Emily Chan
“The electron doesn’t just jump out of the atom. It is a wave that spills out of the atom, so to speak—and that takes a certain amount of time,” said Iva Březinová, a professor and co-author of the study.
“It is precisely during this phase that the entanglement occurs, the effect of which can then be precisely measured later by observing the two electrons.”
The current study relies on computer simulations and models, but the researchers are already making plans to prove these quantum entanglements in real-life settings.
Soon, technology will be advanced enough to generate light pulses that are sufficiently accurate to take such measurements.
Overall, the research illustrates that quantum processes do not actually occur instantaneously. They unfold over very brief periods of time.
Learning more about these dynamics could lead to progress in areas such as quantum computing and cryptography, changing the game for the control and utilization of quantum effects.
The details of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
