What quantum phenomenon earned Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics?

Quantum entanglement earned Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments with entangled photons and violations of Bell inequalities.

Entanglement links the quantum states of particles so that measurements show correlations stronger than classical theories based on local hidden variables can explain. The correlations do not allow usable information to travel faster than light, so entanglement does not provide ordinary faster-than-light communication.

Clauser developed an important experimental test of Bell’s inequalities, Aspect improved such tests by closing key loopholes, and Zeilinger demonstrated increasingly sophisticated quantum-information experiments. Their work helped establish entanglement as a practical resource for quantum information science, including quantum cryptography, teleportation of quantum states and emerging quantum computers.