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The laws of physics do not prohibit counterfactual communication

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jonte HanceORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

It has been conjectured that counterfactual communication is impossible, even for post-selected quantum particles. We strongly challenge this by proposing precisely such a counterfactual scheme where—unambiguously—none of Alice’s photons that correctly contribute to her information about Bob’s message have been to Bob. We demonstrate counterfactuality experimentally by means of weak measurements, and conceptually using consistent histories—thus simultaneously satisfying both criteria without loopholes. Importantly, the fidelity of Alice learning Bob’s bit can be made arbitrarily close to unity.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Salih H, McCutcheon W, Hance JR, Rarity J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: npj Quantum Information

Year: 2022

Volume: 8

Online publication date: 18/05/2022

Acceptance date: 20/04/2022

Date deposited: 08/04/2024

ISSN (electronic): 2056-6387

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-022-00564-w

DOI: 10.1038/s41534-022-00564-w

Data Access Statement: Data obtained during experiments undertaken during this experiment is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5666675.


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
EP/M013472/1
EP/P510269/1
EP/R513386/1
EP/T001011/1
EP/L024020/1
EPSRC

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