Whenever one talks about physics, the coolest thing to discuss is all the fringe science. This is the stuff that science fiction novels are made of whether it be alien life, space travel, multiple dimensions, or Frankenstein’s monster. There are two particular recurring tropes in science fiction that I would like to discuss that actually have a decent amount to do with particle physics: teleportation & time travel. So, as far as I know and as far as I’ve been told, we haven’t officially sent anyone or teleported anyone to any time or anywhere. That being said, I’d also like to discuss whether or not these are possible. I will be splitting these topics into two posts because I feel like it’s a bit too much to wrap one’s head around both of these concepts at the same time. Since I sort of already began talking about one of these in my last post, I’ll just continue with that one in this post.

Teleportation

Here’s the kicker with teleportation: We haven’t been able to teleport a person but we’re pretty close albeit with a large caveat. It all has to do with a concept called quantum entanglement. I talked about this concept in my last post when I was explaining how quantum computing would work based upon quantum entangled particles. The gist is that two or more particles can share the same everything barring position such that their states cannot be defined irrespective of each other. They are the monkey-see, monkey-do of the quantum world. Whatever happens to one must happen to the other(s) and vice versa. Though this has grand implications for the transfer of data in a computer, it also has some great implications for teleportation. Quantum teleportation is the process by which quantum information, the exact state of a particle, can be transmitted instantly from one location to another. The current most-likely method for human teleportation relies on this method. However the catch is that the original particle is immediately destroyed through the scanning process. Picture this: There are two phone-booth kind of looking machines each in a different location. You step into one of these booths, select your destination and then almost instantly you’re zapped to there. The key word being “zapped”. Your entire being is reconstructed in another location. The issue is that doing this with anything larger than a photon is incredibly complicated as one of the requirements for the quantum teleportation is obeying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.This just states that one cannot know both the momentum and position of a particle at any one time.

Piecing together the almost relatively infinite number of particles that make us up is ridiculously hard because of this. CalTech scientists were able to teleport a photon by using three photons where two photons were entangled, one photon of the two entangled was given information about the one not entangled photon which transferred it to that photon. I can’t even begin to explain the exact mechanics behind it, but that’s what happened pretty simply. To sum it up, there is hope, but it will be along time before we see anything practical. Also, while you’re already thinking about all of this wildly conceptual stuff, it may be a good time to consider what our existences are. One theory for how we might arrive at teleportation was that rather than using quantum methods, we would reassemble our atoms in one place after scanning and destroying our originals. Since we would effectively be killing ourselves and then remaking ourselves and continuing to live, it begs the question about whether our life actually ended at that moment. My personal favorite blog/website on the internet is called WaitButWhy.com and they cover this exactly: What Makes You You?  I would highly recommend reading this post in your spare time if you’re interested. The other material on the site is really wonderful too especially the Why Procrastinators Procrastinate and The Fermi Paradox articles. I look forward to talking about time travel next week! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns in the comments below and I’ll be sure to address them!