Accessible “Spooky Action at a Distance”
Major
Physics
Second Major
Mathematics
Submission Type
Poster
Area of Study or Work
Physics
Faculty Advisor
Abdel Isakovic
Faculty Advisor
Gabriel Spalding
Location
CNS Atrium
Start Date
4-11-2026 8:30 AM
End Date
4-11-2026 9:45 AM
Abstract
“Ghost” imaging is a process utilizing entangled photon pairs, by which an image is produced indirectly, using photons that have never interacted with the object being imaged. We can do this by taking advantage of correlations inherent in Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC), which is used to produce these entangled photon pairs. SPDC is a classically forbidden process in which a photon of a high frequency is converted into a pair of photons. The change in frequency makes this a nonlinear process. Processes like absorption, reflection, refraction, and polarization are linear processes. These can affect the properties of a light field but cannot change the frequency. SPDC allows us to produce a pair of correlated photons. By utilizing a coincidence-counter, we will be able to measure photon pairs from the source beam arriving within a narrow time interval. With this restriction, we can limit our attention to these correlated photons. One of these photons, which does interact with the object to be imaged, is used to turn on a “camera” detecting the other photon. It is the correlations between these photons that allow for ghost imaging, the reconstruction of the image of an object, even though the object never interacts directly with those single photons that are going to our camera.
Accessible “Spooky Action at a Distance”
CNS Atrium
“Ghost” imaging is a process utilizing entangled photon pairs, by which an image is produced indirectly, using photons that have never interacted with the object being imaged. We can do this by taking advantage of correlations inherent in Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC), which is used to produce these entangled photon pairs. SPDC is a classically forbidden process in which a photon of a high frequency is converted into a pair of photons. The change in frequency makes this a nonlinear process. Processes like absorption, reflection, refraction, and polarization are linear processes. These can affect the properties of a light field but cannot change the frequency. SPDC allows us to produce a pair of correlated photons. By utilizing a coincidence-counter, we will be able to measure photon pairs from the source beam arriving within a narrow time interval. With this restriction, we can limit our attention to these correlated photons. One of these photons, which does interact with the object to be imaged, is used to turn on a “camera” detecting the other photon. It is the correlations between these photons that allow for ghost imaging, the reconstruction of the image of an object, even though the object never interacts directly with those single photons that are going to our camera.