Scientists have long sought ways to distribute and prepare quantum states between distant locations, but achieving this with limited communication remains a significant challenge. Lana Bozanic from the University of Waterloo, Alex May from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Stanley Miao et al. now demonstrate a crucial step forward with their research into ‘entanglement summoning’ from ‘entanglement sharing’ , a process where cooperating parties fulfil requests for quantum states despite communication constraints. Their work provides both necessary and sufficient conditions for successful summoning using bidirected causal connections, and establishes sufficient conditions for more complex networks, fundamentally advancing our understanding of…