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Baby Steps Toward Quantum Computers
Mz6 writes "In a step toward making ultra-powerful computers, scientists have transferred physical characteristics between atoms by using a phenomenon called entanglement, which Einstein derided as 'spooky action at a distance' before experiments showed it was real. Such 'quantum teleportation' of characteristics had been demonstrated before between beams of light. Teleportation between atoms could someday lie at the heart of powerful quantum computers, which are probably at least a decade away from development. Researchers using lab techniques can create a weird relationship between pairs of tiny particles. After that, the fate of one particle instantly affects the other; if one particle is made to take on a certain set of properties, the other immediately takes on identical or opposite properties, no matter how far away it is and without any apparent physical connection to the first particle." Reader starannihilator adds: "Physics Web provides a good graphic summary of the phenomenon, as well as a good technical article."
Just say 20 years from now I am on my quantum fandangle computer that does sub-atomic calculations, what happens when background radiation hits the processor and flips a few 1s and 0s?
i.e. will my computer crash when there is a solar flare?
will the new "heatsinks" be lead shields?
will we need to rotate the shield harmonics? (j/k)
please... inquiring minds want to know.
Because Alice can't know the state of the information she's sending. If she does, then the superposition collapses.
It's not intuitive, but the "collapse of the wave function" metaphor fits observation.
OK, maybe I'll sound like a jackass, but I gotta ask anyway. It seems to me that if you can reproduce entangled particles reliably, and you have, lets say two hosts, both with one half of the set of the entangled particles. If you were to manipulate the state of one set, and that immediately affects the state of the entangled partner on the other host, wouldn't that be the effectively TRUE wireless communication. One where the rate of communication is limited only by how fast you could read and process the set of particles that are local? Wouldn't that be as secure as it gets - media to intercept? Sure, there would need to be software to interface with the states based on the input from the hosts - but if you could do this, you could control the mars rover in realtime. Is this where this is headed, or am I confused?
ymmv