If superior civilizations use quantum communication, is that why we’ve by no means seen them earlier than?

Establishing communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence is one of the pieces of news that I, and I'm sure many others, have long wanted to see. Since we began searching for advanced civilizations, we have tried numerous ways to detect their transmissions, but so far without success. A new paper suggests that quantum communication could be the ideal method for interstellar communication. It has many advantages, but the challenge is that you need a receiver with a range of over 100 km to pick up a signal. Unfortunately, they know we don't have that technology yet!

The search for extraterrestrial signals was carried out under the slogan “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” or SETI for short. It began in 1960 when Frank Drake started the first search. Of course, it was not successful, but since then large radio telescopes have been used for the search. There were many projects, but of particular interest was the “Breakthrough” project. It used advanced technologies and international cooperation, but still no success was achieved.

Frank Drake writes his famous equation on a white board. Source: SETI.org

To effectively search for extraterrestrial signals, it is essential to fully understand the nature of communication, a quest that began in 1948 with the development of the modern theory of classical communication. In 1959, it was proposed that human technology was available to send or receive interstellar classical communication, which simply requires a message, someone to send it, and someone to receive it.

In the years that followed, communication theories developed and quantum information theory emerged. It studies how quantum mechanics affects the storage and transmission of information. At the heart of the theory is the quantum bit, or qubit, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to the phenomenon of superposition. In classical information theory, bits of information are either 0 or 1, but in quantum theory they can take on an infinite number of combinations with certain probabilities until they are measured. At this point, the wave function collapses into one of the specific states.

Another key element of quantum theory is entanglement, in which two or more particles are linked in such a way that the state of one particle is related to the state of the other particle, no matter how far apart they are. With qubits linked in this way, data processing can be far faster than in the classical model, and more secure. The paper, written by Latham Boyle of the University of Edinburgh, suggests that it may be possible to use quantum communication to send or receive information between stars. An earlier study by Arjun Berera suggested that photon qubits could be used to transmit information across interstellar and possibly even intergalactic distances without loss of coherence.

The concept of quantum coherence describes the ability to maintain the specific quantum state, but that alone is not enough for communication. The communication channel must also have sufficient capacity. In addition, certain wavelengths must be used (or avoided, e.g. wavelengths below 26.5 cm to avoid problems with the cosmic microwave background radiation). To make this possible, radio telescopes with a diameter of 100 km must be used. Currently, we do not have the ability to build such instruments, and this could explain why we have not yet discovered aliens in such a large and old universe! Perhaps we simply have to wait until we can build such instruments before aliens can communicate with us.

Source: On interstellar quantum communication and the Fermi paradox

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