Time in a Quantum Bottle

The unkempt hair and white lab coat were all that was needed to identify Jeffery Katz as one of the hair-brained scientists at MIT. The fact the he was often so lost in thought that he forgot his own name only added to the mystique.

Of course, those who dealt with quantum computing lived in a completely different world than most people anyway. Still, the scientist’s work had resulted in significant technological breakthroughs and a Nobel Prize in physics. So Dr. Katz was treated with great deference by his colleagues and like a unique zoo animal that should be observed but not disturbed by most everyone else.

On this particular winter day, Dr. Katz seemed more disheveled and more distressed than usual.

“Dr. Heinmeier!” Katz called down the hallway.

The other highly regarded scientist turned to reply.

“Yes, Dr. Katz?”

“Do you have a moment? I’ve got a problem that I’m working it that I think you might have some insight.”

Dr. Heinmeier glanced at his watch. He knew that a moment with Katz might turn into several hours quite easily. On the other hand, Heinmeier was intrigued. Dr. Katz had rarely asked his fellow physicist for his help in their more than 20 years at MIT together. There was no rivalry or bad feelings between them. It’s just that their areas of work, while parallel, did not usually overlap.

“I’ve got time,” Heinmeier replied.

“Great! Come with me to my lab.”

Heinmeier watch Katz go and called after him, “Your lab is this way!”

“Oh, yes,” Katz replied as he turned around. “Let’s go.”

Once in the lab, the two researchers went straight to a small computer terminal sitting on a back table. Heinmeier had heard of the computer before, but had never actually seen it.

“So this is the Quancomp?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Katz, still seeming a bit out of sorts.

Of course, Heinmeier knew that the computer in front of them was merely the interface. The real computer was in a sterile room two floors down.  Computers that operated on the principles of quantum physics were still in their infancy and there was much to learn about them. Heinmeier, whose specialty was teaching quantum physics, knew about the computer in general terms from Katz’s papers. But his specialty was studying the quantum mechanics in a pure sense, not in their application to real world situations and the physical hardware needed to make it all work.

“You seem a bit troubled.”

“Yes,” answered Katz. “I’ve been working on this computer for two years now and I was finally beginning to think I had a grasp of its operations until this happened.”

“What happened?”

Katz struggled to reply.

“You know how different particles can be entangled?”

Heinmeier nodded. Entanglement was one of the fundamental aspects of quantum theory that was completely true and completely baffling at the same time. In short, entanglement occurred when a connection was made between two particles such that whatever happened to one also happened to the other – no matter how far apart they were. So, for example, a photon exposed to radiation might respond in a certain way. In addition, an entangled photon located 100 km away would also respond as if it too had been exposed to the same radiation.

As yet, no one really knew how or why entanglement worked, but it had been proven to work so consistently that entanglement was being exploited in numerous ways to build all kinds of prototype quantum machines. One of those machines was Dr. Katz’s Quancomp, a computer terminal that had no actual connection to the computer itself other than entangled photons. Through these entanglements, the operator could type on the keyboard and the keystrokes were simultaneously recorded at the disconnected computer two floors away.

Katz continued, “This computer is just a baby step in the process of using entangled photons. I have limited our use of it to the separation between the keyboard and the computer. Then, a few months ago, I began to use more of the quantum potential of the computer.”

“At first, things seemed to go as planned. My experiments showed that the computer could solve all manner of complex probabilities more accurately than a standard supercomputer.In fact, the quantum state of superposition allows this computer to weigh out probabilities to a degree of accuracy far beyond anything I have ever seen.”

“Really?”

“Yes! From the question we ask, the computer is able to develop its own algorithm and collect whatever data it determines appropriate to find the answer. In fact, it was able to predict the fluctuations in the stock markets almost point by point for a full week in December. It’s like it can tell the future!”

“That’s amazing!” congratulated Dr. Heinmeier.

“I thought so, too,” replied Katz. “Until the computer began to spit out all sorts of apparently random data.”

“What do you mean?”

Katz grabbed a loose leaf notebook and opened it to a page of scrawled notes.

“Here’s one: vector controls 3.4599”

Heinmeier looked puzzled. “There could be all kinds of reasons for a computer to malfunction.”

“But it’s not a malfunction.”

“What do you mean?”

“After getting this kind of stuff a couple of times, I began to pay attention to what my research assistants were doing. It turns out one of them was trying to use the computer to solve a difficult equation for determining the rocket thrust controls for future space flights.”

“So there’s your answer,” Heinmeier replied.

Katz face grew even more pale. “Here’s the problem. The computer printed out the answer a day before my assistant ever plugged in the equation.”

Even for Dr. Heinmeier this was a challenge to accept. He knew Katz well enough to know that the scientist was not given to pranks or jokes. And besides, Katz seemed very genuinely upset as he talked.

“Well, at least now you already know what you’ll be working on tomorrow,” Heinmeier said in a weak attempt to add some levity.

Katz frowned.

“So when I figured out what was happening, I decided to do an experiment. I wrote out an equation on a Monday. I then gave it to my assistant and asked him to wait and to type it into the computer at 3 PM on Wednesday. Sure enough, at 3 PM on Tuesday the computer spit out the correct answer to my equation.”

“Did your assistant still type in the equation on Wednesday?”

“Of course! I have no idea what I’m dealing with here, so I didn’t want to mess anything up. As best as I can tell, the computer is not only extremely capable at difficult computations with minimal data, but it is somehow entangled with photons from the day before. That allows it to print out today the results of its computations tomorrow.”

Heinmeier looked intently at Katz. “You’ve made an astounding discovery Dr. Katz! I’m sure that there’s another Nobel Prize in your future for this!”

Katz looked down sullenly. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

The scientist grabbed his notebook again and handed it to Dr. Heinmeier. In Katz’s characteristic hieroglyphics it read, “-3 hours, 45 minutes, 32.32247 seconds.”

Heinmeier glanced up at Katz.

“This printed out today after I decided to ask it tomorrow morning how long I had left to live.”

 

 
(c) 2017, Kevin H. Grenier