For the first time in history, NASA experts and collaborators performed long-range quantum teleportation. This discovery could lay the foundations for a sustainable quantum internet, where data is sent over long distances. ...
The results will be further improved by system upgrades, which should be ready by the second quarter of 2021.
Quantum teleportation is the transfer of quantum states from one place to another. It is about the current transport of quantum information units, called qubits, to a distance of 44 kilometers faster than the speed of light.
Qubit is a quantum analog of a bit. That is, a qubit, like a bit, contains information about two different states, with values 0 and 1.
This transfer is performed using quantum interleaving, where two particles are connected so that the information shared with one is shared exactly with the other at the same time. Based on that, we conclude the quantum state of each particle depends on the state of the other particle, even if they are distant.
Experts from the California Institute of Technology "Kaltek", NASA and "Fermilaba" performed the experiment, in particular, they built a connected system between two laboratories that are 44 km away.
"We wanted to give impetus to this type of research and take important steps towards realizing the right quantum communication application, as well as advancing the network and testing basic ideas in physics," Panayotis Spencesuris, head of the Quantum Science Program at Motherboard, told Motherboard. "Fermilabu"
"People on social media are asking if they should look for a quantum ISP (jokingly, of course). We are proud to have achieved this milestone on sustainable, high-performance quantum teleportation systems. The results will be further enhanced by system upgrades, which we expect to complete. until the second quarter of 2021 ", said Maria Spiropoulou, professor of physics at" Kaltek ".
Quantum computers are capable of performing calculations almost 100 trillion times faster than the most powerful supercomputer in the world. Teams from the University of Science and Technology of China, as well as "Google", managed to make such feats.
However, this technology has not yet reached the point where it can be applied and is currently limited to testing, but there are already big plans. Thus, the US Department of Energy plans to build a quantum network between its laboratories in all countries.
This discovery of quantum teleportation lays the foundations for a quantum Internet service, which would be a major advance for computing, as quantum communication systems are faster and more secure than conventional networks thanks to the use of photons - which cannot be hacked - instead of computer code.