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Information Teleported Between Two Computer Chips For the First Time (newatlas.com) 185

Michael Irving, writing for New Atlas: Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly without them being physically or electronically connected, in a feat that opens the door for quantum computers and quantum internet. This kind of teleportation is made possible by a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles become so entwined with each other that they can "communicate" over long distances. Changing the properties of one particle will cause the other to instantly change too, no matter how much space separates the two of them. In essence, information is being teleported between them.

Hypothetically, there's no limit to the distance over which quantum teleportation can operate -- and that raises some strange implications that puzzled even Einstein himself. Our current understanding of physics says that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and yet, with quantum teleportation, information appears to break that speed limit. Einstein dubbed it "spooky action at a distance." Harnessing this phenomenon could clearly be beneficial, and the new study helps bring that closer to reality. The team generated pairs of entangled photons on the chips, and then made a quantum measurement of one. This observation changes the state of the photon, and those changes are then instantly applied to the partner photon in the other chip.

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Information Teleported Between Two Computer Chips For the First Time

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  • Now I can be spied on without even being connected to anything!
    • by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @10:40AM (#59561864) Journal
      The summary is not quite right. The chips are both connected to a common source of entangled photons.
      • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @11:24AM (#59562092)

        The summary is not quite right. The chips are both connected to a common source of entangled photons.

        The summary is more than just a little bit wrong. Its main point is incorrect. The summary twice says that quantum entanglement is used to send information from one chip to another. QE does not and can not transmit information.

        • +5 Informative.

        • At most they cemented a random bit into a particular state that could be read. You can't even send a binary bit of yes or no over this.

          I think the progress here is having them be in two different computing devices. What that gets you is a mystery. Even sending a message to the other computer saying "the uncertainty has collapsed, you can read the state now" has to travel over classical channels.

          Might as well study whether rabbit, in fact, reproduce like rabbits.

          • And in any event, you have to physically transport the entangled photons to each circuit before breaking the circuits. So it is not even a misunderstanding but just a blatant lie when they say there was no physical connection. There better have been, if they actually did the thing; otherwise they're lying about having even done it!

            The value is determined, but unknown, before the photon is physically transported to the circuit.

            Almost everything about the news story is a lie. Presumably they got the names rig

          • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
            But muh research grant! Just by using the word quantum I got an extra million!
          • >At most they cemented a random bit into a particular state that could be read ..
            >What that gets you is a mystery

            A key agreement protocol.

        • Mod parent up!!!! I donâ(TM)t know what the tech in these chips is doing, but this summary is WRONG and should be pulled down for being so factually incorrect.
        • The summary is more than just a little bit wrong. Its main point is incorrect. The summary twice says that quantum entanglement is used to send information from one chip to another. QE does not and can not transmit information.

          I've seen several such claims over the past few years. The one that bends my mind the most was made by several Chinese scientists in an article whose abstract is available for your perusal at Science.mag. They describe their work with a satellite-based entanglement distribution to three land-based stations:

          "We have demonstrated the distribution of two entangled photons from a satellite to two ground stations that are physically separated by 1203 km and have observed the survival of entanglement and violation of Bell inequality. The distributed entangled photons are readily useful for entanglement-based quantum key distribution."
          https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6343/1140 [sciencemag.org]

          The key they are referring to is a sort of network encryption key that would be altered if a bad guy tried to do anything with it, and thus be detected easily. If true, this would mean QE can transmit i

      • The summary is not quite right. The chips are both connected to a common source of entangled photons.

        No, the summary is total junk .

      • Yes, you're right, and this is a prime example of what the media does with complex subjects like this: they don't understand, but they're more than willing to hype it up any way they can just to get more clicks. They do the same with so-called 'AI', and more to my point, with so-called 'self driving car' nonsense. 'The Media' is going to get people killed, because the average person doesn't understand that The Media doesn't understand any of these things, is just a Hype Engine, and therefore their hype on t
    • You can't know that the state of one photon was changed by observing the state of the entangled photon without knowing the state of the entangled photon.

      Imagine you have an hourglass that flips over randomly throughout the day, but it is also magically linked to my hourglass a thousand miles away, and it is always the opposite of mine. You are sitting at home watching your hourglass, and if flips 3 times. How do you know which, if any, of those times were me flipping mine? You still have to pick up the p

      • Nice analogy, but it doesn't work. The mere process of observing the hourglass causes the quantum state to collapse. So it's more along the lines of you and I both receive a fuzzy image of a hourglass. And when either of us observe our hourglass, we immediately know what our glass looks like and can infer what the other glass will look like. And when the other glass is eventually observed, our inference is proven to be true.

        • But isn't matter supposed to be fluctuating between states? How can you be sure that the second observation is related to the first one without them being exactly at the same instant?
  • -communicating to other planets (e.g. Mars)
    -Spy networks

    • Let’s be real. Some assholes on Wall Street are going to use it so their high frequency trading bots have an edge over the bot from the other assholes on Wall Street.
    • How is this possible without the transfer of information over classical channels?
      • It isn't, but if you're communicating between planets it is a good idea to think carefully about error correction, and this could be the answer.

        You probably only want to use it in situations where your data transfer is so lossy that you're already using statistical analysis to extract the signal.

        It could be used to detect a MITM, but isn't good encryption a better plan than line of sight?

    • If the summary were correct, yes. But the summary is absolutely wrong.
    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Not really. This doesn't actually prove FTL or entangled communications possible. But rest assured that if it did, several laboratories in Bristol and Denmark would mysteriously burn down. Nobody will be allowed to bypass Room 641A [wikipedia.org].

  • Source (Score:5, Informative)

    by atisss ( 1661313 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @10:49AM (#59561908)
  • What scenario requires the fewest new assumptions here -- that some researchers managed to break special relativity by transmitting information faster than the speed of light, or that this is a case of bad science journalism?

    To quote [wikipedia.org] Wikipedia:

    Certain phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as quantum entanglement, might give the superficial impression of allowing communication of information faster than light. According to the no-communication theorem these phenomena do not allow true communication; they only

  • Hey, this is nice and all, but maybe they could spend a few minutes figuring out a way for me to get broadband to my place up in the Blue Ridge Mountains?

  • How do you know that changing the quantum state locally changes quantum state at a specific remote location and not some other location?

    • by amorsen ( 7485 )

      Because you have transmitted the entangled particle to that specific location. That part works great. The instant communication part, not so much.

  • ... seems somewhat of an overstatement. From the article it seems that they were able to manipulate and measure an entangled pair.

    Possibly someone here may be able to explain how this is any different that this..

    https://phys.org/news/2019-08-... [phys.org]

  • Entangled. Or not entangled. There is no "so entwined."

    • Understand Quantum Mechanics, you do not.

      Strong am I with The Physics. But understand Quantum Mechanics, I do not either.

  • Gee, 5G has not yet reached widespread deployment, and already 6G experiments have begun...
  • ...pairs of entangled photons on the chips ...

    That's the channel.

  • FFS there wasnt information translated. As far as we know, information theory still gives this as impossible.

    Useful for encryption though as the actual paper clearly points out.

  • it will mean spying all over the globe. Put in a small camera or microphone and be able to see/hear others. Russia, China and USA will know everything about each other as they learn how to place these clandestinely.

    The other interesting location will be in Computer chips. This will make possible not just for chips to talk to one another without a bus, but what ever nation is building the chips will likely put these in them so that they can listen to what is going on.
    • No, there is no teleportation of data. Just delayed reading of matching pre-transported data. These articles always make it sound like data transmission, it is intentionally incorrect news and should be treated accordingly.
  • This old teleportation of data crap again. Give me a break. STOP IT.
  • Now he can share his solace with far-off loved ones...
  • Quantum Entanglement on a chip is a neat trick but it does NOT mean you can transfer information.

    Entanglement requires you to ASK the particle you're measuring "What state are you in?" and it may say +1 or -1 and that in turn will "set" the state of the entangled particle on the other chip. What you can NOT do is TELL the particle on the first chip "I want you to be in a +1 state". If you do that, you break entanglement and the other chip will have an undefined state.

    So you can't set a bit on one chip an

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