Scientific Spirit of Chien-Shiung Wu: From Quantum Entanglement to Parity Nonconservation

In 1950, Wu and her student published a coincidence experiment on entangled photon pairs that were created in electron–positron annihilation. This experiment precisely verified the prediction of quantum electrodynamics. Additionally, it was also the first instance of a precisely controlled quantum entangled state of spatially separated particles, although Wu did not know about this at the time. In 1956, Wu initiated and led the so-called Wu experiment, which discovered parity nonconservation, becoming one of the greatest experiments of the 20th century. As Yang said, Wu’s experiments were well known for their precision and accuracy. Experimental precision and accuracy manifested Wu’s scientific spirit, which we investigate here in some details. This paper is the transcript of the speech the author made at the International Symposium Commemorating the 110th Anniversary of the Birth of Wu, on May 31, 2022. The above abstract is just the original abstract of the speech.