Aliens Could Be Using Quantum Communications to Talk Across Interstellar Space

We haven't found any evidence of alien life yet, but that doesn't mean we can't find it. A group of researchers have created a mathematical model that shows aliens could communicate via quantum physics.

Efforts are being made to make quantum communication a reality. If we can get it to work, we can use quantum mechanics to make information transfer faster and more secure.

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome before quantum networks can be established is that they're very vulnerable to interference. The networks could fly across space.

The lead author of the research, theoretical physicist Arjun Berera from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, told Science News that if there's any kind of external interaction, you destroy the quantum state.

The movement of X-rays across the emptiness of space was calculated by Berera and his colleague.

The researchers determined that the quantum particles could be beamed across hundreds of thousands of light-years at a greater distance than the entire Milky Way.

This 'cleaner' environment means less chance of interference because the density of matter in space is less than on Earth. The quantum communication network wouldn't be knocked off course by even a single pull.

The researchers wrote in their paper that it was plausible that quantum communication could be established across the distance.

Speculation is that alien life forms may be using quantum networks to communicate with each other or to try and get in touch with us, but at the same time it gives astronomer another potential sign of life.

The "considerable information transfer" possible with a quantum signal would make it attractive to any extraterrestrial intelligence out there, the researchers say, though it may need a fully functioning quantum computer to decode it.

Information can't travel faster than the speed of light, so it may take several years for a transmission to reach its destination.

We can now add quantum communication as well as classical communication to the possible ways aliens might be talking to each other.

It should be possible to detect a quantum signal from an astrophysical body or an extraterrestrial civilization.

The research was published in a journal.