We show that the teleportation of an unknown quantum state can be achieved without the irreversible amplification of an intermediate detector, as required in the original scheme. This allows us to show how the quantum information is ‘‘hidden’’ within the correlations between the system and the environment while being wholly absent from any of the individual subsystems. This revival of correlations from the environment is quite surprising since it seems to go against the usual intuition of the environment irreversibly destroying information. By developing a description of quantum teleportation at the amplitude level we can see why the relevant information is robust to such irreversible actions of the environment. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 10 April 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.53.1900