It can be difficult to understand quantum mechanics. That’s okay, because, in the early days of the Internet, few could understand how that worked.
Now, new developments in quantum communication may turbocharge just how quickly and securely information is delivered among us. Scientists demonstrated that such a system could work on our existing telecommunications infrastructure, they report in the journal Nature Communication.
This is kind of a big deal, because many physicists had thought that transmitting quantum information over any distance would require cryogenically cooling whatever kinds of cables needed to transmit it. They also weren’t sure if standard fiber optic cables would even work for such a process.
A Quantum Turbocharge
The scientists proved such super-cooling unnecessary by sending encryption information 158 miles between Frankfurt and Kehl, Germany. One key challenge they needed to overcome was achieving “optical coherence” — the ability to keep different parts of a light wave — or, in the case of quantum mechanics, photons — in consist relationship to one another as they travel through space. Addressing this issue was one key to the test’s success.
“Our research aligns the requirements of coherence-based quantum communication with the capabilities of existing telecommunication infrastructure, which is likely to be useful to the future of high-performance quantum networks,” according to the paper.
Read More: A Theory of Everything That Explains Away The Paradoxes of Quantum Mechanics
Coherence in Quantum Communications
Coherence is both key to quantum communications and theoretically difficult to achieve. Although the qbit — the currency of quantum information — is exponentially more powerful than the standard computational bit, qbits are considered fragile. The tiniest interaction with its environment could, in theory interrupt it — thus destroying the information it was intended to carry.
The short explanation of quantum mechanics is that it uses mysterious states in physics to achieve things demonstrably impossible with conventional methods. An even shorter explanation of the implication of the experiment in Germany is that we may someday have access to an exponentially faster, more secure set of information-carrying infrastructure.
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Nature Communication. Long-distance coherent quantum communications in deployed telecom networks
Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
