Alain Aspect, Nobel-winning father of quantum entanglement
Alain Aspect, who won a long-expected Nobel Physics Prize on Tuesday, not only helped prove the strange theory of quantum entanglement but also inspired a generation of physicists in his native France, according to former ...
Quantum entanglement is the theory—famously dismissed by Albert Einstein—that when a particle is split into two, the properties of the two new particles remain connected, as if by an invisible piece of string, regardless of how far apart they are.
It remained a theory until Aspect and his team proved the phenomenon in a laboratory experiment for the first time in 1981, entangling two photons—units of light—at a distance of 12 meters (40 feet).
The experiment helped pave the way for what Aspect has called the "second quantum revolution", which has led to a range of new technologies including quantum computing, encryption and more.
"Quantum strangeness has dominated my whole life as a physicist," Aspect told AFP in a 2010 interview.
His experiment finally settled a debate from more than 60 years earlier between Einstein and one of the fathers of quantum physics, Denmark's Niels Bohr.
Bohr believed in quantum entanglement but Einstein—whose work helped predict the phenomenon—famously argued against it, calling it "spooky action at a distance".
Alain Aspect, one of three physics Nobel winners, helped pave the way for what he calls the 'second quantum revolution'