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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Parastatistics and a secret communication challenge

Zhiyuan Wang*

  • *Contact author: zhiyuan.wang.physics@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, L022056 – Published 23 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/35db-l74g

Abstract

One of the most unconventional features of topological phases of matter is the emergence of quasiparticles with exotic statistics, such as non-Abelian anyons in two-dimensional systems. Recently, a different type of exotic particle statistics that is consistently defined in any dimension, called R parastatistics [Z. Wang et al., Nature (London) 637, 314 (2025)], is also shown to be possible in a special family of topological phases. However, the physical significance of emergent parastatistics still remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate a distinctive physical consequence of parastatistics by proposing a challenge game that can only be won in a noise-robust way using physical systems hosting paraparticles, as passing the challenge requires the two participating players to secretly communicate in an indirect way by exploiting the nontrivial exchange statistics of the quasiparticles. The winning strategy using emergent paraparticles is robust against noise, as well as the most relevant class of eavesdropping via local measurements. This provides both an operational definition and an experimental identity test for paraparticles, alongside a potential application in secret communication.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 8, L022056– Published 23 June, 2026
  • Received 6 February 2025
  • Revised 9 May 2025
  • Accepted 18 March 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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