It was revealed that an important breakthrough in the field of quantum teleportation has been done by two separate teams of scientists funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The two teams have reportedly transferred quantum information in an urban network over a few miles using the city's existing fiberoptic cables. Researchers believe that this breakthrough could lead to a significant improvement in the communication systems.
2 DARPA-funded teams have performed #quantum #teleportation over several kilometers of metropolitan fiber networks. https://t.co/Bdknpn0Ccv
— DARPA (@DARPA) September 19, 2016
As engaging as it sounds, quantum teleportation does not necessarily mean that photons are disappearing from one place and appearing in another like the kind we see in sc-fi movies. Futurism has simply put quantum technology as a process by which quantum information can be transferred from one place to another, with the particles actually meeting.
The International Business Times have also explained how physicists understand quantum teleportation:
Here's how quantum teleportation works. Imagine, if you will, three people - Alice, Bob and Charlie. Alice wants to send information to Bob. In order to do so, she prepares a photon she wants to teleport and sends it to Charlie, while Bob entangles two photons and sends one of them to Charlie. When Charlie receives the two photons - one each from Alice and Bob - he carries out what's known as a Bell-state measurement, which actually forces the two to become entangled. This, in turn, causes the photon Bob has to collapse into the state of Alice's original photon, thereby teleporting quantum states between Alice and Bob, who can, in theory, be separated by a distance of miles.
It was reported that scientists have long before studied the concept about quantum information and teleportation and testing it out. It happened twice - in 1977 and 2012 when two particles, each year, have experienced teleportation and since then, the concept has been further explored.
It was until the recent breakthrough that scientists believe quantum teleportation is indeed possible. According to New Scientist, the researchers are from Calgary, Canada and Hefei, China that conducted the world's first quantum teleportation. Both teams used different methods and produced different results, but they have both successfully teleported information using the existing optical fibre networks and those are hugh achievements.
A defense researcher from DARPA said that photons are a valuable resource for many military applications ranging from communications systems to visible and infrared sensing platforms. "The broad availability of advanced communications technology possessed by adversaries makes it increasingly difficult to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of DoD information," the defense researcher added.
Furthermore, it has been reported that the biggest application is likely to be in encrypting information. It's reportedly much harder for an outsider to read information if two photons communicate with each other through quantum entanglement.
Both teams' successful findings were published in the scientific journal Nature Phonotics.
