The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded on Tuesday to Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger, three pioneers of the revolutionary mechanisms of quantum physics.
The three septuagenarians are rewarded for their discoveries on “quantum entanglement”, a mechanism where two quantum particles are perfectly correlated, regardless of the distance that separates them, announced the Nobel jury.
“Pioneering Path to Quantum Computing”
The demonstration of this astonishing property has paved the way for new technologies in quantum computing and ultra-secure communications, or even ultra-sensitive quantum sensors that would allow extremely precise measurements, such as that of gravity in space. .
The trio are rewarded “for their experiments with entangled photons, establishing violations of Bell’s inequalities and opening a pioneering path towards quantum computing”, according to the Nobel jury. “Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have each conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave as a single unit even when separated,” he explains.
The mark of the common past
This puzzling mechanics was predicted by quantum theory. Yet even Albert Einstein did not believe it: two particles joined at the start (like twins could be) could keep the mark of their common past and behave similarly, at a distance.
Affiliated to the French University of Paris-Saclay, Alain Aspect is 75 years old, while John Clauser is 79 and Anton Zeilinger, from the University of Vienna, is 77. The prize is endowed with 10 million Swedish crowns (approximately 920,000 euros) in each discipline, possibly to be shared in the event of co-winners.
A week of Nobel
On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Swede Svante Pääbo, father of Denisova’s Man, paleogenomics and discoverer of Neanderthal Man DNA.
The Nobel science ball ends Wednesday with the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to continue with the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded Friday in Oslo. The Nobel series will end next Monday with the Nobel Prize in Economics.