The Nobel Committee of the Royal Academy of Sciences has announced the names of the 2022 Nobel Prize winners in physics.

They were Frenchman Alain Aspe, American John Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger. 

“Alain Aspe, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger have each carried out revolutionary experiments using entangled quantum states, in which two particles, even when separated, behave as one.

Their results have paved the way for new technologies based on quantum information,” the Nobel Committee said in a statement.

The Committee recalled that now quantum effects are beginning to find practical applications - work is already underway to create quantum computers, as well as communication lines protected by quantum encryption. 

The uncertainty principle

One of the key phenomena of quantum physics is the quantum entanglement of particles: a change in one particle leads to a change in another particle located at a distance from the first.

It is impossible to accurately calculate the coordinates and speed of quantum particles - this principle of quantum uncertainty was formulated in 1927 by the German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg.

However, not all scientists were ready to put up with uncertainty - for example, Albert Einstein argued with this postulate, who believed that science simply did not yet know the hidden parameters that make particles behave in a certain way.

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In 1964, physicist John Bell proposed an inequality to test the hidden variable theory.

The inequality in which it is required to substitute the results of experimental measurements is composed in such a way that it will be violated only if the hidden parameters do not exist.

John Clauser developed Bell's ideas and conducted practical experiments.

“The measurements he made confirmed quantum mechanics, clearly violating Bell's inequality.

This means that quantum mechanics cannot be replaced by a theory that uses hidden parameters, ”the Nobel Committee said in a release.

However, after the experience of John Clauser, there were still some doubts - it was necessary to eliminate the possible influence of the settings for measuring the parameters of particles at the moment they left the radiation source.

Alain Aspe modified the experimental setup in such a way that this important loophole was closed - he was able to switch the measurement settings after the entangled pair left the source, so the setting that existed at the time the particles were released could not affect the result.

In turn, Anton Zeilinger began to work with entangled quantum states, conducting a long series of experiments using advanced equipment.

“Among other things, his research group demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation, which allows the transfer of a quantum state from one particle to another at a distance,” the Nobel Committee noted. 

As a senior researcher at the Center for Quantum Technologies at Moscow State University named after M.V.

Lomonosov, head of the scientific group of the Russian Quantum Center Stanislav Straupe, Nobel Prize winners conducted research on the foundations of quantum physics.

“The quantum world differs from the classical one in that fundamental randomness is present in it.

There are situations in which the results of quantum measurements cannot be predicted, no matter how well we understand the physical processes that occur in the system under study.

At one time, Albert Einstein argued with this feature of quantum theory.

Einstein hoped that in the future there would be a more fundamental and deeper theory, explaining, as he believed, the gaps that led to the emergence of a probabilistic approach.

“God does not play dice,” he said, ”the expert noted.

  • Albert Einstein

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For a long time it seemed that this was a purely philosophical dispute.

However, the current Nobel Prize winners have been able to move this question from the philosophical to the experimental realm and have proven that the probabilistic approach is not the result of errors or gaps, but is indeed a fundamental principle that governs the quantum world, Straupe noted.

“Aspe and Clauser were the pioneers of this research, and Zeilinger did a lot to develop this area of ​​​​science - for the foundations of quantum theory.

Their work laid the foundation for research in the field of quantum computing and communications.

All this grew out of such experiments and the desire of scientists to understand the principles of the quantum world, ”summed up the scientist.