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German Scientists Successfully Teleport Classical Information (upi.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the beam-me-up-Scotty dept.

An anonymous reader writes from an article on UPI: Using a series of laser beams, a pair of German scientists teleported information without the transfer or matter of energy. "Elementary particles such as electrons and light particles exist per se in a spatially delocalized state," Alexander Szameit, a professor at the University of Jena, explained in a press release. Classical information is coupled using a process called "entanglement." "As can be done with the physical states of elementary particles, the properties of light beams can also be entangled," said research Marco Ornigotti. "You link the information you would like to transmit to a particular property of the light." Researchers used polarization to encode information within a laser beam, enabling the teleportation of information instantly and in its entirety without loss of time. Whereas quantum information and quantum systems describe particle properties that are inferred, classical information describes physical properties directly measured.

3 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Let me get this straight by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They just figured out non-local data transmission at FTL speeds.

    They arent transmitting quantum states, they are transmitting polarization data, which can be used to encode classical information, and transmitted such classical information.

    This means that you can transmit from point A to point B, "instantly", as long as you can entangle the two points.

    Does this mean that causality is only a suggestion, or will the physical constraint of having to usefully entangle the two points save the day here?

  2. Never any description by evanh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I always check each of these type of news items, hoping one may attempt to explain how it works. Alas, no such luck yet again. :(

    1. Re:Never any description by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's still very useful for a number of situations.

      1) Ship en-route to Alpha Centauri-- They entangle their transmitter and receptor beams at the launch, stay in realtime contact the entire flight. Flight takes many decades, but they stay in contact with earth in realtime. (as long as the beams never lose power, and thus stop being entangled.)

      2) SETI wants to talk to aliens in a target system. They send the rough equivalent of a modem's negotiation signal for however many years it takes for polarized light to get there. Hopefully, the aliens know about this kind of entanglement, and can entangle their own beam with the incoming polarized light. The aliens can now alter the polarization state of the beam on earth, and send a return message. The return message is received "instantly." Once the channel is open, realtime communication is possible.

      Neither of those is possible with traditional entangled photons.