Quantum Telepathy Saves the World
Interactive Supplements for the Article, "Quantum Telepathy Saves the World"
(submitted to Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact)
by Michael Main

The article "Quantum Telepathy Saves the World" [1] describes a game based on the Mermin-GHZ game [2,3] In the game, three players (Alice, Bob and Charlie) are separated by a large distance, and then each is given a blue stone or a red stone. The number of blue stones will always be three (the 3-blue case) or one (the 1-blue case). Each of the players must then make a choice: to keep his or her stone or to give it back.

In order to win the 1-blue case, the three players must keep an odd number of stones. In order to win the 3-blue case, the players must give back an odd number of stones.

Alice, Bob and Charlie are allowed to agree on a strategy ahead of time, but once they are given the stones, they may no longer communicate. A classical strategy is an agreement they make that dictates which colors of stones they will keep and which they will give back. A classical strategy cannot win the game, but the article describes an always winning strategy in which the players share three entangled qubits of a quantum computation.

  • Test a Classical Strategy
  • Run the Quantum Programs
  • Linear Algebra Versions of the Quantum Programs


    [1] Michael Main, "Quantum Telepathy Saves the World." Submitted for publication (2008).
    [2] N.D. Mermin, "Extreme Quantum Entanglement in a Superposition of Macroscopically Distinct States" in Physical Review Letters 65(15), pp 1838-1849 (1990).
    [3] Gilles Brassard, Anne Broadbent and Alain Tapp, "Quantum Pseudo-Telepathy" (2004).


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