For the first time, scientists have sent data instantly between two computer chips that are neither physically nor electronically connected. Showing that’s possible breaks open a path to a quantum Internet and distributed quantum computing, which would combine virtually unimaginable computer power and speed.
This teleportation of data between two chips is made possible by something called “quantum entanglement.”
These entangled states typically are created using photons. Beaming a laser through a particular kind of crystal can split a single photon into a pair of entangled photons. When the entangled objects are separated, in theory, no matter how far, changing one instantly creates the same change in the other.
Einstein called quantum entanglement “spooky” because no one can explain it.
Once the researchers – one group at the University of Bristol, another at the Technical University of Denmark – had placed an entangled photon on each of two computer chips, they then altered one and watched the other instantly adopt the same change. The experiment was successful 91 percent of the time, using a variety of alterations to the photons.
The scientists also were able to entangle up to four photons and swap data among particles that had never been entangled by an intermediary.
The feat comes at a time when engineers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute report success in entangled atoms by striking them with a photon and creating a logic gate – a rudimentary quantum computer.
Quantum computers exploit another oddity of quantum physics, which says that subatomic particles can, put simply, be themselves and their opposites at the same time.
Applying that to computers, a “qubit” – typically a photon in place of a semiconductor – can be both positive and negative, a one and a zero, or open and closed at the same time. That allows quantum computers to store orders of magnitude more information and operate orders of magnitude faster than today’s silicon versions.
TRENDPOST: Because of the complex architecture and vast expense involved in creating quantum computers, they will not be in your smartphone for decades yet. However, their power will make them cost-effective in major research labs, where they will solve problems and make discoveries that could take humans centuries to achieve without their aid.
