What is the binary search definition in computer science and how is it used to efficiently locate a specific element in a sorted array?

Binary search is a search algorithm in computer science that efficiently finds the position of a specific element in a sorted array by repeatedly dividing the search interval in half. This method is used to quickly locate the desired element by comparing it to the middle element of the array and eliminating half of the remaining elements each time, until the target element is found or determined to be absent.