Teleportation

Teleportation is the ability to transport an object instantaneously from point A to

point B. - Michio Kaku.

Teleportation would completely alter the universe and what we can do. Warfare
would no longer be as we know it. Armies having to travel large distances, using
valuable time, would no longer be an issue. You could teleport an active bomb into
another countries military base even. Ships, planes, tanks, you name it - they could
be teleported anywhere. Roads would no longer be needed. If you were to make an
online purchase you could expect to receive your package within a half hour
(depending on the size of a company). Vacations would be effortless and no longer
limited to just wealthy people. The possibilities are endless!

The first ever mention of teleportation dates back to the ancient times documented
in the Bible, but the first time it really became an idea was in 1877 with the novel
The Man Without A Body. In this novel a man attempts to teleport himself but the
battery dies in the process resulting in only his head being teleported. These ideas
developed more in 1958 when the film The Fly was produced. In this movie a
scientist attempts to teleport himself but there happens to be a fly in the
teleportation chamber and their bodies fuse together. Teleportation didnt become a
popular idea until Startrek was released in 1972. That was just the start. Since then
teleportation has become a very popular topic for science fiction writers and movie
directors, increasing the overall popularity of teleportation.

There is only one problem. By the laws of physics teleportation is impossible. You
would need to pinpoint the exact location and velocity for every electron in every
atom of the thing you wish to teleport. As we realize, knowing the exact location and
velocity is impossible which is where quantum mechanics comes to play in the
physics world.

The Quantum Theory
The Quantum Theory was first purposed in 1925. The most significant impact the
theory made had to do with electrons. When the wave theory and quantum leaps
were first introduced it changed everything. Things that were once impossible were
now possible with that; teleportation was as well.

When Schrdinger and Heisenberg presented the idea of electron waves and
quantum leaps they were also presenting the idea that Neil Bohrs model of the
atom was wrong. While Bohrs model says that electrons follow specific electron
paths, the quantum theory says that electrons are represented by waves. If electrons
are waves, then they cant follow electron paths. Later, a German physicist named
Max Born revealed that these waves were actually waves of probability; the bigger
the wave was at a certain point, the more likely the electron would be there. This
revelation changed the way that we see and interact with atoms.


This goes to show that it is impossible for anyone to know the exact location, energy
or velocity of an electron. That means that no location of an atom is definite. We can
only make an estimate or assumption on where the atom truly is. Now this is where
things get complicated. Atoms disappear and reappear at will and can be and are at
many places at once; this is precisely how molecules work. When two atoms share
an electron it makes a molecule. This electron is at two places at once. That is how
bonds are formed. Without the quantum theory our molecules and atoms would
instantly dissolve. says Michio Kaku in his book Physics of the Impossible.

The fact that atoms disappear and reappear somewhere else is just how
teleportation works. For every atomic teleportation there is a certain probability of
it happening. Atoms casually teleporting is actually relatively common, we just dont
notice because we cannot see microscopic atoms. This works because of
Schrdingers waves. These waves extend out from the atoms nucleus. Some of
these electron strands even reach into deep space. These strands are actually
waves but they look like lines because they have such a minuscule amplitude-to-
pitch ratio, which means there is a very small chance of the electron being there. For
example, you are standing in front of a brick wall, and your electron strands are all
extending past the wall, there is a chance of you instantly being on the other side.
(It would seem as if you were always on the other side of the wall.) But for
something with such infinitesimal odds of happening you would have to outwait the
life of the universe. If you were to graph your bodys Schrdingers waves it would
closely resemble your body shape but there would be strands oozing out.

Some physicists were skeptical of the theory itself. Among these was Albert Einstein.
Quantum Mechanics calls for a great deal of respect. But some inner voice tells me
that this is not the true Jacob. The theory offers a lot, but it hardly brings us closer to
the Old Mans secret. For my part, at least, I am convinced that He doesnt throw dice.
Albert Einstein (Einstein expressing his skeptically of probability in physics.)




The EPR Experiment
Albert Einstein was not a fan of the quantum theory; he thought that it was absurd.
The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks. Albert Einstein. So
Einstein and a few other physicists sought to prove it wrong. Albert Einstein, Boris
Podolsky, and Nathan Rose instigated the EPR experiment in 1935. The experiment
was specifically made to kill off the probability theory in physics and to get rid of the
quantum theory for good.

The results of the experiment concluded the following; if two atoms are oscillating
in unison they will remain in a wave-like synchronization, even if a large distance
such as light years separate them. If something happens to electron A the
information is instantaneously transmitted to electron B. This is called quantum
entanglement, the heart of quantum teleportation.

When electrons are entangled they have an opposite spin. If electron A is spinning
up then we then know that electron B is spinning down. But this is known as useless
information. Say electron A and B were 2 light years away and you measure electron
A and as soon as you find that it is spinning up, you know that, faster than the speed
of light, electron B is spinning down. But this is just useless information; you cant
send data or communicate using code this way. (This is the basis of quantum
computing.) Consequently light is still the fastest information-carrying medium in
the universe (for now at least). Lets say you have a friend that will only match a
green shirt with black pants and one day you notice that he is wearing a green shirt,
you will know faster than the speed of light, that he is wearing black pants. But this
is useless information, and it is impossible to send data this way.

So while Einstein was trying to prove the quantum theory wrong he ended up
providing more data that is for the theory. Apparently there is probability in
physics. For a long time the EPR experiment was just a dead victory over the critics
with no useful purposes; until quantum teleportation was seen as possible.

Teleportation with Quantum Entanglement
A series of experiments at IBM showed that it is truly possible to teleport matter. In
1993, led by Charles Bennett, a group of scientists demonstrated purposeful
teleportation at the atomic level for the first time. Since then photons, laser pulses
and even cesium atoms have been teleported.

Quantum entanglement is one of the most inexplicable things to be. To help explain
this lets use a visual. We have two cesium atoms; the primary atom is atom A and
the two secondary atoms are B and C. We want to transfer the information in atom A
from B to C. In order to transport the information atom B must be entangled with C.
This makes B and C coherent so if something were to happen to atom B it will also
happen to atom C (for example if atom B moved then C would move also). The
information carried by atom A must now, somehow, be transferred [with B] to C. So
by entangling atom A with atom B, A is, instantaneously, entangled also with C. But
matter can never be created or destroyed. That means that right when atom A
entangles with B [and C] atom A becomes untangled at both ends. But instead of
atom A being by Bs end, atom A is by atom C.



This was first demonstrated in 1997 at Innsbruck University when they teleported
photons of ultraviolet light. More precise experiments were carried out the
following year at Caltech, also including photons of light. Then, marking a great
milestone in quantum teleportation, a group of physicists teleported a particle of
light 600m through a fiber optic cable in 2004 at the University of Vienna. Many
people criticized this work because there is not much use for the teleportation of
light. Later that year, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology in Washington D.C. successfully teleported three beryllium atoms
making it onto the front cover on the Nature magazine. But in 2006 the biggest
contribution to teleportation was made; the first macroscopic object was teleported.
In collaboration with the Max Planck Institute (Germany), the Neils Bohr Institute
(Copenhagen) managed to entangle a laser pulse with trillions upon trillions of
cesium atoms, teleporting them over half a meter.

For the first time, quantum teleportation has been achieved between light, the
carrier of the information, and atoms said Eugene Polzik, one of the researchers.

Many new breakthroughs have since been made. One of these included teleportation
without entanglement in 2007 using BEC state atoms. To get atoms to the BEC state
they must be cooled to about a millionth of a degree above absolute zero and can
only be found in unfathomable space or, which is very hard to do, be created in a
laboratory. But because BEC is so hard to create the progress is very slow moving.

Teleportation is an everyday thing, but only at the atomic level. Physicists have
made massive amounts of advance in teleportation; they plan on teleporting
complex molecules and even DNA in the near future. There is no law in physics
saying that it is not possible to teleport a human being. However it would take
decades, if not centuries, of research. But for something so massive as a living being
to be teleported we will have to wait and see.