How Quantum Physicists Amplify Randomness

How Quantum Physicists Amplify Randomness

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Once again quantum physics gives us philosophical implications: physicists showed how a small amount of randomness can be amplified without limit. Classical physics is deterministic: for example, we can determine the position and velocity of a particle at any time in the future. Quantum theory, on the other hand, states that there exist processes which are fundamentally random: for instance, the outcomes of measurements of quantum particles seem to be determined entirely by chance. This is why Einstein argued in a publication in 1935 that the quantum theory is incomplete, and yet another kind of higher theory must exist, but up to the present time there has been no proof either that the world is purely deterministic and all randomness is due solely to a lack of knowledge about certain events, or that everything happens purely by chance.

However, ETH Zurich physicists have now succeeded in showing in a thought experiment that randomness can be amplified. The results, published in the scientific journal Nature Physics, may also have practical applications.