Unconditional advantage of quantum teleportation over direct transmission of single photons through a lossy channel (opens in new tab)

Photon loss is the biggest challenge in quantum communications. Typically, only a small fraction of photons survives direct transmission over long distances, hindering potential applications such as loophole-free Bell tests and device-independent quantum key distribution. Quantum teleportation is an alternative way to transfer quantum states and could, in principle, overcome the limits on transmission imposed by photon loss. However, in practice, it is difficult to transfer single photons usi...