Programming Quantum Computers

Chapter 4. Quantum Teleportation

In this chapter we introduce a QPU program allowing us to immediately teleport an object across a distance of 3.1 millimeters! The same code would work over interstellar distances, given the right equipment.

Although teleportation might conjure up images of magician’s parlor tricks, we’ll see that the kind of quantum teleportation we can perform with a QPU is equally impressive, yet far more practical—and is, in fact, an essential conceptual component of QPU programming.

Hands-on: Let’s Teleport Something

The best way to learn about teleportation is to try to do it. Keep in mind that throughout all of human history up until the time of writing, only a few thousand people have actually performed physical teleportation of any kind, so just running the following code makes you a pioneer.

For this example, rather than a simulator, we will use IBM’s five-qubit actual QPU, as seen in Figure 4-1. You’ll be able to paste the sample code from Example 4-1 into the IBM Q Experience website, click a button, and confirm that your teleportation was successful.

Figure 4-1. The IBM chip is very small, so the qubit does not have far to go; the image and schematics show the regions on the QPU we will teleport between¹

The IBM Q Experience can be programmed using OpenQASM,² and also Qiskit.³ Note that the code in Example 4-1 is not JavaScript to be run on QCEngine, ...