Experiment and the foundations of quantum physics

Anton Zeilinger

Reviews of Modern Physics · 1999 · 529 citations · 29 references

Concepts

TL;DR

Recent experimental progress enables grounding quantum foundations in real experiments, spurring the emergence of quantum information science with topics such as teleportation and computation. The author aims to discuss future prospects in experimental and theoretical quantum physics. The study focuses on experiments testing the Einstein‑Podolsky‑Rosen paradox and Bell’s theorem, i.e., quantum entanglement. These experiments have confirmed historic proposals and sharpened quantum intuition.

Abstract

Instead of having to rely on gedanken (thought) experiments, it is possible to base this discussion of the foundations of quantum physics on actually performed experiments because of the enormous experimental progress in recent years. For reasons of space, the author discusses mainly experiments related to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and Bell's theorem, that is, to quantum entanglement. Not only have such fundamental experiments realized many historic proposals, they also helped to sharpen our quantum intuition. This recently led to the development of a new field, quantum information, where quantum teleportation and quantum computation are some of the most fascinating topics. Finally the author ventures into a discussion of future prospects in experiment and theory.

References

29