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  1. #1
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    Scientists achieve quantum teleportation of data with 100 percent accuracy

    I haven't seen this posted yet, I searched for it but didn't see any similar results. I thought it was pretty amazing.

    Dutch scientists working with the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology have made a stunning breakthrough in quantum technology by successfully teleporting data across a distance of about 10 feet with perfect accuracy, reports the New York Times. The advance ought to have Albert Einstein, who famously dismissed the idea of quantum teleportation as "spooky action at a distance," rolling in his grave.

    Einstein struggled mightily with many of the theoretical consequences of quantum theory, perhaps none more so than the notion of entanglement, the phenomenon that makes teleportation possible. It's easy to understand why; the idea is, well, downright spooky.

    Entanglement is the weird instantaneous link that has been shown to exist between certain particles, such as photons or electrons, even if they are separated by vast distances. Although entangled particles do not appear to have any physical connection, they are capable of acting in concert. For instance, if you change the spin of one, the spin of the other will also be altered. All of this happens instantaneously, even if the two particles exist at opposite ends of the universe, as if they are one. How exactly the phenomenon happens is a complete mystery. That it happens, however, has been verified by numerous experiments.

    The task for scientists hoping to invent teleportation technology is to hijack this phenomenon, but it's no easy task. Entangled particles are frustratingly fickle, difficult to capture and even more difficult to manipulate. But the breakthrough made by the Kavli Institute scientists could be a game-changer. It not only demonstrates that quantum teleportation is possible, but that it is technologically applicable.

    Previous attempts to teleport information by manipulating entangled particles have been promising, but have fallen short of practical application. For instance, a University of Maryland study back in 2009 demonstrated that it could be done, but only one out of every 100 million attempts succeeded. At that speed, it would take about 10 whole minutes to transfer just a single bit of quantum information.

    Comparatively, the Kavli Institute scientists were able to achieve the feat 100 percent of the time, essentially accomplishing deterministic control over the phenomenon. They did so by producing quantum bits using electrons trapped in diamonds at extremely low temperatures. These ultra-cold gemstones effectively acted as prisons, trapping the electrons and allowing the scientists to accurately establish their spin, or value.

    If they can repeat the experiment over distances significantly larger than 10 feet, it could mean that incomprehensibly fast quantum computers and a quantum internet are just around the corner.

    “There is a big race going on between five or six groups to prove Einstein wrong,” said Ronald Hanson, a physicist who leads the group at Delft. “There is one very big fish.”
    Source: http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/comput...h-100-percent#

    http://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-...he-first-time/

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458803,00.asp

    Technically it's not "news", since it's been done before, but the amazing part is that they supposedly managed to do it with 100% accuracy over a distance of 10 feet. if they can manage to recreate it over longer distances, quantum computing may not be that far off.

  2. #2
    Ridill
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    Tried reading the article but have to pay for it, which sucks.

    100% accuracy is a scary term in science, ESPECIALLY physics, so I wanted to see what the accuracy really was and not just what the blurbs reported it as. I'm guessing accurate within like 7-8 sigma or something, which is fantastic.

    But like we can't even say what the gravitational constant is to 100% accuracy without signifying how many significant figures you're taking.

    Blah at science reporting.

  3. #3

    Can someone explain, in laymens terms, what the difference is between what this article describes as transporting data and how it's any different than wifi digital data transfer? Teleportation makes me want to be amazed, but transferring data 10 feet, I don't have any physics background to see what is remarkable about that.

    Or are they using the word data loosely and they actually transported something material?

  4. #4
    BG Medical's Student of Medicine
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    They essentially take matter on one end, encode its atomic sequence, then take matter on the other end and re-arrange its atomic sequence to be an exact replica.

    It's a lot like wi-fi data transfer in that regard.

  5. #5

    That sounds pretty cool. Kind of like (sorry for movie reference) The prestige with Tesla's machine?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyylya View Post
    Can someone explain, in laymens terms, what the difference is between what this article describes as transporting data and how it's any different than wifi digital data transfer? Teleportation makes me want to be amazed, but transferring data 10 feet, I don't have any physics background to see what is remarkable about that.

    Or are they using the word data loosely and they actually transported something material?
    I'm not an expert in quantum physics, so I'm sure one of the physicists will correct me later or explain it a lot better than I can, but basically, it's represented by a qubit rather than a bit. A qubit can have a horizontal polarization and a vertical polarization, which in quantum computing would represent bits. It can either be "on" or "off" so to speak in each state, but the thing is that it's possible for both states to be "on" at the same time, which is central to quantum computing.

    The difference is that a bit HAS to be 0 or 1, whereas a qubit CAN be EITHER 0, 1 or a superposition of both. So basically, one single qubit could represent (0,1)(1,0) and (1,1), whereas one bit can either be (0) or (1).

    Here's the interesting part; quantum entanglement suggests that two qubits on opposite sides of the universe can interact with each other. So basically, if one of them changes their polarization, the other qubit will mimic it and change its polarization, even if they're separated by billions of miles with seemingly no connection between them. So in that way it is essentially wifi on drugs.

    The problem (and why the supposed 100% accuracy is so fascinating) is that normally they're in a chaos; they're in all states at the same time until observed, at which point they "choose" a state to remain in. Basically, like Schrödingers cat. It's either horizontal, vertical, neither or in both at once until observed. Therefor, quantum computing has been seen as something that would be very hard to achieve, as there wouldn't be a reliable way to actually use qubits to store any kind of information. It'd be very hard to retrieve said information as the qubits would choose a state at random when observed. So what these scientists claim to have done is basically figure out whether the cat is dead or alive without actually checking.

    Edit: A qubit can be a photon, nucleus etc. I believe these Dutch scientists used electrons.

  7. #7

    Quote Originally Posted by Uzor View Post
    Here's the interesting part; quantum entanglement suggests that two qubits on opposite sides of the universe can interact with each other. So basically, if one of them changes their polarization, the other qubit will mimic it and change its polarization, even if they're separated by billions of miles with seemingly no connection between them. So in that way it is essentially wifi on drugs.
    Would be a kick ass backup store system..or a great way to send your porn to friends.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    100% accuracy is a scary term in science, ESPECIALLY physics, so I wanted to see what the accuracy really was and not just what the blurbs reported it as.

    Blah at science reporting.
    Old and overused but so appropriate

  9. #9
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    I believe that with 100% accuracy, they mean that if they sent out, for example, a 10000 1 bit strings from one end of the room, they received the exact same 1000 1 bit string on the other end. Which would be 100% accuracy. the first website states that at the university of Maryland, they succeeded in only one attempt out of a hundred million, which is far, far from a 100% accuracy.

    Edit: Here's a nice explanation of quantum computing. Replace "quantum coin" with "qubit" and you get the idea.

    A normal coin can be placed on a table to show either heads or tails, reflecting the fact that the bit it represents must be valued at either 1 or 0. In contrast, the laws of quantum mechanics allow our quantum coins to show both heads and tails at once (just like Schrödinger's famous cat could be both dead and alive at the same time inside a sealed box), to whatever degree we choose. This ability comes with the important provision that when we actually measure the orientation of a coin, it will make the choice between the two states. For instance, it is possible to prepare a coin in a state that is 75 percent heads and 25 percent tails. The coin would remain in this state until someone measures it, which makes the coin randomly choose between heads and tails, with heads being three times likelier than tails. This randomness is not caused by a lack of knowledge of the coin. The coin really chooses a definite state only when looked at, and, until that happens, its state is completely described by a single number: the degree to which it is showing heads, or 75 percent. It may seem very strange that the mere act of looking at a coin would change its state. The phenomenon arises from the extreme fragility of quantum states. Any and all interactions with their environment have a profound effect, and measurement inevitably requires interaction. A quantum coin is in fact liable to collapse onto a pure heads or tails state if any information at all about it is, even in principle, available to the outside world. A quantum computer must therefore maintain a very strict isolation of its constituent qubits in order to function.

    If we expand our view to two quantum coins, there are clearly four possible results of measuring their state: both heads (1,1), both tails (0,0), and two combinations of one heads and one tails (0,1 and 1,0). Quantum mechanics allows us to assign any weight we want to each combination, as long as the total adds up to 100 percent. It follows that three numbers are needed to completely describe the two coins (the fourth is constrained because the total must add up to 100 percent). Similarly, we need seven numbers for three coins, 15 numbers for four, 31 for five, and so on. The complexity of the quantum state quickly becomes incredibly large: to describe only 100 quantum coins requires 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,375 different numbers--many trillion times the storage capacity of all computers ever made.
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-quantum-comp/ is the website if anyone is wondering.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyylya View Post
    Can someone explain, in laymens terms, what the difference is between what this article describes as transporting data and how it's any different than wifi digital data transfer? Teleportation makes me want to be amazed, but transferring data 10 feet, I don't have any physics background to see what is remarkable about that.

    Or are they using the word data loosely and they actually transported something material?
    The difference is that with a WiFi signal you are transmitting data through emitted electromagnetic waves that travel through the air at the speed of light. With quantum entanglement, you aren't emitting anything (as far as we can tell), data just appears on the other end instantly, regardless of the distance.

    In terms of "WiFi": if this were ever use to provide a wireless internet connection in a laptop, there is nowhere you could go in the universe where you would lose your "signal" and no one could ever intercept your data because it isn't actually being sent out, it just "is" in the other location.

  11. #11
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    keep in mind it's the thread title that says 100% accuracy, the article says they succeeded 100% of the time


    that said I'm pretty sure there's no "degree of accuracy" here, it's either right or it's not, so if they succeeded every time, it was 100% accurate

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Uzor View Post
    I believe that with 100% accuracy, they mean that if they sent out, for example, a 10000 1 bit strings from one end of the room, they received the exact same 1000 1 bit string on the other end. Which would be 100% accuracy. the first website states that at the university of Maryland, they succeeded in only one attempt out of a hundred million, which is far, far from a 100% accuracy.

    Edit: Here's a nice explanation of quantum computing. Replace "quantum coin" with "qubit" and you get the idea.


    http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-quantum-comp/ is the website if anyone is wondering.
    You didn't even type that post with 100% accuracy.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyylya View Post
    That sounds pretty cool. Kind of like (sorry for movie reference) The prestige with Tesla's machine?

    I read the article to my wife. Her reaction, "Wait, so does that mean we could have hillsides full of tophats?"

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marootsoobutsu View Post
    I read the article to my wife. Her reaction, "Wait, so does that mean we could have hillsides full of tophats?"

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    Someone mentioned that on the other end it is an exact replica. Essentially is it the same thing but not the same "matter" or is that the complete wrong word or term? What happens to the original string of data? Does that cease to be if the information that appeared 10ft across the room is not "it"? Sorry my head hurt tyring to string that sentence / question together.. .Apologies if it doesnt make sense...

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oreth View Post
    Someone mentioned that on the other end it is an exact replica. Essentially is it the same thing but not the same "matter" or is that the complete wrong word or term? What happens to the original string of data? Does that cease to be if the information that appeared 10ft across the room is not "it"? Sorry my head hurt tyring to string that sentence / question together.. .Apologies if it doesnt make sense...
    It basically carries the same atomic code, so it's like a clone. You're basically destroying the atomic composition of one thing to get the code, then destroying the other in order to rearrange it.

    Near as I can tell, it's like atomic plastic surgery.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nyima View Post
    and no one could ever intercept your data because it isn't actually being sent out, it just "is" in the other location.
    How does it send it to one location and one location only?

  18. #18
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    We totally need to call this the ansible.

    It sends it to one location and one location only because the two "things" are entangled? So imagine two pencils one in china and the other in america. american pencil writes down "hello!" and the chinesse pencil does the same.

    So imagine you have a pointer, with a 1 on the left and a 0 on the right, and a "neutral" position in the center. the pointer in america goes "01000010010101010010" and the china one does the same.

    I'm gonna be honest, i have no idea if any of that is correct. I'm basing this post off of how i pictured the ansible in Ender's game series of novels.

  19. #19
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    Neither one gets destroyed, and neither one changes their spatial location. Basically, it's like a mirror. If you wave in front of a mirror, your reflection will wave back. If the electron changes its spin, the entangled electron will also change its spin, no matter where in the universe it may be (as far as we can tell). Both electrons still exist in the same location, and both have the same spin. They just mimic each other's "movements", so to speak.

    How does it send it to one location and one location only?
    As far as I can tell, it only "sends" the information to the entangled molecule. No other molecules intercepts it, and if something tries to interfere, it'll destroy itself since it's in a very sensitive and chaotic state. It only works for as long as the molecules are isolated from the outside world and nothing is "observing" them so to speak. As soon as those very strict rules are broken, the data is permanently destroyed. Therefor, it can't be used to store data (since they exist in all states at once), only to perform calculations or send/receive data. With 100 qubits, from my understanding, you could perform close to 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,375 calculations simultaneously, since every single combination those 100 qubits could produce exist simultaneously. So while it is highly efficient for making calculation, it is highly inefficient for storage. While 100 qbits could theoretically perform close to 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,375 calculations simultaneously - which is higher than the combined power of every computer on earth - they would only be able to store 100 bit of data.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by shepardG View Post
    We totally need to call this the ansible.
    god yes.

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