Quantum information can remain without physical body in volatile form

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility that quantum information can exist without a physical form, introducing the concept of volatility and demonstrating its realization in quantum teleportation.

Contribution

It introduces the notion of quantum information volatility and shows it can exist independently of a physical body, even without assuming special relativity.

Findings

Quantum information can be volatile and exist without a physical body.

Quantum teleportation naturally satisfies conditions for volatility.

Volatility of quantum information can occur without relativistic constraints.

Abstract

A deeply rooted view in classical and quantum information is that "information is physical", i.e., to store and process information, we need a physical body. Here we ask whether quantum information can remain without a physical body. We answer this question in the affirmative, i.e., we argue that quantum information can exist without a physical body in volatile form. We introduce the notion of the volatility of quantum information and show that indeed the conditions for it are naturally satisfied in the quantum teleportation protocol. We argue that even if special relativity principles are not assumed, it is possible to make quantum information volatile. We also discuss the classical limit of the phenomenon, as well as the multiparty scenario.