Researchers at the University of Oxford have made a significant leap in quantum computing. They’ve developed a scalable quantum supercomputer that can perform quantum teleportation.
This breakthrough tackles a major hurdle in quantum computing: scalability. According to the team, this progress could bring quantum technology to a level that transforms various industries.
Quantum computing has been a topic of interest for many years, and recent advancements are moving it closer to practical use. These new computers use quantum bits, or qubits, instead of traditional bits. Unlike bits that can only be either a ‘1’ or a ‘0’, qubits can be both at the same time, thanks to a principle called superposition. This unique feature gives quantum computers a potential power that far exceeds today’s supercomputers.
While this isn’t the first instance of quantum teleportation, it’s groundbreaking because it involves the teleportation of logical gates—crucial elements of algorithms—across a network. The researchers believe this technique could pave the way for a future “quantum internet,” providing an ultra-secure platform for communications and computing.
Dougal Main, the lead researcher from the University of Oxford, explains, “In our study, we used quantum teleportation to create interactions between distant systems. This allows us to perform fundamental quantum operations across separate quantum computers.” He added that their work effectively connects different processors into a single, powerful quantum computer.
The team demonstrated that they could build and scale this quantum system using existing technology. Professor David Lucas, another key researcher, stated, “Our experiment shows that network-distributed quantum information processing is possible with the technology we have today.” However, he noted that scaling quantum computers still poses significant challenges ahead, requiring further technical innovation and engineering efforts.
The study detailing their findings was published in Nature under the title “Distributed quantum computing across an optical network link.”
