Physicists have used a seven-qubit quantum computer to simulate the scrambling of information inside a black hole, heralding a future in which entangled quantum bits might be used to probe the mysterious interiors of these bizarre objects.
Physicists have used a seven-qubit quantum computer to simulate the scrambling of information inside a black hole, heralding a future in which entangled quantum bits might be used to probe the mysterious interiors of these bizarre objects.
Scrambling is what happens when matter disappears inside a black hole. The information attached to that matter — the identities of all its constituents, down to the energy and momentum of its most elementary particles — is chaotically mixed with all the other matter and information inside, seemingly making it impossible to retrieve.
This leads to a so-called “black hole information paradox,” since quantum mechanics says that information is never lost, even when that information disappears inside a black hole.
Read more at University of California – Berkeley
Graphic: Someday, entangled quantum bits, or qubits, may allow us to explore the mysterious interior of a black hole, as represented in this artistic rendering. CREDIT E. Edwards/Joint Quantum Institute
