Twelve years before the quantum no-cloning theorem
Abstract
The celebrated quantum no-cloning theorem establishes the impossibility of making a perfect copy of an unknown quantum state. The discovery of this important theorem for the field of quantum information is currently dated 1982. I show here that an article published in 1970 [J. L. Park, Found. Phys. 1, 23-33 (1970)] contained an explicit mathematical proof of the impossibility of cloning quantum states. I analyze Park's demonstration in the light of published explanations concerning the genesis of the better-known papers on no-cloning.
- Publication:
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American Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- March 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1119/1.5021356
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1707.06910
- Bibcode:
- 2018AmJPh..86..201O
- Keywords:
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- Physics - History and Philosophy of Physics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- Some changes with respect to the previous version. This matches closely the published in AJP