What is teleportation?
As mentioned above, the term teleportation came to us from science fiction literature. However, if in books this process showed the possibility of moving a person and objects even to the most extreme distances, then modern quantum physics is able to transfer a quantum state.
In order to understand what a quantum state is, imagine an ordinary computer whose data is stored in binary bits in the form of "0" and "1". Compared to such a device, a quantum computer is a much more advanced invention, since it can store data in two states at once. In addition, all information from a quantum computer can be teleported to any distance, which, in fact, was done by scientists from Austria and China.
Perhaps in the future, teleportation will replace all major modes of transport.
In order to test the ability of a quantum computer to go beyond binary code, the researchers conducted a special experiment called the Bell Test. In this case, two photons are emitted in different directions at the same time, and one of the photons becomes a kind of "subject", whose indicators are measured and compared with the second photon of light. As practice shows, the information transmitted by the first photon in some still incomprehensible way is teleported to the second photon, regardless of how far they are from each other.
A still from the Star Trek series.
For the new study, the scientists adapted a classic experiment to teleport a photon's three-level state, which they call "qutrit." The quantum state in this case is which of the three optical fibers the photon passes through. In this case, we must remember that quantum physics allows one photon to be in any or all three fibers at the same time.
The team used a multiport beam splitter to guide the photons and then manipulated their states with auxiliary photons. By carefully monitoring the interference patterns of these tiny particles of light, the team was able to successfully teleport quantum information to another photon, although the two photons never physically interacted.
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The experiment carried out shows that quantum teleportation can be carried out not only in three dimensions, but also theoretically in any number of dimensions that open up in the future. Overall, this research is a step towards using quantum mechanics to improve electronics. In the not too distant future, the quantum internet could connect quantum computers together to transfer data incredibly fast through quantum teleportation.