Operation Jericho Pint

Entanglement as a side effect of cloning

Mission 3: The No-Cloning Mystery. Part of the Quantum Courier Service, a free course from the Oxford University Quantum Information Society.

Put down your local ale, old sport: for this exercise, we’re slipping into the muddy brogues of an Echo Network operative hiding out in a dimly lit Jericho pub. You’ve successfully siphoned a rogue qubit that's currently spinning on your screen, but there's a marvelous catch: it remains mathematically handcuffed to our original vault asset back at QCS HQ via quantum entanglement. Your instruction is simply to tap [READ STOLEN COPY] to eyeball the purloined goods. Pay close attention to the impending fireworks, because the exact nanosecond you measure your clone, its wave-function collapses. You haven't reached across town and touched the vault asset, but because the two are entangled, the moment QCS compares its copy against yours the tampering is unmistakable, and our tactical security squads come racing directly to your barstool. It's a beautifully loud lesson in why quantum data can never be silently filched. Bottoms up!