Quantum computer science has Huge potential, but it faces a scalability problem. For such a machine that is useful in real terms, several quantum processors must be compiled in a single place. It increases the power of a processor, but also its size, which makes it less practical and finer. Scientists are working on a solution that sounds like something from a science fiction series: to connect distance grains together through ‘quantum -teleportation’ to create even more powerful machines.
The path to such information about the transfer begins to appear. Recently, a team of scientists at the University of Oxford was able to send the first quantum algorithm wirelessly between two separate quantum processors. The two small core utilized their unique nature, put together their abilities and formed an excellent computer to solve problems that could not solve any of them independently.
The team, led by the graduate student Dougal Main, has managed to get distant systems to communicate with each other and share logical gates using quantum entanglement. Thanks to this quantum mechanical phenomenon, some linked particles, even at a distance, can share the same condition and thus convey the same information. If one changes the condition, the other immediately reflects it.
The Oxford scientists used quantum entanglement to send basic information between computers almost immediately. If data moves long distances under this principle, it is said that ‘quantum applications’ occurred. It should not be confused with the conventional idea of teleporting, which involves a hypothetical immediate exchange of matter in space. In the experiment, the light particles remained in the same place, but entanglement allowed the computers to “see” each other’s information and work parallel.
According to the team’s research article published in Nature, the quantum application of an algorithm was possible with photons and with modules separated by two meters. The fidelity of the information had a rate of 86 percent. The result of this distributed quantum computer architecture is good enough to be a viable path to large-scale technology and the quantum internet.
Demonstrations of quantum teleportation in calculation contexts have previously emerged, but are limited to the transfer of conditions between systems. The Oxford University trial is characteristic because it used teleportation to create interactions between distant nuclei. “This breakthrough allows us to effectively connect different quantum processors into a single, fully linked quantum computer,” main telling.
If distributed quantum computer technology still develops, the era of giant quantum machines may be behind us. The problem of scalability may be solved with more machines that work together through quantum teleportation. For now, a basic processor can handle 50 Qubits, a unit of quantum information. Some scientists estimate that a machine with the ability to process thousands or millions of Qubits will be needed to solve complicated problems.
Even without entanglement, quantum machines are already powerful enough to solve seemingly impossible problems. Willow, Google’s Quantum Chip, recently resolved a benchmark task called Random Circuit sampling within five minutes; It would have taken up to ten square years for a conventional super computer to get the same result.
This story originally appeared on Wired and Español and was translated from Spanish.