A $2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation supports the researcher’s development of the very first quantum entanglement probe
In the 1997 American cinema classic “Men In Black,” Agent Kay, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, delivers a memorable line to his young protege: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” It’s a reminder that individual behavior can differ greatly from group behavior. Even a thorough understanding of how an individual behaves will not lead you to understand group behavior.
Agent Kay’s quote illustrates the concept of “emergence,” a term coined by theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate P.W. Anderson in his famous 1972 paper “More is Different.” Anderson argued that complex systems cannot be explained just by examining their fundamental laws. Instead, researchers should focus on how these systems display properties that the individual components lack.
Pri Narang is a UCLA professor and leading quantum researcher who has taken this philosophy to heart. Narang focuses on, among many other things, a device called a quantum entanglement probe. Narang was recently awarded a major $2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to continue her work in this area. However, before we get into the idea itself and Narang’s progress, let’s review a bit about what quantum entanglement actually is.
At the quantum-mechanical level, particles can become correlated in such a way that classical physics is unable to describe. More precisely, a system of multiple particles can exist in a state which cannot be completely described by the sum of the individual particles and their interactions. When this phenomenon occurs, we say the particles are “entangled” in a way that we can mathematically describe, but don’t wholly understand. Entangled particles are fundamentally connected, even in the absence of an interaction force, and even across vast distances. Entanglement comprises the foundation for revolutionary quantum technologies, and the ability to harness this bizarre quantum phenomenon promises unique insights into physics beyond the Standard Model.
And that is exactly what Narang seeks to do.
“If you think of any advances in science, two things can happen,” Narang says. “Someone asks a question that changes our perception, or someone develops a tool to see things in a new way.”
Einstein’s theory of relativity provides a good example of the former. The microscope serves as an example of the latter. Narang’s proposed probe is the first of its kind that uses quantum entanglement to look at the universe in new ways. Just as the first microscopes opened our eyes to a world we knew existed, but were unable to access, Narang’s probe aims to reveal new hidden worlds in the landscape of new physics.
“The math is clear – there is more out there in the universe than we have been able to access. We know it’s there, but it has been just out of reach.”
Pri Narang
Narang likens her work to the spirit of J.W. Anderson’s “More is Different” philosophy. “Understanding the physical world is not just about explaining how the individual pieces work,” she says. “We need a better description of the whole puzzle and ways to visualize it, see it for real!” It is this approach which has made her research so attractive to the Moore Foundation, and a major reason for their full support. While typical government grants have specific expectations about research questions to answer or milestones to hit, the Moore Foundation grant allows Narang to pursue blue-sky, open-ended research questions. “The Moore Foundation has an approach of trusting the investigator. They want to see that exciting questions are being asked and pursued. This is a different model of supporting science and one that has allowed us to make amazing progress,” says Narang.
For now, Narang and her group are excited to begin using their entanglement probe to explore fundamental physics through a new lens. One immediate question they are asking is: What would happen if you were to use an entanglement probe to study “plain” 2D materials? These are things that traditional electron microscopes have looked at in great detail and, to the best of our knowledge, have been well-explained. Will Narang’s probe reveal new interactions, excitations, and potentially new physics that our current instruments have been unable to detect?
The sky’s the limit for potential applications of this new technology. If quantum entanglement probes offer a new mechanism to study the physical world, what might such instruments reveal about the origins of our universe?
“The math is clear – there is more out there in the universe than we have been able to access. We know it’s there, but it has been just out of reach,” says Narang. This probe, and more technologies like it in the future, can shed light on the largest quantum system we know: our universe. As J.W. Anderson and Agent Kay said, “Understanding the system as a whole is the ultimate goal.”
