CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep

Summary

The findings could help to explain the species’ fascinating flocking behaviour The CERN flock of sheep on site in 2017. (Image: CERN) Quantum entanglement is a fascinating phenomenon where two particles’ states are tied to each other, no matter how far apart the particles are. In 2022, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for groundbreaking experiments involving entangled photons. These experiments confirmed the predictions for the manifestation of entanglement that had been made by the late CERN theorist John Bell. This phenomenon has so far been observed in a wide variety of systems, such as in top quarks at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2024. Entanglement has also found several important societal applications, such as quantum cryptography and quantum computing. Now, it also explains the famous herd mentality of sheep. A flock of sheep (ovis aries) has roamed the CERN site during the spring and summer months for over 40 years. Along with the CERN shepherd, they help to maintain the vast expanses of grassland around the LHC and are part of the Organization’s long-standing efforts to protect the site’s biodiversity. In addition, their flocking behaviour has been of great interest to CERN's physicists. It is well known that sheep behave like particles: their stochastic behaviour has been studied by zoologists and physicists alike, who noticed that a flock’s ability to quickly change phase is similar to that of atoms in a solid and a liquid. Known as the Lamb Shift, this can cause them to get themselves into bizarre situations, such as walking in a circle for days on end. Now, new research has shed light on the reason for these extraordinary abilities. Scientists at CERN have found evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep. Using sophisticated modelling techniques and specialised trackers, the findings show that the brains of individual sheep in a flock are quantum-entangled in such a way that the sheep ca...