Quantum Teleportation Finally a Reality
Physicists at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands were able to move quantum information between two quantum bits separated by about 3 meters without altering the encoded information. This quantum teleportation experminent was done using nitrogen-embedded diamond qubit. The article was published in the journal Science.
A quantum information known as “qubit” is the smallest unit of physical data or quantum data. It is like a “bit” in terms of digital data. These particles are extremely difficult to contain even in a laboratory setting (called Super position states) and have life spans of a few seconds in room temperatures.
Though it sounds enticing to the mind and stimulates all forms of speculation, but don’t overestimate the project just yet. The success rate of the experiment currently is at just one in million or if it’s a good day for physicists, once in thousands of attempts.
But this diamond qubit teleportation attempt is said to be more consistent than its predecessors. This time they were deterministically able to predict the recreation of the qubit on the other side. They will now try to send the data to longer duration, hopefully a kilometer in the approaching future.
Quantum teleportation lets a particle travel without coming in contact with physical medium.
Quantum research is one of the toughest of fields because of the severe uncertainty in the quantum universe apart from humongous apparatus needed to keep them in steady states.
There are a lot of real world applications when this technology will be fully unlocked. We would be able to achieve faster communication if we learn how to direct it. It will be like rediscovering radio but with a super adrenaline boost. Whole new levels of communication array would be at our disposal which might also help in space communication where we are currently limited by the speed of light radio waves. Think about sending information which recreates itself on the other side without actually passing through a physical medium.
Quantum computing is stated to be much more efficient and faster than our present computer technology as quantum bits have the ability to be in multiple states at the same time.
Unfortunately we aren’t even close to Star Trek’s Transporter
We won’t be able to achieve Star Trek’s “transporter” level teleportation of humans, but it will surely make our computers a lot faster. This is of course the beginning of the R&D on the project. Google had tried to work on teleportation but it figured out that most of the aspects of teleportation that we expect are against the laws of nature.
The experiment also has the potential to prove the theory of quantum entanglement right. The theory Quantum entanglement states that quantum states of two particles remain connected even if they appear to have been spatially separated, which even Einstein highly doubted. But with this experiment scientists were able to keep the particles “entangled” even after teleportation.
Now if you can’t wait to be teleported to new place or a fictional universe, just wait for the virtual reality systems like Oculus Rift and ANTVR to come in the market. Even though they will be simulated universe, but that is the closest we can ever come to teleportation in our lifetime.
