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Quantum entanglement is the cornerstone of practical applications for quantum mechanics.
A new study found an easier method for establishing entangled photons, thanks to the help of an AI tool originally developed for investigating entanglement swapping—the traditional method for producing entanglement.
This new method could help improve existing applications of quantum mechanics, including the emerging quantum internet.
The rise of artificial intelligence has reshaped the way we all work—and that includes quantum physicists.
In a new paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, scientists from Nanjing University in China and the Max Planck Institute in Germany detail how they stumbled across a simpler method for achieving quantum entanglement—that strange quantum mechanical quirk Albert Einstein once poetically referred to as “spooky action at distance.” Seemingly connecting particles (even across vast distances) so that one cannot be independently described without the other, quantum entanglement forms “the basis for research on the foundations of quantum mechanics and for practical applications such as quantum networks,” the authors wrote.
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Because of this, it would be incredibly helpful to find ways to create entanglement easily—especially as the current method involves forming two separate entangled pairs, performing a Bell-state measurement, collapsing the quantum system, and finally leaving two entanglement photons (a process known as ‘quantum swapping’).
In this new paper, researchers describe how they were using an AI tool called PyTheus—which was built for designing quantum experiments—to reproduce this well-known method for creating entanglement when it instead found a simpler method.
“As a first task, we aimed to rediscover entanglement swapping, one of the most crucial protocols in quantum networks,” Mario Krenn from the Max Planck Institute’s wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Curiously, the algorithm kept producing something else—something simpler—which we initially thought was incorrect. While investigating, we realized that PyTheus’s solution can entangle two distant particles without starting with entanglement, without Bell state projections, and even without measuring all ancillary photons.”
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Instead, PyTheus created entanglement via what Quantum Insider calls “quantum uncertainty about origins.” By making sure the photon outputs were indistinguishable, two of the unpaired photons emerged entangled, and according what Xiao-Song Ma from Nanjing University told New Scientist, this method is more convenient than other entanglement procedures.
“The algorithm exploited a superposition of the origins of photon multiplets to achieve the same goal [as the much longer ‘quantum swapping’ process], using entirely different resources,” Krenn wrote on X. “For me, this changed my perspective on what is necessary to create entanglement—not because I now know what is necessary, but because we’ve realized what is not.”
Although it’s early days, this simpler method could help broaden the range of quantum applications, as well as improve methods that underlie the emerging quantum internet—and it’s all thanks to a group of quantum physicists and their AI co-pilot.
Darren Orf
Contributing Editor
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
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