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Theorists Make Quantum Communications Breakthrough

KentuckyFC writes "One of the cornerstones of modern physics is Claude Shannon's theory of communication, which he published in 1948. If you've ever made a phone call, watched TV, or used a computer, you've got Shannon to thank for describing how information can be moved from one place in the universe to another using an idea called the channel capacity. But nobody has been able to develop a quantum version of this theory. So physicists have no idea how much quantum information can be sent from one point to another. Now two American physicists have made an important breakthrough by proving that two quantum channels with zero capacity can carry information when used together. That's interesting because it indicates that physicists may have been barking up the wrong tree with this problem: it implies that the quantum capacity of a channel does not uniquely specify its ability for transmitting quantum information (abstract). And that could be the idea that breaks the logjam in this area."

15 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. So 0+0=1! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now two American physicists have made an important breakthrough by proving that two quantum channels with zero capacity can carry information when used together.

    So who wants to join my class-action lawsuit against math teachers?

    1. Re:So 0+0=1! by z0idberg · · Score: 5, Funny

      I do!

      That makes three of us!

  2. quantum mechanics by edwebdev · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "two quantum channels with zero capacity can carry information"
    Feynman once said that nobody understands quantum mechanics, and this is why.

    1. Re:quantum mechanics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      PHYSICIST!

      you outed yourself!

    2. Re:quantum mechanics by Pollardito · · Score: 5, Funny

      don't worry, scientists also discovered that two people who don't understand quantum mechanics can engage in a meaningful conversation on the subject

  3. Encryption is anti-american by Arthur+B. · · Score: 5, Funny

    When you use quantum encryption, the theorists win !

    --
    \u262D = \u5350
  4. Two channels with zero capacity can carry info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was called ISDN.

  5. Re:similarly, in computer science, by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does the data really have to be copyrighted for that to work?

  6. I think you've got it by ODBOL · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think that Khashishi has got the essence of the 0+0>0 thing here. I haven't completely penetrated the noise in the Smith/Yard ArXiv article yet, but I'd bet my money that it boils down to this:

    Take two channels in each of which all bits are completely random, and independent of the information that you wish to send. Let each bit of your information determine the correllation or anticorrellation of corresponding bits in the two channels, by introducing a quantum constraint between them before their actual random values are determined. Then, as in Khashishi's description, the xor of the two random channels is the message.

    The only difference I detect in Smith/Yard vs. Khashishi is that they use quantum trickery to make the whole thing look symmetric. Neither of the random channels predates the other. Each one, evaluated singly, appears to be completely independent of the encoded message. In Khashishi's description, the time sequence in the construction of the two random sequences makes one of them seem a priori random, and the other to be a one-time pad encoding of the message, while in the Smith/Yard article you can't tell which is which.

    It seems more like a meretricious way of telling a causal story about a well-known phenomenon than something truly "essentially quantum."

    --
    Mike O'Donnell http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~odonnell/
  7. This is new? by Quarters · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have DirecTV. That gives me something like six hundred channels which have zero intellectual capacity but yet still manage to carry data.

  8. Re:Channel theory link broken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You fools! You've gone and changed the article by clicking the link.

  9. Re:Non-peer reviewed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Most submissions to ArXiv do get submitted to peer-reviewed journals; this one claims to have been submitted in June (although they don't specify where). It's an opportunity for researchers to share their work without the delay of waiting for publication. Usually, papers there do get revised after going through the referee process.

  10. Re:Zero plus Zero equals One for large values of Z by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's true.

    You can extract immense amounts of information from the combination of Fox News (channel 0 with no signal) and the White House Press Secretary (channel 1 with no signal).

    Anything in common is a lie, and that is useful information.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  11. Re:Non-peer reviewed by c1t1z3nk41n3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We also get news from blogs, apple fan sites, and wikileaks. Non of those is peer reviewed either. The point is that it's not that people should take articles sourcing ArXiv with a grain of salt; it's that they should take everything with a grain of salt.

  12. Re:Channel theory link broken by vyruss000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Links in Slashdot are simultaneously dead and alive! Clicking on them decides which ;)