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PA Media
The picture shows a strong form of quantum entanglement
The scientists captured the very first picture of a phenomenon that Albert Einstein had described as "a spooky action at a distance".
The photo shows a strong form of quantum entanglement, where two particles interact and share their physical states for a moment.
This occurs regardless of the distance between the particles.
The connection is known as the Bell entanglement and underlies the field of quantum mechanics.
Paul-Antoine Moreau, of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, said that the picture was "an elegant demonstration of a fundamental property of the nature".
"This is an interesting result that could be used to advance the emerging field of quantum computing and lead to new types of imaging."
Copyright of the image
Getty Images
The entanglement seemed inconsistent with elements of Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Einstein described quantum mechanics as "spooky" because of the immediacy of the apparent interaction at a distance between two entangled particles.
The interaction also seemed inconsistent with elements of his particular theory of relativity.
The scientist Sir John Bell then formalized the concept by describing in detail a strong form of entanglement exhibiting this characteristic.
Bell's entanglement is now exploited in practical applications such as quantum computing and cryptography.
However, it has never been captured before in a single image.
The team of physicists at the University of Glasgow has developed a system that pulls a stream of entangled photons from a quantum light source onto "unconventional" objects.
This has been displayed on liquid crystal materials that change the phase of the photons as they pass.
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