{"id":73181,"date":"2024-06-14T18:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T18:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/physicists-measured-earths-rotation-using-quantum-entanglement\/"},"modified":"2024-06-14T18:03:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T18:03:09","slug":"physicists-measured-earths-rotation-using-quantum-entanglement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/physicists-measured-earths-rotation-using-quantum-entanglement\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicists measured Earth\u2019s rotation using quantum entanglement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Earth\u2019s rotation has been measured many times over \u2014 but never like this. In a first, scientists used entangled quantum particles called photons to reveal the rate at which the globe spins.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feat is a step toward probing one of the biggest mysteries of physics: how the tiny world of quantum physics interfaces with gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This interferometer is mounted on a square frame that can rotate to allow scientists to detect Earth\u2019s rotation or, for comparison, to be insensitive to it. Photons travel through an optical fiber 2 kilometers long that is looped around the 1.4-meter-long frame many times.<\/span>Raffaele Silvestri<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Scientists sent pairs of photons, particles of light, through a device called a quantum interferometer. Inside, the photons could traverse loops of optical fiber either clockwise or counterclockwise. The photons were entangled with one another, a type of quantum correlation that links the states of two particles. In this case, the entanglement meant the two photons took the same path. And rather than picking one direction or the other, the pair took on a strange state called a superposition, traversing a combination of the two paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to Earth rotating underneath, the two different paths corresponded to slightly different travel distances. That made the photons\u2019 two superposed components slightly out of sync when they exited the labyrinth, causing quantum interference. Measuring that interference implied a rotation speed that\u00a0agreed with Earth\u2019s known rotation rate<\/a>, the team reports June 14 in\u00a0Science Advances.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quantum physics\u00a0doesn\u2019t dovetail easily with physicists\u2019 theory of gravity<\/a>, general relativity, and scientists are struggling to understand how to combine them (SN: 1\/12\/22<\/em>). \u201cThis experiment is a prototype for our next level of larger experiment,\u201d says physicist Haocun Yu of the University of Vienna. With that experiment, \u201cwe want to explore the interface between quantum and gravity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n