Observability of Acausal and Uncorrelated Optical Quasar Pairs for Quantum-Mechanical Experiments

• DOI: 10.3390/universe11040130
• Publication Date: 2025-04-14T07:39:16Z
• Authors: Eric Steinbring
• Keywords: Observability; Uncorrelated

Viewing high-redshift sources at near-opposite directions on the sky can ensure, using light-travel-time arguments, acausality between their emitted photons. One utility would be true random-number generation through sensing these via two independent telescopes that each flip a switch based latest-arrived colours; for example, to autonomously control quantum-mechanical (QM) experiment. Although demonstrated with distant quasars, those were not fully acausal pairs, which are restricted when simultaneously viewed from ground any single observatory. In optical light, such faint also require large telescope aperture avoid sampling assumptions imaged fast camera framerates: unsensed intrinsic correlations them or equivalently correlated noise may ruin expectation of pure randomness. case could spoil QM test is considered. Based that, allowed geometries and instrumental limits modelled ground-based sites, data simulated. For comparison, an analysis photometry Gemini twin 8 m presented archival well-separated bright stars obtained instruments ‘Alopeke (on North in Hawai’i) Zorro Gemini-South Chile) bands (centred 562nm 832nm) 17 Hz framerate. No flux correlation found; results used calibrate analytic model predicting where search signal-to-noise over 50 made same instrumentation. Finally, software PDQ (Predict Different Quasars) presented, searches catalogue known reporting brightness visibility suitable verify acausal, uncorrelated photons limits.