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Physics

Teleportation, but not as we know it

By Zeeya Merali

13 June 2007

Quantum teleportation, evoking as it does images of Star Trek-like transporters, hasn’t quite lived up to its promise. It has never managed to transport more than a few fragile photons over short distances. Now there’s a system that can potentially teleport thousands of substantial particles – without any quantum hang-ups.

Teleportation usually refers to a process that relies on quantum entanglement, where two particles are linked regardless of the distance between them, so that any change to the state of one instantly changes its twin. However, entangled particles are difficult to prepare and delicate to handle, imposing severe limits on quantum…

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