Question about quantum entanglement?

Question

Could this bizarre phenomenon be somehow used to improve communication or computer performance, or something like that?

I understand very little about this, but I do know that entangled particles are affected by one another instantaneously no matter how far apart. So I was watching this documentary on Sc channel about going to Mars, and how communication between the astronauts and Earth is seriously impeded by the huge distances, and I was wondering could this "spooky action at a distance" be used to make communication instantaneous! Has any research been done regarding these kinds of issues?

Remember I know little to nothing about quantum entanglement, I am just speculating based on my comprehension of the subject, so try not to ridicule me! LOL

Answer 1

No.

The particles do something to each other (maybe), but it is less than "affecting each other instantaneously no matter how far apart." Entanglement cannot be used to send information.

Your measurement of one entangled particle determines the measurement made at the other end, but you cannot control the outcome of that measurement.

Answer 2

No way would I ridicule you, because I believe it's entirely possible, some time in the future. A lot of research is being done by many very smart people in many universities and companies.

Here's some recent info:

http://arxivblog.com/?p=554

"In recent years, our ideas about communication have been transformed by the possibility of using quantum particles to carry information. When that happens the strange rules of quantum mechanics govern what can and cannot be sent from one region of space to another. This kind of thinking has has spawned the entirely new fields of quantum communication and quantum computing.

But ask a physicist what the capacity is of a quantum information channel and she’ll stare at the floor and shuffle her feet. Despite years of trying, nobody has been able to update Shannon’s theory of communication with a quantum version.

Which is why a paper today on the arXiv is so exciting. Graeme Smith at the IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights NY (a lab that has carried the torch for this problem)  and Jon Yard from Los Alamos National Labs have made what looks to be an important breakthrough by calculating that two zero-capacity quantum channels can have a nonzero capacity when used together."

Quantum Communication With Zero-Capacity Channels:

http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.4935

ArXiv.org is an open access, on-line library, maintained by Cornell University for e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology and Statistics:

http://arxiv.org/

Quantum theory of computation:

http://www.quiprocone.org/Protected/DD_l...

Answer 3

No, the spooky statistical correlations between distant photons only become apparent when you compare the local measures here and (say) on mars. For one person on either end to notice the correlated events, therefore, requires information about the measurement on the other end to be transmitted in the normal way.