Would Closed Timelike Curves Help to Do Quantum Cloning?
Angel Ricardo Plastino · AIP conference proceedings · 2006
The possibility of performing quantum cloning in the presence of closed time like curves is considered. We analyze a model of the quantum cloning process involving a source qubit, a target qubit, and a quantum copy machine which is itself a composite quantum system. A subsystem of the copy machine is allowed to traverse a closed time like curve. Under these circumstances the evolution of the chronology respecting parts of the system is nonlinear. This suggests (Deutsch, 1991) that quantum cloning might be possible. We prove that, if only one subsystem of the copy machine is allowed to traverse a closed time like curve and the copy machine’s Hilbert space is of finite dimension, universal quantum cloning is impossible.