The Chinese have proposed teleportation of a bacteria

[Nicky665]

Is there any physical reason why the teleportation of a microorganism would be absolute fantasy ?

The wikipedia page for quantum teleportation says nothing bigger than an atom has been teleported.

"Here we propose a straightforward method to create quantum superposition states of a living microorganism by putting a small cryopreserved bacterium on top of an electromechanical oscillator"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927316302171

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-physicists-scheme-teleport-memory.html

 

[DrChinese]

Quantum teleportation does not involve moving matter from "here" to "there". Typically it involves shifting of a quantum state in some manner, and that could include it traversing a distance. So I would say the title of this thread is highly misleading. The article does not claim the bacteria itself is being teleported anywhere.

So yes, teleporting a microorganism would be absolute fantasy (given the laws of physics).

 

[DrClaude]

First, they have not done it, but proposed it could be done. But there is nothing special in their proposal, apart from "it has been done with a, so we could do it with b". (Substitute "15-μm-diameter aluminum membrane" for a and "microorganism" for b.)

Second, what they want to teleport is the center-of-mass oscillation. They propose also entangling it first with an internal state of a microorganism. More specifically, they mention the electron spin in a molecule of glycine. How can you consider that glycine is a "microorganism"? Beats me.

Third, how could you do it with a bacteria? For the scheme to work, the two objects have to be identical. How could you get two identical bacteria?

 

[Nicky665]

Well of course I know its not about moving matter from here to there. What does identical mean ? Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything? Doesnt no cloning theorem forbid that? Wouldnt it suffice to get a simillar bacteria with the help of cloning/genetic manipulation?

 

[StevieTNZ]

Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything??

That isn't correct. I suggest reading 'Sneaking a Look at God's Cards' by GianCarlo Ghirardi to get a better understanding of QM (and in particular the chapter on teleportation).

 

[DrClaude]

What does identical mean ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_particles

Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything?

They are identical, but are not in the sames state initially. The idea is to transfer the state of system A to that of system B.

Doesnt no cloning theorem forbid that?

No, because the state is not copied, but transferred. After teleportation, the state of system A has changed.

Wouldnt it suffice to get a simillar bacteria with the help of cloning/genetic manipulation?

It wouldn't work with similar bacteria because their quantum states would belong to different Hilbert spaces. It would make no sense to talk about quantum teleportation of a state in that case.