Large-capability quantum key distribution with entangled qutrits

A secure quantum key distribution protocol is proposed to distribute the three-dimensional secret message in a two-way quantum channel based on the entanglement of two-qutrit quantum system. The present protocol has an advantage over transmitting directly the secret message with large capacity since the distributed message has been imposed on nonorthogonal two-qutrit-entangled states by the sender using the superdense coding via local unitary operations. The security is ensured by the entanglement of the two-qutrit quantum system and the secure transmission of the traveling-particle sequence in the lossless and noiseless channel.     

Cheat sensitive quantum bit commitment

We define cheat sensitive cryptographic protocols between mistrustful parties as protocols which guarantee that, if either cheats, the other has some nonzero probability of detecting the cheating. We describe an unconditionally secure cheat sensitive nonrelativistic bit commitment protocol which uses quantum information to implement a task which is classically impossible; we also describe a simple relativistic protocol.     

Quantum bit commitment is weaker than quantum bit seals

We investigate the reduced dynamics of a central spin coupled to a spin environment with non-uniform coupling. Through using the method of time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (t-DMRG), we nonperturbatively show the dissipative dynamics of the central spin beyond the case of uniform coupling between the central spin and the environment spins. It is shown that only when the system-environment coupling is weak enough, the central spin system shows Markovian effect and will finally reach the steady state; otherwise, the reduced dynamics is non-Markovian and exhibits a quasi-periodic oscillation. The frequency spectrum and the correlation between the central spin system and the environment are also studied to elucidate the dissipative dynamics of the central spin system for different coupling strengths.     

Relativistic quantum bit commitment in real-time

A relativistic quantum exchange protocol making it possible to implement a bit commitment scheme is realized. The protocol is based on the idea that in the relativistic case the propagation of a field into a region of space accessible for measurement requires, in contrast to the nonrelativistic case, a finite time that depends on the structure of the states. The protocol requires one classical and several quantum communication channels. It turns out that it is possible in principle to preserve the secret bit for as long a period of time desired and with probability as close to 1 as desired.     

Fully distrustful quantum bit commitment and coin flipping

In the distrustful quantum cryptography model the parties have conflicting interests and do not trust one another. Nevertheless, they trust the quantum devices in their labs. The aim of the device-independent approach to cryptography is to do away with the latter assumption, and, consequently, significantly increase security. It is an open question whether the scope of this approach also extends to protocols in the distrustful cryptography model, thereby rendering them "fully" distrustful. In this Letter, we show that for bit commitment-one of the most basic primitives within the model-the answer is positive. We present a device-independent (imperfect) bit-commitment protocol, where Alice's and Bob's cheating probabilities are ?0.854 and 3/4, which we then use to construct a device-independent coin flipping protocol with bias ?0.336.     

Improving the quantum secure direct communication by entangled qutrits and entanglement swapping against intercept-and-resend attack

The security of quantum secure direct communication by entangled qutrits and entanglement swapping [Y.B. Zhan et al., Opt. Commun. 282 (2009) 4633] is analyzed. It is shown that an eavesdropper can obtain all the secret without being found by a simple intercept-and-resend attack. Finally, a possible improvement to resist this attack is proposed.     

A short impossibility proof of quantum bit commitment

Bit commitment protocols, whose security is based on the laws of quantum mechanics alone, are generally held to be impossible on the basis of a concealment–bindingness tradeoff (Lo and Chau, 1997 [1], Mayers, 1997 [2]). A strengthened and explicit impossibility proof has been given in D?Ariano et al. (2007) [3] in the Heisenberg picture and in a C^?${\mathrm{C}}^{?}$-algebraic framework, considering all conceivable protocols in which both classical and quantum information is exchanged. In the present Letter we provide a new impossibility proof in the Schrödinger picture, greatly simplifying the classification of protocols and strategies using the mathematical formulation in terms of quantum combs (Chiribella et al., 2008 [4]), with each single-party strategy represented by a conditioned comb. We prove that assuming a stronger notion of concealment—for each classical communication history, not in average—allows Alice?s cheat to pass also the worst-case Bob?s test. The present approach allows us to restate the concealment–bindingness tradeoff in terms of the continuity of dilations of probabilistic quantum combs with the metric given by the comb discriminability-distance.     

Triggered qutrits for quantum communication protocols

A general protocol in quantum information and communication relies in the ability of producing, transmitting, and reconstructing, in general, qunits. In this Letter we show for the first time the experimental implementation of these three basic steps on a pure state in a three-dimensional space, by means of the orbital angular momentum of the photons. The reconstruction of the qutrit is performed with tomographic techniques and a maximum-likelihood estimation method. For the tomographic reconstruction we used more than 2400 different projections. In this way we also demonstrate that we can perform any transformation in the three-dimensional space.     

Quantum secure direct communication by entangled qutrits and entanglement swapping

A protocol for quantum secure direct communication by using entangled qutrits and swapping quantum entanglement is proposed. In this protocol, a set of ordered two-qutrit entangled states is used as quantum information channels for sending secret messages directly. During the process of transmission of particles, the transmitted particles do not carry any secret messages and are transmitted only one time. The protocol has higher source capacity than protocols using usual two-dimensional Bell-basis states as quantum channel. The security is ensured by the unitary operations randomly performed on all checking groups before the particle sequence is transmitted and the application of entanglement swapping.     

Security of quantum bit string commitment depends on the information measure

Unconditionally secure nonrelativistic bit commitment is known to be impossible in both the classical and the quantum world. However, when committing to a string of n bits at once, how far can we stretch the quantum limits? In this Letter, we introduce a framework of quantum schemes where Alice commits a string of n bits to Bob, in such a way that she can only cheat on a bits and Bob can learn at most b bits of information before the reveal phase. Our results are twofold: we show by an explicit construction that in the traditional approach, where the reveal and guess probabilities form the security criteria, no good schemes can exist: a + b is at least n. If, however, we use a more liberal criterion of security, the accessible information, we construct schemes where a = 4log2(n) + O(1) and b = 4, which is impossible classically. Our findings significantly extend known no-go results for quantum bit commitment.     

连续变量多组分纠缠态光场及其在量子计算中的应用

在发展基于单光子的量子信息系统的同时,以光场正交分量为基础的连续变量量子信息科学也在蓬勃发展,多组分纠缠态光场是研究连续变量量子计算的基本资源.文章简要介绍了连续变量多组分纠缠态光场的概念和制备方法,以及连续变量量子计算的基本模型和实验研究进展.     

Preparation of a stable and maximally entangled state of two distant qutrits trapped in separate cavities

We have proposed a simple scheme to entangle two distant qutrits trapped in separate optical cavities. The quantum information of each qutrit is skillfully encoded on the degenerate ground states of a pair of atoms, hence the entanglement between them is relatively stable against spontaneous emission. In Lamb-Dicke limits, it is not necessary to require coincidence detections, which will relax the conditions for the experimental realization. The scheme is robust against the inefficient detections.     

Tomographic approach to the violation of Bell's inequalities for quantum states of two qutrits

The tomographic method is employed to investigate the presence of quantum correlations in two classes of parameter-dependent states of two qutrits. The violation of some Bell's inequalities in a wide domain of the parameter space is shown. A comparison between the tomographic approach and a recent method elaborated by Wu, Poulsen, and Mølmer shows the better adequacy of the former method with respect to the latter one.     

Hierarchical and probabilistic quantum state sharing via a non-maximally entangled stateHierarchical and probabilistic quantum state sharing via a non-maximally entangled stateHierarchical and probabilistic quantum state sharing via a non-maximally entangled state

A scheme that probabilistically realizes hierarchical quantum state sharing of an arbitrary unknown qubit state with a four-qubit non-maximally entangled 丨X） state is presented in this paper. In the scheme, the sender Alice distributes a quantum secret with a Bell-state measurement and publishes her measurement outcomes via a classical channel to three agents who are divided into two grades. One agent is in the upper grade, while the other two agents are in the lower grade. Then by introducing an ancillary qubit, the agent of the upper grade only needs the assistance of any one of the other two agents for probabilistically obtaining the secret, while an agent of the lower grade needs the help of both the other two agents by using a controlled-NOT operation and a proper positive operator-valued measurement instead of the usual projective measurement. In other words, the agents of two different grades have different authorities to reconstruct Alice＇s secret in a probabilistic manner. The scheme can also be modified to implement the threshold-controlled teleportation.     

Quantum entanglement and quantum nonlocality for N-photon entangled states

Quantum entanglement and quantum nonlocality of N-photon entangled states |\psi_{N m}\rangle =C_m[\cos\gamma|N-m\rangle₁|m\rangle₂ +\e^{\i\θ_m}\sin\gamma|m\rangle₁|N-m\rangle₂] and their superpositions are studied. We point out that the relative phase θ_m affects the quantum nonlocality but not the quantum entanglement for the state |\psi_{N m}\rangle. We show that quantum nonlocality can be controlled and manipulated by adjusting the state parameters of |\psi_{N m}\rangle, superposition coefficients, and the azimuthal angles of the Bell operator. We also show that the violation of the Bell inequality can reach its maximal value under certain conditions. It is found that quantum superpositions based on |\psi_{N m}\rangle can increase the amount of entanglement, and give more ways to reach the maximal violation of the Bell inequality.     

Preparation of multipartite entangled states used for quantum information networks

The preparation of multipartite entangled states is the prerequisite for exploring quantum information networks and quantum computation.In this paper,we review the experimental progress in the preparation of cluster states and multi-color entangled states with continuous variables.The preparation of lager scale multipartite entangled state provide valuable quantum resources to implement more complex quantum informational tasks.     

Scheme for implementing perfect quantum teleportation with four-qubit entangled states in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Recently, Peng et al. [2010 Eur. Phys. J. D 58 403] proposed to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state with a family of four-qubit entangled states, which simultaneously include the tensor product of two Bell states, linear cluster state and Dicke-class state. This paper proposes to implement their scheme in cavity quantum electrodynamics and then presents a new family of four-qubit entangled state |Ω₄>₁₂₃₄. It simultaneously includes all the well-known four-qubit entangled states which can be used to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state. The distinct advantage of the scheme is that it only needs a single setup to prepare the whole family of four-qubit entangled states, which will be very convenient for experimental realization. After discussing the experimental condition in detail, we show the scheme may be feasible based on present technology in cavity quantum electrodynamics.     

自由空间量子通讯实验中纠缠源的研制

设计了适合自由空间量子通讯实验的纠缠源. 纠缠光子对的单模光纤搜集率约为每秒20000对,水平竖直方向的纠缠对比度大于95%,正负45°方向的纠缠对比度大于90%. 在本地得到了大于100个标准偏差的Bell 不等式破缺. 满足20 km量级的自由空间量子通讯试验要求. 关键词： 纠缠光子对 位相匹配 收集效率 贝尔不等式     

Scheme for implementing perfect quantum teleportatior with four-qubit entangled states in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Recently, Peng et al. [2010 Eur. Phys. J. D 58 403] proposed to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state with a family of four-qubit entangled states, which simultaneously include the tensor product of two Bell states, linear cluster state and Dicke-class state. This paper proposes to implement their scheme in cavity quantum electrodynamics and then presents a new family of four-qubit entangled state ｜Ω/1234. It simultaneously includes all the well-known four-qubit entangled states which can be used to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state. The distinct advantage of the scheme is that it only needs a single setup to prepare the whole family of four-qubit entangled states, which will be very convenient for experimental realization. After discussing the experimental condition in detail, we show the scheme may be feasible based on present technology in cavity quantum electrodynamics.