[HN Gopher] Image constructed using quantum entanglement of photons
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Image constructed using quantum entanglement of photons
Author : danboarder
Score : 101 points
Date : 2023-08-23 02:20 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| akasakahakada wrote:
| Why is that Yin Yang symbol appears?
| stronglikedan wrote:
| It's a visualization of the wave function, not an image of
| entangled photons, so it's meant to convey what the images
| represent in a form that's human "readable". (Think data
| visualizations)
| akomtu wrote:
| If quantum particles _are_ the probability function, then the
| image shows the photons themselves.
| jinwoo68 wrote:
| It feels so natural because yin and yang are not two separate
| things but two sides of the same thing, just like two entangled
| particles are.
| eigenket wrote:
| Its worth emphasising that entanglement is _not_ a two-party
| / duality specific thing.
|
| You can entangle 2 particles, you can entangle 3 particles,
| you can entangle n particles (although actually doing so
| becomes a quite hard engineering problem as n grows), you can
| even entangle different properties of the same particle with
| each other so the spin and position of an electron can become
| entangled.
|
| Human brains love dual/pairwise properties for some reason,
| but they don't seem to actually come up in physics very
| often.
| cwmoore wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics
| Ygg2 wrote:
| Honestly, I think it's for funsies. Kinda like picking a fuuny
| acronym.
| mistermann wrote:
| It increasingly often feels to me like the
| creator/programmer/whatever of this simulation (or whatever
| it is) is feeding us novel prompts to see how we will react.
| :)
| ko27 wrote:
| Note that it's impossible to actually see quantum entanglement or
| the wave function. This demonstrates an interesting way to
| visualize it.
| l33tman wrote:
| If the wavefunction can be prepared in the same way multiple
| times you can do quantum state tomography on it to reconstruct
| the wavefunction, this is essentially what they do in the paper
| but in a more efficient way than the state of the art.
| andsoitis wrote:
| In case you're wondering whether quantum entangled photons
| position themselves in a Yin Yang formation, the answer is no.
|
| The image is not that of quantum entanglement of photons.
| Instead, the researchers used the technique of quantum entangled
| photons to CONSTRUCT the image.
| dang wrote:
| OK, I've put image construction in the title above to try to
| ward off further misunderstanding.
|
| Let's please stop arguing about the image now*, and move on to
| more interesting points.
|
| * (I don't mean you, but the other commenters complaining about
| this)
| hn8305823 wrote:
| IMO this gimmick is dishonest and not far from outright
| fabrication of results.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| Huh? The paper in no way indicates anything other than they
| intentionally projected a yin Yang symbol and reconstructed
| it.
| hn8305823 wrote:
| Is that what you thought before you read the paper?
|
| Many people (including myself and others in this HN thread)
| seem to have taken the yin-yang image as literal insight
| into the physical structure of a photon. They could have
| used a different image, perhaps one of their institution's
| logo and avoided this misinterpretation.
| examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/SacredGeometry/com
| ments/15xo6fq/go_figure_photon_entanglement_is_a_yinyang_sy
| mbol/ https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-
| science/quantum-yin-yang-scientists-visualize-quantum-
| entanglement-of-photons-for-the-first-time/
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| I didn't have to, the subtext of the image in the linked
| article clearly says it was a reconstructed image they
| projected. As someone doing awesome science they get to
| choose their images.
|
| > Biphoton state holographic reconstruction. Image
| reconstruction. a, Coincidence image of interference
| between a reference SPDC state and a state obtained by a
| _pump beam with the shape of a Ying and Yang symbol_
| (shown in the inset). The inset scale is the same as in
| the main plot. b, Reconstructed amplitude and phase
| structure of the image imprinted on the unknown pump.
| Credit: Nature Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1038
| /s41566-023-01272-3
|
| It's not their fault the world is full of people hoping
| to find magic when the science is more magical than where
| their weak imaginations led them.
| pc86 wrote:
| I mean, just taking a step back for a second, the idea
| that the natural physical structure of a photon just so
| happens to match some Chinese philosophical symbol is
| laughable-borderline-hilarious. Anyone who _actually
| believes that_ should probably seriously question their
| own gullibility.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| In response to your edit adding the links, the first
| links top comment is :
|
| > this is not an image of photon entanglement. if you
| read the actual paper it is explained that, in testing
| information reconstruction from biphoton states, the
| researchers encoded the Yin-Yang symbol onto the pump
| beam photons superimposed with reference photons. the
| superposition of these waveforms was then split into
| photon pairs which, after being separated, were sent onto
| a single photon sensor array.
|
| Followed by the poster say "oh god damn"
|
| The second link seems to redirect me to another story
| about fossils, so I'll guess it was pulled?
| dang wrote:
| " _Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation
| of what someone says, not a weaker one that 's easier to
| criticize. Assume good faith._"
|
| " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other
| people's work. A good critical comment teaches us
| something._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| But, it was a real solution of the wave functions wasn't it?
|
| I wouldn't go so far as to say 'fabrication'.
| selimnairb wrote:
| THANK YOU. When I first saw this image my reaction was
| "GTFO!!!" followed by a desire to drop out and become some kind
| Zen monk or mystic.
| [deleted]
| akomtu wrote:
| You can still join the monkhood if you contemplate on the
| image of our spiral galaxy.
| andsoitis wrote:
| Hehe, you're welcome. My skeptic mind kicked in so I did some
| research, lest I got entangled in a trap of mysticism.
|
| You can see other images besides this one in the paper (which
| is linked to at the very bottom of the article):
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-023-01272-3
| teawrecks wrote:
| hah, I knew the moment I saw the image that someone was
| going to poorly crop it, subtitle it, and spread it on
| social media claiming that entangled particles secretly
| looked like a yin yang this whole time.
| elcritch wrote:
| Part of me wants to ignore that it's a constructed image
| and go on imagining entangled particles forming yin /
| yang images. Perhaps I can't critique the media too much
| for implying the same. Though the actual research seems
| interesting.
| rmbyrro wrote:
| "to CONSTRUCT the image" [in a way that would generate more
| buzz and press?]
|
| I couldn't avoid wondering...
| andsoitis wrote:
| The paper[0] contains other images too but this one is
| certainly more intriguing even if it could lead people to
| jump to wrong conclusions.
|
| About about this particular one they write:
|
| _Finally, Fig. 6 demonstrates an example of the potential
| applications of biphoton digital holography. The unknown pump
| beam can carry information about an image or be scattered by
| a three-dimensional object. The information about the
| scatterer is transferred to the SPDC state and can be
| retrieved through our technique (Fig. 6b). We show this in
| the case of off-axis holography, which can present
| limitations for complex structures due to the limited camera
| resolution. These limitations are not related to our proposal
| and can be improved by employing other approaches, for
| example, on-axis phase-shifting digital holography9._
|
| [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-023-01272-3
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