Imagine being able to travel to a planet 30 billion light
years away in mere minutes or jumping back and forth through time—into the
future or the past—whenever you please. Sounds like sci-fi movies, right? While
such ideas have always lived in the realm of the imagination, they may not
remain there forever. In a groundbreaking achievement, physicists Maria
Spiropulu from Caltech and Daniel Jafferis from Harvard, along with their team,
have successfully simulated a "baby wormhole" using quantum loops.
This wormhole is capable of transferring quantum information, or
"qubits," marking a significant step toward understanding spacetime
and quantum physics.
This remarkable journey
began by integrating two fundamental principles: ER and EPR. The ER
(Einstein-Rosen Bridge), introduced by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in
1935, describes a theoretical "bridge" or wormhole that connects two
points in spacetime. Although fascinating, this wormhole is non-traversable and
purely theoretical. Meanwhile, the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) paradox,
also introduced in 1935, highlights the phenomenon of quantum
entanglement—where two particles remain instantaneously connected, regardless
of distance. In 2013, physicists Leonard Susskind and Juan Maldacena proposed
the ER = EPR conjecture, suggesting that quantum entangled particles are
linked by microscopic wormholes. This conjecture offers a profound connection
between the quantum world and the geometry of spacetime.
While wormholes are
three-dimensional objects, creating even a simplified version of one in a
two-dimensional interface may seem counterintuitive. However, the holographic
principle, which suggests that our universe is a three-dimensional
projection of quantum information encoded on a two-dimensional surface,
inspired the possibility of simulating a baby wormhole. Since wormholes and
quantum entanglement are inherently connected, quantum computers became the
natural tool for creating such a simulation.
The research team utilized Google's
Sycamore quantum computer, one of the most advanced quantum computing
systems available today. By leveraging qubits stored in superconducting
circuits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to quantum
superposition, the scientists implemented a protocol to simulate the dynamics
of a theoretical wormhole. The process involved carefully manipulating
entangled qubits to emulate wormhole-like behavior and mathematically ensuring
that the system reflected the properties of a theoretical wormhole.
Using this setup, the team
successfully transmitted quantum information, the state of qubits—particles
that can represent information at the quantum level. through the simulated
wormhole. Interestingly, according to the ER principle, wormholes can
theoretically become traversable when influenced by negative energy—a concept
nonexistent in classical physics but integral to quantum physics. The
experimental results demonstrated that quantum mechanics could replicate
phenomena predicted by relativity, like wormhole dynamics. The researchers
validated their findings by analyzing the data and confirming that the
information behaved as though it had traversed a wormhole.
This groundbreaking
experiment combined expertise from quantum mechanics, general relativity, and
computational physics, supported by advanced algorithms and machine learning.
While this isn’t a wormhole, we could physically traverse, it marks an exciting
step forward in exploring the link between quantum mechanics and spacetime
geometry. This "baby step" opens the door to new avenues in
understanding quantum gravity and the universe's fundamental structure. And who
knows what the future holds? The possibilities we imagine today became more
likely when humanity first spoke its first words centuries ago.
Wormholes are great
ReplyDelete