Quantum Minesweeper: How to See a Bomb Without Looking

Imagine you are given a box and you can’t see what’s inside. All you know is that it is either empty, or it contains a highly sensitive bomb. If this bomb is hit by even a single photon, it will explode. Your challenge is to work out whether or not there is a bomb in the box, without exploding it.

Classically, this is impossible. As soon as you try to detect the bomb, it will interact with your detector and explode. But in 1993, quantum physicists Avshalom Elitzur and Lev Vaidman proposed a quantum bomb tester, which allows us to see a bomb without looking.

Maria explains in the following video.

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