Information exchange 100'000 faster than the speed of light?

On the basis of their measurements, the team concluded that if the photons had communicated, they must have done so at least 100,000 times faster than the speed of light — something nearly all physicists thought would be impossible. In other words, these photons cannot know about each other through any sort of normal exchange of information.

Source: www.nature.com...

This article came out in '08. I just read it and it blew my mind.

I really think that we're in for a many surprises when it comes to physics and QM. Einstein hated this "spooky" behavior, but couldn't deny it.

No it's probably infinite and they are just trying to make up big numbers to quantify it into something they can grapple with.

100,000? Are you sure? Not 99,982? or 100,014? They are just guessing and rounding it to an average.

100k times faster than the speed of light? I sincerely hope that they are right. That would mean that all we have to do is come up with the right technology, and we could travel all over our galaxy in a reasonable length of time.

That's strange because everything I've ever read about entangled photons is that the communication is instantaneous. So not only is it faster than light, it's infinitely faster than light. Why did they down grade the speed?

I think the "holographic" theory of the nature of reality ties in with this. Try finding "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. It's a good read. "Faster Than Light: Superluminal Loopholes In Physics" is another good one. It's by Nick Herbert.

this reminds me of the legends of thor where he was proving his strength, and when he was proving his speed, his competitor, who was in disguise, was simply thought.

think about it, you can think of anywhere, and your mind is there.

In May, 2010, Chineses scientists performed a similar experiment without the fiberoptic cable, but in open air. There are several ATS threads on this topic.

What's missing from the NatureNews article is any semblance of understanding. Though relativity did not prove the impossibility of FTL communication, it did prove that a signal cannot be FTL in all reference frames. There can be at most one reference frame in which a signal is instantaneous in every direction. That reference frame, if it exists, is the ether, and if these FTL experiments prove to be true, they will prove the existence of a substantial and immovable ether. More.

Originally posted by Phractal Phil
In May, 2010, Chineses scientists performed a similar experiment without the fiberoptic cable, but in open air. There are several ATS threads on this topic.

What's missing from the NatureNews article is any semblance of understanding. Though relativity did not prove the impossibility of FTL communication, it did prove that a signal cannot be FTL in all reference frames. There can be at most one reference frame in which a signal is instantaneous in every direction. That reference frame, if it exists, is the ether, and if these FTL experiments prove to be true, they will prove the existence of a substantial and immovable ether. More.

Wake when it's over!
I suppose that second-guessing with one's own understanding of the work of others is better than an out-right denial.

Could it be that everything in this universe is physically connected? There are some who hypothesize that electromagnetic forces bind all matter together - countless strings - EM fields of varying intensity, connect everything to everything else.

Thanks for all the comments. Please scroll to the bottom of the article and read some of the comments. Especially the first one by Uncle Al is very interesting. To me his answer looks very scientific until you realize that he actually doesn't address the phenomenon itself, but only the means of "measuring' the info.

reply to post by harrytuttle


The article said "... at least 100'000 times faster". It could be infinite, but they know for a fact that it can't be slower than 100'000 × c.

I hope this helps.

I read the article, but I disagree with it. It says:

Einstein called such behaviour “spooky action at a distance”, because he found it deeply unsettling.

So far so good, this quantum entanglement has been known for decades, nothing new about the concept.

On the basis of their measurements, the team concluded that if the photons had communicated, they must have done so at least 100,000 times faster than the speed of light — something nearly all physicists thought would be impossible.

I call BS on this. I want them to name names of physicists who thought FTL information transfer was impossible with quantum entanglement before this study was done, so I can ask them what the hell they were thinking. I don't know of a single physicist who would be the least bit surprised by this result.

And as the first few comments replying to the article state, it's not really communication, it's quantum entanglement. Known for decades.

Originally posted by gnosticquasar
100k times faster than the speed of light? I sincerely hope that they are right. That would mean that all we have to do is come up with the right technology, and we could travel all over our galaxy in a reasonable length of time.

If you could travel as fast as you communicate you could send yourself through a fax machine now.

And obviously you can't and won't be able to in the foreseeable future.

Speed at which information can travel and speed at which matter can travel may be two very different things.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Just so I can understand where you are coming from: do you hold a Ph.D. in physics?

Here is an enigma to ponder, for a time, and times, and half a time...

To approach the speed of light and cross the thresh-hold, an object, or particle would gain mass? And all time appeared to stop as being "eternal?" So that on that scale, it would seem as a sun?

Perhaps to surpass this barrier, things would appear as if at the level of the atom?

The current scientific theory is that information cannot travel faster than light, because otherwise there would be paradoxes.

Then how did they find out that information was communicated faster than light?

You think space and time are important because that’s the kind of monkeys you are.

It could have been a Q quote.

reply to post by masterp


Maybe they showed that the theory is wrong ...?

Cool stuff, believe it or not there's a lot of research going on concerning this kind of stuff - but most of it stems from things like string theory, quantum mechanics, and teleportation. I'm getting ready to go to bed but I'll try and post some more info on here as soon as possible. I'd put some more up now but at the moment I can't think of the name of the expirement / test / whatever u want to call it. Basically a bunch of scientist shot a bunch of photons at a "wall", but they still manage to hit the other side of the wall as if they passed directly through it... that's the best I can do right now off the top of my head.

reply to post by Time2Think


Pls post more when time allows.

On the basis of their measurements, the team concluded that if the photons had communicated, they must have done so at least 100,000 times faster than the speed of light

Big word there... "if".

In any case I don't think humanity has discovered a way to measure something of that velocity accurately. To maybe give you an idea of how fast this is, by the time something going that velocity reaches the Milky Way's creamy center from Earth (27,000 ly), light from Earth will only have made it just over half way to the Oort cloud.

I think this article is related to the subject matter of this thread:

"First silicon entanglement will aid quantum computing"
www.newscientist.com...

Seems the industry has moved beyond entangled photons (of the OP '08 source article)... to entangled silicon atoms.