Homophonic substitution applied directly to the carved text (proof of impossibility)
In a homophonic cipher each carved letter stands for exactly one plaintext letter. At the 24 known positions, 9 of the 14 different carved letters would have to stand for two different plaintext letters (for example, carved Q would be both N and O), so this cipher cannot have been applied directly to the carved text.
In plain English: A homophonic cipher lets each plaintext letter be written with several different letters, but each carved letter must still stand for just one plaintext letter. At the known positions, 9 carved letters would each have to stand for two different plaintext letters, so this cipher cannot have been applied directly to the carved text. It is not ruled out if the letters were also rearranged.
This record is negative within the tested scope.
ELIMINATED
Tier 1
How to read this record
- Verdict – ELIMINATED (ruled out within the tested scope), NOISE (nothing beyond what chance produces for a search of this size; also shown when a record stored no verdict of its own), INCONCLUSIVE (the test left candidates or options standing, or could not decide, so it does not rule the method out), INTERESTING (slightly above random, almost certainly coincidence), SIGNAL (statistically unusual, warrants investigation), or FULL MATCH (all 24 known letters correct).
- Confidence Tier – Tier 1 = mathematical proof, valid while its stated assumptions hold. Tier 2 = every possibility within the stated scope tested. Tier 3 = partially tested or sampled. Tier 4 = not yet properly tested.
- Configs Tested – How many different key/parameter combinations were tried.
- Best Score – How many of the 24 known plaintext letters the best attempt matched (out of 24). N/A means no such score could be read from this record.
- Keystream Consistency (Bean) – Whether the key values at different positions are mathematically consistent with each other. The check only holds when the known letters stay in their carved positions (no letters rearranged or removed), and the full set used here assumes the standard A to Z alphabet.
- Scope Limitations – What this elimination does not rule out.
- Configs Tested
- N/A
- Best Score
- N/A
- Confidence
- Tier 1: Mathematical proof. Holds as long as the ciphertext, the known-letter positions and the assumptions listed on this page are correct.
- Truth Tag
[DERIVED FACT]- Date Tested
- 2026-02-27
- Script
scripts/substitution/e_cfm_04_homophonic_partition.py
Scope Limitations
This elimination does not rule out:
- Homophonic substitution combined with a letter rearrangement, which changes which carved letter lines up with each known letter
Assumptions
- Direct positional correspondence (no transposition)
Related Research Questions
Reproduce
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -u scripts/substitution/e_cfm_04_homophonic_partition.pyRequires the kryptos repo, Python 3.11+, PYTHONPATH=src. Some recent scripts may not be in the public repository yet.
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