Quantum Bits Tunneled – Wormhole Created in Quantum Computer

Pasadena (USA) Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Harvard University have now for the first time experimentally examined the previously only theoretical concept of a wormhole with teleportation. As Daniel Jafferis explains, they created a wormhole in a quantum computer.

“We have found a quantum system that shows the key features of a gravitational wormhole, but is still small enough to be implemented in existing quantum hardware.”

According to their publication in the journal Nature (doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05424-3), a quantum system that converts the features of a typical wormhole into a quantum model served as the basis of the experiment.

As early as 2019, Jafferis theoretically proved that a quantum physical entanglement of two of these SYK systems corresponds to a passable Einstein-Rosen bridge.

In 1935, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen proposed the concept of a black hole forming a tunnel-like connection between different points in space-time, known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge. This bridge has been theorized to act as a bridge through space and time, though the extreme gravitational conditions make it uncertain whether it would be traversable.

Recently, the concept of a wormhole has been extended to include a quantum physical entanglement at both ends of the tunnel-like connection, combining Einsteinian gravity with quantum teleportation for the first time. This has led to the possibility of a wormhole being traversable under certain conditions.

With the help of artificial intelligence, the physicists simplified the model so much that it could be simulated in Google’s Sycamore quantum computer. To realize the two entangled SYK systems, the researchers used a circuit made up of nine quantum bits.

In the experiment, the researchers managed to send qubits through one end of the quantum physics wormhole. This came out the other end intact with no damage.

According to the authors, the study forms the basis for further quantum physics tests that could answer some of the fundamental questions in physics. One of the unanswered questions is, for example, how gravity as space-time curvature can fit together with quantum and particle physics.

The scientists are currently exploring new methods to map even more complex wormhole models in quantum computers.