Friday, 12 May 2017


"Scientists Achieve Direct Counterfactual Quantum Communication For The First Time
Communication without particle transmission.


Quantum communication is a strange beast, but one of the weirdest proposed forms of it is called counterfactual communication - a type of quantum communication where no particles travel between two recipients.

Theoretical physicists have long proposed that such a form of communication would be possible, but now, for the first time, researchers have been able to experimentally achieve it - transferring a black and white bitmap image from one location to another without sending any physical particles.

If that sounds a little too out-there for you, don't worry, this is quantum mechanics, after all. It's meant to be complicated. But once you break it down, counterfactual quantum communication actually isn't as bizarre as it sounds.

First up, let's talk about how this differs from regular quantum communication, also known as quantum teleportation, because isn't that also a form of particle-less information transfer?

Well, not quite. Regular quantum teleportation is based on the principle of entanglement - two particles that become inextricably linked so that whatever happens to one will automatically affect the other, no matter how far apart they are.

This is what Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance", and scientists have already used it to send messages over vast distances.

But that form of quantum teleportation still relies on particle transmission in some form or another. The two particles usually need to be together when they're entangled before being sent to the people on either end of the message (so, they start in one place, and need to be transmitted to another before communication can occur between them).





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