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Can two ciphertexts that decrypt to the same plaintext be statistically "distant"?

md flag

It might be a little dumb: I think it should be possible, if I encrypt a plaintext using the same public key twice, it should be possible to end up with two ciphertexts that for whom the statistical distance is non-negligible.

Specifically, I was exploring a paper which required that the statistical distance between ciphertexts be negligible in ciphertext space (in terms of homomorphic encryption). I was wondering if this is the same as having the property of distribution-preservation, which requires evaluated ciphertexts to be distributed identically to a fresh encryption.

cn flag
There's no meaningful interpretation of statistical distance for individual ciphertexts.
Mark avatar
ng flag
Also worth mentioning if you have questions about a particular paper, it can be useful to link that paper + the section you have questions about.
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