Winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics
Habish Ribin Haneef
Quantum Mechanics, one of the crucial branches not only in Physics but also in many other fields. Developments and improvements in this field will really boost the world of Science. So, for their valuable and outstanding discoveries in Quantum Mechanics, the Nobel prize for Physics in 2022 has been awarded to Alain Aspect, John F Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger. Alain Aspect, born in 1947 in France is a professor at Université Paris-Saclay and École Polytechnique Palaiseau, France. John F Clauser, born in 1942 in the US is a research physicist at JF Clauser and association, USA. Anton Zeilinger, born in 1942 in Austria is a professor at the University of Vienna, Austria. The award was announced by Hans Ellegren, Secretary General, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Nobel prize committee was excited and they were quoted saying- “The 2022 Physics laureates’ development of experimental tools has laid the foundation for a new era of quantum technology. Being able to manipulate and manage quantum states and all their layers of properties gives us access to tools with unexpected potential.” Anton Zeilinger, while attending a press meet told- “This prize is an encouragement to young people and this prize would not be possible without more than 100 young people who worked with me over the years.” Anton Zeilinger was a previous Institute of Physics(IOP) Isaac Newton Medal and prize winner in 2008. The trio of Alain Aspect, John F Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger also won the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2010, a prize awarded by the Wolf Foundation in Israel once a year.
The Discovery:
The 2022 Nobel prize for Physics has been shared between three brilliant scientists- Alain Aspect, John F Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for experiments with entangled photons establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science. So, what are entangled quantum states? In entangled quantum states, two separate particles behave like a single unit. The world of science and research was doing more and more experiments and research on the reason behind the correlation of the entangled quantum states. Many suggestions stated that the entangled quantum states consist of hidden variables. Everything started in the 1960s when John Stewart Bell proposed the “Bells Theorem”. Bell’s theorem states that if there are hidden variables in the entangled quantum states, the correlation between the results of a large number of measurements will never exceed a certain value. This was the thread for Alain Aspect, John F Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger to develop their findings and the three of them started from here. The three of them began to work independently to establish the quantum property of entanglement. As a result of John F Clauser’s research and work on Bell’s Theorem, he violated a Bell inequality that supported quantum mechanics. But still, there were some loopholes in his findings and it was Alain Aspect who cleared it. Anton Zeilinger worked deeply using entangled quantum states and discovered a phenomenon called “Quantum Teleportation”. Quantum teleportation is the movement of a quantum state from one particle to one at a distance.
Applications of Quantum Entanglement:
Some of the important applications of quantum entanglement are given below,
- It can be used in quantum information science and many impractical tasks can be achieved using quantum entanglement
- It is essential for the complete deployment of quantum computing
- It can be used in quantum teleportation and superdense coding
- It is used in a few protocols of quantum cryptography
Other Awards:
The three Nobel prize winners have also won some other fabulous awards too. Let’s have a look at the trio’s other achievements other than the phenomenal Nobel Prize award.
Alain Aspect:
- Holweck Medal (1991)
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2010)
- Albert Einstein Medal (2012)
- ForMemRS (2015)
John F Clauser:
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2010)
Anton Zeilinger:
- Klopsteg Memorial Award (2004)
- Isaac Newton Medal (2007)
- Wolf Prize in Physics (2010)
Read more:All you need to know about Nobel Prize
Check your knowledge
Answer. Alain Aspect, John F Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger
Answer. For experiments with entangled photons establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.
Answer. Quantum teleportation is the movement of a quantum state from one particle to one at a distance.