Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIA-08-1003-016), dated 30 March 2010 and produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program, reviews quantum entanglement and nonlocality. It asks whether they could carry observer-to-observer signals faster than light or backward in time, with real-time control of a Mars rover as an example. It finds no compelling answer yet and says the question must be settled by experiment.
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,SF&lil: 8FFHil.tzk Wili 8HkY lead to any causality problems or paradoxes but would bring the remote parts of the solar system and perhaps the universe to the here and now. XII. Another Superluminal Possibility: Nonlinear Quantum Mechanics Thus far, the focus has been on the possibility of nonlocal communication within the framework of standard quantum mechanics. However, even if nonlocal communication proves impossible in standard quantum mechanics, there could be another path to nonlocal communication. The no-signal theorems described in Part III above are based on the formalism of standard quantum mechanics. Such "proofs" become invalid if quantum mechanics is allowed to be slightly "nonlinear," a technical term meaning that when quantum waves are superimposed, they may generate a small cross-term not present in the standard formalism. Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate for his theoretical work in unifying the electromagnetic and weak interactions, investigated a theory that introduces small, nonlinear terms to standard quantum mechanics (Reference 25). The onset of nonlinear behavior is seen in other areas of physics-for example, laser light in certain media- and, he suggested, might also be present but unnoticed in quantum mechanics itself. Weinberg's nonlinear quantum mechanics subtly alters certain properties of the standard theory, producing new physical effects that can be detected through precise measurements. Two years after Weinberg's nonlinear quantum mechanics theory was published, Joseph Polchinski published a paper demonstrating that Weinberg's nonlinear corrections upset the balance in quantum mechanics that prevents superluminal communication using EPR experiments (Reference 26). Through the new nonlinear effects, separated measurements on the same quantum system begin to "talk" to each other, and faster- than-light and/or backward-in-time signaling becomes possible. Polchinski describes such an arrangement as an "EPR telephone." The Weinberg/Polchinski work had implications that are devastating for the Copenhagen Interpretation's representation of the wave function as "observer knowledge." Polchinski has shown that a tiny nonlinear modification transforms the "hidden" non locality of the standard QM formalism into a manifest property that can be used for nonlocal observer-to-observer communication. This is completely inconsistent with the Copenhagen Interpretation's "knowledge" interpretation. Weinberg's experimental predictions have led to a large number of experimental tests that have searched for the predicted effects. Regrettably, all such experimental attempts to observe the nonlinear effects have failed, producing only very low upper limits. Apparently, if there are nonlinear effects that modify the quantum formalism, they are extremely small in Earth-based laboratories. These negative results are not surprising, however, because the atomic transitions used involve only a few electron- volts of energy. If quantum mechanics does have nonlinear properties, they would be expected to depend on mass-energy and to appear only at a very high energy scale, particularly at the highest energy densities or in very high gravitational fields. In the everyday world of weak gravity and fairly flat space, this path to nonlocal communication appears to be blocked, because the "vehicle" for sending the signal is not observable. 22 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,sr&A QFFI&l11J.k I l&'i Ollb¥
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 32 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.