Foundations1993

Teleporting an Unknown Quantum State via Dual Classical and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Channels

Authors: Charles H. Bennett, Gilles Brassard, Claude Crépeau, Richard Jozsa, Asher Peres, William K. Wootters

Published: Physical Review Letters 70, 1895 (1993)

In one sentence

Shows an unknown quantum state can be transferred between distant parties using shared entanglement plus two classical bits.

Key points

  • Consumes one entangled pair and two bits of classical communication per qubit teleported.
  • The original state is destroyed in the process, respecting the no-cloning theorem.
  • Requires a classical channel, so it transmits no information faster than light.

In plain language

Despite the name, nothing physical travels. Two parties share an entangled pair in advance. To send a qubit, the sender measures it jointly with their half of the pair — which scrambles both — and phones the receiver two ordinary bits describing the outcome. Those bits tell the receiver which of four simple corrections to apply, and their half of the pair becomes the original state. The sender's copy is destroyed along the way, so no cloning occurs, and since the classical call is required, no information outruns light. It is the standard way to move quantum information between chips and across a future quantum network.

Why it matters

Teleportation is a workhorse primitive, not a curiosity: it underpins quantum repeaters and networking, measurement-based quantum computing, and the gate-teleportation tricks used in fault-tolerant architectures.

Related glossary terms