Incredible! Quantum entanglement between qubitas and multicellular organisms is realized for the first time

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have completed an incredible experiment: quantum entanglement between tardigrade and superconducting qubits! This feat marks the first discovery of quantum entanglement in multicellular organisms.

Quantum entanglement is a quantum mechanical phenomenon that is still partially misunderstood, in which two particles (or groups of particles) form a linked system. Therefore, no matter how far the distance between them is, their quantum states (1, 0, or both) are all connected together. In this "entangled" state, there is a certain correlation between the physical properties of the two particles.
 
As for tardigrade animals, as the name suggests, they are extremely slow, with extremely small sizes ranging from 50 microns to 1.4 mm. Such creatures are extremely tolerant to bad environments, even in a vacuum. For example, when encountering a drought, they can reduce the body water content from the normal 85% to 3%. At this time, the exercise stops and the body shrinks. In this state, they can withstand harsh environments for several years, such as extremes. Temperature, ionizing radiation, hypoxia, etc., when the environment improves, the body recovers again. In addition, it is called "water bears" because of its funny appearance.

     
                          
                                                        Water bear under the microscope
 

As mentioned above, one of the reasons that tardigrade animals can survive in extreme environments is that they can enter an extremely dehydrated state, sometimes called "hibernation", which they achieve by eliminating up to 95% of water. In this state called "tun" (bucket), they look like small barrels, hence the name. The fact that these creatures can tolerate such extreme conditions indicates that their endurance is the result of a complete cessation of their metabolic processes. Therefore, according to Rainer Dumke (the lead author of this study) and colleagues, tardigrades are likely to be the first ideal candidates for quantum entanglement of multicellular organisms.
 
In the experiment, the researchers placed a tardigrade animal in the tun state between two superconducting qubits. The animal is connected to a charge qubit (qubit B) through a superconducting junction. The second qubit (qubit A) is connected to qubit B only through a capacitor.
 
Once the experiment was ready, they began to lower the air pressure and temperature until an almost perfect vacuum and almost absolute zero (-273.15°C) were obtained, thereby reducing any external influence (excitation) on the qubits and tarmac. This chemical "frozen" state makes it possible to use physics to describe and process the entire system without having to consider the biological aspects of tardigrade animals.
 
To determine whether the tarda animal and the qubit have reached an entangled state, the researchers measured the frequency of vibration of the tarda animal-qubit combination. The results show that the calculation (based on measurement) is meaningful only when two objects are considered to be in a state of quantum entanglement. Theoretically speaking, when a particle cannot be perfectly described without the information of another particle, it can be said that two particles are entangled. This is the case here.
 
Therefore, researchers can confirm that the entangled state has been achieved. To some extent, this is the first time in the world that qubits have been linked to the physical properties of multicellular organisms. The detailed information of the experiment has been posted to the arXiv website .

 

Schematic diagram of the experiment. a) The tardigrade animal in the tun state is located between the plates of the parallel capacitor, slightly deviating from the superconducting junction of the transmon qubit B (a charge qubit). Qubit A is located at the bottom and is capacitively coupled to Qubit B. The entire chip is placed in a 3D copper cavity installed inside the dilution refrigerator and connected to standard microwave electronics. b) The circuit diagram of the two qubits and the connection with the tardigrade. c) An enlarged view of the tardigrade animal resurrected on the transmon qubit. The tardigrade animal in the tun state is placed in the same position while remaining attached to a small piece of filter paper.

After taking the measurement, the researchers slowly reduced the pressure on the tardigrade animal and warmed it up to get it out of a relaxed state and regain its vitality. But the record created by this super tardigrade does not stop there: the temperature in question (only 0.01 degrees Celsius higher than absolute zero) is the lowest temperature that the tardigrade has ever survived! It should be pointed out that this tardigrade animal is the third candidate for the experiment. The first two did not survive due to the rapid heating.
 
According to the researchers, this experiment shows that tardigrade animals are indeed in a non-metabolized state, because any active chemical process will not allow quantum entanglement. However, whether the metabolism of tardigrade animals is stagnant is still being discussed in the scientific community, and some people believe that they still have a small amount of metabolic activity in the tun state.
 
Although this tardigrade must be alive before and after the entanglement, the focus of the debate is whether it was still alive during the entanglement and how it was entangled. Moreover, according to the researchers, in this type of experiment, you never know which part of the organism is actually involved in the entanglement. Despite these technical obstacles, Dumke and his team hope to entangle other life forms in the future.
 
In the next step, scientists will study these quantum phenomena on a larger scale (especially within and between organisms).

Paper link:[1]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.07978.pdf