Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

from one point to another without traversing the physical

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

between them. It is a common subject in science fiction and fantasy literature. Teleportation is often paired with

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, being that the traveling between the two points takes an unknown period of time, sometimes being immediate. An apport is a similar phenomenon featured in

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

and

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

. There is no known physical mechanism that would allow for teleportation. Some

scientific papers Scientific literature encompasses a vast body of academic papers that spans various disciplines within the Natural science, natural and social sciences. It primarily consists of academic papers that present original empirical research an ...

and media articles describe "

quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...

", a scheme for

quantum information Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both t ...

transfer, which does not allow for

faster-than-light Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...

communication.

Etymology

The use of the term ''teleport'' to describe the

hypothetical A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess or tho ...

movement Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

of material objects between one place and another without physically traversing the distance between them has been documented as early as 1878. American writer

Charles Fort Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold w ...

is credited with having coined the word ''teleportation'' in 1931 to describe the strange disappearances and appearances of anomalies, which he suggested may be connected. As in the earlier usage, he joined the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

prefix '' tele-'' (meaning "remote") to the root of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

verb '' portare'' (meaning "to carry"). Fort's first formal use of the word occurred in the second chapter of his 1931 book ''

Lo! ''Lo!'' is the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort (first edition 1931). In it he details a wide range of unusual phenomena. In the final chapter of the book he proposes a new cosmology that the earth is stationary in spac ...

'':

Cultural references

Fiction

Teleportation is a common subject in science fiction literature, film, video games, and television. The use of matter transmitters in science fiction originated at least as early as the 19th century. An early example of scientific teleportation (as opposed to magical or spiritual teleportation) is found in the 1897 novel ''

To Venus in Five Seconds ''To Venus in Five Seconds: An Account of the Strange Disappearance of Thomas Plummer, Pillmaker'' is a science fiction satire written by Fred T. Jane, the author of the original ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' and the founder of what would in time b ...

'' by Fred T. Jane. Jane's protagonist is transported from a strange-machinery-containing

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...

on Earth to planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

– hence the title. The earliest recorded story of a "matter transmitter" was

Edward Page Mitchell Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927) was an American editorial and short story writer for ''The Sun'', a daily newspaper in New York City. He became that newspaper's editor in 1897, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana. Mitchell was recognized as a m ...

's "The Man Without a Body" in 1877. The

Catholic Saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

Padre Pio Pio of Pietrelcina (born Francesco Forgione; 25 May 1887 – 23 September 1968), widely known as , , was an Italian Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, celebrated on 23 Septembe ...

has documented miracles of

Bilocation Bilocation, or sometimes multilocation, is an alleged psychic or miraculous ability wherein an individual or object is located (or appears to be located) in two distinct places at the same time. Reports of bilocational phenomena have been made i ...

including a vision received by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

. This phenomenon has also been reported throughout church history as in the New Testament with

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

where he was taken to a mountaintop and tempted by

Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

Live performance

Teleportation illusions have featured in live performances throughout history, often under the fiction of miracles, psychic phenomenon, or magic. The

cups and balls The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the ...

trick has been performed since 3 BC and can involve balls vanishing, reappearing, teleporting and transposing (objects in two locations interchanging places). A common trick of

close-up magic Close-up magic (also known as table magic or micromagic) is magic performed in an intimate setting usually no more than 3 meters (10 feet) from one's audience and is usually performed while sitting at a table. Sleight-of-hand, also known as pr ...

is the apparent teleportation of a small object, such as a marked playing card, which can involve sleight-of-hand, misdirection, and pickpocketing. Magic shows were popular entertainments at

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

s in the 18th century and moved into permanent theatres in the mid-19th century. Theatres provided greater control of the environment and viewing angles for more elaborate

illusions An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may ...

, and teleportation tricks grew in scale and ambition. To increase audience excitement, the teleportation illusion could be conducted under the theme of a

predicament escape Escapology is the practice of escaping from physical restraint, restraints or other traps. Escapologists (also classified as escape artists) escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, Cage (enclosure), cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, bu ...

. Magic shows achieved widespread success during the Golden Age of Magic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Quantum teleportation

Quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...

is distinct from regular teleportation, as it does not transfer matter from one place to another, but rather transmits the

necessary to prepare a (

microscopic The microscopic scale () is the scale of objects and events smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye, requiring a lens or microscope to see them clearly. In physics, the microscopic scale is sometimes regarded as the scale betwe ...

) target system in the same

quantum state In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a prediction for the system ...

as the source system. The scheme was named quantum "teleportation", because certain properties of the source system are recreated in the target system without any apparent

carrier propagating between the two. In 1993, Bennett ''et al'' proposed that a quantum state of a particle could be transferred to another distant particle, without moving the two particles at all. This is called quantum state teleportation. There are many following theoretical and experimental papers published. In 2008, M. Hotta proposed that it may be possible to teleport energy by exploiting quantum energy fluctuations of an entangled

vacuum state In quantum field theory, the quantum vacuum state (also called the quantum vacuum or vacuum state) is the quantum state with the lowest possible energy. Generally, it contains no physical particles. However, the quantum vacuum is not a simple ...

of a quantum field. In 2023, zero temperature quantum energy teleportation was observed and recorded by Kazuki Ikeda for the first-time across microscopic distances using IBM superconducting computers that are used for

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

. In 2014, researcher Ronald Hanson and colleagues from the Technical University Delft in the Netherlands, demonstrated the teleportation of information between two entangled quantumbits three metres apart. A generalization of quantum mechanics suggests particles could be teleported from one place to another. This is called particle teleportation. With this concept,

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...

can be viewed as the teleportation of some electrons in the superconductor and

superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...

as the teleportation of some of the atoms in the cellular tube. Further analysis shows that the teleportation time increases with the square root of mass and longer teleportation times require sustained quantum coherence. While particle teleportation may be feasible for an electron, a proton may not be feasible.

Philosophy

Philosopher

Derek Parfit Derek Antony Parfit (; 11 December 1942 – 2 January 2017) was a British philosopher who specialised in personal identity, rationality, and ethics. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential moral philosophers of the lat ...

used teleportation in his

teletransportation paradox The teletransportation paradox or teletransport paradox (also known in alternative forms as the duplicates paradox) is a thought experiment on the philosophy of identity that challenges common intuitions on the nature of self and consciousness, ...

.Peg Tittle,''What If...: Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy'', Routledge, 2016, , pp. 88–89

Etymology

Cultural references

Fiction

Live performance

Quantum teleportation

Philosophy

See also

References

Further reading