Dance of the Photons

From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation

Anton Zeilinger

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780374239664
• eBook ISBN: 9781429963794
• Subtopic: Quantum Theory

The Nobel laureate in physics explains his experiments in quantum entanglement: "An accessible popular account of this fascinating field." — Science
Einstein's steadfast refusal to accept certain aspects of quantum theory was rooted in his insistence that physics has to be about reality. Accordingly, he once derided as "spooky action at a distance" the notion that two elementary particles far removed from each other could nonetheless influence each other's properties—a hypothetical phenomenon his fellow theorist Erwin Schrödinger termed "quantum entanglement."
In a series of ingenious experiments conducted in various locations—from a dank sewage tunnel under the Danube River to the balmy air between a pair of mountain peaks in the Canary Islands—the author and his colleagues have demonstrated the reality of such entanglement using photons, or light quanta, created by laser beams. In principle the lessons learned may be applicable in other areas, including the eventual development of quantum computers. In Dance of the Photons, Anton Zeilinger guides us on a "rewarding exploration of the weird world of quantum physics" ( Kirkus Reviews).
"This delightful little book, by one of the world's leading practitioners in this area, explains these recent advances in a way that should be accessible even to readers with no physics background." —Anthony J. Leggett, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• PROLOGUE: UNDERNEATH THE DANUBE
• SPACE TRAVEL
• THE STUFF CALLED LIGHT
• SHEEPDOGS AND EINSTEIN’S PARTICLES OF LIGHT
• EINSTEIN AND HIS NOBEL PRIZE
• A CONFLICT
• HOW WE BECAME CERTAIN OF UNCERTAINTY
• QUANTUM UNCERTAINTY: JUST OUR IGNORANCE, OR IS IT THE WAY THINGS ARE?
• THE QUANTUM VERDICT AGAINST TELEPORTATION
• QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT COMES TO THE RESCUE
• ALICE AND BOB IN THE QUANTUM LAB
• THE POLARIZATION OF LIGHT: A LECTURE BY PROFESSOR QUANTINGER
• ALICE AND BOB DISCOVER TWINS …
• JOHN’S INTRODUCTION OF EINSTEIN, PODOLSKY, AND ROSEN
• JOHN’S STORY ON LOCAL HIDDEN VARIABLES
• ALICE AND BOB’S EXPERIMENT GIVES CONFUSING RESULTS
• JOHN BELL’S STORY
• ALICE AND BOB FIND OUT THAT THINGS AREN’T AS THEY THINK THEY ARE
• FASTER THAN LIGHT AND BACK INTO THE PAST?
• ALICE, BOB, AND THE SPEED OF LIGHT LIMIT
• LOOPHOLES
• IN THE TYROLEAN MOUNTAINS
• THE QUANTUM LOTTERY
• QUANTUM LOTTERY WITH TWO PHOTONS
• QUANTUM MONEY—THE END TO ALL FORGERY
• A QUANTUM TRUCK CAN TRANSPORT MORE THAN IT CAN CARRY
• ATOMIC SOURCES OF ENTANGLEMENT AND EARLY EXPERIMENTS
• THE SUPER-SOURCE AND CLOSING THE COMMUNICATION LOOPHOLE
• QUANTUM TELEPORTATION AT THE RIVER DANUBE
• THE MULTIPHOTON SURPRISE AND, ALONG THE ROAD, QUANTUM TELEPORTATION
• TELEPORTING ENTANGLEMENT
• FURTHER EXPERIMENTS
• QUANTUM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
• THE FUTURE OF QUANTUM TELEPORTATION
• SIGNALS OUT OF THE SKY ABOVE TENERIFE
• RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND SOME OPEN QUESTIONS
• WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
• APPENDIX GLOSSARY INDEX
• APPENDIX - ENTANGLEMENT—A QUANTUM PUZZLE FOR EVERYBODY
• GLOSSARY
• INDEX
• ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
• Copyright Page