Relativistic quantum cryptography for open space without clock synchronization on the receiver and transmitter sides

The security of keys in quantum cryptography is based on fundamental quantum mechanical exclusions (the exclusion of cloning and copying of nonorthogonal quantum states. The physical type of a quantum object that carries information (photon, electron, atom, etc.) is insignificant; only its state vector is important. In relativistic quantum cryptography for open space, both the time of the information carrier (photon that propagates with the extremely allowable velocity in a vacuum) and its quantum state are of fundamental importance. Joint fundamental constraints that are dictated by both special relativity and quantum mechanics on the discrimination of nonorthogonal quantum states allow one to formulate fundamentally new key distribution protocols that are stable against any attacks on a key and guarantee the security of keys for a nonstrictly single-photon source and any losses in the communication channel. Although this protocol is a real-time protocol in the Minkowski space-time, where the attack to the communication channel is detected by the delay of eavesdropper measurement results, the protocol does not require clock synchronization on the transmitter and receiver sides.     

On the resistance of the quantum key distribution with phase-time encoding for long communication channels

The cryptographic resistance of a quantum key distribution protocol with phase-time encoding has been analyzed for the case of a nonstrictly single-photon source and a communication channel with losses. It has been shown that eavesdropper’s information on the key for a long communication channel is determined only by the von Neumann entropy of the source at the receiver side and the critical length of the communication channel is determined primarily by dark counts of photodetectors.     

Quantum key distribution with a reference quantum state

A new quantum key distribution protocol stable at arbitrary losses in a quantum communication channel has been proposed. For the stability of the protocol, it is of fundamental importance that changes in states associated with losses in the communication channel (in the absence of the eavesdropper) are included in measurements.     

On the vulnerability of the swiss system of coherent quantum cryptography to an attack with repeated measurements

It has been shown that the coherent quantum cryptography protocol (Coherent One Way) and, correspondingly, fiber optic systems involving this protocol for quantum key distribution, are vulnerable to an attack with repeated measurements and do not guarantee the security of distributed keys in a communication channel with losses. The coherent quantum cryptography system is used in Switzerland as one of the key distribution channels in the framework of the network project SECOQC (SEcure COmmunications based on Quantum Cryptography). A critical attack with repeated measurements was missed when the cryptographic strength of this protocol was analyzed. The critical length of the communication channel has been determined; this is a value above which secure key distribution is certainly impossible. Beginning with the critical length, an eavesdropper knows the entire distributed key, does not introduce errors at the receiver end, and remains undetected. For typical parameters in a real system (the average photon number μ = 0.5 and the quantum efficiency of avalanche detectors η = 0.1, see N. Gisin, G. Ribordy, H. Zbinden, et al., arXiv:quant-ph/0411022 and D. Stucki, C. Barreiro, S. Fasel, et al., arXiv:quant-ph/08095264), the security of keys cannot be guaranteed even for a communication channel whose length is as small as wished.     

降雨背景下诱骗态协议最优平均光子数的变色龙自适应策略

为了应对降雨给采用诱骗态协议的量子通信系统带来的突发性干扰,根据降雨分布模型和退极化信道的特性,本文提出了基于变色龙算法的每脉冲最优平均光子数自适应策略;建立了降雨强度、链路距离与最优平均光子数之间的自适应关系;并对采用变色龙算法前后,系统的性能参数进行了比较.仿真结果表明,当降雨强度J为30 mm/24 h、链路距离L为30 km时,通过采用变色龙算法,系统的安全密钥生成率由2×10~(-4)提高到3.5×10~(-4);当J为60 mm/24 h,L为20 km时,系统的信道生存函数值由0.52提高到0.63;当要求生存函数不低于0.5时,系统能够应对的最大雨强由62 mm/24 h提高到74 mm/24 h.因此,根据降雨强度和链路距离,通过变色龙算法自适应地调整系统发送端信号脉冲所含的平均光子数,可以提高量子通信系统在降雨背景下的有效性和可靠性.     

A novel quantum information hiding protocol based on entanglement swapping of high-level Bell states

Using entanglement swapping of high-level Bell states, we first derive a covert layer between the secret message and the possible output results of the entanglement swapping between any two generalized Bell states, and then propose a novel high-efficiency quantum information hiding protocol based on the covert layer. In the proposed scheme, a covert channel can be built up under the cover of a high-level quantum secure direct communication(QSDC) channel for securely transmitting secret messages without consuming any auxiliary quantum state or any extra communication resource. It is shown that this protocol not only has a high embedding efficiency but also achieves a good imperceptibility as well as a high security.     

Mesoscopic quantum cryptography

Since a strictly single-photon source is not yet available, in quantum cryptography systems, one uses, as information quantum states, coherent radiation of a laser with an average number of photons of μ ≈ 0.1–0.5 in a pulse, attenuated to the quasi-single-photon level. The linear independence of a set of coherent quasi-single-photon information states leads to the possibility of unambiguous measurements that, in the presence of losses in the line, restrict the transmission range of secret keys. Starting from a certain value of critical loss (the length of the line), the eavesdropper knows the entire key, does not make errors, and is not detected—the distribution of secret keys becomes impossible. This problem is solved by introducing an additional reference state with an average number of photons of μ_cl ≈ 10³–10⁶, depending on the length of the communication line. It is shown that the use of a reference state does not allow the eavesdropper to carry out measurements with conclusive outcome while remaining undetected. A reference state guarantees detecting an eavesdropper in a channel with high losses. In this case, information states may contain a mesoscopic average number of photons in the range of μ _q ≈ 0.5–10². The protocol proposed is easy to implement technically, admits flexible adjustment of parameters to the length of the communication line, and is simple and transparent for proving the secrecy of keys.     

Quantum Teleportation Under Different Collective Noise Environment

We investigate that the average fidelity of the standard quantum teleportation communication protocol when the quantum channel is affected by different local collective noise environments frequently encountered in real quantum communication protocol. We show that the quantum teleportation efficiency can be enhanced when the noise is unavoidable by choose the fit Bell state as the quantum channel, especially we can get perfect quantum teleportation efficiency under the local collective Pauli σ_y noise environment. Our work can shed some light on the application of practical standard quantum teleportation communication protocol.

     

Perfect quantum teleportation and dense coding protocols via the 2N-qubit W state

In this paper, we investigate perfect quantum teleportation and dense coding by using an 2N-qubit W state channel. In the quantum teleportation scheme, an unknown N-qubit entangled state can be perfectly teleported. One ebit of entanglement and two bits of classical communication are consumed in the teleportation process, just like when using the Bell state channel. While N+1 bits of classical information can be transmitted by only sending N particles in the dense coding protocol.     

Eavesdropping on the "ping-pong" quantum communication protocol

Security of the "ping-pong" quantum communication protocol recently proposed by Bostr?m and Felbinger [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 187902 (2002)]] is analyzed in the case of considerable quantum channel losses. The eavesdropping scheme is presented, which reveals that the ping-pong protocol is not secure for transmission efficiencies lower than 60%. Our scheme induces 50% losses, which, however, can be hidden in the channel losses if one replaces the original lossy channel with a less lossy one. Finally, a possible improvement of the ping-pong protocol security is proposed.     

控制的量子隐形传态和控制的量子安全直接通信

我们提出了一个控制的量子隐形传态方案。在这方案中，发送方Alice 在监督者Charlie的控制下以他们分享的三粒子纠缠态作为量子通道将二能级粒子未知态的量子信息忠实的传给了遥远的接受方Bob。我们还提出了借助此传态的控制的量子安全直接通信方案。在保证量子通道安全的情况下， Alice直接将秘密信息编码在粒子态序列上，并在Charlie控制下用此传态方法传给Bob。Bob可通过测量他的量子位读出编码信息。由于没有带秘密信息的量子位在Alice 和Bob之间传送，只要量子通道安全， 这种通信不会泄露给窃听者任何信息， 是绝对安全的。这个方案的的特征是双方通信需得到第三方的许可。     

Eavesdropping on the＇ping-pong＇ quantum communication protocol freely in a noise channel

We introduce an attack scheme for eavesdropping freely the ping-pong quantum communication protocol proposed by Bostr\"{o} m and Felbinger [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 187902 (2002)] in a noise channel. The vicious eavesdropper, Eve, intercepts and measures the travel photon transmitted between the sender and the receiver. Then she replaces the quantum signal with a multi-photon signal in the same state, and measures the returned photons with the measuring basis, with which Eve prepares the fake signal except for one photon. This attack increases neither the quantum channel losses nor the error rate in the sampling instances for eavesdropping check. It works for eavesdropping the secret message transmitted with the ping-pong protocol. Finally, we propose a way for improving the security of the ping-pong protocol.     

Quantum cobwebs: Universal entangling of quantum states

Entangling an unknown qubit with one type of reference state is generally impossible. However, entangling an unknown qubit with two types of reference states is possible. To achieve this, we introduce a new class of states called zero sum amplitude (ZSA) multipartite, pure entangled states for qubits and study their salient features. Using shared-ZSA states, local operations and classical communication, we give a protocol for creating multipartite entangled states of an unknown quantum state with two types of reference states at remote places. This provides a way of encoding an unknown pure qubit state into a multiqubit entangled state.     

Efficient Controlled Quantum Secure Direct Communication Protocols

We study controlled quantum secure direct communication (CQSDC), a cryptographic scheme where a sender can send a secret bit-string to an intended recipient, without any secure classical channel, who can obtain the complete bit-string only with the permission of a controller. We report an efficient protocol to realize CQSDC using Cluster state and then go on to construct a (2-3)-CQSDC using Brown state, where a coalition of any two of the three controllers is required to retrieve the complete message. We argue both protocols to be unconditionally secure and analyze the efficiency of the protocols to show it to outperform the existing schemes while maintaining the same security specifications.     

Quantum key distribution with multi letter alphabets

We present a new protocol for continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV QKD). The novelty of the protocol is a multi letter alphabet represented by coherent states of light with a fixed amplitude and variable phase. Information is encoded in the phase of a coherent state which can be chosen from a regular discrete set consisting, however, of an arbitrary number of letters. We evaluate the security of the protocol against the beam splitting attack. As a result we show the proposed protocol has advantages over the standard two letter coherent state QKD protocol, especially in the case when losses in the communication channel are low.     

Thermal entanglement and teleportation of a thermally mixed entangled state of a Heisenberg chain through a Werner state

The thermal entanglement and teleportation of a thermally mixed entangled state of a two-qubit Heisenberg XXX chain under the Dzyaloshinski Moriya （DM） anisotropic antisymmetric interaction through a noisy quantum channel given by a Werner state is investigated. The dependences of the thermal entanglement of the teleported state on the DM coupling constant, the temperature and the entanglement of tbe noisy quantum channel are studied }n detail for both the ferromagnetic and the antiferromagnetic cases. The result shows that a minimum entanglement of the noisy quantum channel must be provided in order to realize the entanglement teleportation. The values of fidelity of the teleported state are also studied for these two cases. It is found that under certain conditions, we can transfer an initial state with a better fidelity than that for any classical communication protocol.     

Bidirectional Teleportation Protocol in Quantum Wireless Multi-hop Network

We propose a bidirectional quantum teleportation protocol based on a composite GHZ-Bell state. In this protocol, the composite GHZ-Bell state channel is transformed into two-Bell state channel through gate operations and single qubit measurements. The channel transformation will lead to different kinds of quantum channel states, so a method is proposed to help determine the unitary matrices effectively under different quantum channels. Furthermore, we discuss the bidirectional teleportation protocol in the quantum wireless multi-hop network. This paper is aimed to provide a bidirectional teleportation protocol and study the bidirectional multi-hop teleportation in the quantum wireless communication network.     

Deterministic quantum communication using the symmetric W state

This study proposes a new coding function for the symmetric W state.Based on the new coding function,a theoretical protocol of deterministic quantum communication(DQC) is proposed.The sender can use the proposed coding function to encode his/her message,and the receiver can perform the imperfect Bell measurement to obtain the sender’s message.In comparison to the existing DQC protocols that also use the W class state,the proposed protocol is more efcient and also more practical within today’s technology.Moreover,the security of this protocol is analyzed to show that any eavesdropper will be detected with a very high probability under both the ideal and the noisy quantum channel.     

Quantum-Error-Rejection for Hyperentanglement Transmission without Calibrated Reference Frames

In quantum communication, the channel noise and the misalignment of the reference frames between the communication parties will lead to the failure of quantum state transmission. Here an alignment-free spatial-polarization hyperentanglement transmission scheme is provided for hyperentangled photons. In this scheme, before the spatial-polarization hyperentanglement is transmitted through the fiber channel, it is first encoded as a time-bin entanglement with the same polarization. After the photons pass through the noise channel, the polarization errors caused by reference frames misalignment and channel noise can be corrected by time-bin entanglement. In principle, by implementing this scheme, the communication parties can share the original hyperentangled state, and the success probability can approach unity. The scheme is robust to random channel noise and reference frames misalignment, and the decoherence effect caused by the misalignment of the reference frames between the communication parties can be completely suppressed by implementing this scheme.     

降雪对地表附近自由空间量子信道的影响及参数仿真

量子通信具有覆盖面广、安全保密的优势,是当前通信领域国内外的研究热点.在自由空间量子通信过程中,光量子信号需要在地表上空一定高度进行传输,因此各种环境因素,例如降雪、沙尘暴、降雨、雾霾、浮尘等,不可避免地会影响量子通信性能.然而,迄今为止,降雪对地表附近自由空间量子信道影响的研究尚未展开.为此,根据降雪的强度,将降雪分为小雪(S1)、中雪(S2)、大雪(S3)和暴雪(S4)四个等级.由于空中正在飘落雪花对光量子信号具有能量吸收作用,称为消光效应,不同强度的降雪,其消光效应对自由空间光量子信号的影响不同.本文首先建立了不同等级降雪对光量子信号消光效应的数学模型;然后建立了因降雪导致的自由空间消光衰减定量关系,信道极限生存函数、不同降雪强度下的信道容量和量子误码率等性能参数受降雪影响的变化情况;最后建立了降雪强度、传输距离与链路衰减、幅值阻尼信道容量、信道生存函数以及信道误码率的数学模型.仿真结果表明,当降雪强度为2.1 mm/d(S1),传输距离为2.2 km时,通信链路衰减为0.0362,信道容量为0.7745,信道生存函数为0.2329,信道误码率为0.0105.当降雪强度为3.8 mm/d(S2)。传输距离为3.5 km时,通信链路衰减为0.1326,信道容量为0.4922,信道生存函数为0.2099,信道误码率为0.019.由此可见,降雪对量子通信性能有不同程度的影响.所以在实际应用中应根据降雪强度大小,自适应调节量子通信相关参数,提高量子通信的可靠性.