Getting Entangled with Sean Hodgman

About This Episode

How do you get entangled particles? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice unpack the experimental side of entanglement, superposition, and the quantum underpinnings of our universe with experimental physicist, Sean Hodgman.

How do you entangle particles? Can you entangle larger things, like atoms? Sean describes his job cooling helium atoms to a millionth of a degree above absolute zero to form a Bose-Einstein condensate. Learn about momentum entanglement and why entangling atoms rather than photons matters. Could entangling atoms open the window to quantum gravity?

What is superposition, really? Sean walks Chuck through quantum superpositions, Einstein’s criticisms of “spooky action at a distance,”and Bell’s Theorem. How do you actually entangle a particle, and how do you know it worked? What are the different subtypes of entanglement beyond momentum? Has studying entanglement changed how physicists understand reality? Could you ever use entanglement for faster-than-light communication? Why does the no-communication theorem say no, while quantum encryption says there’s still something useful here?

The episode closes on the biggest questions: is there an upper size limit to entanglement? Could spacetime itself emerge from a network of entangled particles? Would we notice if entanglement were switched off and could quantum effects be quietly underpinning DNA stability, bird navigation, and photosynthesis?

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