in the universe. Is. The great cosmic, oneness. The. Group held meetings at the iconic Esalen. Institute. It. Was a marvelous. Beautiful, place where. They would discuss all of these ideas it. Was right on the Pacific coast with an overflow, from the hot tubs cascading. Down the cliffs into the Pacific Ocean. To. My knowledge no. Useful. Connections. To Eastern mysticism were, ever discovered by the group. But, it was fun. The. Fundamental. Physics group may, not have uncovered the secrets, of cosmic, oneness. But. In seeing entanglement. As central, to physics they. Were decades, ahead of their time. Forty. Years later, cutting-edge. Labs around the world are, now racing to harness quantum, entanglement, to create, revolutionary. New technologies. Like. Quantum, computers. In. Our everyday. Computers, the, fundamental. Unit of computing, is a bit a binary, digit 0 or 1 and, inside the computer there's all these transistors which, are turning on and off currents, on is one off is zero and these combinations, lead to Universal, computing, with.
A Quantum, computer you, start with a fundamental, unit that's not a bit but a quantum bit which. Is not really. A 0 or a 1 but it can be fluid a. Quantum. Bit makes use of the fuzziness of the quantum, world a. Qubit. As it's known can, be 0 or 1 or a, combination, of both a. Particle. Or tiny quantum, system, can. Be made into a qubit and today, it's, not just pairs of particles that can be entangled, groups. Of qubits can be linked with entanglement, to create. A quantum. Computer. They're. More cubits the. Greater the processing, power. At. Google's, quantum, computing, laboratory in Santa Barbara, the. Team has recently succeeded, in creating a tiny chip that. Holds an array of 72. Qubits. The. Task for researcher, Marisa geo steena and her colleagues, is. To send signals, to these microscopic, qubits, to, control and entangle, them. Mounted. On the underside, of this plate we, have the, quantum processing, chip itself in. Essence a quantum, playground, you could say each. Qubit, is a, quantum, object, that, we should be able to control at will. Thinking. About it as. The. Faster, version of that, PC over there would, be a, great. Flight to this it. Can be much more than that. By. Using entangled. Qubits, quantum. Computers, could tackle real-world problems, that traditional, computers, simply, can't cope with. For, example, a salesman, has to travel to several cities and wants. To find the shortest route. Sounds. Easy but. With. Just 30 cities, there. Are so many possible, routes that. It would take an ordinary computer, even a powerful, one hundreds. Of years, to, try each one and, find, the shortest. But. With a handful, of entangled, qubits a quantum. Computer could. Resolve the optimal, path in a fraction, of the number of steps. There's. Another reason teams like Marisa's are racing, to create a powerful, quantum, computer. Cracking. Secret, codes. In, today's world everything, from online shopping, to covert, military communications. Is protected. From hackers using. Secure, digital codes. Process. Called, encryption. But what if hackers could. Get hold of quantum, computers, a quantum. Computer could crack. Our best encryption, protocols, in minutes whereas, a regular. Computer or even a supercomputing, network today couldn't do it you know given months of time. But. While quantum, entanglement, may be a threat to traditional, encryption. It. Also offers an even more secure, alternative. A communication. System that the very laws of physics protect, from, secret hacking. Researchers. In China are. Leading, the way. Here, in Shanghai. At. The University, of Science and Technology. Jian. Way path runs. A leading quantum Research Centre. His. Teams are working to harness the properties, of the quantum, world. They. Can send secret messages using. A stream of photons in, a system, that instantly, detects, any attempt, to eavesdrop. Jan, weighs team has created a network of optical, fibers more than a thousand, miles long that. Can carry secure, information, from, Beijing, to, Shanghai. It. Is used by banks and data, companies. But. There's a limit to how far quantum, signals, can be sent through optical, fibers. To. Send signals, further Jan. Weighs team launched, the world's first quantum. Communication. Satellite. Above. Earth's atmosphere, there, are fewer obstacles and quantum. Particles, can travel much further. Each. Night teams, on the ground prepare. To track the satellite across, the skies. Laser, guidance, equipment locks, on and allows, signals, to be sent and received. The. Team aims to use this equipment to create a new secure. Communication. System using. Quantum, entanglement. The. Satellite, sends entangled, photons to two users, an. Eavesdropper. Could intercept. One of the entangled, photons. Measure. It and, send. On a replacement, photon. But. It wouldn't be an entangled. Photon its properties, wouldn't, match it. Would be clear an eavesdropper. Was on the line. In. Theory, this technique, could be used to create a totally, secure global, communication. Network so. The next step is will, have grown station, for example, in Canada and, also, in Africa and a manic country so, we will use our satellite, for, the global corn communication. We. Want to push this technology, as far as, possible. These. Are the first steps in creating a completely unhackable, quantum. Internet of the future, made. Possible, by, quantum, entanglement. But. There's a problem. What. If quantum entanglement. Spooky. Action at a distance. Isn't. Real after, all. It.
Could Mean entangled, photons are not the path to complete, security. The. Question, goes back to clauser and Friedman's, Bell test experiment. In. The, years after their pioneering, work. Physicists. Began to test possible loopholes. In their experiment. Ways, in which the illusion, of entanglement, might be created. So. The effect might, not be so spooky, after all. One, loophole is. Especially, hard to rule out. In. Modern, bell test experiments. Devices. At each side test, whether the photons, can pass through one of two filters, that, are randomly, chosen. Effectively. Asking one of two questions and checking. How often the answers agree. After. Thousands, of photons if, the, results, show more agreement, than Einsteins, physics, predicts the. Particles, must, be spookily, entangled. But. What if something had mysteriously, influenced. The equipment, so. That the choices of the filters, were, not truly, random. Is. There any common. Cause deep. In the past before, you even turn on your device that. Could have nudged the questions, to be asked and the types of particles to be emitted maybe some strange, particle, maybe some force that had not been taken into account so, that what looks like entanglement, might indeed be an accident. An illusion, maybe the world still acts like Einstein thought. It. Is this loophole at. The team at the high altitude Observatory, in the Canary Islands, is working, to tackle. With. Quantum, mechanics now, more established, than ever they're. Determined, to put entanglement, to the ultimate, test and finally. Settle the Einstein, Bohr debate beyond all reasonable. Doubt. The. Team is creating a giant version of clauser and Friedman's Bell test with. The entire universe, as their, lab bench. In. This. Cosmic. Bell test. The. Source of the entangled, particles, is. About 1/3 of a mile from each of the detectors. The. Team must send perfectly, timed pairs of photons through, the air to, each side, at. The same time the, telescope's, will collect light from two extremely, far-off, extremely. Bright galaxies, called, quasars. These. Are among the brightest, objects, in the sky emitting. Light, in powerful, jets. Random. Variations, in this light will, control which filters, are used to measure the photon pairs and. Since. The quasars, are so far away the. Light has been travelling for billions, of years to reach Earth. It. Makes it incredibly unlikely, that anything, could be influencing. The random nature of the test. If. The experiment is successful the. Team will have tackled the loophole, and shown, that quantum, entanglement, is as, spooky as Bohr always, claimed. Dominic. And Jason are at one telescope, London. Anton. Is at, the other. Jagadamba. Kazar in field of view in, that years. Yeah. Karif engineered, the contrast is super lost. Okay. Ciao. With, clear skies, finally. Overhead, the. Huge telescopes, awakened. Poised. To collect light from distant quasars. Moving. Into. The. Dark, on living. So. We're doing everything to everything. Everyone's now so, the. Guys for the Ling's are, setting the state of. The integrant photon pair we try to acquire the quasar, we're. Just centering, it and, making. The feet of your small as possible to be sure to be pulling you have the quasar. Okay. It's, guiding now yes. Okay. This one. Alright, good, good yes. Yeah. That's good. It. Looks like I need let's. Say 91, to be conservative a period. With. The telescopes, now locked on to two different quasars. The. Team begins, to take readings. We. Do to fool the. Fook opening both is what. Yeah. We're doing a fool cause we both is. It's. Working. Right. From the quasars, is, selecting, which filters, are used to measure the entangled. Photons. This, is exciting. It, is now. We do, have a test but it's.
Not. Clear, what the outcome will be. Going. Everything. Is exactly the same beautiful perfect. Two. Months later back, in Vienna the. Team analyzes, the experimental. Data, this. Might. Take a second. The. Numbers look really great and it. Is extremely, pleasing to see that all these work so nice. We. Clearly. See correlations, that correspond, to quantum mechanics. The. Results, show, entanglement. And since. The light from the quasar is, controlling, the test was. Nearly eight billion, years old, it's. Extremely, unlikely that anything could have affected, its random nature. This. Remaining, loophole, seems. To be closed. The experiment, it is just, fantastic the big, cosmos, comes down to, control. A small quantum, experiment, but that in itself is a it's, beautiful. You. Know honestly I still I still get chills I mean ice. When. I realize what our team was able to do in, this intellectual. Journey that stretches back to the early years of the 20th century, there's. There's hardly. Any room left for. A kind, of alternative, Einstein. Like explanation. We. Haven't ruled it out but, we've shoved it into such a tiny corner of the cosmos, as to, make it even. More implausible, for, anything other than, entanglement. To explain our results. Accepting. That entanglement, is a part of the natural world around us has, profound. Implications. It. Means we must accept, that an action, in one place can have, an instant effect anywhere, in the universe as if. There's no space between, them. Or. That. Particles, only take on physical, properties, when. We observe them. Or, we must accept both. We. Were left with conclusions about the universe that, make no sense whatsoever. Science. Is stepping, outside of all of our boundaries of common sense someone. Was like being an Alice in Wonderland right, where everything. Is possible. It. Was first seen as an unwelcome, but unavoidable consequence. Of quantum mechanics. Now. After, nearly a century of disputes, and discoveries. Spooky. Action at a distance is. Finally. At the heart of modern physics. At. The Institute, for Advanced Study where. The concept, of entanglement was first described. Researchers. Are now using it in their search for a single, unified, theory, of the universe the.
Holy Grail of physics. Einstein's. Theories, of special, and general relativity. Perfectly. Described space time, and gravity at, the. Largest, scales of the universe. While. Quantum, mechanics. Perfectly. Describes, the tiniest, scales. Yet. These two theories have. Never been brought together. So. Far we've not yet had a single. Complete, theory that, is both quantum, mechanical, and reproduces. The prediction, of Einstein's wonderful. Theory, of general relativity. Maybe. The, secret is, entanglement. What. If space itself, is actually created, by the tiny quantum, world. Just. Like temperature, warm. And cold, consists. Simply of the movement, of atoms inside. An object. Perhaps. Space, as we know it emerges. From networks, of entangled, quantum particles. It's. A mind-blowing. Idea. What. We are learning these days is that we might have to give up that. What Einstein hold sacred namely, space and time so he, was always thinking while we have little pieces of space and time and out, of this we built the, whole universe. In. A radical theory known. As the holographic. Universe, space. And time are created, by entangled. Quantum particles. On a sphere. That's. Infinitely, far, away. What's. Happening, in space in some sense all. Described. In terms of a screen outside here. The. Ultimate, description, of reality resides. On this screen think of it as kind of quantum. Bits living, on that screen and this. Like, a movie, projector creates. A illusion. Of, the. Three-dimensional reality, that I'm now experiencing. It. May be impossible, to intuitively, understand. This wild, mathematical. Idea. But. It suggests that, entanglement. Could. Be what forms, the true fabric, of the universe. The, most puzzling, element, of, entanglements, that you know somehow two points, in, space can, communicate. Becomes. Less of a problem because space itself has disappeared, in. The, end we just have this quantum, mechanical, world there is no space anymore and. So. In some sense the paradoxes. Of entanglement. The, EPR paradox disappears. Into, thin air. Truly. Understanding, quantum mechanics, will, only happen when we put ourselves on, the entanglement, side and, we stop privileged, in the world that we seem and start, thinking about the world as it actually is. Science. Has made enormous, progress for, centuries by, sort of breaking complicated. Systems down into parts when, we come to phenomena like quantum entanglement that scheme, breaks. When. It comes to the bedrock, of quantum mechanics, the. Whole is more, than, the sum of its parts. The, basic, motivation, is just. To learn how nature works, what's. Really going on. Instance. Ed it very nicely he's not interested in this detail question, of that detailed question, he. Just wanted, to know what. Were God's thoughts, when. He created the world. Major. Funding for Nova is, provided by, the, following. To. Order this nova program on DVD visit. Shop PBS, were, called 1-800. Play PBS. This, program is also available on, Amazon Prime, video. You.
2019-01-14