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As far as my crude understanding of physics goes, to teleport something from a place to another, the matter would be needed to be converted into radiation. Since it is fiction, we assume that the requisite amount of energy is available and can be target on the object so as to break all the atomic bonds in a controlled manner. Those atoms could then be sent across in form of radiation.

My first concern is that how scientifically correct the above theory would be?

The second concern is that if there is any existing theory which can be used to justify the reassembly of atoms on the other side to create the object back?

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    $\begingroup$ Why is the energy required equal to the energy released from converting the mass? $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Nov 20, 2017 at 8:27
  • $\begingroup$ Adding to what @JDługosz noted, typically you'd be more likely to look in some manner at the binding energy or possibly the heat capacity than the mass-energy equivalence. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Nov 20, 2017 at 12:43

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You don't need to send "those" atoms anywhere. You need "some" atoms on the spot. The main problem with teleportation as "rebuilding" is the schematics to do so. With inanimate objects it's simply, you just "print 3d" the thing. (Hmm is 3d printing teleportation?).

With live objects matter complicate as you also need to transfer memory, thoughts and all the biochemistry and bioelectrical things that are happening DURING the teleportation.

Stanisław Lem wrote in, one of his "The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy", that teleportation or "rebuilding" of being, require just coal, sugar and iron from nails. He also omitted the problem of energy.

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    $\begingroup$ You beat me to this answer! Assuming that memory is stored on the fabric of time (by whatever theory), there's no problem to this question. Well, if that is not the case... I guess we should stick to tele-printing inanimate objects :P $\endgroup$
    – Vylix
    Nov 20, 2017 at 8:54
  • $\begingroup$ While I can't exclude that there's also something to the effect in the Pirx stories, I strongly suspect that you actually mean "The Star Diaries", where in one story a system to "store" people as information is presented to Ijon Tichy, and when he accidentally drops the powder remains of the stored human, the owner of the device just replaces it with the mentioned stuff. $\endgroup$
    – celtschk
    Nov 20, 2017 at 20:26
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    $\begingroup$ memory is stored in the pattern of the cells in the brain, if you can print a body copy down to the atomic level you can print a mind, the trick is GETTING the pattern, it is inherently destructive to the brain and body in question. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 20, 2017 at 23:42
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    $\begingroup$ @John Destructive scanning may not be a problem, and may even prevent teleportation clones: you can destructively read the info, but not copy it - only send it to the receptor that uses it to rebuild the subject. The effects of destructive scanning on living matter, and what happens to the formerly living matter left behind, may be... interesting, though. $\endgroup$
    – Eth
    Nov 21, 2017 at 16:45
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    $\begingroup$ you should probably still save it at least for a while, if the signal gets cut you don't want to kill the person. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 21, 2017 at 21:07
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Actually you needn't send over the whole mass converted to energy; the relevant information should be sent instead.

A reasonable account of problems can be found here.

In general there are a lot of theoretical problems with teleportation, including possibility of duplicates, precision errors due to several cause (including Heisenberg Indetermination Principle).

Mass conversion to radiant energy poses a lot of engineering problems due to sheer amount of energy involved (if memory assists Hiroshima bomb converted to energy less than a milligram of matter), but not only: recoil from sending such a quantity of photons in a single direction would deorbit a fairly-sized asteroid.

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    $\begingroup$ Inexactness is not a problem. Consider someone getting an MRI scan, having his atom’s spin’s messed with — with zero effect on the patient (even in the brain). $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Nov 20, 2017 at 23:12
  • $\begingroup$ @JDługosz: I was thinking more about neuron membrane scanning; the specific configuration has huge effects on neuron firing and thus overall system functionality. Spin might be unimportant, but receptor placement is "small enough" to be difficult to scan and transmit without noticeable errors. $\endgroup$
    – ZioByte
    Nov 20, 2017 at 23:22
  • $\begingroup$ yes, they would need to understand the actual tolerances involved, for various tissues and structures. Known tolerances are different from demanding ideal quantum state cloning. A line I recall from Greg Egan about saving data size: «If you wanted to simulate an entire flesher body — cell by cell, redundant viscera and all — that was a harmless enough eccentricity, but lugging the microscopic details of your “very own” small intestine ninety-seven light years was just being precious.» $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Nov 20, 2017 at 23:28
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All the dematerializing approaches to teleportation have big problems with precision. The focusing surfaces required are simply too big. While prohibitive it is at least possible with something like Larry Niven's teleportation booths where you have equipment at both ends. Forget Star Trek!

However, there is another approach. While there's nothing to say it's possible, neither can it be ruled out:

Step #1: You create an empty pocket universe.

Step #2: You place this universe parallel to your teleportation target.

Step #3: You move your target from this universe to your temporary universe.

Step #4: You move the universe to your destination.

Step #5: You move your target from the pocket universe back to ours.

Step #6: You dispose of the now-empty pocket universe.

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    $\begingroup$ This is actually the only possibility that doesn't immediately run into insurmountable problems. We have no idea how to do any of this, but we cannot be sure it is impossible. That makes it good for fiction. $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Nov 21, 2017 at 8:46
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    $\begingroup$ @Tom I wouldn't say it's the only possibility that doesn't run into insurmountable problems. There's the related approach of somehow slicing out the source and destination bits of the universe and swapping them. Again, no idea of how but we can't rule it out. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    Nov 21, 2017 at 18:06
  • $\begingroup$ A third alternative: It might be that in hyperspace, all places of the universe are actually nearby (because our three-dimensional space is actually folded in a very complicated way in some infinite-dimensional hyperspace) and some as of yet unknown technology can be used to make arbitrary regions of space overlap so that temporarily they effectively occupy the same space; that is, during a short time, the target would be at both places at the same time, and when the two space regions separate again, he remains in the other than he was before. $\endgroup$
    – celtschk
    Nov 21, 2017 at 18:44
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    $\begingroup$ @celtschk I find that basically impossible--what happens when you have a bunch of people trying to twist space in different ways to make their teleports work? Note that my approach does assume the spots are nearby in some hyperspace through which the pocket universe must be moved. $\endgroup$
    – Loren Pechtel
    Nov 21, 2017 at 22:16
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In my opinion, the most effective way is by using a Stargate method.

I believe in order to achieve this both gates would need to be able to stabilize and generate a higgs field element. Seeing that particles that pass through the higgs field become matter, you would need to discover a way to encrypt the higgs field generators to each-other and pass yourself though.

I would recommend the teleportation be faster than three-thousandths of one thousandth of one second because you may decay with the higgs particle if you dont teleport fast enough.

To generate enough energy per gate I would assume you would need an extremely powerful system of particle accelerators/i.e CERN {generate a stable enough field}. Although, accelerators are accelerators.

In this instance the need to accelerate particles would only be part of a primary stage, which would then lead to a field generating stage into the gate/terminal. using this method might send you to another dimension (probably 4 or 5) if you don't have a destination gate. Meaning one way trip... unless you build one. [good luck]

Research higgs field and higgs boson and CERN if you know physics and technology you can put the rest together.

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to WorldBuilding Michael! If you have a moment please take the tour and visit the help center to learn more about the site. Have fun! $\endgroup$
    – Secespitus
    Nov 27, 2017 at 9:46
  • $\begingroup$ Proper capitalization and punctuation marks are greatly appreciated on this site. You ought to look over other posts to get a feel for the norms here. Note that you can always continue to edit your answe, even long after its original posting. And welcome to Worldbuilding! $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Nov 27, 2017 at 9:46
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#001 Knowledge is never lost

If you burn piece of paper and collect all of the output (atoms, radiation etc...) and calculate their angles, potency etc. It would be possible to reconstruct perfect model of said paper on computer. It might not be possible to reverse this back to paper in reality, but this is fiction. Your world and your rules. But knowing that matter can be converted to energy it would be theoretically possible to transport matter in a form of radiation.

#002 Exo- and Endothermic Reactions

Chemical reactions tend to work in two ways. Every chemical reaction is possible to reverse in theory. As an example some exothermic reaction takes 1 unit of energy and releases 2 units which are used in further reactions. To reverse this in endothermic reaction you would need 2 units of energy, but this reaction consumes all the input energy because of which it doesn't release energy for further reactions. But if you had sufficient energy and control you could in theory reconstruct for example carbon from carbon dioxide. This is not limited to chemistry but also physics. Much like energy can be converted into matter and reversed. E = mc^2. All mathematical equations have two sides both of which can be the other.

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the matter would be needed to be converted into radiation and the energy required to do so would be determined by E = mc². Since it is fiction, we assume that the requisite amount of energy is available and can be target on the object so as to break all the atomic bonds in a controlled manner. Those atoms could then be sent across in form of radiation.

Your understanding is pretty close to the star-trek explanation.

That said, teleportation is improbable for many reasons and an understanding of physics only enforces the improbability. In other words, knowing physics helps you understand why it probably isn't possible more than it tells you how it's possible.

My first concern is that how scientifically correct the above theory would be?

It's unclear if there's a way to gather all a person's quantum information (a huge amount of data - much more than all the computers in the world together). It's not clear that a person could be deconstructed or turned to energy or reconstructed.

And there are problems. If a person is transferred into energy, that's enough energy to vaporize Connecticut. - careful where you point that thing!!

And, pointed out above, is the reassembled person really the same person as the one who went in or just a copy? Do people die every time they are transported and replaced by identical quantum copies with the exact same memories, beliefs and assumptions - so they feel like the same person, they even remember transporting, but are they really the same person? Moral dilemma. McCoy and Barkley were right to be afraid of that thing.

The second concern is that if there is any existing theory which can be used to justify the reassembly of atoms on the other side to create the object back?

There's no existing theory that comes close to making transportation possible. The gathering of information, the disassembling and reassembling - all huge (really really huge) speculative jumps. I don't want to say never, but an existing theory that might work - hell no. It's pure fiction at this point.

Some ways to make it perhaps more like real science, but, perhaps less fun is

1) - disable the higgs field. A person's mass can then travel at the speed of light with the Higgs field off, then, reconstruct the higgs field and provided they fly through a well organized tunnel of sorts and not fly in every which direction, maybe you could transport someone that way.

2) - convert them to dark matter, provided dark matter has its own standard model, you could convert and retain the person's energy, cohesion and information while they transform into a ghost-like state, can fly through the ship to somewhere not far away, within a few light seconds, and then be converted back.

3) - open some kind of quantum tunnel or wormhole and they can just jump or step through - yes, it's not as cool, but it avoids the problem if disassembling a person and reassembling them, which is a pretty enormous problem, not to mention, it's possible that it's actually killing the original.

My personal feeling is making transportation less "cool" is the way to go. I like the 3 ideas above though none of them are real science either, but if you want star-trek transportation, enough people have gone with that, the it's no big. It's not science though.

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A hard science solution is seen in Wil McCarthy’s Queendom of Sol book series. It does require a device at the receiving end.

His “fax” is described as a plate covered with machines that branch down to the nanoscale, ending in an array of molecular assemblers/disassemblers.

In one of the later books he addresses the fact that it’s not that easy and it needs to create a desired quantum state via intermediate solutions.

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Plausible if not probable.

Assume that the quantum foam has lots of nano-scale worm-holes. This is not in conflict with known theories.

Assume that with the near-infinite number of nano-worm holes that you can find a pair that are near both the source and target teleportation locations.

Link the pair wormhole pair via quantum entanglement or some other hand-wave so that the pair form a Einstein-Rosen bridge between the teleport locations. No known method to perform this.

Hand-wave #2 -- Feed in positive energy to expand the wormhole and negative energy to stabilize it (zero net energy). Maybe borrow the energy from the zero-point background.

Step through and allow the wormholes to revert to their natural state.

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