MIT and Harvard May Have Found the Missing Link Towards a Practical Quantum Internet
Towards an unhackable quantum internet
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ Harvard and MIT researchers have found a way to correct for signal loss with a prototype quantum node that can catch, store and entangle bits of quantum information. The research is the missing link towards a practical quantum internet and a major step forward in the development of long-distance quantum networks.
“This is the realization of a goal that has been pursued by our quantum science and engineering community for more than two decades.”
+ Every form of communication technology– from the first telegraph to today’s fiber optic internet — has had to address the fact that signals degrade and are lost when transmitted over distances. The first repeaters, which receive and amplify signals to correct for this loss, were developed to amplify fading wire telegraph signals in the mid-1800s. Two hundred years later, repeaters are an integral part of our long-distance communications infrastructure.
+ “This demonstration is a conceptual breakthrough that could extend the longest possible range of quantum networks and potentially enable many new applications in a manner that is impossible with any existing technologies,” said Mikhail Lukin, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics and a co-Director of Harvard Quantum Initiative. “This is the realization of a goal that has been pursued by our quantum science and engineering community for more than two decades.”
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