Did we reach the limit of quantum theory? A new study identified the border between quantum physics and a post-component kingdom still unknown, mathematically analyzing every possible measurements of simple quantum systems.
Quantum intertwining can turn on two objects even when they are separated by extremely large distances. Now a limit has been discovered in which these quantum correlations stop. Surprisingly, Something even stronger may be born.
This revelation was done in a study this Wednesday in Nature Physics.
“We are at the limit of science”said the investigation leader, Jean-Daniel Bank.
To verify that two quantum objects are tangled, physicists do Bell testing: they repeatedly measure the system to discover all the possible states they may be and then create a “probabilities distribution” to show the probability of the system being in any of these states.
Now, Jean-Daniel Bank and Victor Barizian (both from the University of Paris-Saclay in France) calculated exactly which probability distributions allowed by quantum theory.
As explained, for pair, it focused on a quantum system that can only be in one of two states. An example of this is a quantum bit (or qubit): the quantum computers building block and quantum communication devices.
Normally, physicists would calculate the probability distribution of these states based on the physical details of the object. But the two physicists conceived a form of invert the method: Instead, they started with the many possible probability distributions and determined which could correspond to their physical quantum system.
Previously, the investigators had already mapped distributions of quantum probability studying the cases where the entanglement between objects was as strong as possible. Banking and Barizien managed to complete the map expanding it from these more extreme examples for all cases of entanglement.
Barizien says it was like collecting pieces of a complex puzzle of previous works, mathematical literature and his own ideas, until all joined a remarkable success.
In New Scientist, Valerio Scaranifrom the National University of Singapore, warns that there may be consequences for how we think of quantum theory. This is because some probability distributions that are beyond the post-quantum border Infringe Laws of Physics that would make them impossible to find in nature. But others not.
This opens a big question: is our world entirely within the quantum border – or not?
As New Scientist writes, the question remains open, especially since there are no rigorous and consensual post-quantic theories. To date, No experience managed to cross the limit of the quantum.
“But if this ever happened, it would be the results of this study that would help us realize that we become post-quantic“, Says Victor Barizen.
