Scientists Find 'Spooky' Quantum Entanglement Within Individual Protons

Scientists have discovered that quarks and gluons inside protons are quantum entangled, challenging traditional views of proton structure and revealing a more complex, dynamic system influenced by strong interactions. Space.com reports: Entanglement is the aspect of quantum physics that says two affected particles can instantaneously influence each other's 'state' no matter how widely separated they are -- even if they are on opposite sides of the universe. Albert Einstein founded his theories of relativity on the notion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, however, something that should preclude the instantaneous nature of entanglement.

As a result, Einstein was so troubled by entanglement he famously described it as 'spukhafte Fernwirkung' or 'spooky action at a distance.' Yet, despite Einstein's skepticism about entanglement, this 'spooky' phenomenon has been verified over and over again. Many of those verifications have concerned testing increasing distances over which entanglement can be demonstrated. This new test took the opposite approach, investigating entanglement over a distance of just one quadrillionth of a meter, finding it actually occurs within individual protons.

The team found that the sharing of information that defines entanglement occurs across whole groups of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons within a proton. 'Before we did this work, no one had looked at entanglement inside of a proton in experimental high-energy collision data,' team member and Brookhaven Lab physicist Zhoudunming Tu said in a statement. 'For decades, we've had a traditional view of the proton as a collection of quarks and gluons, and we've been focused on understanding so-called single-particle properties, including how quarks and gluons are distributed inside the proton. 'Now, with evidence that quarks and gluons are entangled, this picture has changed. We have a much more complicated, dynamic system.' The team's research, the culmination of six years of work, refines scientists' understanding of how entanglement influences the structure of protons. The team's research was published in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.