Counterfactual communication not achieved yet – A Comment on Salih et al. (2022)

Sandu Popescu

doi:10.1038/s41534-025-00975-5

Counterfactual communication not achieved yet – A Comment on Salih et al. (2022)

Sandu Popescu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter (Academic Journal) › peer-review

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Abstract

In this comment I argue that there are two major issues with the protocol presented in “The laws of physics do not prohibit counterfactual communication”, Hatim Salih, Will McCutcheon, Jonte R. Hance and John Rarity, npj Quantum Information (2022) 8:60. One is an erroneous interpretation of the role of clicks in detector D0 and the second is the way in which post-selection is used. I argue that these invalidate the claims of that paper.

Original language	English
Article number	122
Number of pages	3
Journal	npj Quantum Information
Volume	11
Issue number	1
Early online date	24 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-025-00975-5
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 24 Jul 2025

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© The Author(s) 2025.

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abstract = "In this comment I argue that there are two major issues with the protocol presented in “The laws of physics do not prohibit counterfactual communication”, Hatim Salih, Will McCutcheon, Jonte R. Hance and John Rarity, npj Quantum Information (2022) 8:60. One is an erroneous interpretation of the role of clicks in detector D0 and the second is the way in which post-selection is used. I argue that these invalidate the claims of that paper.",

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Counterfactual communication not achieved yet – A Comment on Salih et al. (2022)

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