Quantum Teleportation in Space Explored as Message Encryption Solution

Satellites could be used to beam down powerful data encryption keys that rely on entangled photons. The vacuum of space could solve the distance problem encountered in sending quantum signals on Earth















Share on Tumblr

"Moreover, long-distance 'quantum teleportation' experiments could be conducted--the first baby steps towards realizing the famous Star Trek 'Beam me up, Scotty' command may be only a few years away," Jennewein wrote in the magazine "Physics World." In quantum teleportation, actual objects themselves are not beamed up. Instead, their information—encoded in a quantum state—would vanish from a particle on Earth and then reappear in a particle in space.

The scheme would require three photons, Jennewein said. One, the input photon, to be teleported, and two others, entangled and separated.

"The input photon is correlated with one of the entangled ones, and thereby its quantum state is fully transferred onto the other entangled photon, which can be at a distance," Jennewein said. "The final photon is the new 'original,' and the initial photons completely lose their information."

An additional benefit of developing a quantum satellite system is that it would enable physicists to test quantum theory over much greater distances.



21 Comments

Add Comment
View
  1. 1. Dr. Scott 03:41 PM 3/15/13

    headline sub Text should probably read "entangled photons," not "entangled photos." Dew knot trussed spill chick too fined awl you're airs.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  2. 2. Stumpzian Farber 05:25 PM 3/15/13

    This is uncomfortably close to my theory of time travel via information. http://youtu.be/vRyaevquIX8

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  3. 3. duncanrod 05:35 PM 3/15/13

    Who doesn't love quantum entanglement? Cool stuff. Very exciting.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  4. 4. duncanrod 05:35 PM 3/15/13

    Who doesn't love quantum entanglement? Cool stuff. Very exciting.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  5. 5. jtdwyer in reply to Dr. Scott 05:49 PM 3/15/13

    But "entangled photos" are much more to the point, since most encrypted digital transmissions will likely be pay-per-view videos...

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  6. 6. johnb123 06:03 PM 3/15/13

    Makes you wonder if the reason we're not hearing anything from other civilizations, we're not listening with the right technology.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  7. 7. leif.sterner 01:16 AM 3/16/13

    Hmm, I get it this way.
    Imagine a new weather satellite in geostationary orbit.
    Encrypted images ("photos" made of entangled photons ;)
    are transmitted in two radio beams that can actually be rather wide and potentially detected over almost halve the earth.

    But if someone else than the intended recipient would tap this information the entanglement would get screwed up.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  8. 8. Handin23 05:02 AM 3/16/13

    I thought quantum entanglement couldn't be used to transmit information faster than the speed of light. Eg. Einstein and Rosens' EPR paradox.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  9. 9. thevillagegeek 12:58 PM 3/16/13

    Aren't "entangled photos" what tends to get politicians and troubled Hollywood actors in trouble?

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  10. 10. Dr. Strangelove in reply to Handin23 01:21 AM 3/19/13

    I believe you can transmit information instantaneously (definitely faster than light) thru quantum teleportation. But it doesn't make much sense if you're just communicating over short distances on earth. Light speed is more than enough.

    For light-year distances, the problem is how to decode the quantum signals to transform them into meaningful information. You need a common code (like a Morse code) that transmitter and receiver both understand. They have to communicate to share this common code. But that's exactly the problem. They can't communicate because they're light-years apart!!

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  11. 11. Dr. Strangelove in reply to Handin23 01:26 AM 3/19/13

    Quantum teleportation experiments have already invalidated the EPR paradox. Instantaneous transmission of signals is possible.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  12. 12. 13inches 03:58 PM 3/19/13

    The entangled photons are too scattered to be useful on earth - so the photons are generated by a device in satellites in space to avoid scattering - and then the photons are beamed back to earth - how do the photons NOT get scattered when they are beamed back to earth ?

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  13. 13. gavin3050 04:54 PM 3/19/13

    To Dr Strangelove & others:
    On Earth I (& nearby) if entanglement is better than encrypted photons to have UNBREAKABLE encryption, entanglement is faster, perhaps instantaneous, communication: perhaps even "entangled" (double or triple) real people seen as interactive "actors" over infinite distances over Universe(s).

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  14. 14. Gaspar_Ramsey in reply to jtdwyer 09:51 PM 3/20/13

    Are you suggesting entangled porn?

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  15. 15. jack.123 02:35 AM 3/22/13

    johnb123-I have for some time been saying in comments that we should be looking at starlight for signals.We would of course be looking for coherent wave function drops using a two slit experiment.I have described just such a device in detail in many comments.The source star wouldn't be the star where another civilization lives,but instead a star that is the same distance away from them as it is to us.Because the star would be the same source there is likelihood that entangled photons would be arriving in both our solar systems.Most likely the receiver/transmitter would have to be in orbit otherwise there would be to much background noise to receive a clear signal.What I am talking about is a real time conversation.Once a signal is found,we would need to decipher it.Chances are that it would have a leader code in something like binary code.this first part of the message would probably be a string of prime numbers,then we would see the language of math to to follow.Once we get that far then each number would be give a name and so forth with the information between is becoming more and more complicated till we could establish a dialog.It at some point that we could see video stream from one another.They would have to be at the same level of development as us,or be ahead of us to have the resources to accomplish the science needed.Who knows what we can learn.If they centuries ahead they might be generous and help us solve many problems.If they are way ahead of us they might be cautious about an exchange of information.What ever happens it will be a very exciting time for both our species.We must be careful as well that we don't get bad information.The deciphering and data much be keep separated from any outside link where our computer systems would be compromised.As I am sure they will be taking the same steps.Who knows there may a whole network of star systems communicating across the galaxy.Imagine all the science,literature,and music of many species that we may encounter.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  16. 16. sunspot in reply to jack.123 05:41 PM 3/22/13

    "Imagine all the science,literature,and music of many species that we may encounter."

    It would be naive to assume that all races would want us to know about them, and to know about us. In fact, it's easy to imagine a race of psycho-zenophobes (religious zealots?) who want to rid the galaxy of all new-born races like earth for fear of being infected with dangerous ideas. The easiest way to eliminate us is to share dangerous technology, like giving a baby a gun. BANG! Earth is gone.

    Even if a race were altruistically motivated to send us new technology, we must determine protocols to safely use it. We can't just ignore it, but who will decide how to use it safely? That's the horns of the dilemma. Looks like we better solve it quick.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  17. 17. JohnCervini 12:06 AM 3/23/13

    I can envision a system where digital transmission of information could be sent across light years in an instant. First the sender and receiver would need to share trillions upon trillions of entangled photons. The sender and receiver pre-designate 1/3 of their photons for sending, 1/3 for receiving, the last 1/3 for data encoding. To initiate a message, the sender would associate a 'data' photon with one of his 'send' photons. Remember the 'send' photon is already entangled with the receivers 'receive' photon. Because of entanglement, the 'receive' photon would assume the quantum state of the send photon (this is from the article). The receiver photon will have a up or down spin; up would indicate '1' and down would indicate '0'. The 1's and 0's could then be used to send standard data streams.

    Of course the structure or 'language' of the data streams would need to be predetermined. And the initial distribution of the entangled photons would need to be done when the sender and receiver are relatively close.

    Communicating to Mars by conventional radio takes Approximately 3 minutes, 13 seconds, so quantum communication wouldn't be absolutely necessary. Quantum communication would only be needed when the distances are extreme, meaning the sender and receiver would probably never meet again, but could still communicate.

    What is interesting, is you would expect if a space traveler left earth and somehow attained 75% light speed, Einstein says he would age relatively slower, and would out last several generations of earthlings back home. But if the traveler and the earth used quantum communications they would be communicating in real time. So how then could they be aging at different rates?

    It seems to conflict at this point, meaning perhaps quantum communication is not possible at all.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  18. 18. GRSGodwin 08:19 PM 3/24/13

    So I have a question: If two entangled particles or sub particles are separated and one is sent to Mars, the other stays on Earth. Could use of changes or vibration in one make an immediate same change on the other over that distance?? If so surely a way of instant communication would be apparent?

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  19. 19. verdai 03:36 PM 4/9/13

    I just want the original original.

    what can these copies be thinking? who cares? What can the originals be thinking?

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  20. 20. Quinn the Eskimo in reply to leif.sterner 01:00 AM 4/15/13

    "halve the earth." Ooooooo, I hope not.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  21. 21. Quinn the Eskimo 01:01 AM 4/15/13

    I got quantum entangled once. Woke up in the middle of a 4 year hitch in the Air Force. Time Warped. Won't do that again.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Leave this field empty

Add a Comment

You must sign in or register as a ScientificAmerican.com member to submit a comment.
Click one of the buttons below to register using an existing Social Account.

More from Scientific American

See what we're tweeting about

Scientific American Editors

More »

Free Newsletters


Get the best from Scientific American in your inbox

Solve Innovation Challenges

Powered By: Innocentive

  SA Digital
  SA Digital

Science Jobs of the Week

Email this Article

Quantum Teleportation in Space Explored as Message Encryption Solution

X
Scientific American Magazine

Subscribe Today

Save 66% off the cover price and get a free gift!

Learn More >>

X

Please Log In

Forgot: Password

X

Account Linking

Welcome, . Do you have an existing ScientificAmerican.com account?

Yes, please link my existing account with for quick, secure access.



Forgot Password?

No, I would like to create a new account with my profile information.

Create Account
X

Report Abuse

Are you sure?

X

Institutional Access

It has been identified that the institution you are trying to access this article from has institutional site license access to Scientific American on nature.com. To access this article in its entirety through site license access, click below.

Site license access
X

Error

X

Share this Article

X