Micius – Quantum Satellite Helps To Create Bridge Between Quantum Mechanics And General Relativity

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity are two pillars of modern physics.—yet the two theories don’t seem to work together.  

Physical phenomena rely on the relationship of motion between the observed and the observer. Certain rules hold true across types of observed objects and those observing, but those rules tend to break down at the quantum level, where subatomic particles behave in strange ways.

This time, a quantum satellite called Micius helps researchers in developing a unified framework that would account for break down between classical and quantum physics

Micius is part of a Chinese research project called Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), in which researchers can examine the relationship with quantum and classical physics using light experiments. In this study, the researchers used the satellite to produce and measure two entangled particles.

“Thanks to the advanced technologies made available by Micius, for the first time in human history, we managed to perform a meaningful quantum optical experiment testing the fundamental physics between quantum theory and gravity,” Jian-Wei Pan, paper author and director of the CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, said in a press release.

The theory tested by researchers was that the particles would decorrelate from one another as they passed through separate gravitational regions of Earth. The different gravitational pulls would force a quantum interaction that behaved as classical relativism would—the particle in less gravity would move with less constraint than the one in stronger gravity.

According to Pan, this “event formalism” attempts to present a coherent description of quantum fields as they exist in exotic spacetime, which contains closed time-like curves, and ordinary space-time, which behaves under general relativity. Event formalism standardized behavior across quantum and classical physics.

“If we did observe the deviation, it would mean that event formalism is correct, and we must substantially revise our understanding of the interplay between quantum theory and gravity theory,” Pan said. “However, in our experiment, we ruled out the strong version of event formalism, but there are other versions to test.”

The researchers did not see the particles deviate from the expected interactions predicted by the quantum understanding of gravity, but they plan to test a version of their theory that allows for a little more flexibility.

“We ruled out the strong version of event formalism, but a modified model remains an open question,” Pan said.

To test this version, Pan and the team will launch a new satellite that will orbit 20 to 60 times higher than Micius to test a wider field of gravity strength.

Paper

Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff