Is the Quantum-Entangled Universe a Small World?

Abstract

Partial entanglement may provide enough connections in the universe to satisfy the definition of a small world. To investigate this possibility, we define a network of particles on a given space-like hyper-surface with a long-range link between any two particles that are connected by a chain of exchanged particles involving less than some small maximum number of interactions. Considering the mean free paths of particles in different regions of space and the resulting probability distributions of entanglement connections vs. distance, we find evidence of small-world or random network structure on all but the smallest scales - corresponding to stars and planets - on which other types of connections would need to be added to complete the small world picture.