Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 has been awarded to three quantum researchers

On 4 October 2022, physicists Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger were honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics. Their groundbreaking experiments in the field of quantum technologies for quantum teleportation or quantum entanglement are crucial for the discovery of the microcosm – a world that behaves according to different rules than we are used to from our macroscopic environment. These phenomena can be used, for example, to build quantum computers – novel computer systems based on the properties of quantum mechanics – that could solve complex and tedious computing operations faster.

As Tommaso Calarco, Prof. of the Peter Grünberg Institute of the Jülich Research Centre and a key designer of the EIN Quantum NRW network, which is currently being founded, pointed out to Deutschlandfunk radio, it was the findings of the three physicists that first opened the door for technology development. Before their experiments, work on the fundamentals of quantum technologies was considered “fundamentally philosophical”.

The Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1901 and is endowed with ten million Swedish kronor per category. The ceremony to award the Nobel Prize traditionally takes place on the anniversary of the death of its founder, Alfred Nobel, on 10 December.

(Ricarda Bardenbrewer)