A team of scientists has successfully tested quantum teleportation for the first time using fiber optic cables that simultaneously carry the internet. The technology makes it possible to combine quantum communication with current cables, simplifying the necessary infrastructure.
“This is incredibly exciting because no one thought it was possible,” said Prem Kumar of Northwestern University, who led the study. “Our work shows a path toward next-generation quantum and classical networks that share a unified fiber-optic infrastructure. It essentially opens the door to taking quantum communications to the next level.”
What is quantum teleportation?
According to research in the journal list to data Optica, using internet cables quantum teleportation enables a new, ultra-fast and secure way to share information between distant network users, where direct transmission is not necessary.
The process works by taking advantage
quantum entanglement. A technique in which key targeting issues today two particles are linked. Together regardless of the distance between them. Instead of particles physically traveling. To deliver information, entangled particles exchange information over large distances — without physically carrying it.
“In optical communications
all signals are converted into light,” Kumar phone number qatar explained, noting that the only limit to this type of communication is precisely the speed of light. “While conventional signals for classical communications typically comprise millions of light particles, quantum information uses single photons,” he added, on the university website.
The concept may seem a bit confusing. But it basically allows one photon to transmit a quantum state to another (which is entangled with another photon) without them needing to be physically close.
“The photon itself doesn’t need to be sent over
long distances, but its state still ends up encoded in the distant photon. Teleportation allows information to be exchanged over long distances. Without requiring the information itself to travel that distance.” Said Jordan Thomas, a Ph.D. candidate in Kumar’s lab and the paper’s first author.
Before the study. The big question was whether it would be possible to use the current. Internet infrastructure to carry out this transport, since the photons could get lost in the midst of so much information. But the research located a wavelength of light with less traffic, which, with the addition of some special filters to reduce noise, allowed the transport.
This could be vital for the future of quantum
computing, as the technology will not rely on its own cable infrastructure, which would increase costs and limit the reach of this resource.
To prove the theory, the scientists assembled using internet cables a 30-kilometer-long fiber-optic cable with a photon on each end. Then, they simultaneously sent quantum information and high-speed Internet traffic through it. The researchers found that the quantum information. Was successfully transmitted even with heavy Internet. Traffic passing through quickly.
This thesis had already been suggested previously. But this study was the first to successfully carry out quantum teleportation. In practice on cables that were already transporting the internet.