We often see people teleporting from one place to another in science fiction movies. While we can’t do this for humans yet, it looks like we’re one step closer to beaming data.
Scientists have announced that they have found a way to send data through a method called “qubit teleportation”. With this method, data can be sent to the destination directly and without the use of an intermediary, rather than via a conductor, for example an optical cable.
In an article published in the journal Nature, a group of physicists from the Netherlands Delft University described their system for qubit teleportation.
Quantum computers have been around for a while. In fact, Google achieved “quantum supremacy” by performing an experiment on a quantum computer that was impossible on a conventional computer. However, for quantum computers to work at full capacity, qubit teleportation must also occur, and this will be the step that will take us to the quantum internet age.
Quantum computers are fundamentally different from traditional computers. While a normal computer stores data in bits, quantum computers store it in qubits. A qubit can have more than one value at the same time. Therefore, it can store more information than traditional bits. A single qubit can store two values, three qubits eight, four qubits 16, and so on. As the number of qubits increases, the information capacity it can store increases exponentially.
And physicists have now succeeded in teleporting data between three nodes. Previously, this could only be done between two nodes. With this experiment, scientists stated that qubit teleportation can be performed between multiple points. “We are now building tiny quantum networks in the lab,” says Ronald Hanson, the Delft physicist who oversaw the team. It will be possible to combine these networks and then build a quantum internet network.
Because there is no conductive material between nodes, the quantum internet allows reliable, instantaneous transfer between nodes without losing data. The way this system works is called “quantum entanglement”. A change in the state of one quantum system also happens instantly in the other, distant quantum system that is entangled. In other words, even if there is a long distance between them, these systems work simultaneously, just like each other.
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