English

Quantum Counterfactual Communication Without a Weak Trace

Quantum Physics 2017-05-17 v1

Abstract

The classical theories of communication rely on the assumption that there has to be a flow of particles from Bob to Alice in order for him to send a message to her. We develop a quantum protocol that allows Alice to perceive Bob's message "counterfactually". That is, without Alice receiving any particles that have interacted with Bob. By utilising a setup built on results from interaction-free measurements, we outline a communication protocol whereby the information travels in the opposite direction of the emitted particles. In comparison to previous attempts on such protocols, this one is such that a weak measurement at the message source would not leave a weak trace that could be detected by Alice's receiver. Whilst some interaction-free schemes require a large number of carefully aligned beam-splitters, our protocol is realisable with two or more beam-splitters. We demonstrate this protocol by numerically solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger Equation (TDSE) for a Hamiltonian that implements this quantum counterfactual phenomenon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.05628,
  title  = {Quantum Counterfactual Communication Without a Weak Trace},
  author = {David Roland Miran Arvidsson-Shukur and Crispin Henry William Barnes},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.05628},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:48:21.117Z