quantum entanglement

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which two or more particles become correlated in such a way that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, regardless of the physical distance separating them; measuring the state of one entangled particle instantaneously determines the correlated state of its partner, a phenomenon Einstein famously dismissed as spooky action at a distance; Bell's theorem and subsequent experiments by Aspect et al. confirmed that entanglement violates classical local hidden-variable theories; quantum entanglement is the physical resource underlying quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, and quantum computing, and its counterintuitive implications continue to drive foundational debates about the nature of reality