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Revisiting integer factorization using closed timelike curves

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Abstract

Closed timelike curves are relativistically valid objects allowing time travel to the past. Treating them as computational objects opens the door to a wide range of results which cannot be achieved using non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Recently, research in classical and quantum computation has focused on effectively harnessing the power of these curves. In particular, Brun (Found Phys Lett 16:245–253, 2003) has shown that CTCs can be utilized to efficiently solve problems like factoring and quantified satisfiability problem. In this paper, we find a flaw in Brun’s algorithm and propose a modified algorithm to circumvent the flaw.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Soumik Ghosh

  2. Centre for High Energy Physics, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Arnab Adhikary

  3. Cryptology and Security Research Unit, R. C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, 700 108, India

    Goutam Paul

Authors
  1. Soumik Ghosh
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  2. Arnab Adhikary
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  3. Goutam Paul
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Goutam Paul.

Additional information

Part of this work was done while the first two authors were visiting R. C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, during the summer of 2017 (between the 6th and the 7th semesters of their Bachelor of Engineering course at Jadavpur University) for internship under the supervision of the third author.

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Ghosh, S., Adhikary, A. & Paul, G. Revisiting integer factorization using closed timelike curves. Quantum Inf Process 18, 30 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-018-2130-4

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