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Quantum Mechanics

Closing the Einstein-Bohr EPR debate: Alain Aspect, with colleagues, in 1982 performs the first quantum mechanics experiment demonstrating a violation of Bell's theorem, an undermining of EPR's "locality"

 

 

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Editor's summary comment:

After reviewing several accounts of the Aspect experiment, the most salient feature seems to be this: entangled particles demonstrated an affinity, but faster than the speed of light. It happened this way: the table for the experiment was 12 meters long. A photon will travel 12 meters in 40 nanoseconds. This means that particles, separated by 12 meters, and demonstrating a state of entanglement in a period of time shorter than 40 nanoseconds, will display “non-local” characteristics. This in fact did occur in Aspect’s experiment, which result offered convincing evidence that Einstein was wrong about the primacy of “locality”.

 

 

See the documentary "Atomic Physics and Reality" wherein Alain Aspect personally explains how his experiment was conducted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFvJOZ51tmc

 

from http://www.sackett.net/QuantumEntanglement-AspectExperiment.pdf

1982: Aspect’s test based on Freedman and Clauser’s test but with better precision, fewer loopholes, and delayed choice of detector polarization orientation. This test finally forced the world to take entanglement seriously and started a rebirth of quantum debating.

Alain Aspect was an early convert to the possibilities of John Bell’s theorem. He wanted to show that non-locality was indeed an essential element of quantum mechanics and that Einstein’s belief in locality was misplaced. His first goal was to replicate previous tests for one and two channels but with more accuracy and fewer loopholes. And then he wished to perform the Wheeler random delayed choice test evolved further by Bohm, Aharonov, and Bell. Testing quantum mechanics was academically-politically risky, so he got a blessing from Bell, “You must be a very courageous graduate student”.

In Paris, Aspect used a long distance between detection stations of about 12 meters allowing for a long transit time for light of 40 nanoseconds...

 

 

Editor's last word: