German scientists successfully teleport "classical information"

[Aragorn]

http://cdnph.upi.com/sv/b/i/UPI-8341457118688/2016/1/14571251564298/German-scientists-successfully-teleport-classical-information.jpg
Alexander Szameit (R) and Marco Ornigotti (L) pose with their laser-based teleportation device.




"Using a series of laser beams, a pair of German scientists successfully teleported classical information without the transfer or matter or energy.

Researchers have previously demonstrated local teleportation within the world of quantum particles. But the latest experiment successfully translates the phenomenon for classical physics.

"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.

In other words, these particles can be in two places at the same time.

"Within such a system spread across multiple locations, it is possible to transmit information from one location to another without any loss of time," Szameit said.

By coupling the properties of classical information, researchers were able to use quantum teleportation for classical teleportation. 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 researcher 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.

The first-of-its-kind demonstration was detailed this week in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lpor.201500252/abstract;jsessionid=AC13CBE04D37901365DF2ECCCFF758 4E.f01t02)."



Source: UPI (http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2016/03/04/German-scientists-successfully-teleport-classical-information/8341457118688/?spt=su&or=btn_fb)

[Dreamtimer]

"Researchers used polarization to encode information within a laser beam..." How does that happen? Is it a binary kind of code? I looked at the abstract and the press release. I doubt I'd understand the actual paper. :scrhd:

Still, pretty cool. Makes me think of Shadowself's six degrees thread.

[Aragorn]

"Researchers used polarization to encode information within a laser beam..." How does that happen? Is it a binary kind of code? I looked at the abstract and the press release. I doubt I'd understand the actual paper. :scrhd:

Still, pretty cool. Makes me think of Shadowself's six degrees thread.

Well, polarization isn't necessarily binary in nature. Light can be polarized in a whole variety of ways. It doesn't have to be perpendicular to the polarization plane of the initial beam. You've got a whole 360° to play with. However, when it comes to mapping the polarization of light to quantum entanglement, the binary system may indeed be the best choice, or at least, at present time.

The implications of this experiment are extremely significant for the area of communication technologies, because it would allow for an instantaneous data transfer between — say — a (perhaps robotic) spaceship and Earth, even if the spaceship would be lightyears away. Right now, we don't have the kind of technology in the mainstream yet by which a spaceship lightyears away would be able to communicate with us here on Earth — even if only because mainstream space-faring is extremely limited in velocity and we would all already long be dead and fossilized before the ship ever reaches its destination — but this kind of thing would definitely pay off for a manned or unmanned flight to another planet within our own solar system in present time.

So now, with this technology of mapping classical information to quantum entanglement, we could send someone (or a robot) to Mars or even beyond, and they would be able to communicate with Earth instantaneously, without the delay caused by the limitation of the speed of light (and thus of any kind of electromagnetic transmission) in a vacuum. With the current mainstream communication technology, it would take anywhere from 4 to 24 minutes for a signal from Mars to reach Earth, depending on the relative position of Mars in space with regard to Earth. That's for a single trip. Excluding the duration of the actual message itself, you still have to double that for a round trip.

In other words, if an astronaut on Mars were to shout in his radio "Hey Houston, I've just touched down on Mars!", then it would take between 8 and 48 minutes before he'd get to hear the applause. And now, thanks to this new technology, the communication would really be instantaneous. So if he were to sneeze and someone in Houston were to say "Bless you!", then he would hear it right away. :p