Vienna Physicists Create Quantum Twin Atoms

[ Florian Aigner - At the Vienna University of Technology, sophisticated atomchips have been used to create pairs of quantum mechanically connected atom-twins. Until now, similar experiments were only possible using photons. Objects that are well separated in space but still cannot be understood separately belong to the profoundest mysteries of quantum physics. Pairs of photons are prominent examples of such systems. They allow the teleportation of quantum states or tap-proof data transfer using quantum cryptography. In future, such experiments will not be restricted simply to photons: at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), a method has been developed to create correlated pairs of atoms using ultracold Bose-Einstein condensates. The results of the experiments have now been published in the journal 'Nature Physics'.