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arXiv:1107.5754 · Physical Review Letters

Experimental Demonstration of Counterfactual Quantum Communication

Yang Liu, Lei Ju, Xiao-Lei Liang, Shi-Biao Tang, Guo-Liang Shen Tu, Lei Zhou, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Kai Chen, Teng‐Yun Chen, Zeng‐Bing Chen, Jian-Wei Pan

Published Jul 19, 2012• 78 citations

Abstract

Quantum effects, besides offering substantial superiority in many tasks over classical methods, are also expected to provide interesting ways to establish secret keys between remote parties. A striking scheme called "counterfactual quantum cryptography" proposed by Noh [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 230501 (2009).] allows one to maintain secure key distributions, in which particles carrying secret information are seemingly not being transmitted through quantum channels. We have experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, a faithful implementation for such a scheme with an on-table realization operating at telecom wavelengths. To verify its feasibility for extension over a long distance, we have furthermore reported an illustration on a 1 km fiber. In both cases, high visibilities of more than 98% are achieved through active stabilization of interferometers. Our demonstration is crucial as a direct verification of such a remarkable application, and this procedure can become a key communication module for revealing fundamental physics through counterfactuals.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.109.030501

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Quantum cryptography allows one to distribute a secret key between two remote parties using the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. The well-known established paradigm for the quantum key distribution relies on the actual transmission of signal particle through a quantum channel. In this Letter, we show that the task of a secret key distribution can be accomplished even though a particle carrying secret information is not in fact transmitted through the quantum channel. The proposed protocols can be implemented with current technologies and provide practical security advantages by eliminating the possibility that an eavesdropper can directly access the entire quantum system of each signal particle.

Recently, counterfactual quantum cryptography proposed by T. G. Noh [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 230501 (2009)] becomes an interesting direction in quantum cryptography, and has been realized by some researchers (such as Y. Liu et al's [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 030501 (2012)]). However, we find out that it is insecure in practical high lossy channel setting. We analyze the secret key rates in lossy channel under a polarization-splitting-measurement attack. Analysis indicates that the protocol is insecure when the loss rate of the one-way channel exceeds

50%

.

Recently, a ``counterfactual'' quantum-key-distribution scheme was proposed by T.-G. Noh [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 230501 (2009)]. In this scheme, two legitimate distant peers may share secret keys even when the information carriers are not traveled in the quantum channel. We find that this protocol is equivalent to an entanglement distillation protocol. According to this equivalence, a strict security proof and the asymptotic key bit rate are both obtained when a perfect single-photon source is applied and a Trojan horse attack can be detected. We also find that the security of this scheme is strongly related to not only the bit error rate but also the yields of photons. And our security proof may shed light on the security of other two-way protocols.

Counterfactual quantum cryptography allows two remote parties to share a secret key even though a physical particle is not in fact transmitted through the quantum channel. In order to extend the scope of counterfactual quantum cryptography, we use an untrusted relay to construct a multi-user network. The implementation issues are discussed to show that the scheme can be realized with current technologies. We also prove the practical security advantages of the scheme by eliminating the probability that an eavesdropper can directly access the signal or an untrusted relay can perform false operations.