Can Entangled Qubits Be Applicable For Probing Black Holes?

Physicists have applied a seven-qubit quantum computer to reproduce the scrambling of information inside a black hole, signaling a future in which entangled quantum bits might be used to inquire the mysterious interiors of these strange objects.

 

Scrambling is a process which takes place when matter disappears inside a black hole. The information which is attached to that matter, the identities of all its constituents and components, down to the energy and momentum of its most elementary particles, is chaotically and rigorously mixed with all the other matter and information inside. This seemingly makes it impossible to redeem.

 

This guides to a so-called "black hole information paradox". Since quantum mechanics represents that information is never lost, even when that information inside a black hole disappears.

 

Therefore, while some physicists claim that information falling via the event horizon of a black hole is lost forever, other physicists argue that this information can be reconstructed, but only after waiting an excessive amount of time until the black hole has shrunk to nearly half its real size. Black holes shrink as they emit Hawking radiation, which is caused by quantum mechanical fluctuations at the very edge of the black hole. It is named after the late physicist Stephen Hawking.

 

Unfortunately, it would take around 1067 years for a black hole the mass of our sun to evaporate far, far longer than the age of the universe. However, out of this blackhole, there is an escape or rather, a wormhole. It may be possible to recover this infalling information significantly faster by the measurement of fine entanglements between the black hole and the Hawking radiation it leaves.

 

There are two bits of information in a quantum computer which are entangled like the quantum bits, or qubits, in a quantum computer when they are so closely linked that the quantum state of one automatically showcases the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are. Sometimes, physicists refer to this as spooky action at a distance, and measurements of entangled qubits can lead to the "teleportation" of quantum information from one qubit to another.

 

Norman Yao, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of physics, said that one can recuperate the information dropped into the black hole by doing a massive quantum calculation on these outgoing Hawking photons. He also added that this is expected to be really, really hard, but if quantum mechanics is to be believed, it should be possible in principle. That's exactly what they are doing here, but for a tiny three-qubit `black hole' which is inside a seven-qubit quantum computer.

 

An entangled qubit is dropped into a black hole querying the emerging Hawking radiation. This could theoretically determine the state of a qubit inside the black hole, offering a window into the abyss.

 

Yao and his colleagues at the University of Maryland and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, will report their end results in a paper appearing in the 6^th March issue of the journal Nature.

 

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190306131345.htm