---
title: "Researchers Achieve First “Sustained” Long Distance Quantum Teleportation"
description: "A team of researchers claim to have achieved sustained, long-distance quantum teleportation for the first time, setting the stage for a quantum internet."
date: "2020-12-18"
modified: "2020-12-20"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/researchers-achieve-first-sustained-long-distance-quantum-teleportation"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Quantum Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "fermilab"
  - "quantum computing"
  - "quantum entanglement"
  - "qubits"
---

# Researchers Achieve First “Sustained” Long Distance Quantum Teleportation

![A team of researchers claim to have achieved sustained, long-distance quantum teleportation for the first time, setting the stage for a quantum internet.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/researchers-achieve-first-sustained-long-distance-quantum-teleportation.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

A team of researchers claim to have achieved sustained, long-distance quantum teleportation for the first time.

The research could lay the groundwork for "a viable quantum internet — a network in which information stored in qubits is shared over long distances through entanglement" that could "transform the fields of data storage, precision sensing and computing," according to [a Fermilab statement](<https://news.fnal.gov/2020/12/fermilab-and-partners-achieve-sustained-high-fidelity-quantum-teleportation/>).

The team — a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the University of Calgary, and other partners —managed to teleport qubits of photons over 44 kilometers of fiber.

The process doesn't actually involve teleportation in the traditional sense. Quantum teleportation is the transfer of quantum states from one location to another. Through quantum entanglement, two particles in separate locations are connected by an invisible force, famously referred to as "spooky action at a distance" by Albert Einstein.

Regardless of the distance, the encoded information shared by the "entangled" pair of particles can be passed between them.

By sharing these quantum qubits, the basic units of quantum computing, researchers are hoping to create networks of quantum computers that can share information at blazing-fast speeds.

"This is an advancement towards a more readily available scaling up of such systems in different locations, to build a bigger system," Christoph Simon, professor of physics at the University of Calgary and co-author of [the accompanying study](<https://journals.aps.org/prxquantum/abstract/10.1103/PRXQuantum.1.020317>) published in the *Physical Review* journal earlier this month, said in the university's [statement](<https://science.ucalgary.ca/news/scientists-take-important-step-toward-building-practical-quantum-internet>) about the research.

But keeping this information flow stable over long distances has proven extremely difficult. The previous world record was held by researchers at the University of Calgary, covering a distance of just six kilometers, as [*VICE* reports](<https://www.vice.com/en/article/93wqep/researchers-have-achieved-sustained-long-distance-quantum-teleportation>).

Researchers are now hoping to scale up such a system, using both entanglement to send information and quantum memory to store it as well.

In July, the US Department of Energy [unveiled a blueprint](<https://news.fnal.gov/2020/07/u-s-department-of-energy-unveils-blueprint-for-the-quantum-internet-at-launch-to-the-future-quantum-internet-event/>) for the first quantum internet, connecting several of its National Laboratories across the country.

**READ MORE:** [Researchers Have Achieved Sustained Long-Distance Quantum Teleportation](<https://www.vice.com/en/article/93wqep/researchers-have-achieved-sustained-long-distance-quantum-teleportation>) \[*VICE*\]

**More on quantum entanglement:** *[China Claims Quantum Supremacy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-claims-quantum-supremacy>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

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