• Home
  • News
  • Big Data & Analytics
  • DevOps
  • Security
  • GDPR
  • AI & ML
  • Women in Tech
  • Cloud & Infrastructure
  • CIO
  • Deskflix
  • Events
  • Whitepapers
  • Spotlights
  • IT Leaders 250
  • Research
  • Delta
  • Tech Marketing Hub
  • About Us
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
     
    • You are currently accessing Computing via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: customerservices@incisivemedia.com

      • Sign in
     
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • Register
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      Where the buck stops: Why a shared responsibility model will help you own your cloud security flaws

      This webinar, and accompanying dedicated research, will reveal to what extent organisations are practicing a shared responsibility model for cloud security today and the degree to which IT leaders are aware of what they should be doing to ensure the secure use of their multi- and hybrid-cloud environments.

      • Date: 27 Jan 2021
      event logo
      Leveraging the Cloud to Defeat Data Disasters

      Join us and learn how your IT team can realize many of the powerful advantages of the cloud and solve the operational complexity behind managing data across hybrid and multi-cloud IT environments with centralized management, automation, end-to-end security, and lower TCO.

      • Date: 28 Jan 2021
      event logo
      Deskflix Hybrid and Multi Cloud

      One of the most powerful tools for breaking down silos and integrating resources is cloud computing. But multi-tenancy cloud is not the ideal environment for every application or every class of data and some will need to remain on-prem for the foreseeable future; nor are all clouds equal. Tune in to Deskflix season 1 to hear industry experts speak on the questions you need answered on hybrid and multi cloud.

      • Date: 10 Feb 2021
      event logo
      Deskflix Financial Services

      oin us for this episode of Deskflix to hear from industry experts and peers on their 2020 best practices, what they’ve learnt for 2021 and how they plan to overcome the next wave of disruption.

      • Date: 03 Mar 2021
      View all events
  • Whitepapers
    • LATEST WHITEPAPERS
      Darktrace 120x194
      Cyber AI Response: Threat Report 2019

      This white paper details 7 case studies of attacks that were intercepted and neutralised by Darktrace cyber defense AI, including a zero-day trojan in a manufacturing company's network. Learn how Darktrace Antigena AI Response modules fight back autonomously, no matter where a threat may emerge, extending to the Cloud, Email and SaaS.

      Download
      Darktrace 120x194
      Cyber AI & Darktrace Cloud

      This white paper explores how cloud is a security blind spot for many organisations who struggle with the limited visibility and control in this new environment, where their existing security tools are often not applicable.

      Download
      Find whitepapers
      Search by title or subject area
      View all whitepapers
  • Spotlights
    • Spotlights

      Welcome to Computing's Spotlight section, where we focus in on particularly important themes and topics of enterprise IT.

      Intel logo

       

      Endpoint Management and Security Hub

  • IT Leaders 250
  • Research
  • Delta
  • Tech Marketing Hub
  • About Us
Computing
Computing
  • Home
  • News
  • Big Data & Analytics
  • DevOps
  • Security
  • GDPR
  • AI & ML
  • Women in Tech
  • Cloud & Infrastructure
  • CIO
  • Deskflix
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
 
  • You are currently accessing Computing via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: customerservices@incisivemedia.com

    • Sign in
 
  • Communications

More than one reality can exist simultaneously at the quantum level, new experiment suggests

The experiment, known as 'Wigner's Friend', was first postulated in 1961 by the physicist Eugene Wigner

Image via Pixabay
Image via Pixabay
  • Dev Kundaliya
  • 21 March 2019
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Researchers at the University of Innsbrück in Austria claim to have conducted an experiment proving that multiple versions of reality can exist simultaneously at the quantum level.

The experiment, known as 'Wigner's Friend', was first postulated in 1961 by Eugene Wigner, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. It involves two individuals observing a single photon at the same time, with the photon's polarisation — the axis on which it spins — either horizontal or vertical.

However, according to the principles of quantum mechanics, the same photon - when it is not being measured in the lab - displays both polarisations simultaneously by existing in a "superposition" of two states.

In other words, the experiment proposes that it is possible that two individuals observe different states of the photon at the same time, yet their observations would be correct.

For decades, Wigner's experiment remained a theory. Recent advances in physics have enabled physicists to test Wigner's theory in labs.

"Theoretical advances were needed to formulate the problem in a way that is testable. Then, the experimental side needed developments on the control of quantum systems to implement something like that," study co-author Martin Ringbauer, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Innsbrück, told Live Science.

In the current study, the research team created two closed labs for the experiment, with each lab having one experimenter and one friend.  

The experiment started by introducing two pairs of entangled photons with linked fates, meaning the state of one photon would tell the state of the other.

The friends, who were within the labs, observed one photon (from the pair) in their lab and recorded their observations. The process was repeated for the second photon also.

When friends observed the photons, they found them to be in a state of polarisation.

But when the photons were observed from outside the closed labs using interference experiments, they were found to be in a state of superposition (entangled state).

When Wigner originally introduced the idea in 1961, only one scenario was used in the experiment. But, with the new experiment, the observations were doubled, and the team found that the results described by Wigner still held.

According to the research team, the observations made by the experimenters about the photons were correct and provable, but they were different from the measurements of their friends — which were also correct and verifiable.

The findings of the study were published in the journal arXiv.

Further reading

China details its quantum key distribution network
  • Security
  • 22 January 2018
All-photonic quantum repeaters could pave the way for faster, more secure quantum internet
  • Hardware
  • 06 February 2019
Scientists claim major quantum computing milestone after getting two silicon qubits to communicate with each other
  • Chips and Components
  • 07 March 2018
IBM launches world's first commercial quantum computer
  • Hardware
  • 08 January 2019
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Communications
  • Eugene Wigner
  • quantum mechanics
  • Wigner's friend

More on Communications

Slack goes down as millions return to work

Login and messaging problems on the collaboration site began at 3.14 pm

  • Communications
  • 04 January 2021
PM urged to address digital divide among pupils
PM urged to address digital divide among pupils

Nearly nine per cent of UK children lack home access to a desktop, laptop, or tablet, and almost 1 million rely on a mobile connection

  • Communications
  • 04 January 2021
Scientists demonstrate high-fidelity quantum teleportation over long distance
Scientists demonstrate high-fidelity quantum teleportation over long distances

The breakthrough could pave the way to develop technology to redefine global communication in future

  • Communications
  • 04 January 2021
EU and ASEAN focus on connectivity in move towards free trade agreement
EU and ASEAN focus on connectivity in move towards free trade agreement

The EU and ASEAN represent more than 1 billion people and 25 per cent of global economic power

  • Communications
  • 02 December 2020
Important systems like GPS and mobile communications are completely dependent on error-prone time measurement services
Why the world needs better and more robust ways of measuring time

Critical infrastructure and systems such as GPS rely on time-keeping mechanisms that are far too easily subverted or prone to error

  • Hardware
  • 20 November 2020
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

Women in IT: don't get stuck in 'glue work' if you want to get on
Women in IT: don't get stuck in 'glue work' if you want to get on
New SolarWinds hack victims emerging every day, as Malwarebytes goes public on breach
New SolarWinds hack victims emerging every day, as Malwarebytes goes public on breach
Russian malware found on government-issued laptops for home schooling
Russian malware found on government-issued laptops for home schooling
Google locks out another top AI ethicist
Google locks out another top AI ethicist
BT faces possible £500m claim for overcharging landline-only customers
BT faces possible £500m claim for overcharging landline-only customers
  • Contact
  • Delta
  • Marketing solutions
  • Enterprise IT Events
  • Incisive Media
  • Terms & conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

im_logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading