Aliens Could Be Using Quantum Communications to Talk Across Interstellar Space
David Nield
David Nield
Quote:"Quantum states you generally think of as very delicate, and if there's any kind of external interaction, you kind of destroy that state," lead author of the research, theoretical physicist Arjun Berera from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, told Science News.
Berera and his colleague Jaime Calderón-Figueroa, a fellow theoretical physicist at the University of Edinburgh, ran calculations on the movement of X-rays across the emptiness of space to check for potential decoherence (the breaking up of the quantum state).
If photons – particles of light – were used as the quantum particles, the researchers determined, they could be beamed across hundreds of thousands of light-years at least, a greater stretch of distance than the entire Milky Way galaxy.
That's partly because the average density of matter in space is much less than it is on Earth, and this 'cleaner' environment means less chance of interference. Even gravitational pulls wouldn't be enough to knock a quantum communication network off course.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell