Muons penetrate much further than X-rays, they do essentially zero damage, and they are provided for free by the cosmos.
Image credit: Science Source/Digital Globe.
Edited by Gilles Brassard, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Anthony Leggett March 29, 2017 (received for review August 31, 2016)
Significance
Recent theoretical studies have shown that quantum mechanics allows counterfactual communication, even without actual transmission of physical particles, which raised a heated debate on its interpretation. Although several papers have been published on the theoretical aspects of the subject, a faithful experimental demonstration is missing. Here, by using the quantum Zeno effect and a single-photon source, direct communication without carrier particle transmission is implemented successfully. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of direct counterfactual communication with the current technique. The results of our work can help deepen the understanding of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, our experimental scheme is applicable to other quantum technologies, such as imaging and state preparation.
Abstract
Intuition from our everyday lives gives rise to the belief that information exchanged between remote parties is carried by physical particles. Surprisingly, in a recent theoretical study [Salih H, Li ZH, Al-Amri M, Zubairy MS (2013) Phys Rev Lett 110:170502], quantum mechanics was found to allow for communication, even without the actual transmission of physical particles. From the viewpoint of communication, this mystery stems from a (nonintuitive) fundamental concept in quantum mechanics—wave-particle duality. All particles can be described fully by wave functions. To determine whether light appears in a channel, one refers to the amplitude of its wave function. However, in counterfactual communication, information is carried by the phase part of the wave function. Using a single-photon source, we experimentally demonstrate the counterfactual communication and successfully transfer a monochrome bitmap from one location to another by using a nested version of the quantum Zeno effect.
- quantum Zeno effect
- counterfactual communication
- heralded single photon source
- quantum optics
- quantum imaging
Footnotes
↵1Y.C. and Y.-H.L. contributed equally to this work.
- ↵2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: pan{at}ustc.edu.cn or pcz{at}ustc.edu.cn.
Author contributions: Y.-A.C., C.-Z.P., and J.-W.P. conceived the research; Y.C., Y.-H.L., T.-Y.C., and C.-Z.P. designed the experiment; Y.C., Y.-H.L., J.Y., and H.-L.Y. performed research; Y.-H.L., Z.C., and X.M. analyzed data; Y.C., Y.-H.L., Y.-A.C., X.M., and J.-W.P. wrote the paper; and C.-Z.P. and J.-W.P. supervised the project.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. G.B. is a Guest Editor invited by the Editorial Board.
Direct counterfactual communication via QZE
Article Classifications
- Physical Sciences
- Physics
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