Scientists towards creating the quantum Internet.
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The technology would allow information to be "transferred" in an instant. It would help bring about a promising revolution in quantum computing as well as radically change the way networks operate
But to get there, scientists must first understand the basic technology so it can be used in more complex networks.
Now scientists say they have taken a significant step in that direction, in a new study that reports a success in teleporting quantum information between two nodes of a network that are not connected to each other.
In the study, the scientists created a three-node quantum network, giving each of those nodes a name: Alice, Bob, and Charlie. In the network, Alice was connected to Bob, and Bob was connected to Charlie. But Charlie was not connected to Bob.
Scientists say they have successfully shared information between Alice and Charlie, despite the fact that they are not connected to each other.
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So far, researchers have only been able to demonstrate connections between neighboring nodes, and the new study represents the first success of its kind.
Now scientists hope it represents a first step towards building a larger quantum network based on the exchange of quantum information.
That future is still “somewhat distant,” the researchers say. But the paper offers a “potential path forward” for creating real-world applications of the technology
"This achievement is not only a victory for fundamental science, but also represents an advance in solving real-world problems needed to take this exciting quantum application to the next step," write Oliver Slattery and Yong-Su Kim in an accompanying article.
In reality, building such systems will require more powerful systems, as well as new interfaces that will improve system efficiency.
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This will be crucial to bringing the discoveries in the project to more complex quantum systems, the authors say.
The success is reported in a new study, "Qubit teleportation between non-neighboring nodes in a quantum network," published in Nature.
