Quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping with long baseline in outer space

Abstract

Quantum information (QI) experiments applying quantum optics in outer space with a very long baseline may have advantages over the current Earth-bound experiments or the Earth-to-satellite experiments, because they can minimize the loss in light transmission and maximize the gain in time resolution. This future class of experiments, among them quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping, can shed light on many fundamental theoretical issues in gravitational quantum physics and relativistic QI. Regarding relativity theory, these experiments in an outer-space setting can involve observations at spacelike and timelike separations and explicate intriguing phenomena from different choices of time-slicing. Regarding QI, they may be able to ensure the causal independence of the expectation values in the Bell test. These issues are addressed in this paper with analysis and explanations.