Scientist can't "beam" people through space, but they are able to teleport information for the first time using technology similar to a computer chip.
"Physicists at ETH Zurich have for the first time successfully teleported information in a so-called solid state system," ETH Zurich said in a news release. "The researchers did it by using a device similar to a conventional computer chip. The essential difference to a usual computer chip is that the information is not stored and processed based on the laws of classical physics, but on those of quantum physics."
Multiple studes were published in the scientific journal Nature. (Click here and here for the research.) The findings show physicists "teleported" information across six millimeters of a computer chip, without physical moving the object.
"Usually, in telecommunication information is transmitted by electromagnetic pulses. In mobile communications, for example, microwave pulses are used, while in fiber connections it is optical pulses," Andreas Wallraff, Professor at the Department of Physics and head of the study, said in a news release.
Quantum teleportation will not teleport the information carrier itself, jut the said information. Researchers offered the following explanation:
As a prerequisite for quantum teleportation, an entangled state is created between the sender and the receiver. After that the two parties can be physically separated from each other while preserving their shared entangled state. In the present experiment the physicists program a bit of quantum information into their device at the sender. Because the two parties are entangled, this information can be read out at the receiver. "Quantum teleportation is comparable to beaming as shown in the science fiction series Star Trek," says Wallraff. "The information does not travel from point A to point B. Instead, it appears at point B and disappears at point A, when read out at point B."
"Teleportation is an important future technology in the field of quantum information processing," Wallraff said.
Click here to read the full EurekAlert! press release.
