For the first time, researchers have demonstrated the remarkable ability to perturb pairs of spatially separated yet interconnected quantum entangled particles without altering their shared properties.
The team includes researchers from the Structured Light Laboratory (School of Physics) at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, led by Professor Andrew Forbes, in collaboration with string theorist Robert de Mello Koch from Huzhou University in China (previously from Wits University).
"We achieved this experimental milestone by entangling two identical photons and customizing their shared wave-function in such a way that their topology or structure becomes apparent only when the photons are treated as a unified entity," explains lead author, Pedro Ornelas, an MSc student in the structured light laboratory.
This connection between the photons was established through quantum entanglement, often referred to as "spooky action at a distance," enabling particles to influence each other's measurement outcomes even when separated by significant distances. The research was published in Nature Photonics on 8 January 2024.
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