A classical key-distribution system based on Johnson (like) noise—How secure?

We present a comprehensive analysis of the Johnson (like) noise based classical key-distribution scheme presented by Kish [L.B. Kish, Phys. Lett. A 352 (2006) 178]. We suggest two passive attack strategies that enable an adversary to gain complete knowledge of the exchanged key. The first approach exploits the transient response of the voltage in the transmission line after the resistors are switched and the second one exploits the finite impedance of the wire connecting the two parties.     

Noise in the wire: The real impact of wire resistance for the Johnson(-like) noise based secure communicator

We re-evaluate the impact of wire resistance on the noise voltage and current in the Johnson(-like) noise based secure communicator, correcting the result presented in [J. Scheuer, A. Yariv, Phys. Lett. A 359 (2006) 737]. The analysis shown here is based on the fluctuation-dissipation and the linear response theorems. The results indicate that the impact of wire resistance in practical communicators is significantly lower than the previous estimation.     

Johnson(-like)-Noise-Kirchhoff-loop based secure classical communicator characteristics, for ranges of two to two thousand kilometers, via model-line

A pair of Kirchhoff-loop-Johnson(-like)-Noise communicators, which is able to work over variable ranges, was designed and built. Tests have been carried out on a model-line performance characteristics were obtained for ranges beyond the ranges of any known direct quantum communication channel and they indicate unrivalled signal fidelity and security performance of the exchanged raw key bits. This simple device has single-wire secure key generation and sharing rates of 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 bit/second for corresponding copper wire diameters/ranges of 21 mm/2000 km, 7 mm/200 km, 2.3 mm/20 km, and 0.7 mm/2 km, respectively and it performs with 0.02% raw-bit error rate (99.98% fidelity). The raw-bit security of this practical system significantly outperforms raw-bit quantum security. Current injection breaking tests show zero bit eavesdropping ability without triggering the alarm signal, therefore no multiple measurements are needed to build an error statistics to detect the eavesdropping as in quantum communication. Wire resistance based breaking tests of Bergou-Scheuer-Yariv type give an upper limit of eavesdropped raw-bit ratio of 0.19% and this limit is inversely proportional to the sixth power of cable diameter. Hao's breaking method yields zero (below measurement resolution) eavesdropping information.     

Response to Scheuer–Yariv: “A classical key-distribution system based on Johnson (like) noise—how secure?”

We point out that the claims in the comment-paper of Scheuer and Yariv are either irrelevant or incorrect. The idealized Kirchoff-loop-Johnson-like-noise (KLJN) scheme is totally secure therefore it is more secure than idealized quantum communication schemes which can never be totally secure because of the inherent noise processes in those communication schemes and the statistical nature of eavesdropper detection based on error statistics. On the other hand, with sufficient resources, a practical/non-ideal realization of the KLJN cipher can arbitrarily approach the idealized limit and outperform even the idealized quantum communicator schemes because the non-ideality-effects are determined and controlled by the design. The cable resistance issue analyzed by Scheuer and Yariv is a good example for that because the eavesdropper has insufficient time window to build a sufficient statistics and the actual information leak can be designed. We show that Scheuer's and Yariv's numerical result of 1% voltage drop supports higher security than that of quantum communicators. Moreover, choosing thicker or shorter wires can arbitrarily reduce this voltage drop further; the same conclusion holds even according to the equations of Scheuer and Yariv.     

Faithful quantum secure direct communication protocol against collective noise

An improved quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol is proposed in this paper.Blocks of entangled photon pairs are transmitted in two steps in which secret messages are transmitted directly.The single logical qubits and unitary operations under decoherence free subspaces are presented and the generalized Bell states are constructed which are immune to the collective noise.Two steps of qubit transmission are used in this protocol to guarantee the security of communication.The security of the protocol against various attacks are discussed.     

Robust EPR-pairs-based quantum secure communication with authentication resisting collective noise

This work presents two robust quantum secure communication schemes with authentication based on Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs, which can withstand collective noises. Two users previously share an identity string representing their identities. The identity string is encoded as decoherence-free states (termed logical qubits), respectively, over the two collective noisy channels, which are used as decoy photons. By using the decoy photons, both the authentication of two users and the detection of eavesdropping were implemented. The use of logical qubits not only guaranteed the high fidelity of exchanged secret message, but also prevented the eavesdroppers to eavesdrop beneath a mask of noise.     

Quantum secure direct communication and deterministic secure quantum communication

In this review article, we review the recent development of quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) and deterministic secure quantum communication (DSQC) which both are used to transmit secret message, including the criteria for QSDC, some interesting QSDC protocols, the DSQC protocols and QSDC network, etc. The difference between these two branches of quantum communication is that DSQC requires the two parties exchange at least one bit of classical information for reading out the message in each qubit, and QSDC does not. They are attractive because they are deterministic, in particular, the QSDC protocol is fully quantum mechanical. With sophisticated quantum technology in the future, the QSDC may become more and more popular. For ensuring the safety of QSDC with single photons and quantum information sharing of single qubit in a noisy channel, a quantum privacy amplification protocol has been proposed. It involves very simple CHC operations and reduces the information leakage to a negligible small level. Moreover, with the one-party quantum error correction, a relation has been established between classical linear codes and quantum one-party codes, hence it is convenient to transfer many good classical error correction codes to the quantum world. The one-party quantum error correction codes are especially designed for quantum dense coding and related QSDC protocols based on dense coding.      

A new look at the classical key exchange system based on amplified Johnson noise

A classical key exchange system based on the amplified Johnson noise has been proposed and demonstrated recently. In this Letter, a modified system is presented. By using circulator and feedback, the new system can be compatible with traditional analog and digital communications systems using carrier waves. Results of circuit simulations, however, indicate that the signal transit time poses a serious risk. Because of delay and multiple reflections, there is always a difference between two parties communicating. The eavesdropper can exploit this difference. By choosing impedance and delay time, the difference can be reduced. Nevertheless, the system is far from being secure except when two parties are collocated.     

Johnson noise and absolute temperature

Experimental evidence using Josephson junction devices has suggested that Johnson noise in copper fails to be proportional to absolute temperature below 10 millikelvin. A microscopic theory is presented which gives the Johnson noise temperature $\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>J</mtext>}}\text{= ?}{}_0{}^1\text{XT}{}_0$ coth ($\text{XT}{}_0\text{T}$) dX where $\text{T}{}_0\text{=}\text{hν}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>F</mtext>}}\text{2kN}$. For copper, the calculated T₀ = 3.84 mK agrees closely with the value extracted from experimental data, 3.89 mK. Within a few percent, $\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>J</mtext>}}\text{? (}\text{T}{}_0\text{2}\text{)}$ coth ($\text{T}{}_0\text{2T}$), and this adequately fits the available experimental data. ν_F is the fermi velocity and N is the length of the resistor. The Johnson noise parameter “T₀” presumably can measure ν_F along different crystal orientations.     

Generalized synchronization of chaos for secure communication: Remarkable stability to noise

A new method for secure information transmission based on generalized synchronization is proposed. The principal advantage of it is a remarkable stability to noise. To reveal this peculiarity of the proposed method the effectiveness of the detection of the information signal from the transmitted one in the presence of noise in the communication channel is examined both for the proposed scheme and for the schemes of chaotic communication known already. The main ideas of the proposed method are illustrated by the example of coupled Rössler systems used both transmitter and receiver.     

Fault tolerant quantum secure direct communication with quantum encryption against collective noise

We present two novel quantum secure direct communication(QSDC) protocols over different collective-noise channels.Different from the previous QSDC schemes over collective-noise channels,which are all source-encrypting protocols,our two protocols are based on channel-encryption.In both schemes,two authorized users first share a sequence of EPR pairs as their reusable quantum key.Then they use their quantum key to encrypt and decrypt the secret message carried by the decoherence-free states over the collective-noise channel.In theory,the intrinsic efficiencies of both protocols are high since there is no need to consume any entangled states including both the quantum key and the information carriers except the ones used for eavesdropping checks.For checking eavesdropping,the two parties only need to perform two-particle measurements on the decoy states during each round.Finally,we make a security analysis of our two protocols and demonstrate that they are secure.     

Faithful deterministic secure quantum communication and authentication protocol based on hyperentanglement against collective noise

Higher channel capacity and security are difficult to reach in a noisy channel. The loss of photons and the distortion of the qubit state are caused by noise. To solve these problems, in our study, a hyperentangled Bell state is used to design faithful deterministic secure quantum communication and authentication protocol over collective-rotation and collective-dephasing noisy channel, which doubles the channel capacity compared with using an ordinary Bell state as a carrier; a logical hyperentangled Bell state immune to collective-rotation and collective-dephasing noise is constructed. The secret message is divided into several parts to transmit, however the identity strings of Alice and Bob are reused. Unitary operations are not used.     

Deterministic secure quantum communication against collective-dephasing noise by using EPR pairs and auxiliary photons

A deterministic secure quantum communication against collective-dephasing noise is proposed. Alice constructs two sets of three-photon bases with EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) pairs in the state |Ψ⁺〉 or |Ψ^-〉 and auxiliary single photons in the state |H〉. And then she sends them to Bob. Bob can get the secret message by his single-photon measurement outcomes and two public message strings from Alice if the quantum channel is secure. The scheme does not need photon storing technique and only single-photon measurement is necessary.     

Fault tolerant deterministic secure quantum communication using logical Bell states against collective noise

This study proposes two novel fault tolerant deterministic secure quantum communication(DSQC) schemes resistant to collective noise using logical Bell states. Either DSQC scheme is constructed based on a new coding function, which is designed by exploiting the property of the corresponding logical Bell states immune to collective-dephasing noise and collective-rotation noise, respectively. The secret message can be encoded by two simple unitary operations and decoded by merely performing Bell measurements, which can make the proposed scheme more convenient in practical applications.Moreover, the strategy of one-step quanta transmission, together with the technique of decoy logical qubits checking not only reduces the influence of other noise existing in a quantum channel, but also guarantees the security of the communication between two legitimate users. The final analysis shows that the proposed schemes are feasible and robust against various well-known attacks over the collective noise channel.     

A quantum secure direct communication protocol based on a five-particle cluster state and classical XOR operation

In order to transmit secure messages, a quantum secure direct communication protocol based on a five-particle cluster state and classical XOR operation is presented. The five-particle cluster state is used to detect eavesdroppers, and the classical XOR operation serving as a one-time-pad is used to ensure the security of the protocol. In the security analysis, the entropy theory method is introduced, and three detection strategies are compared quantitatively by using the constraint between the information that the eavesdroppers can obtain and the interference introduced. If the eavesdroppers intend to obtain all the information, the detection rate of the original ping-pong protocol is 50%; the second protocol, using two particles of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pair as detection particles, is also 50%; while the presented protocol is 89%. Finally, the security of the proposed protocol is discussed, and the analysis results indicate that the protocol in this paper is more secure than the other two.     

Robust quantum secure direct communication and authentication protocol against decoherence noise based on six-qubit DF state

By using six-qubit decoherence-free(DF) states as quantum carriers and decoy states, a robust quantum secure direct communication and authentication(QSDCA) protocol against decoherence noise is proposed. Four six-qubit DF states are used in the process of secret transmission, however only the |0′〉 state is prepared. The other three six-qubit DF states can be obtained by permuting the outputs of the setup for |0′〉. By using the |0′〉 state as the decoy state, the detection rate and the qubit error rate reach 81.3%, and they will not change with the noise level. The stability and security are much higher than those of the ping–pong protocol both in an ideal scenario and a decoherence noise scenario. Even if the eavesdropper measures several qubits, exploiting the coherent relationship between these qubits, she can gain one bit of secret information with probability 0.042.     

Light hadron, charmonium(-like) and bottomonium(-like) states

Hadron physics represents the study of strongly interacting matter in all its manifestations and understanding its properties and interactions. The interest in this field has been revitalized by the discovery of new light hadrons, charmonium- and bottomonium-like states. In this paper, the most recent experimental results from different experiments are reviewed.     

Quantum secure direct communication with Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-type state （GHZ state） over noisy channels

We propose a quantum error-rejection scheme for direct communication with three-qubit quantum codes based on the direct communication of secret messages without any secret key shared in advance. Given the symmetric and independent errors of the transmitted qubits, our scheme can tolerate a bit of error rate up to 33.1%, thus the protocol is deterministically secure against any eavesdropping attack even in a noisy channel.     

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。