Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)have demonstrated "teleportation" by transferring key properties of one atom to another atom without using any physical link. The experiments used laser beam manipulations to transfer quantum states of one beryllium atom to another atom within a set of microscale traps, with a 78% success rate. The technique could be useful for transporting information in quantum computers of the future, which could use central processing elements smaller than a cube of sugar to carry out massively complex computations that are currently impossible. Someday, quantum computers might be used for applications such as code breaking of unprecedented power, optimizing complex systems such as airline schedules, much faster database searching and solving of complex mathematical problems, and even the development of novel products such as fraud-proof digital signatures.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:05 AM
