Indeterminism & quantum entanglement
JANUARY 9, 2019 (updated on February 15, 2024)
Table of contents
Did you survived the Schrödinger’s cat experience revisited? Does the new interpretation of the wave/particle duality no longer hold any secrets for you? Then you are ready to continue your exploration of quantum physics by discovering indeterminism and entanglement in a new light!
According to the classical interpretation, indeterminism seems to call into question the principle of causality. And the entanglement seems to defy the principle of locality and the speed of light. However, if we approach these principles from the point of view of information and interdependence of phenomena, they are simply interpretable. That’s what we’re going to find out in this article!
Quantum Indeterminism, or causality in question
Indeterminism stems from the idea that events have no cause in quantum physics. The uncertainty principle formulated by the physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927 is an illustration of this. It states that it is impossible to determine the speed and the position of an electron accurately and simultaneously.
Heisenberg defines causality as “the ability to infer the position of a particle when the position of the same particle is known a moment before” [1]. While in classical physics one can of course apply the principle of causality to predict the evolution of a system at any moment in time, in quantum physics this is not possible. When we want to know the position of a particle, we must develop a device in which one sends a photon to the particle. At the moment when the photon strikes the particle, the position of the photon is revealed, and consequently that of the particle.
But this device disturbs the system, the shock with the photon projecting the particle to an indeterminate and indeterminable location. Therefore it is impossible to reconstruct the trajectory of the particle, since from one measurement to the next we never know where it will be. In fact, we can’t even be sure that the particle has a trajectory between two observations.
Phenomena appear dependently
If the disruption of the system prevents us from knowing the position of the particle at the previous moment, it is like saying that we lack the information that would allow us to apply the principle of causality. However, “it is not that [we must] completely reject the idea that events have causes, but only the idea that [we can] apply the principle of causality for the purpose of prediction” [2] explains the French philosopher of science Michel Bitbol. The only thing we can say is that there are phenomena. For which it is impossible to dissociate the object from the act of observation.
We can only establish a relationship between the two phenomena, which appear dependently. But that doesn’t mean there’s no cause in quantum physics. Actually, for Michel Bitbol :
“There are only no absolute causes, no intrinsically existing causes, but there are causes that are relative to the very act of observing phenomena. So the phenomena are not without cause. They are caused by all the factors that involve the measuring devices that detect the phenomena.”
MICHEL BITBOL [3]
Quantum entanglement, or instant communication
The term “entanglement” was first used by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, in response to the EPR paradox highlighted by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen.
The EPR paradox
In order to understand the EPR paradox, we have to go back to the basis of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and in particular to the locality principle. This principle states that an object can only be influenced by its immediate environment. So two objects separated by a large distance cannot theoretically influence each other.
The EPR paradox is a thought experiment (thus not a demonstration) whose aim is to demonstrate that quantum mechanics is incomplete. It predicts that particles can be in correlated states – i.e. there are correlations in the measurement results – even if they are very distant.
This is the phenomenon of entanglement, also called non-locality. Two entangled particles cannot be considered as independent, regardless of the distance between them. These particles form a unique system. The observation shows that acting on one of the particles has an instantaneous impact on the other. Thus a measurement operation will be valid for both particles, because their quantum states depend on each other.
Everything seems to happen as if the information is transmitted instantaneously – i.e. at a speed greater than the speed of light – from one particle to another. A priori this is not the case, because the states of the particles are coordinated and do not allow information to be transmitted.
The French physicist Alain Aspect was the first to demonstrate the entanglement of particles, in experiments conducted from 1975 onwards [4]. Today, entanglement is considered to be accepted.
Then how do we explain the quantum entanglement?
According to Nassim Haramein’s theory, when information appears at one point in the universe, it appears simultaneously at each point. This is because the universe is holographic. In that sense, indeed, there is no transmission of information. Information just appear dependently in every point of the universe.
According to the physicist, the entanglement reveals the presence of wormholes. Wormholes are a kind of shortcut in space that allows two regions to communicate independently of the speed of light. It shows in fact that in the holofractographic universe the equality ER = EPR theorized by Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind is verified.
What does ER = EPR mean? According to these two physicists, wormholes (ER, or Einstein-Rosen bridges – illustration opposite) and quantum entanglement (EPR) are indeed one and the same thing [5]. In other words, removing two entangled particles is like forming a wormhole between them.
Nassim Haramein talks about the interdependence of all protons in the universe. Therefore, from his point of view, it is not just a question of two particles that would be in an entangled state on the one hand and independent of the rest of the particles in the universe on the other. For him, not only does information flow between two protons connected through a wormhole, but also between two protons connected through several protons and wormholes. Thus there is instantaneous quantum communication between all the protons in the universe. That is why he called his theory “the connected universe”.
What about on a human scale?
What does this questioning and discovery have to do with our daily experience, you may ask? As human beings, we are made up of cells, which are themselves made up of atoms, which are themselves made up of protons. Therefore we are an integral part of the weft that connects all the protons to each other.
I invite you to discover the article Is the universe deterministic? to continue this reflection. The first part of the article deals with the principle of causality from the point of view not of indeterminism, but of its counterpart, determinacy. For all that, it is not a question of considering that indeterminism is to quantum particles what determinism is to our daily life. In the light of my experience, Michel Bitbol’s insights and the theory of the connected universe, we will go beyond this questioning. And to do so, to show how determinism and indeterminism are in fact complementary and act at all scales. The second part of the article highlights my personal experience by showing the filigree weft that connects us all.
Key points
- In quantum physics, the causes are not intrinsic to objects, they are depending on the act of observation.
- All protons are entangled in the universe : quantum communication is instantaneous.
Notes & references
[1] HEISENBERG Werner, quoted by BITBOL Michel (January 18, 2013), Dissiper les propriétés intrinsèques et l’existence intrinsèque [Dispelling intrinsic properties and intrinsic existence], In : Fleurs du dharma, Mind and Life XXVI – Esprit, cerveau et matière, pp.9-10, free translation
[2] BITBOL Michel, Dissiper les propriétés intrinsèques et l’existence intrinsèque, op.cit., p.10, free translation
[3] Ibid., p.11, free translation
[4] ASPECT Alain. (october 15, 1976). Proposed experiment to test the nonseparability of quantum mechanics, Physical Review D, vol. 14, n°8
[5] MALDACENA Juan et SUSSKIND Leonard. (July 11, 2013). Cool horizons for entangled black holes.
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