Colloquia Series

The Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox

John Howell
Dept of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
 

The "Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox" was a gedanken experiment proposed in 1935 to point out that the wavefunction description of quantum mechanics was incomplete. EPR used a two-particle wavefunction, which was continuously entangled in position and momentum, to show that each particle must both be in a position and a momentum eigenstate simultaneously. This conclusion was in violation of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Much interest and study over the last several decades has illucidated many of the points in the EPR paradox. Recently, our group demonstrated momentum-position and time-energy violations of what has now been defined as the EPR bound. These experiments will be discussed along with their relevance to quantum information and imaging.