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Sky is No Limit for Quantum Researchers

Researchers from Harvey Mudd are part of a group of scientists who recently completed experiments on entangled photons that produced results consistent with quantum mechanics.

Assistant Professor of Physics Jason Gallicchio, who devised an idea to use starlight to improve tests of quantum mechanics, and Calvin Leung 鈥�17 are co-authors, along with their colleagues, on the paper 鈥�,鈥� published Feb. 7 by Physical Review Letters.

Gallicchio studies experimental cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the universe. The paper aims to close a loophole in tests of physicist John Bell鈥檚 inequalities鈥攚hich confirm the 鈥渟pooky action at a distance鈥� between quantum entangled particles鈥攂y using telescopes that look at widely separated stars to generate the random settings in experiments on quantum entanglement. 鈥淭his particular project is interesting and different,鈥� Gallicchio explains, 鈥渂ecause it combines astrophysics and quantum mechanics; things on big, distant scales and things that we tend to think of as being on tiny scales. We鈥檙e using light that鈥檚 coming from far, far away as a tool to do tests of quantum mechanics.鈥�

Gallicchio鈥檚 idea to use starlight as a tool to generate random measurements came to him when he was an undergrad, taking one class in the philosophy of physics and another in quantum mechanics. He developed his idea further, writing the first draft of the paper during a year spent at the South Pole studying the cosmic microwave background. He returned to the U.S. and later flew to Vienna, Austria, to work on convincing his colleagues there, including leading physicists and cosmologists, to perform the experiments, which generated exciting results. 鈥淲ith starlight, it鈥檚 harder to say there鈥檚 something happening that can be explained locally,鈥� Gallicchio says. 鈥淚f you hope that there鈥檚 some locality-friendly thing happening under quantum mechanics, it鈥檚 much less plausible now.鈥�

Read the article聽聽for more about the research.