Scientists teleport two different objects

Scientists teleport two different objects
POSTED: 4:36 p.m. EDT, October 4, 2006

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Beaming people in Star Trek fashion is
still in the realms of science fiction but physicists in Denmark have
teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum
communication and computing closer to reality.

Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or
single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split
second.

But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at
Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both
light and matter.

"It is one step further because for the first time it involves
teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is
the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium,"
Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday.

The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object
containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the
information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended
further.

"Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by
two teams but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a
millimeter," Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center
for Quantum Optics, explained.

"Our method allows teleportation to be taken over longer distances
because it involves light as the carrier of entanglement," he added.

Quantum entanglement involves entwining two or more particles without
physical contact.

Although teleportation is associated with the science-fiction series
Star Trek, no one is likely to be beamed anywhere soon.

But the achievement of Polzik's team, in collaboration with the theorist
Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in
Garching, Germany, marks an advancement in the field of quantum
information and computers, which could transmit and process information
in a way that was impossible before.

"It is really about teleporting information from one site to another
site. Quantum information is different from classical information in the
sense that it cannot be measured. It has much higher information
capacity and it cannot be eavesdropped on. The transmission of quantum
information can be made unconditionally secure," said Polzik whose
research is reported in the journal Nature.

Quantum computing requires manipulation of information contained in the
quantum states, which include physical properties such as energy, motion
and magnetic field, of the atoms.

"Creating entanglement is a very important step but there are two more
steps at least to perform teleportation. We have succeeded in making all
three steps -- that is entanglement, quantum measurement and quantum
feedback," he added.

There's a good article about this at:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010929/fob1.asp

My web searches also turned up

http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1004/p15s1-stss.html

which I cannot recommend, as it contains a number of fundamental
mistakes - for example, about Schrodinger's cat.

John Savard

Schrodinger's cat?

How do you know he passed away?

Well no observation is needed, (when you leave the box lid closed for a
few days)!

This was the answer I gave in class, (all those beers ago).

OASN, I can see that this tech. may become of value for communication &
computers. It is worth the effort to continue funding this, (but one
should not think we will be beaming about anytime soon).

Carl

wrote:
OASN, I can see that this tech. may become of value for communication &
computers. It is worth the effort to continue funding this, (but one
should not think we will be beaming about anytime soon).

Carl

Thank goodness! Think about, would you want to 'Beta Test' a
transporter? ;^)

Just my $0.02

Space Cadet


Moon Society - St. Louis Chapter

http://www.moonsociety.org/chapters/stlouis/

There is only one (maybe 2) basic core reasons for humans to go
beyond LEO, That is for the establishment of space settlements or a
space based civilization. Everything else are details.

Gary Gray 11/9/2005

:: OASN, I can see that this tech. may become of value for communication
:: & computers. It is worth the effort to continue funding this, (but
:: one should not think we will be beaming about anytime soon).

Especially since they didn't "teleport two different objects".
They "teleported" information from one object to another.
Why they call this "teleporting" instead of "transmitting" is unclear,
other than it's what gets the headlines.


Wayne Throop http://sheol.org/throopw

Wayne Throop wrote:
Why they call this "teleporting" instead of "transmitting" is unclear,
other than it's what gets the headlines.

Well, it *did* involve quantum entanglement - and that was the excuse.

John Savard

(Wayne Throop) wrote:

Especially since they didn't "teleport two different objects".
They "teleported" information from one object to another.
Why they call this "teleporting" instead of "transmitting" is unclear,
other than it's what gets the headlines.

It's called "teleporting" because it involves moving the quantum state
of an object from one place to another. There is classical transmission
of information involved, but the result of the entire process is
indistinguishable from sci-fi teleportation.

: Alan Anderson
: It's called "teleporting" because it involves moving the quantum state
: of an object from one place to another. There is classical
: transmission of information involved, but the result of the entire
: process is indistinguishable from sci-fi teleportation.

And so is beaming a description of an object and rebuilding it.
Or actually moving the object, but very fast. Or any number of
other things that aren't teleportation, but are "indistinguisable".

Basically, since a particle has to move between source and destination,
you haven't done anything in terms of moving a macroscopic
object that you couldn't do with a cathode ray tube. But nobody calls
that "telportation of electrons". The fact that lots of people *do*
call *this* teleportation, and Star Trek gets mentioned prominently
in all media coverage of it, is mainly interesting because of its
relevance to human psychology and linguistics.


Wayne Throop http://sheol.org/throopw

(Wayne Throop) wrote:

: Alan Anderson
: It's called "teleporting" because it involves moving the quantum state
: of an object from one place to another. There is classical
: transmission of information involved, but the result of the entire
: process is indistinguishable from sci-fi teleportation.

And so is beaming a description of an object and rebuilding it.

There are two different responses to that, depending on how you want to
think of things.

1) Not so. You can't rebuild the complete quantum state of a particle,
because of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. What you end up with is
*not* completely identical to what you started with. Information has
unavoidably been lost.

2) Yes, but only if you use the results of destroying the original
object's state by having it interact with one half of an entangled pair
to direct the manipulation of the other half. You can't rebuild it from
a description alone; you have to have the entangled pair in order for
the description to mean anything. You can't use the same description
twice in order to make another copy because you used up the second half
of the pair the first time.

Or actually moving the object, but very fast.

No, that requires that the object physically traverse the distance
between source and destination. It is not teleportation as sci-fi does
it.

Or any number of
other things that aren't teleportation, but are "indistinguisable".

What makes it teleportation is that the new object is identical in *all*
respects to the original -- which no longer exists.

Basically, since a particle has to move between source and destination,
you haven't done anything in terms of moving a macroscopic
object that you couldn't do with a cathode ray tube.

The entangled particles can have been placed at the source and
destination in advance. Then you don't need to move anything except
information in order to teleport a given object. Your cathode ray tube
sends the actual electrons from the gun to the screen.

But nobody calls
that "telportation of electrons". The fact that lots of people *do*
call *this* teleportation, and Star Trek gets mentioned prominently
in all media coverage of it, is mainly interesting because of its
relevance to human psychology and linguistics.

This is called teleportation because the word describes it accurately.

: Alan Anderson
: This is called teleportation because the word describes it accurately.

Uh-huh. Suuuure it does.


Wayne Throop http://sheol.org/throopw