The term teleportation is no longer confined to the world of science fiction.

In 1 998, Akira Furusawa (then a researcher at Nikon Corporation, now Associate Profe ssor at the University of Tokyo) was a core member of the California Institute o f Technology research group that first successfully achieved quantum teleportati on. What was this quantum teleportation, which was realized using twin photons? Twin stars On the western edge of the Milky Way, two stars can be seen, as tiny as the spor es of the field horsetail. There sits the small shrine of the water nymphs, wher e the twin stars Chunse and Pose dwell. Thus begins The Twin Stars, the heart-warming Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tale so belov ed by the Japanese. All night long the twin stars play along to the Song of the S tars on their silver flutes, as they have been commanded to do by the king. When an evil comet arrives, the twins join hands and resolve matters with their pure and kind hearts. The Twin Stars by the shadow artist Seiji Fujishiro. A shadow picture based on K enji Miyazawa's most famous story, Night on the Galactic Railroad. The Twin Stars appear in other works as well. Seiji Fujishiro/HoriPro 2005 Kenji wrote The Twin Stars, his first fairy tale, at the age of 22, and read it to his family. The Twin Stars appeared in his later works Night on the Galactic Rai lroad and Letter 4. In Letter 4 , there is a scene in which Chunse scoops up snow and makes Pose eat it, reminiscent of when Kenji scooped up snow for his dying littl e sister Toshi to eat. Kenji likened himself and his beloved sister to the Twin Stars He may have wanted to forge a special link between the wondrous fate of the twins and that of himself and his sister. Likewise, there are special inseparable bonds in the quantum world. One such exa mple is the mutual influence that two particles of light born at the same time ( twin photons) have on each other's destiny. It is impossible to explain these tw in photons other than in terms of their mutual dependence. On the strength of th is special relationship, twin photons make quantum teleportation possible. Back to top The genius' mistake the EPR paradox The unbreakable relationship between twin photons is known as entanglement. When t wo photons are in a state of entanglement, the state of one photon is determined by the state of the other. In this amazing relationship the two particles influ ence each other's destiny even if they are tens of thousands of kilometers apart. Entanglement is the key to realizing quantum teleportation. In order to understand entanglement, let us consider the example of two entangle d electrons born simultaneously. The states of two electrons can either be A (spin-up) or B (spin-down). Whicheve r one is A, the other will be B. However, until at least one of them is observed , the state of each electron is unknown. Now suppose that one of the electrons is observed and is found to be in state A. Thus, the other electron's state is determined as B at the very instant the obs ervation takes place, no matter how far apart the two electrons are. The amazing behavior of entangled electrons can be explained using Uncertainty Pr

inciple*1 part of the discipline of quantum mechanics. However, 20th-century genius Albert Einstein was skeptical about quantum mechanics, as it seems to imply tha t information is transmitted to the other (far distant) electron of the pair ins tantaneously that is, faster than the speed of light. He believed that it would be determined at the instant of their creation which electron would be A and which would be B. This proposition was named the EPR Paradox, taking its initials fro m the names Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen. This proposition stood in forthright opposition to quantum mechanics. *1A fundamental view of quantum mechanics is that until a property of a phot on or electron is actually observed, only the probability of the particle having that property can be known. Thus, it is impossible to simultaneously know the p osition and momentum of an electron within an atom. For example, if its location is observed, it is impossible to know its exact speed only the range of possible locations within which its speed lies. Are the states fixed to A or B in advance as Einstein contended? For a time, no suggestions were made about how it could actually be verified whose verdict was correct Einstein's or that of quantum mechanics. In the 1960s, John Bell, a renown ed Irish physicist, put forward a proposal for a groundbreaking method to invest igate this question. It was a difficult experiment. However, a successful experiment using photons wa s finally performed in the 1980s, and the results showed a victory for quantum m echanics! The amazing relationship of entanglement really does occur and Einstei n was mistaken. The paradox was solved. With this realization, physicists realiz ed that quantum teleportation might be possible, and if so would open the door t o tremendous advances in computer science. The EPR Paradox explained Back to top Quantum teleportation of light Let us see then how current quantum teleportation is realized. Quantum teleportation involves the transmission of information to a remote locat ion using quanta such as photons. Although information is transmitted, it is ver y different from fax or e-mail in that the original is not retained. Suppose tha t in the future humans are able to perform teleportation using this method. A pe rson's body will be transformed into scattered particles for teleportation, and the observed state describing the body will be transmitted to a remote location. The body will then be reconstituted and rematerialize using matter at the desti nation location. At this juncture, nothing will remain at the place of origin. I t should be noted that in this sense there are a number of differences from magi c cartoon gateways or teleportation in science fiction, whereby people are insta ntly transferred bodily to a different location. In 1993, a method for realizing quantum teleportation was proposed, and in 1998 human beings finally succeeded in realizing it. Of the four groups that issued r eports on quantum teleportation, the research group led by Furusawa attracted pa rticular attention. Prior experiments had only succeeded in partially transmitti ng information; however, the paper published by Furusawa's group announced a fid elity*2 figure of 0.58 (if quantum teleportation does not take place, this figur e does not exceed 0.5). Thus, the Furusawa group was the first group to successf ully complete quantum teleportation. *2Fidelity: A figure expressing the degree to which the information that was input was reproduced. This result was greeted with astonishment, and the magazine Science listed the s

uccessful completion of quantum teleportation as one of the Top Ten breakthrough s of 1998. Scheme for transmitting information to a remote location using quantum teleporta tion. By convention, the transmitter is called Alice, the receiver Bob, and a th ird party (if any) Claire, corresponding to the initials A, B, and C. Back to top Toward a quantum teleportation network The advantage that the Furusawa group enjoys is that their twin photons are of h igh quality. When a strong light is beamed at a crystal, one photon yields entan gled twin photons with half the energy of the photon. The twin photons created b y the Furusawa group have extremely low interference. This concentration of photons is known as squeezed light. A section of the light wave is compressed with a high degree of precision, as if it had been squeezed (see left-hand diagram). If one section is compressed, the precision of other se ctions will deteriorate, in accordance with the principles of quantum mechanics. However, using only the compressed section allows the creation of entangled pho tons with little interference. Due to the cumulative effect of this refinement, a fidelity of over 0.7 was achieved. The characteristics of squeezed light compared to ordinary light (a) Ordinary light (b) Squeezed light The position of each half wavelength can be determined with a high degree of pre cision. High-quality entangled photons can be obtained using this squeezed secti on. Research into quantum teleportation has been progressing rapidly over the past f ew years. In 2004, quantum teleportation entered a new phase with the use of tri plet photons transmitted to Alice, Bob and now Claire, enabling three-way quantu m teleportation. In historical terms as well, this is a landmark development, says Associate Prof essor Furusawa. The potential for three-way teleportation has a completely diffe rent significance to the potential for two way teleportation. Once three-way tel eportation is possible, it is easy to expand it to four- and five-way teleportat ion. In other words, quantum teleportation to anywhere becomes possible. It is a kin to the evolution from the two-way telephone to the multi-user Internet. The Furusawa laboratory