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Chinese Physicists Achieve Quantum Teleportation Over 60 Miles
MrSeb writes "Chinese physicists are reporting that they've successfully teleported photonic qubits (quantum bits) over a distance of 97 kilometers (60mi). This means that quantum data has been transmitted from one point to another, without passing through the intervening space. It's important to note that the Chinese researchers haven't actually made a photon disappear and reappear 97 kilometers away; rather, they've used quantum entanglement to recreate the same qubit in a new location, with the same subatomic properties as the original qubit. The previous record for transmitting entangled qubits was 16 kilometers, performed by another Chinese team back in 2010 — and perhaps most excitingly, the researchers seem confident that their system will scale up from 97km to distances capable of reaching orbital satellites, at which point we'll actually be able to build a global quantum network for all of our cryptographic needs."
Lord... Whats a qubit?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
You can't transmit meaningful information with quantum teleportation alone, you still need a classical channel that operates by conventional means unless you want to transmit uncontrollable random garbage.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
So that means the satellite television providers will be all over this.
This, and all other quantum "teleportation" and related entanglement phenomenon, do not allow for faster-than-light communication. The important thing to note is that the qubit is "teleported", not the photon itself: the photons are transmitted conventionally via some means (in this case, it looks like they did it through open air). Since the photons are entangled with a photon you retain, measuring one collapses the wave-function of the other and allows both parties to know what the state is simultaneously. The security ramifications are that any eavesdropper will collapse the wave-function before the receiver gets the photon, so he will not receive the photon in the same state as the receiver sent it.
You cannot, according to what we know of physics, use quantum entanglement to send information faster than light.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Note that it's still limited by the speed of light. The key feature, however, is that it is secure: someone intercepting the photon can't copy or read its qbit state without breaking the quantum entanglement, or preventing it from reaching the destination. In either case, the receiver will immediately know that the channel has been broken. It then stops transmitting a response to the sender, and the sender perceives this as also a break in secure communications and stops transmitting. Both the sender and the receiver would then go into failure mode and send query/response polls periodically. When secure communications are re-established, they can resume transmitting data.