Teleportation

Teleportation is the theoretical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature, film, video games, and television. In some situations teleporting is time travelling across space.

Since 1993, energy and particle teleportation has become a hot topic in quantum mechanics.

Etymology

The use of the term teleport to describe the hypothetical movement of material objects between one place and another without physically traversing the distance between them has been documented as early as 1878.^[1]^[2]

American writer Charles Fort is credited with having coined the word teleportation in 1931^[3]^[4] to describe the strange disappearances and appearances of anomalies, which he suggested may be connected. As in the earlier usage, he joined the Greek prefix tele- (meaning "distant") to the root of the Latin verb portare (meaning "to carry").^[5] Fort's first formal use of the word occurred in the second chapter of his 1931 book Lo!:^[6]

Mostly in this book I shall specialize upon indications that there exists a transportory force that I shall call Teleportation. I shall be accused of having assembled lies, yarns, hoaxes, and superstitions. To some degree I think so, myself. To some degree, I do not. I offer the data.

Fiction

The earliest recorded story of a "matter transmitter" was Edward Page Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body" in 1877.^[7]

Science

Some scientists believe it is not possible to teleport macroscopic objects such as human beings, but there may be teleportation in the microscopic world. Three possible kinds of teleportation in quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics have been proposed: state teleportation, energy teleportation, and particle teleportation^{[citation needed]}.

In 1993, Bennett et al^[8] proposed that a quantum state of a particle could be teleported to another distant particle, but the two particles do not move at all. This is called state teleportation. There are a lot of following theoretical and experimental papers published.^{[citation needed]} Researchers believe that quantum teleportation is the foundation of quantum calculation and quantum communication.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, M. Hotta^[9] proposed that it may be possible to teleport energy by exploiting quantum energy fluctuations of an entangled vacuum state of a quantum field. There are some papers published but no experimental verification.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, Y. Wei proposed that particles themselves could teleport from one place to another.^[10] This is called particle teleportation. With this concept, superconductivity can be viewed as the teleportation of some electrons in the superconductor and superfluidity as the teleportation of some of the atoms in the cellular tube. Physicists are trying to verify this concept experimentally.^{[citation needed]}

Philosophy

Philosopher Derek Parfit used teleportation in his Teletransportation paradox. ^[11]

References

^ "The Hawaiian gazette. (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, October 23, 1878, Image 4". loc.gov.
^ "29 Jun 1878 - THE LATEST WONDER". nla.gov.au.
^ "Lo!: Part I: 2". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
^ "less well-known is the fact that Charles Fort coined the word in 1931" in Rickard, B. and Michell, J. Unexplained Phenomena: a Rough Guide special (Rough Guides, 2000 (ISBN 1-85828-589-5), p.3)
^ "Teleportation". Etymology online. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
^ Mr. X. "Lo!: A Hypertext Edition of Charles Hoy Fort's Book". Resologist.net. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
^ "Teleportation in early science fiction". The Worlds of David Darling. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
^ C. H. Bennett, G. Brassard, C. Crépeau, R. Jozsa, A. Peres, W. K. Wootters (1993), Teleporting an Unknown Quantum State via Dual Classical and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen Channels, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1895–1899.
^ Hotta, Masahiro. "A PROTOCOL FOR QUANTUM ENERGY DISTRIBUTION". Phys. Lett. A 372 5671 (2008).
^ Wei, Yuchuan (29 June 2016). "Comment on "Fractional quantum mechanics" and "Fractional Schrödinger equation"". APS Physics.
^ Peg Tittle,What If...: Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Routledge, 2016, ISBN 1315509326, pages 88-89