Schematic representation of the experimental implementation: A cigar-shaped cloud of rubidium atoms (blue dots) is cooled to ultra-cold temperatures. Due to collisions between atoms, quantum correlations, also called entanglement, build up (yellow compounds). The atomic cloud is finally imaged onto a camera with the aid of laser light. Due to the high spatial resolution of the camera, correlations between different parts (A and B) of the condensate, and in particular their quantum mechanical character, can be detected. Photo: Philipp Kunkel, SynQS
Schematic representation of the experimental implementation: A cigar-shaped cloud of rubidium atoms (blue dots) is cooled to ultra-cold temperatures. Due to collisions between atoms, quantum correlations, also called entanglement, build up (yellow compounds). The atomic cloud is finally imaged onto a camera with the aid of laser light. Due to the high spatial resolution of the camera, correlations between different parts (A and B) of the condensate, and in particular their quantum mechanical character, can be detected.
A system's state is characterised as entangled or quantum correlated if two or more particles cannot be described as a combination of separate, independent states but only as a whole. Researchers at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics of Heidelberg University recently succeeded in verifying so-called non-local quantum correlations between ultracold clouds of rubidium atoms. Under the direction of Markus Oberthaler und Thomas Gasenzer, the researchers were able to gain important new insights into the character of quantum mechanical many-body systems. The correlations that the theory of quantum mechanics predicts are counter-intuitive. These quantum correlations seem to contradict the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that two properties of an object, such as position and speed, can never be precisely determined at the same time. In quantum mechanical systems, however, two particles can be prepared so as to accurately predict the position of particle two by localising the position of particle one. Similarly, measuring the speed of one particle allows predicting the speed of the other.
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