Search Results (8)

Classical mixtures of quantum states often give rise to decoherence and are generally considered detrimental to quantum processing. However, in the framework of sequential measurement, such mixtures can be beneficial for state discrimination. We investigate the sequential discrimination of mixed states and compare the results with those of pure states under the condition of equal fidelity. It is found that the successful probability of the mixed-state protocol is superior to the pure one under the equal-fidelity condition. It is shown that the difference between the sequential discrimination of pure and mixed states is more reliable under the equal-fidelity condition than under single-shot discrimination, and this difference increases with the mixability of the initial mixed states. For scenarios in which classical communication is allowed, the optimal successful probability of pure-state discriminations is larger than that for mixed states on the contrary. We also show that the classical mixture of basic vectors from quantum decoherence has a subtle impact on the communication channel induced by the coincidence of the maximal mutual information and optimal successful probability of sequential discrimination for pure states. Full article

Postselective transformations of quantum states is a broader class of operations than deterministic quantum channels. Here, we describe the possibility of increasing the success probability of postselective operations by using additional information, which has a form of pure quantum states and should not be changed in case of success. We describe the conditions under which assistance becomes useful, and provide application of our method which improves the efficiency of photon number splitting attack for a variant of SARG04 quantum key distribution protocol. In our attack scenario, one extra photon, which is unchanged, plays the role of assistance. Full article

Distributed quantum information processing protocols such as quantum entanglement distillation and quantum state discrimination rely on local operations and classical communications (LOCC). Existing LOCC-based protocols typically assume the availability of ideal, noiseless, communication channels. In this paper, we study the case in which classical communication takes place over noisy channels, and we propose to address the design of LOCC protocols in this setting via the use of quantum machine learning tools. We specifically focus on the important tasks of quantum entanglement distillation and quantum state discrimination, and implement local processing through parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) that are optimized to maximize the average fidelity and average success probability in the respective tasks, while accounting for communication errors. The introduced approach, Noise Aware-LOCCNet (NA-LOCCNet), is shown to have significant advantages over existing protocols designed for noiseless communications. Full article

Underwater communication based on the use of optical quantum resources has attracted a lot of attention in the last five years due to the potential advantages offered by quantum states of light. In this context, we propose to operate in the mesoscopic intensity regime, where the optical states are well populated and the employed detectors have photon-number resolution. By exploiting these features, we demonstrate that a novel communication protocol based on the experimental quantification of nonclassicality of mesoscopic twin-beam states can be used to transmit binary signals encoded in two single-mode pseudothermal states with different mean values through a Jerlov type I water channel. The experimental results are in perfect agreement with the developed theoretical model, and the feasibility of the protocol is also investigated as a function of the data samples corresponding to each one of the two signals. The good quality of the results encourages a more realistic implementation of the protocol, also exploring the maximum distance at which the quantum states remain nonclassical and thus can be still properly discriminated. Full article

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-user access in wireless optical communication based on the quantum detection of the coherent state. In this case, the coherent states are used as the signal carrier and a technique of quantum detection is applied to distinguish between signals from different users. To accomplish this task, two main quantum measurement methods are introduced; one is minimum error discrimination (MED), and the other is unambiguous state discrimination (USD). The theoretical derivation implies that the two methods can both distinguish between the signals from different users efficiently when the average photon number is large enough. Typically, the numerical result shows that in the two-user case, the channel capacity will approach the theoretical maximum limit when the average photon number is greater than 2.5 for MED and 5 for USD in the absence of noise. The MED gains more channel capacity than the USD at the same average photon number. However, the USD wins the error-correction scene with its free-error capability. Furthermore, the detection error probability and channel capacity for the USD with the thermal noise are examined. The result shows that increasing the signal average photon number can continue the USD’s advantage of error-free detection even if in the presence of thermal noise. In addition, compared with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), the bit error rate (BER) against signal-to-noise rate (SNR) performance of USD has been improved. Full article

The encoding of classical data in a physical support can be done up to some level of accuracy due to errors and the imperfection of the writing process. Moreover, some degradation of the stored data can happen over time because of physical or chemical instability of the system. Any readout strategy should take into account this natural degree of uncertainty and minimize its effect. An example are optical digital memories, where the information is encoded in two values of reflectance of a collection of cells. Quantum reading using entanglement, has been shown to enhances the readout of an ideal optical memory, where the two level are perfectly characterized. In this work, we analyse the case of imperfect construction of the memory and propose an optimized quantum sensing protocol to maximize the readout accuracy in presence of imprecise writing. The proposed strategy is feasible with current technology and is relatively robust to detection and optical losses. Beside optical memories, this work have implications for identification of pattern in biological system, in spectrophotometry, and whenever the information can be extracted from a transmission/reflection optical measurement. Full article

A general framework describing the statistical discrimination of an ensemble of quantum channels is given by the name quantum reading. Several tools can be applied in quantum reading to reduce the error probability in distinguishing the ensemble of channels. Classical and quantum codes can be envisioned for this goal. The aim of this paper is to present a simple but fruitful protocol for this task using classical error-correcting codes. Three families of codes are considered: Reed–Solomon codes, BCH codes, and Reed–Muller codes. In conjunction with the use of codes, we also analyze the role of the receiver. In particular, heterodyne and Dolinar receivers are taken into consideration. The encoding and measurement schemes are connected by the probing step. As probes, we consider coherent states. In such a simple manner, interesting results are obtained. As we show, there is a threshold below which using codes surpass optimal and sophisticated schemes for any fixed rate and code. BCH codes in conjunction with Dolinar receiver turn out to be the optimal strategy for error mitigation in quantum reading. Full article

Die-rolling is the cryptographic task where two mistrustful, remote parties wish to generate a random D-sided die-roll over a communication channel. Optimal quantum protocols for this task have been given by Aharon and Silman (New Journal of Physics, 2010) but are based on optimal weak coin-flipping protocols that are currently very complicated and not very well understood. In this paper, we first present very simple classical protocols for die-rolling that have decent (and sometimes optimal) security, which is in stark contrast to coin-flipping, bit-commitment, oblivious transfer, and many other two-party cryptographic primitives. We also present quantum protocols based on the idea of integer-commitment, a generalization of bit-commitment, where one wishes to commit to an integer. We analyze these protocols using semidefinite programming and finally give protocols that are very close to Kitaev’s lower bound for any $D\ge 3$ . Lastly, we briefly discuss an application of this work to the quantum state discrimination problem. Full article