A “quantum bath” puts quantum entanglement on autopilot

Future quantum computers may depend on the ability to connect widely separated modules through distributed entanglement. Until now, creating this kind of connection has generally required active control and repeated measurements. Physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now demonstrated a fully autonomous alternative based on a "quantum bath" made from correlated particles of light.

Published in Physical Review X , the experiment provides the first demonstration of a prediction proposed more than 20 years ago. The approach could eventually offer a new foundation for practical quantum technologies.

Entanglement is one of the defining phenomena of quantum physics. It allows particles or systems to share correlations that cannot be explained by classical physics. Creating distributed entanglement between physically separated qubits (quantum bits) could be important for building larger quantum computers and future quantum networks.