Alain Aspect
Facts
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Stefan Bladh
Alain Aspect
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022
Born: 15 June 1947, Agen, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: Institut d’Optique Graduate School – Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France; École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
Prize motivation: “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
One of the most remarkable traits of quantum mechanics is that it allows two or more particles to exist in what is called an entangled state. What happens to one of the particles in an entangled pair determines what happens to the other particle, even if they are far apart. In 1981–1982, Alain Aspect conducted groundbreaking experiments using entangled light particles, photons. These and other experiments confirm that quantum mechanics is correct and pave the way for quantum computers, quantum networks and quantum encrypted communication.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
