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Quantum mechanics

Nonlocality with massive particles and mesoscopic systems

Nature Reviews Physics volume 5, page 320 (2023)Cite this article

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In 1935 Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen came up with a thought experiment meant to highlight the incompleteness of quantum mechanics. Their gedankenexperiment became known as the EPR paradox, but instead of proving quantum mechanics wrong, it uncovered one of its deep and disturbing features: nonlocality. Almost 90 years later nonlocality continues to be an active research topic motivated by fundamental and practical interest.

But experiments always rely on assumptions that, unless carefully tested, would give a back door for hidden variables to creep back in. Such ‘loopholes’ have been closed one by one, finally allowing ‘loophole-free’ Bell tests (with photons, atoms or electron spins) that are proving the violation of Bell’s inequalities beyond reasonable doubt. Yet, a question remains: what happens when the experimental systems get bigger, approaching the size of macroscopic objects? The question remains open, but recent experiments investigated larger quantum systems.

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References

Original article

  • Storz, S. et al. Loophole-free Bell inequality violation with superconducting circuits. Nature 617, 265–270 (2023)

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Related article

  • Colciaghi, P. et al. Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment with two Bose–Einstein condensates. Phys. Rev. X (in the press); preprint available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.05101

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  1. Nature Reviews Physics https://www.nature.com/natrevphys/

    Iulia Georgescu

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  1. Iulia Georgescu
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Correspondence to Iulia Georgescu.

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Georgescu, I. Nonlocality with massive particles and mesoscopic systems. Nat Rev Phys 5, 320 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00594-z

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