An experiment by a group of physicists led by Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a> physics professor Regina Demina<\/a> has produced a significant result related to quantum entanglement\u2014an effect that Albert Einstein called \u201cspooky action at a distance.\u201d<\/p>\n Entanglement concerns the coordinated behavior of miniscule particles that have interacted but then moved apart. Measuring properties\u2014like position or momentum or spin\u2014of one of the separated pair of particles instantaneously changes the results of the other particle, no matter how far the second particle has drifted from its twin. In effect, the state of one entangled particle, or qubit, is inseparable from the other.<\/p>\n Quantum entanglement has been observed between stable particles, such as photons or electrons.<\/p>\n But Demina and her group broke new ground in that they found, for the first time, entanglement to persist between unstable top quarks and their antimatter partners at distances farther than what can be covered by information transferred at the speed of light. Specifically, the researchers observed spin correlation between the particles.<\/p>\n Hence, the particles demonstrated what Einstein described as \u201cspooky action at a distance.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The finding was reported<\/a> by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Collaboration at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, where the experiment was conducted.<\/p>\n \u201cConfirming the quantum entanglement between the heaviest fundamental particles, the top quarks, has opened up a new avenue to explore the quantum nature of our world at energies far beyond what is accessible,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n CERN, located near Geneva, Switzerland, is the world\u2019s largest particle physics laboratory. Production of top quarks requires very high energies accessible at the Large Hadron Collider<\/a> (LHC), which enables scientists to send high-energy particles spinning around a 17-mile underground track at close to the speed of light.<\/p>\n The phenomenon of entanglement has become the foundation of a burgeoning field of quantum information science that has broad implications in areas like cryptography and quantum computing.<\/p>\n Top quarks, each as heavy as an atom of gold, can only be produced at colliders, such as LHC, and thus are unlikely to be used to build a quantum computer. But studies like those conducted by Demina and her group can shed light on how long entanglement persists, whether it is passed on to the particles\u2019 \u201cdaughters\u201d or decay products, and what, if anything, ultimately breaks the entanglement.<\/p>\n Theorists believe that the universe was in an entangled state after its initial fast expansion stage. The new result observed by Demina and her researchers could help scientists understand what led to the loss of the quantum connection in our world.<\/p>\nA \u2018new avenue\u2019 for quantum exploration<\/h3>\n
Top quarks in quantum long-distance relationships<\/h3>\n