THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2012
INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC
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Particle control in a quantum world
Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland have independently invented and developed ground-breaking
methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their quantum-mechanical
nature, in ways that were previously thought unattainable.
Haroche and Wineland have opened the door to a new era
of experimentation with quantum physics by demonstrating
the direct observation of individual quantum systems without
destroying them. Through their ingenious laboratory methods
they have managed to measure and control very fragile quantum
states, enabling their field of research to take the very
first steps towards building a new type of super fast computer,
based on quantum physics. These methods have also led to the
construction of extremely precise clocks that could become
the future basis for a new standard of time, with more than
hundred­-fold greater precision than present-day caesium clocks.
For single particles of light or matter, the laws of classical physics cease to apply and quantum physics takes
over. But single particles are not easily isolated from their surrounding environment and they lose their
mysterious quantum properties as soon as they interact with the outside world. Thus many seemingly
bizarre phenomena predicted by quantum mechanics could not be directly observed, and researchers could
only carry out ‘thought experiments’ that might in principle manifest these bizarre phenomena.
Both Laureates work in the field of quantum optics studying the fundamental interaction between
light and matter, a field which has seen considerable progress since the mid-1980s. Their methods have
many things in common. David Wineland traps electrically charged atoms, or ions, controlling and
measuring them with light, or photons. Serge Haroche takes the opposite approach: he controls and
measures trapped photons, or particles of light, by sending atoms through a trap.
Controlling single ions in a trap
In David Wineland’s laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, electrically charged atoms or ions are kept inside
a trap by surrounding them with electric fields. The particles are isolated from the heat and radiation in
their environment by performing the experiments in vacuum at extremely low temperatures.
One of the secrets behind Wineland’s breakthrough is the mastery of the art of using laser beams and
creating laser pulses. A laser is used to suppress the ion’s thermal motion in the trap, putting the ion
in its lowest energy state and thus enabling the study of quantum phenomena with the trapped ion. A
carefully tuned laser pulse can be used to put the ion in a superposition state, which is a simultaneous
existence of two distinctly different states. For example, the ion can be prepared to occupy two different
energy levels simultaneously. It starts in a lowest energy level and the laser pulse only nudges the
ion halfway towards a higher energy level so that it is left in between the two levels, in a super­position
of energy states, with an equal probability of ending up in either of them. In this way a quantum
superposition of the ion’s energy states can be studied.
Figure 1. Nobel Prize awarded for mastering
particles. The Laureates have managed to make
trapped, individual particles to behave according
to the rules of quantum physics.
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Controlling single photons in a trap
Serge Haroche and his research group employ a different method to reveal the mysteries of the quantum
world. In the laboratory in Paris microwave photons bounce back and forth inside a small cavity
between two mirrors, about three centimetres apart. The mirrors are made of superconducting material
and are cooled to a temperature just above absolute zero. These superconducting mirrors are the world’s
shiniest. They are so reflective that a single photon can bounce back and forth inside the cavity for almost
a tenth of a second before it is lost or absorbed. This record-long life-time means that the photon will
have travelled 40,000 kilometres, equivalent to about one trip around the Earth.
During its long life time, many quantum manipulations can be performed with the trapped photon.
Haroche uses specially prepared atoms, so-called Rydberg atoms (after the Swedish physicist Johannes
Rydberg) to both control and measure the microwave photon in the cavity. A Rydberg atom has a
radius of about 125 nanometers which is roughly 1,000 times larger than typical atoms. These gigantic
doughnut-shaped Rydberg atoms are sent into the cavity one by one at a carefully chosen speed, so
that the interaction with the microwave photon occurs in a well controlled manner.
The Rydberg atom traverses and exits the cavity, leaving the microwave photon behind. But the interaction
between the photon and the atom creates a change in the phase of quantum state of the atom: if you
think of the atom’s quantum state as a wave, the peaks and the dips of the wave become shifted. This
phase shift can be measured when the atom exits the cavity, thereby revealing the presence or absence
of a photon inside the cavity. With no photon there is no phase shift. Haroche can thus measure a single
photon without destroying it.
A laser is used to suppress the ion’s
thermal motion in the trap, and to
control and measure the trapped ion.
Electrodes keep the beryllium
ions inside a trap.
electrode
lasers
electrode
ions
electrode
Figure 2. In David Wineland’s laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, electrically charged atoms or ions are kept inside a trap by surrounding
electric fields. One of the secrets behind Wineland’s breakthrough is mastery of the art of using laser beams and creating laser pulses.
A laser is used to put the ion in its lowest energy state and thus enabling the study of quantum phenomena with the trapped ion.
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With a similar method Haroche and his group could count the photons inside the cavity, as a child
counts marbles in a bowl. This may sound easy but requires extraordinary dexterity and skill because
photons, unlike ordinary marbles, are destroyed immediately by contact with the world outside.
Building on his photon counting methods, Haroche and collaborators devised methods to follow the
evolution of an individual quantum state, step-by-step, in real time.
Paradoxes of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics describes a microscopic world invisible to the naked eye, where events occur contrary
to our expectations and experiences with physical phenomena in the macroscopic, classical world. Physics
in the quantum world has some inherent uncertainty or randomness to it. One example of this contrary
behaviour is superposition, where a quantum particle can be in several different states simultaneously. We
do not normally think of a marble as being both ‘here’ and ‘there’ at the same time, but such is the case if it
were a quantum marble. The superposition state of this marble tells us exactly what probability the marble
has of being here or there, if we were to measure exactly where it is.
Why do we never become aware of these strange facets of our world? Why can we not observe a
superposition of quantum marble in our every-day life? The Austrian physicist and Nobel Laureate
(Physics 1933) Erwin Schrödinger battled with this question. Like many other pioneers of quantum
theory, he struggled to understand and interpret its implications. As late as 1952, he wrote: “We never
experiment with just one electron or atom or (small) molecule. In thought-experiments we sometimes
assume that we do; this invariably entails ridiculous consequences...”.
In order to illustrate the absurd consequences of moving between the micro-world of quantum physics
and our every-day macro-world, Schrödinger described a thought experiment with a cat: Schrödinger’s
cat is completely isolated from the outside world inside a box. The box also contains a bottle of
deadly cyanide which is released only after the decay of some radioactive atom, also inside the box.
Rydberg atoms – roughly 1,000 times
larger than typical atoms –
are sent through the cavity one by one.
At the exit the atom can reveal
the presence or absence of a photon
inside the cavity.
microwave photons
superconducting
niobium mirrors
2.7 cm
Photons bounce back and forth inside
a small cavity between two mirrors for
more than a tenth of a second. Before it
disappears the photon will have travelled
a distance of one trip around the Earth.
Figure 3. In the Serge Haroche laboratory in Paris, in vacuum and at a temperature of almost absolute zero, the microwave photons
bounce back and forth inside a small cavity between two mirrors. The mirrors are so reflective that a single photon stays for more
than a tenth of a second before it is lost. During its long life time, many quantum manipulations can be performed with the trapped
photon without destroying it.
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The radioactive decay is governed by the laws
of quantum mechanics, according to which the
radioactive material is in a superposition state
of both having decayed and not yet decayed.
Therefore the cat must also be in a superposition
state of being both dead and alive. Now, if
you peek inside the box, you risk killing the cat
because the quantum superposition is so sensitive
to interaction with the environment that
the slightest attempt to observe the cat would
immediately ‘collapse’ the ‘cat-state’ to one of
the two possible outcomes – dead or alive. In
Schrödinger’s view this thought experiment
lead to an absurd conclusion, and it is said that
he later tried to apologize for adding to the
quantum confusion.
Both Nobel Laureates of 2012 have been able to
map the quantum cat-state when it encounters
outside world. They have devised creative experiments
and managed to show in great detail how
the act of measuring actually causes the quantum
state to collapse and loose its superposition character.
Instead of Schrödinger’s cat, Haroche and
Wineland trap quantum particles and put them
in cat-like superposition states. These quantum
objects are not really macroscopic as a cat, but
they are still quite large by quantum standards.
Inside Haroche’s cavity microwave photons are
put in cat-like states with opposite phases at the
same time, like a stopwatch with a needle that
spins both clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously. The microwave field inside the cavity is
then probed with Rydberg atoms. The result is another unintelligible quantum effect called entanglement.
Entanglement has also been described by Erwin Schrödinger and can occur between two or
more quantum particles that have no direct contact but still can read and affect the properties of each
other. Entanglement of the microwave field and Rydberg atoms allowed Haroche to map the life and
death of the cat-like state inside his cavity, following it step by step, atom by atom, as it underwent a
transition from the quantum superposition of states to a well defined state of classical physics.
On the verge of a new computer revolution
A possible application of ion traps that many scientists dream of is the quantum computer. In present-day
classical computers the smallest unit of information is a bit that takes the value of either 1 or 0. In a
quantum computer, however, the basic unit of information – a quantum bit or qubit – can be 1 and 0
at the same time. Two quantum bits can simultaneously take on four values – 00, 01, 10 and 11 – and
each additional qubit doubles the amount of possible states. For n quantum bits there are 2n
possible
states, and a quantum computer of only 300 qubits could hold 2300
values simultaneously, more than
the number of atoms in the universe.
Figure 4. Schrödinger’s cat. In 1935 the Austrian physicist and
Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrödinger described a thought experiment
with a cat in a box in order to illustrate the absurd consequences
of moving between the micro-world of quantum physics and our
every-day macro-world. A quantum system, particles, atoms and
other stuff of the micro-world, can be in two states simultaneously,
by physicists called a superposition of states. In Schrödinger’s
thought experiment the cat in the box is in a superposition, and thus
both dead and alive. Now, if you peek inside the box, you risk killing
the cat because the quantum superposition is so sensitive to interaction
with the environment that the slightest attempt to observe
the cat would immediately ‘collapse’ the ‘cat-state’ to one of the two
possible outcomes – dead or alive.
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Wineland’s group was the first in the world to demonstrate a quantum operation with two quantum
bits. Since control operations have already been achieved with a few qubits, there is in principle no
reason to believe that it should not be possible to achieve such operations with many more qubits.
However, to build such a quantum computer is an enormous practical challenge. One has to satisfy
two opposing requirements: the qubits need to be adequately isolated from their environment in
order not to destroy their quantum properties, yet they must also be able to communicate with the
outside world in order to pass on the results of their calculations. Perhaps the quantum computer will
be built in this century. If so, it will change our lives in the same radical way as the classical computer
transformed life in the last century.
New clocks
David Wineland and his team of researchers
have also used ions in a trap to build a clock
that is a hundred times more precise than the
caesium-based atomic clocks which are currently
the standard for our measurement of time. Time
is kept by setting, or synchronizing all clocks
against one standard. Caesium clocks operate
in the microwave range whereas Wineland’s ion
clocks use visible light – hence their name: optical
clocks. An optical clock can consist of just one
ion or two ions in a trap. With two ions, one is
used as the clock and the other is used to read
the clock without destroying its state, or causing
it to miss a tick. The precision of an optical clock
is better than one part in 1017
, which means that
if one had started to measure time at the beginning of the universe in the Big Bang about 14 billion
years ago, the optical clock would only have been off by about five seconds today.
With such precise measurement of time, some extremely subtle and beautiful phenomena of nature
have been observed, such as changes in the flow of time, or minute variations of gravity, the fabric of
space-time. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is affected by motion and gravity. The
higher the speed and the stronger the gravity, the slower the passage of time. We may not be aware
of these effects, but they have in fact become part of our everyday life. When we navigate with the
GPS we rely on time signals from satellites with clocks that are routinely calibrated, because gravity
is somewhat weaker several hundred kilometres up in the sky. With an optical clock it is possible to
measure a difference in the passage of time when the clocks speed is changed by less than 10 metres
per second, or when gravity is altered as a consequence of a difference in height of only 30 centimetres.
Figure 5. Optical clock. A practical use of ions in a trap is to build
a clock that is a hundred times more precise than the caesiumbased
atomic clocks which are currently the standard for our
measurement of time. With two ions, one is used as the clock and
the other is used to read the clock without destroying its state, or
causing it to miss a tick.
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LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Additional information on this year’s Prizes, including a scientific background article in English, may be
found at the website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, http://kva.se, and at
http://nobelprize.org. They also include web-TV versions of the press conferences at which the awards
were announced. Information on exhibitions and activities related to the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in
Economic Sciences may be found at www.nobelmuseet.se.
Popular science articles
Monroe, C. R. and Wineland, D. J. (2008) Quantum Computing with Ions, Scientific American, August.
Yam, P. (1997) Bringing Schrödinger’s Cat to Life, Scientific American, June.
THE LAUREATES
Science Editors: Lars Bergström, Björn Jonson, Per Delsning and Anne l’Huillier, the Nobel Committee for Physics
Text: Joanna Rose
Illustrations: ©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Editor: Annika Moberg
©The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
SERGE HAROCHE
French citizen. Born 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco.
Ph.D. 1971 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris,
France. Professor at Collége de France and Ecole
Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
www.college-de-france.fr/site/
en-serge-haroche/biography.htm
DAVID J. WINELAND
U.S. citizen. Born 1944 in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Ph.D.
1970 from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Group Leader and NIST Fellow at National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of
Colorado Boulder, CO, USA.
www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp10/index.cfm