ISTA physicists entangle distant qubits using autonomous quantum bath

August 31, 2026 at 05:00 AM1 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria demonstrated fully autonomous entanglement of two separated qubits using a quantum bath of correlated light particles. The experiment, published in Physical Review X, realizes a theoretical proposal from over 20 years ago. The method requires no active control or repeated measurements, unlike previous approaches.

Key Facts

The experiment was published in Physical Review X.
The approach realizes a theoretical proposal made more than 20 years ago.
The system uses a quantum bath to automatically synchronize distant qubits without active control or measurement.
PhD student Alejandro Andrés-Juanes and professor Johannes Fink led the work at ISTA with international collaborators.

Autonomous Entanglement Method

The ISTA team used a shared source of correlated light particles to entangle two separated qubits in a prototype device. The quantum bath automatically brings distant qubits into synchronization, eliminating the need for active control or repeated measurements. Previous methods either sent a single actively controlled photon between qubits or relied on post-selection of photon pairs, a strategy recognized by the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. The new approach stabilizes entangled states remotely, making the process fully autonomous.

Continuous vs Discrete Variables

Continuous-variable entangled states are produced efficiently but are less suited for stationary qubits, which require discrete-variable entanglement. The ISTA experiment bridges the mismatch between readily available continuous entanglement and the discrete forms needed for practical quantum technologies. Andrés-Juanes stated that stabilizing entangled states remotely overcomes this mismatch without active control or measurement.