A recent experiment has measured a pulse of light in 37 dimensions, demonstrating that quantum mechanics is even more extraordinary than we had imagined. 
This study, published in the journal Science Advances, aimed to investigate the profoundly nonclassical nature of quantum theory by demonstrating the famous Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox. This paradox highlights the contradictions between classical and quantum mechanics, challenging assumptions that have long been considered fundamental truths about reality.
Using entangled photons, a laser, and a fiber-based photonic processor, the researchers developed a system that was significantly more complex than previous quantum setups. This helped illuminate the essential differences between quantum mechanics and classical theory.
The success of this experiment highlights the ability of quantum mechanics to defy conventional expectations, further complicating the attempt to unify it with general relativity. By operating in 37 dimensions, far beyond the three dimensions traditionally required for GHz states, this research deepens our understanding of quantum entanglement and the unusual behaviors of subatomic particles. Physicists caution that, despite more than a century of exploration in the quantum field, we have only just begun to unravel its mysteries.
This work opens up new possibilities in quantum research, paving the way for potential future breakthroughs in areas such as quantum computing, cryptography, and our fundamental understanding of reality itself.
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd8080
This study, published in the journal Science Advances, aimed to investigate the profoundly nonclassical nature of quantum theory by demonstrating the famous Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox. This paradox highlights the contradictions between classical and quantum mechanics, challenging assumptions that have long been considered fundamental truths about reality.
Using entangled photons, a laser, and a fiber-based photonic processor, the researchers developed a system that was significantly more complex than previous quantum setups. This helped illuminate the essential differences between quantum mechanics and classical theory.
The success of this experiment highlights the ability of quantum mechanics to defy conventional expectations, further complicating the attempt to unify it with general relativity. By operating in 37 dimensions, far beyond the three dimensions traditionally required for GHz states, this research deepens our understanding of quantum entanglement and the unusual behaviors of subatomic particles. Physicists caution that, despite more than a century of exploration in the quantum field, we have only just begun to unravel its mysteries.
This work opens up new possibilities in quantum research, paving the way for potential future breakthroughs in areas such as quantum computing, cryptography, and our fundamental understanding of reality itself.
Abstract
Contextuality is a hallmark feature of the quantum theory that captures its incompatibility with any noncontextual hidden-variable model. The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ)–type paradoxes are proofs of contextuality that reveal this incompatibility with deterministic logical arguments. However, the GHZ-type paradox whose events can be included in the fewest contexts and that brings the strongest nonclassicality remains elusive. Here, we derive a GHZ-type paradox with a context-cover number of 3 and show that this number saturates the lower bound posed by quantum theory. We demonstrate the paradox with a time-domain fiber optical platform and recover the quantum prediction in a 37-dimensional setup based on high-speed modulation, convolution, and homodyne detection of time-multiplexed pulsed coherent light. By proposing and studying a strong form of contextuality in high-dimensional Hilbert space, our results pave the way for the exploration of exotic quantum correlations with time-multiplexed optical systems.Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd8080
