Scientists have made a major breakthrough in quantum teleportation, successfully transferring something far more complex than ever before.
Quantum teleportation is a still mysterious phenomena that can see information flung across space.
The effect is not the same as the teleportation often seen in science fiction – where matter is moved through space – but instead is the transfer information about the quantum state of a particle. It could have huge and unimagined effects on the way we organise and transmit information, including the possibility of a vastly more complicated quantum internet.
Until now, scientists have only been able to teleport quantum bits, or qubits. Those are the simplest possible piece of quantum information, where a particle can be in two states at once.
But a qutrit – which scientists have now successfully teleported – adds a whole extra dimension. If a qubit is polarised in two ways at once, a qutrit is polarised in three directions – a vastly more complicated unit, and a far greater challenge for the scientists involved.