Berlin 2005 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 45: Quanteneffekte III
Q 45.6: Talk
Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 15:45–16:00, HU 1072
Macroscopic Effects of Quantum Entanglement — •Caslav Brukner1, Vlatko Vedral2, and Anton Zeilinger1 — 1Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria — 2The School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
It is commonly believed that for the understanding of the behaviour of large, macroscopic, objects there is no need to invoke any genuine quantum entanglement - Einstein’s "spooky action at a distance". We show that this belief is fundamentally mistaken and that entanglement is crucial to correctly describe some macroscopic properties of solids. We demonstrate that macroscopic thermodynamical properties - such as internal energy, heat capacity of magnetic susceptibility - can detect quantum entanglement in solids in the thermodynamical limit even at nonzero temperatures. We identify the parameter regions (critical values of magnetic field and temperature) within which entanglement is witnessed by these thermodynamical quantities. Finally, we demonstrate that two different experiments performed in 1963 and in 2000 clearly and conclusively indicate that entanglement exits in macroscopic samples of Cooper Nitrate at temperatures below 5 Kelvin.