A team of scientists from Fermilab, a national laboratory of the US Department of Energy Office of Science, the University of Calgary and other researchers, claim to have achieved sustained long-distance quantum teleportation for the first time in history.
This work could lay the foundation for “a viable quantum Internet: a network in which information stored in qubits is shared over long distances through entanglement” that could “transform the fields of data storage, precision detection, and communication. computing, “according to a statement from Fermilab.
Milestone
Using standard technology, the researchers were finally able to complete long-distance quantum teleportation. The team managed to teleport photon qubits (quanta of light) to more than 44 kilometers of fiber with a fidelity greater than 90%, taking a giant step in the direction of achieving a quantum Internet. The qubits were teleported through a fiber optic network using state-of-the-art single photon detectors and ready-to-use equipment between two systems: Fermilab Quantum Network and Caltech Quantum Network that feature near-autonomous data processing and are compatible with both the existing telecommunications infrastructure as well as emerging quantum processing and storage devices.
Quantum computers are presented as the future of computing, with benefits such as faster, safer and more technologically advanced capabilities that will end up flooding the quantum market in the coming years. And with this advance, the quantum Internet is closer to becoming a reality.
“We are delighted with these results. This is a key achievement on the way to building a technology that will redefine the way we do global communication, ” Panagiotis Spentzouris, director of the Fermilab quantum science program, told PRX Quantum magazine that collects the study.
What exactly is quantum teleportation?
Quantum teleportation is a “disembodied” transfer of quantum states from one place to another. Quantum teleportation of a qubit is achieved, as we have said, by quantum entanglement, in which two or more particles are closely linked to each other. If a pair of entangled particles are shared between two separate locations, regardless of the distance between them, the encoded information is teleported away by an invisible force.
Was it easy?
No way. Keeping this flow of information stable over long distances has proven extremely difficult. The previous world record was held by researchers at the University of Calgary, covering a distance of just four miles.
Of course, there is still a long way to go before we can have a viable quantum internet, since quantum particles are very difficult to study and measure, and the transmission must be completely reliable.
“Results will further improve with system updates that we expect to complete by the second quarter of 2021,” the authors state.
Referencia: “Teleportation Systems Toward a Quantum Internet” by Raju Valivarthi, Samantha I. Davis, Cristián Peña, Si Xie, Nikolai Lauk, Lautaro Narváez, Jason P. Allmaras, Andrew D. Beyer, Yewon Gim, Meraj Hussein, George Iskander, Hyunseong Linus Kim, Boris Korzh, Andrew Mueller, Mandy Rominsky, Matthew Shaw, Dawn Tang, Emma E. Wollman, Christoph Simon, Panagiotis Spentzouris, Daniel Oblak, Neil Sinclair and Maria Spiropulu, 4 December 2020, PRX Quantum.
DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.1.020317
