Researchers at TU Delft have developed a new technique for generating quantum entanglement links on demand, opening the door for practical quantum networks (Credit: Cheyenne Hensgens)With more sensitive data than ever being shared – and stolen – online, more secure connections are desperately needed. The answer could be a quantum internet, where information is passed almost instantaneously between nodes that have been quantum entangled and are therefore physically unhackable, since any unauthorized observation of the data will scramble it. Researchers at Delft University of Technology have now overcome a major hurdle on the road towards that goal by generating quantum links faster than they deteriorate.Quantum entanglement is a strange phenomenon where two particles become so intertwined that by looking at the state of one you can accurately infer the state of the other, no matter how large a distance separates them. This communication is effectively instantaneous, which appears to violate fundamental laws of classical physics – namely, information can’t travel faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein himself was famously unnerved by the implications, once describing it as “spooky action at a distance.”
