62
Oxford scientists achieve teleportation with quantum supercomputer
(www.independent.co.uk)
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Important note: this is about quantum teleportation. They transferred data between two quantum computers without a cable or wifi. Teleporting matter, let alone matter in useful quantities is far off.
So, Bluetooth?
nah, bluetooth and wifi both use electromagnetic radiation. I didn't read the article and I understand nothing about quantum mechanics, but I don't think they use photons in this. someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Allow me to oversimplify for the sake of understanding:
Quantum entanglement is a process where the measurable properties of two particles become linked. For example, an entangled pair of photons might share the same polarization, so that when you measure one, you'd also learn the polarization of the other without having to measure it.
That's quantum teleportation in a nutshell, send out an entangled pair of photons and each of the recipients will know what the other got without having to ask. They call it 'teleportation' because the information about who got what doesn't exist until the photons are measured, and can't be intercepted in transit because the act of measuring an entangled particle breaks the entanglement. You physically cannot tap or eavesdrop on a QE link. To do so successfully you would have to be able to capture a photon on the line and transmit an identical copy in its place simultaneously, but the act of measuring takes a non-zero amount of time and even a nanosecond of delay would be obvious to the intended recipient.
Entangled photons are like a pair of identical Shrodinger's Cats, you can't know if they are alive or dead until you open the box, but you do know that both boxes will show the same result regardless of where they end up.
What's new in this article is that they've managed to entangle entire qubits between separate computers, like a single Shrodinger's Cat that exists in two places at once. They'll be able to use this technique to develop the quantum equivalent of parallel processing.