Quantum Computing & Entanglement: A Revolution in Communications Technology
Entanglement
While this idea was initially proposed as a “spooky” phenomenon by Einstein in the 1930s, there have been many recent innovations of this concept by different physicists. One team at the Brookhaven lab discovered that when the photons surrounding two gold ions are in proximity, they create many pions--subatomic particles in atoms that bind the protons and neutrons together--both positive and negative, which reinforce each other and cancel out so that one negative pion from the first gold ion and one positive pion from the other gold ion hit the detector at the same time in a specific orientation. Since this event is nonrandom, it proves that dissimilar particles can be entangled together-- and a very new and strange concept. This information was then used in 2020 when some entangled qubits--units of quantum information-- were sent 44 kilometers through optical fibers. The way that this works is by entangling three particles so that changing one will change another that will change another--something of a quantum chain reaction. While this does not seem like much in the grand scheme of things seeing as some of the information was intercepted, this experiment creates precedent for so many innovations to come-- such as the day that entire cities will be powered by this powerful technology.
Computing
What is quantum computing? To most people, this is a very complicated concept. Basically, a quantum computer is similar to a normal computer in the sense that it solves problems too complex for humans. These problems can be anything from space travel to artificial intelligence.
How does this relate to the previous concept of entanglement? Since changing the state of one entangled qubit instantaneously changes the state of the other, the processing speed of the quantum computer is improved dramatically. This is very important, because when computers are solving complex problems, the main issue is for those problems to be solved in a reasonable time. The actual workings of a quantum computer are too complicated to be explained within a single article--but essentially qubits are in a state of superposition, which means that they are in multiple combinations at the same time. Once the calculations are run, the qubits create patterns of interference and cancel out. The outcomes that are not canceled out by interference are possible solutions, and this process is run for many different types of problems.
Why Does This Matter?
Quantum computing can eventually reduce the costs of prototyping for a variety of applications and research. It will revolutionize the speed of chemical research, complex manufacturing, artificial intelligence, financial analyses, and much more. All in all, quantum computing takes a lot of data and uses combinatorics to efficiently find the optimal solution.
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