CRA special seminar: Jason Gallicchio and Brian Shuve (Harvey Mudd College)

Jason Gallicchio and Brian Shuve from Harvey Mudd College

Title:
Improving Tests of Quantum Entanglement by using Light from Distant Quasars

Abstract:
Quantum entanglement, described by Einstein as “spooky action at a distance,” is both fascinating philosophically and is the basis for quantum computing and quantum encryption. For this reason, it deserves to be tested in experiments that push entanglement to its limits. The inferred power of entanglement rests on several assumptions, including that the measurement chosen for one particle can be made independent of any influence that can affect the other particle. Rather than take this assumption for granted, I devised and helped carry out an experiment on the Canary Islands that used real-time measurements of the color of incoming photons from two quasars on opposite sides of the universe to choose the measurements on each entangled particle. The color of these photons was fixed when the universe was only 10% as old as it is today, so any scheme for one quasar to affect measurements on the opposite particle would needed to have been in place before then.