It is a formula that we hear in scientific articles without always understanding its application in everyday life. For their work on quantum mechanics, researchers Alain Aspect, Anton Zeilinger and John Clauser won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday, October 4.
The study of the behavior of particles has made it possible to develop many technologies used on a daily basis and gives a glimpse of major innovations in the future. Here are five concrete uses of quantum physics through everyday objects or projects still under development.
► Nuclear power plants
The study of the behavior of atoms, developed from the beginning of the 20th century, has led to numerous innovations having a direct implication in the daily lives of millions of people. This physics thus led to the invention of nuclear power plants, by making it possible to pass from an explosive chain reaction to controlled and limited fission in the heart of a reactor.
► GPS
Launched in 1978, the Global Positioning System is a system used permanently by a large part of the world’s population: geolocation of telephones, navigation system in cars, military equipment… Disparate applications but which are all based on quantum mechanics.
GPS works thanks to atomic clocks embedded in satellites placed in orbit around the Earth. Unlike the pendulum clock (whose oscillation is ensured by the movement of the pendulum and depends on many variables), the precision of the atomic clock depends on the fact that atoms emitted by cesium vibrate at a constant frequency.
► And laser
Born in the 1960s, the laser is used for a wide variety of purposes: IT, medical imaging, industry, cinema and even surgical operations. The laser uses the quantum properties of atoms. Laser light is thus made up of identical and perfectly superimposed photons, which produce a single color.
► Computers and communications
Smartphones are also governed by the laws of quantum physics. None of the chips and semiconductors that make them up, from the memory of telephones to their graphics card, including sound management, signal reception and amplification, would work without the discovery of quantum mechanics. And the process of miniaturization of our telecommunications tools further reinforces its role.
The same goes for computers. Innovation through quantum physics could create a new generation of devices: quantum computers. While so-called classical computers work with the binary computer language (bits), quantum computers would perform their calculation on the atomic scale (qubits). They would thus be able to simultaneously process a lot of information.
► Anticipation of climatic trends
This branch of physics also helps to anticipate extreme climatic phenomena. Quantum sensors are thus sensitive enough to measure the various environmental variables and translate them into forecasts likely to provide information on possible earthquakes or eruptions of volcanoes.