What is quantum teleportation and how could it revolutionize quantum communications?

In many movies, books and comics, teleportation is a concept that can happen to objects and even living things, but science does not work exactly that way; In fact, only the concept of quantum teleportation is real. Unlike what happens in fiction, this type of teleportation only works with tiny particles in the quantum universe.

Before we get into more complex scientific concepts, do you know what teleportation is? Much researched in science fiction works, Teleportation is the idea of ​​transferring something from one place to another without directly physically moving between points.

In other words, it is something like transferring the information or properties of an object from one point to another extremely quickly. Although not a physical transfer, this process involves the characteristics of physical processes as well as significant energy consumption.

Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger in 1997 realized the first teleportation of the quantum state. During the experiment, he and his team were able to transfer the quantum state of one photon to another using quantum entanglement between two photons. The measurements confirmed the success of the first quantum teleportation in history.

“[Os físicos] Giles Brassard, Charles Bennett, and collaborators published work in 1993 that described how a quantum state could be “teleported” from one subatomic particle to another using quantum entanglement. Two particles can be in a single entangled state, so that measuring a property of one particle instantly determines the same property in the other particle,” as explained in a publication in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Differences between teleportation and quantum teleportation

In science fiction, teleportation is presented as something that can move anything, just like in the Star Trek series, where teleportation machines can move people and objects instantly.

In theory, these machines destroyed all of a body’s information at its point of origin and recreated it elsewhere. Besides raising philosophical questions such as the continuity of consciousness, this concept does not have any proven scientific basis.

However, there is no technology yet that allows teleportation of people or objects like in movies and TV series. In fact, this idea is far from current scientific reality.

On the other hand, Quantum teleportation is a real and widely studied phenomenon in quantum mechanics..

It involves the transfer of quantum information, not the transport of physical matter. Through quantum entanglement, it is possible to reproduce the quantum state of a particle in another location without physically displacing the original particle.

What is quantum teleportation?

In quantum physics, scientists investigate the behavior of particles at the subatomic level to discover events occurring in an extremely small universe. Between The main research themes are superposition, quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation.In addition to other concepts that are still in the early stages of understanding in modern science.

The main difference in the concept of quantum teleportation is that there is no type of cloning involved in this process; In fact, there is a non-cloning theorem in quantum mechanics that explains this concept. Therefore, quantum states are not copied.

Practically, What happens is that the quantum state is transferred from one point to another without any physical movement of the particles involved.. According to physicists, quantum entanglement is essential to make quantum teleportation possible.

When two or more particles become entangled, their quantum states are so correlated that a measurement of one instantly determines the state of the other, even if there are large physical distances between them. This connection is thought to be fundamental for the transfer of quantum information..

Teleportation and quantum communication

In a new study published in the scientific journal Optica, engineers from Northwestern University in the United States found First demonstration of quantum teleportation using fiber optic cables used in internet distribution. According to the researchers, this technology has the potential to simplify the infrastructure needed for quantum computing applications.

“This is incredibly exciting because no one thought this was possible. Our study Shows the way to next-generation quantum and classical networks sharing a unified fiber optic infrastructure. Fundamentally, it opens the door to taking quantum communications to the next level,” said study leader and Northwestern partner Prem Kumar.

Thanks to scientists being able to perform experiments on fiber optic cables normally used to distribute the internet One of the main benefits of this approach is the elimination of the need for special infrastructure for quantum communication.

Despite the heavy internet traffic on the network, it was possible to successfully perform quantum teleportation of individual photons.

In the test, researchers used a fiber optic cable approximately 30 kilometers long; The result was simultaneous transmission of quantum information and internet data. Still, Kumar and his team plan to conduct new experiments to deepen understanding and explore the technology’s potential.

“Many people have long assumed that no one would build a dedicated infrastructure for sending light particles. If we choose the wavelengths right, we will not need to build a new infrastructure. Classical communication and quantum communication can coexist,” Kumar adds.

With advances in technology, quantum mechanics has become a subject of increasing interest among scientists. Want to learn more about the subject? Discover how researchers found evidence of quantum spin liquid, an exotic state of matter. Until next time!