Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’: At least 10,000 times faster than light

[n2doc]

By Sebastian Anthony on March 7, 2013

A team of Chinese physicists have clocked the speed of spooky action at a distance — the seemingly instantaneous interaction between entangled quantum particles — at more than four orders of magnitude faster than light. Their equipment and methodology doesn’t allow for an exact speed, but four orders of magnitude puts the figure at around 3 trillion meters per second.

Spooky action at a distance was a term coined by Einstein to describe how entangled quantum particles seem to interact with each other instantaneously, over any distance, breaking the speed of light and thus relativity. As of our current understanding of quantum mechanics, though, it is impossible to send data using quantum entanglement, preserving the theory of relativity. A lot of work is being done in this area, though, and some physicists believe that faster-than-light communication might be possible with some clever manipulation of entangled particles.

Now, thanks to these Chinese physicists — the same ones who broke the quantum teleportation distance record last year — we know that spooky action at a distance has a lower bound of four orders of magnitude faster than light, or around 3 trillion meters per second. We say “at least,” because the physicists do not rule out that spooky action is actually instantaneous — but their testing equipment and methodology simply doesn’t allow them to get any more accurate.



To get this figure, the physicists entangled pairs of photons at a base station, and then transmitted half of each pair to two receiving sites. The receiving sites were 15.3 kilometers (9.5mi) apart, and aligned east-west so as to minimize the interference from the Earth’s rotation (which is significant, when measuring speed on this scale). One half of the pair was then observed, and the time for the other half to assume the same state is measured. This process was repeated continuously for 12 hours to generate enough data to accurately divine the speed of spooky action.

more

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/150207-chinese-physicists-measure-speed-of-einsteins-spooky-action-at-a-distance-at-least-10000-times-faster-than-light

[longship]

1. Any post on quantum physics is worth an R&K nt

[GodlessBiker]

3. +1

[patrice]

2. "entangled"??

[MjolnirTime]

6. Two particles that were once one. They mysteriously retain a connection after the split.

Telepathy is faster than Light?

[patrice]

8. Thanks! Is it kind of like things being in synch because they are the same somehow?

[mindwalker_i]

10. Here's an explanation (and a lot more)

http://quantizedimagination.wordpress.com/

[mindwalker_i]

9. In some reactions, pair of particles or bosons are created

A common example is with beta barium-borate, which sometimes will emit two infrared photons after absorbing one ultravoilet photon. The momentum and angular momentum of the infrared photons has to add up to that of the original photon, but initially they do not have well-defined values for these. When a property is measured, it assumes a well-defined value through the process of decoherence, and the other particle must assume a complimentary value - the wave function describing BOTH particles collapses.

Thing is, at no time can the observed values violate conservation of (angular) momentum, so the effect has to be not only instantaneous, but in some cases retrocausal.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. So, if v = w10/3c

That would be Warp Factor Countach

[Wounded Bear]

5. Good stuff! Thanx for the link! nt

[mindwalker_i]

7. As cool as this sounds, it's actually kind of blase at this point

There have been experiments where one particle was measures AFTER the first was detected and no longer exists. In that case, the effect was more than instantaneous, it happened before the cause.

[bananas]

13. Yes, the delayed choice quantum eraser

which has been experimentally verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_choice_quantum_eraser

[mindwalker_i]

14. I think there are multiple variations on it

One experiment that was done recently (last 1/2 year or so) was to take two pairs of entangled photons, and measure one photon from each pair for polarization. These are uncorrelated. Then, the two remaining photons - one from each pair - go on after the first two are measured. Sometime later, those two photons can be operated on in such a way as to entangle them, which (retroactively) entangles the first two photons that were measured for polarization. This "swaps" the entanglement.

When the entanglement is swapped, the polarizations of the first photons will HAVE BEEN measured to correlate with each other, even though the decision as to whether to swap the entanglement as made after the measurement when the two original photons no longer exist.

Another experiment moved entanglement from one photon to the next, to the next, and then measures it. The entanglement works even though the partner hasn't existed across several transfers of entanglement.

My conclusion is that entanglement not only doesn't care about spacial separation, it doesn't care about temporal separation - which according to Einstein is kind of the same thing. The world is not what we think it is.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Thought

Given the state of quantum theory, and how counterintuitive it can be at times, this might even qualify as a hypothesis. Well, maybe.

Spooky action may not be anything new. Take, for example, the phenomenon of flowering bamboo.

Most bamboo species flower infrequently. In fact, many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years. These taxa exhibit mass flowering (or gregarious flowering), with all plants in a particular species flowering worldwide over a several-year period. The longest mass flowering interval known is 130 years, and is found for all the species Phyllostachys bambusoides (Sieb. & Zucc.). In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, and then the bamboo dies. The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of “alarm clock” in each cell of the plant which signals the diversion of all energy to flower production and the cessation of vegetative growth.[12] This mechanism, as well as the evolutionary cause behind it, is still largely a mystery.

(from Wikipedia)

Could these phenomena be related?

[mindwalker_i]

12. If this were the case...

If entanglement were somehow being used to communicate the trigger to flower, then it would definitely mean that entanglement can carry information. There are a lot of white-coated people whose heads would explode at that. As fun as that would be, I think it's highly unlikely to be the cause. Entanglement is difficult to maintain for any length of time, especially in the real world of lots-of-stuff that very quickly causes decoherence. Being able to maintain entanglement over geographies would be far beyond act-of-god level.

However, entanglement may play a key role in photosynthesis. If I remember correctly, ordinary processes are too slow to get energy from the outside of the leaf to the molecules that store the energy, so one hypthesis is that entanglement carries it instantly. Sorry, I don't remember the details, but Google will help. If this is true, then entanglement can carry energy. The implications of that are stunning!

[DhhD]

16. Electron transport chains from incoming photons from the Sun and other entanglement partners.

The half reaction is happening somewhere else in the universe. Perpetual light is reflected at less than an 8% grade inside a circle. The other half is the incident angle.

[earthbot1]

15. good find

never heard of that bamboo phenomena...fascinating!