Mathematical breakthrough sets out rules for more effective teleportation
cam.ac.uk |
For the last ten years, theoretical physicists have shown that
the intense connections generated between particles as established in the
quantum law of 'entanglement' may hold the key to eventual teleportation of
quantum information. Now, for the first time, researchers have worked out how
entanglement could be 'recycled' to increase the efficiency of these
connections. Published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the
result could conceivably take us a step closer to sci-fi style teleportation in
the future, although this research is purely theoretical in nature.
The
team have also devised a generalised form of teleportation, which allows for a
wide variety of potential applications in quantum physics.
Once
considered impossible, in 1993 a team of scientists calculated that
teleportation could work in principle using quantum laws. Quantum teleportation
harnesses the 'entanglement' law to transmit particle-sized bites of
information across potentially vast distances in an instant.
Entanglement
involves a pair of quantum particles such as electrons or protons that are
intrinsically bound together, retaining synchronisation between the two that
holds whether the particles are next to each other or on opposing sides of a galaxy.
Through this connection, quantum bits of information -- qubits -- can be
relayed using only traditional forms of classical communication.
Previous
teleportation protocols, have fallen into one of two camps, those that could
only send scrambled information requiring correction by the receiver, or more
recently, "port-based" teleportation that doesn't require a
correction, but needed an impractical amount of entanglement -- each object
sent would destroy the entangled state.
Now,
physicists from Cambridge, University College London, and the University of
Gdansk have developed a protocol to provide an optimal solution in which the
entangled state is 'recycled', so that the gateway between particles holds for
the teleportation of multiple objects.
They
have even devised a protocol in which multiple qubits can be teleported
simultaneously, although the entangled state degrades proportionally to the
amount of qubits sent in both cases.
"The
first protocol consists of sequentially teleporting states, and the second
teleports them in a bulk," said Sergii Strelchuck from Cambridge's
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who led the research
with colleagues Jonathan Oppenheim of Cambridge and UCL and Michal Horodecki of
the University of Gdansk.
"We
have also found a generalised teleportation technique which we hope will find
applications in areas such as quantum computation."
Einstein
famously loathed the theory of quantum entanglement, dismissing it as
"spooky action at a distance." But entanglement has since been proven
to be a very real feature of our universe, and one that has extraordinary
potential to advance all manner of scientific endeavor.
"There
is a close connection between teleportation and quantum computers, which are
devices which exploit quantum mechanics to perform computations which would not
be feasible on a classical computer," said Strelchuck.
"Building
a quantum computer is one of the great challenges of modern physics, and it is
hoped that the new teleportation protocol will lead to advances in this
area."
While
the Cambridge physicists' protocol is completely theoretical, last year a team
of Chinese scientists reported teleporting photons over 143km, breaking
previous records, and quantum entanglement is increasingly seen as an important
area of scientific investment. Teleportation of information carried by single
atoms is feasible with current technologies, but the teleportation of large
objects -- such as Captain Kirk -- remains in the realm of science fiction.
Adds
Strelchuck: "Entanglement can be thought of as the fuel, which powers
teleportation. Our protocol is more fuel efficient, able to use entanglement
thriftily while eliminating the need for error correction."
Source: University
of Cambridge
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