THE QUANTUM LEAP

Muhammad F. Hasan
June 4, 2014
GE70CW
UCLA

The Quantum Leap

In the Beginning

Anyone who is not shocked by the quantum theory does not understand it.- Niels Bohr

In Newtons time, physicists exulted in the fact that they were able to predict the outcome
of certain actions in the physical world with almost perfect certainty. Indeed, physicists from the
classical mechanics era believed
that physics was different from
other theories because in physics,
it is possible to predict things with
certainty. However, in the early
1900s, a series of experiments
Isaac Newton, Founder of Classical Mechanics
concerning the nature of light
would lead to the birth of a theory that would overthrow classical mechanics, and replace it with
something that would change the minds of many physicists about the nature of reality: Quantum
Mechanics.
In the early 1900s, many scientists were struggling to understand the properties of light
that was emitted from hot gases. When that light passed through a prism, it formed very distinct
lines instead of a continuous spectrum. Many scientists struggled to explain this, and soon the

answer came from physicist Niels Bohr. Bohr started by defining the structure of an atom as a
kind of solar system, where many electrons orbit a nucleus that is at the center of the atom.
However, unlike a real solar system, the electrons in an atom have discrete fixed orbits . Bohr said
that when atoms in a gas are heated, they would leap from one fixed orbit up to another fixed
orbit, and then back down. When an electron leapt back down, it would emit energy in the form
of light in specific wavelengths, which produces the specific colors seen. This jumping from state
to state is known as a quantum leap. Many scientists were struck by the fact that when an
electron shifted states in a quantum leap, it moved from one state to the other, seemingly
without moving through the space in between. Bohr said that the reason for this was that the
energy of an electron came in distinct chunks called quanta, which explains the distinct orbits of
an electron.
The quantum leap was the first step towards forming the science known as quantum
mechanics. As quantum mechanics grew over time, a few scientists, among them Albert Einstein,
became unhappy with the direction in which quantum mechanics was heading. Einstein was
among the scientists who prized physics because of its ability to predict. Quantum mechanics,
however, seemed to topple that predictability. No experiment expressed this idea better than
the double slit experiment. When a source of light shines through two tiny slits onto a screen,
the screen shows a wave-like pattern caused by the light interfering with itself. This was how
waves were expected to behave. However, if the experiment was done using electrons, which
are particles, the interference pattern still appears. Many physicists at that time struggled to
explain how this could happen. They all agreed, though, that this experiment showed that an
electron in motion could behave like a wave. Physicist Erwin Schrodinger eventually came up with

an equation that accurately described the

wave. Even then, many physicists were unable
to figure out what this wave equation
Schrodinger's Equation

physically represented. Some of them thought

that an electron transformed into a wave-like mush while in motion. The shocking breakthrough
came from physicist Max Born. Born said that the wave described in the equation was a
probability wave. The size of the wave at any location was directly related to the likelihood of the
electron being found there. In other words, when a single electron is in motion, it is impossible
to predict exactly where it will land, but it is possible to predict with great certainty the
probabilities of where it could land.
One interesting part of quantum mechanics is the significance of the act of measurement.
Bohr thought that the act of measurement forces a particle to relinquish all of the possible places
it could have been and select one fixed location where it is. The act of measurement forces the
particle to make that choice. Bohrs view of the universe was that things remained in uncertainty
until measured. This view did not go well with Einstein, who made his point clear by saying, I like
to think the moon is there even when Im not looking at it. Einstein tried very hard to see if there
was a way to point out the problem he saw in quantum mechanics. In 1935, Einstein finally had
his breakthrough. He uncovered the theory of quantum entanglement.

Quantum Entanglement
The most bizarre, the most absurd, the most crazy, the most ridiculous prediction that
quantum mechanics makes is entanglement- Walter Lewin
Entanglement is a theory that has its roots in quantum mechanics. Two particles become
entangled if they are formed close to each other and their properties become linked. A common
way entangled particles are formed is when a high-energy photon splits into two lower-energy
photons. When a photon splits into two photons, the resulting photon pair is considered
entangled. The two photons would then be permanently linked, no matter the distance between
them. To understand this better, consider a property of particles known as spin. The spin of a
particle is generally uncertain until the moment it is measured, and when measured, it is spinning
either clockwise or counterclockwise. This can be compared to an envelope that can contain
either a blue or a red card. When someone gets a sealed envelope, that person cannot tell
whether the envelope contains a blue or a red card. Now, consider a second sealed envelope. If
these two envelopes behaved like two spinning electrons, then every time one was opened and
found to contain a red card, the other is guaranteed to contain a blue card, and vice-versa.
According to Bohrs idea, if one envelope was on the Earth and its entangled partner envelope
was on Mars, and if the envelope on Earth is opened and found to contain a red card, then the
other envelope is sure to contain a blue card. In general, if the spin of one particle is measured,
not only would the act of measurement affect the state of the measured particle, but it would
also affect the state of its entangled partner, no matter how distant.

To Einstein, this long-range connection between particles was so ridiculous, he called it

spooky action at a distance. Einstein could not accept entanglement that worked that way.
Therefore, he made up his own explanation of entanglement. Einsteins explanation of
entanglement is analogous to a pair of gloves. Imagine a pair of gloves was separated and each
glove was locked in a box. One box remained on Earth while the other went to the Moon. Before
the box on the Earth is opened, it is known that it could contain either a left or a right glove.
When that box is opened and a left glove is observed inside, then at that instant it is known that
the other box contains a right glove, even though no one has opened it. The act of measurement
in this case did not affect the state of either glove; both were already in their defined state before
the act of measurement took place. Einstein thought that this situation applies to entangled
particles; the spin of each particle was already determined before they were mea sured. The
debate over whose theory was right,
Bohrs

or

Einsteins, was a

very

significant one. For over 30 years, no one

was able to resolve it.
In 1967, the first breakthrough
arrived. In Columbia University, a PhD
Einstein VS Bohr: Who was Right?
student named John Clauser found an
obscure paper written by an Irish physicist named John Bell. The paper contained a model for a
machine that made and compared many pairs of entangled particles. Results from this machine
could be analyzed to figure out whose theory was right, Bohrs or Einsteins. The paper also
pointed out a very important fact. In his paper, Bell proved that if Bohrs measurement

explanation of entanglement was wrong, then the entirety of quantum mechanics known at that
time also had to be wrong. Clauser immediately set out to build Bells machine. Another physicist,
Alain Aspect, also built a more sophisticated machine. Clauser and Aspect both got the same
shocking results. In 1972, Clauser wrote a paper confirming that data from the machine proved
entanglement is real, and that Bohrs theory was the correct one. The act of measuring a particle
really affects the state of its entangled partner, no matter how distant, as if the space between
them did not even exist.
Now that entanglement has
been proven real, the question is
how it can be put to good use.
Unbelievably, scientists already are
working

on

ways

to

utilize

entanglement. One interesting result

John Clauser with his Machine

of this is the quantum computer. In

normal computers, data consists of bits, which can be either a 1 or a 0. In a quantum computer,
data consists of qubits (quantum bits), which can either be a 0 or a 1 until it is measured.
Quantum computers are theoretically many hundreds of times faster than todays fastest
computers. In May 2013, Google, Inc. launched the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, which
houses a 512-qubit quantum computer manufactured by D-Wave systems. This quantum
computer, the size of a normal desktop, is among the top ten fastest computers on the planet;
the other nine computers are room-sized giants. Entanglement can also be used to make a
theoretically unbreakable quantum key for use in cryptography. If one person gives a message

encrypted by means of quantum cryptography to a friend, that mess age could contain any
assortment of random letters until the recipient opens, i.e. measures, the message.
The most ambitious application of entanglement is undoubtedly teleportation. An
experiment was set up by physicist Anton Zeilinger in his lab on the Canary Islands off of the coast
of Africa in early 2012. His teams starts the experiment by generating a pair of entangled photons,
one of which stays in his lab, while the other gets transported by laser to another lab 90 miles
away. Then, a third photon, the one the team intends to teleport, is brought in. this photon is
allowed to interact with one of the photons. The team studies by comparing the quantum states
of the photons involved. Then, the team uses that comparison to instantaneously transform the
entangled photon on the lab 90 miles away into an identical copy of the third photon. It is as if
the third photon teleported between the labs without travelling through the space between
them. Zeilinger has successfully teleported many photons using this technique. In addition, in
November 2012, the first teleportation of a macroscopic object was reported. A group of
scientists was able to teleport around 100,000,000 rubidium atoms using quantum
entanglement.
Even though quantum mechanics has helped scientists and engineers in many practical
ways, physicists still dont know about what quantum mechanics tells us about the universe.
Many of them are trying to figure out why the uncertainty and probabilistic nature of the
quantum world vanishes as things increase in size. Niels Bohr offered no real explanation for this.
Some scientists believe that there is something missing in the equations of quantum
mechanics. And so, even though there are many possibilities in the quantum world, this
something would adjust the numbers as we move to bigger and bigger objects, so that all but

one of those possibilities disappear, resulting a single, certain outcome. Other, more radical
physicists believe that all the possibilities that exist in the quantum world never go away. Instead,
each and every possible outcome actually happens; its just that most of them happen in
universes parallel to our own. Regardless of which group of these physicists (some may be called
philosophers) happens to be right, quantum mechanics itself is, has been, and will continue to be
a very important part of the sciences for days to come. In the words of physicist Edward Farhi,
The beauty of science is that it allows you to learn things which go beyond your wildest dreams.
And quantum mechanics is the epitome of that.

After you learn quantum mechanics, youre never really the same again.-Steven
Weinberg

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum
mechanics.-Richard Feynman

Quantum Entanglement in Real Life

(Entanglement) is the most bizarre thing of quantum mechanics. It is impossible to
even comprehend. Dont ask me why. Dont ask me, which youre going to, how it worksWalter Lewin
An interesting way to see the effects of entanglement in real life is to set up an
experiment.

Figure 1. Double Slit Experiment with Light

If the light is polarized before it goes through the slits, and a polarizing filter is put over
one of the slits, the interference pattern disappears. Whenever it is possible to detect through
which slit a photon has passed, the interference pattern instantly disappears. The interference
pattern appears only when the photons exact path is unknown.

Figure 2. Double Slit Experiment with Polarized Light and Filter

Lets apply this now to entangled photons. A laser striking a certain crystal produces a pair
of entangled photons. Each photon is then sent in different directions to different detectors.
Initially both detectors display an interference pattern. However, if a double slit with a polarizing
filter is put in front of one of the detectors, then the interference pattern disappears from both
detectors. The act of measuring the polarization of one photon changed the state of the other
photon. This experiment shows that entanglement is real and can be physically observed.

Figure 3. Setup of
Experiment to
Demonstrate the
Effects of
Entanglement

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Image Credits
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"Entanglement Experiment Pictures." http://davidjarvis.ca/entanglement/spookiness.shtml.

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"Schrodinger's Equation."
http://omegafoundation.siriuscomputing.net/Images/IsaacNewton.jpg.