Counterfactual History is Consistent with Physics

Ronald E. Mickens, Charmayne Patterson

Hatim Salih

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. A 94, 032115 (2016)], Griffiths questioned---based on an interesting consistent-histories (CH) argument---the counterfactuality, for one of the bit choices, of the protocol of Salih et al. for communicating without sending physical particles [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 170502 (2013)]. Here, we first show that for the Mach-Zehnder version used to explain our protocol, contrary to Griffiths's claim, no family of consistent histories exists where any history has the photon traveling through the communication channel, thus rendering the question of whether the photon was in the communication channel meaningless from a CH viewpoint. We then show that for the actual Michelson-type protocol, there is a consistent-histories family for each cycle that includes histories where the photon travels through the communication channel. We show that the probability of finding the photon in the communication channel at any time is zero---proving complete counterfactuality.

Hatim Salih, Will McCutcheon, John Rarity

It has been conjectured that counterfactual communication is impossible, even for post-selected quantum particles. We strongly challenge this by proposing exactly such a counterfactual scheme where---unambiguously---none of Alice's photons that contribute to the message from Bob have been to Bob. We demonstrate counterfactuality experimentally by means of weak measurements, as well as conceptually using consistent histories---thus simultaneously closing both loopholes. Importantly, the fidelity of Alice learning Bob's bit can be made arbitrarily close to unity.

Lev Vaidman A

H Salih, W McCutcheon, Jonte R. Hance +1 more

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.

Nicholas Corrêa