Transmission of quantum entanglement will play a crucial role in future networks and long-distance quantum communications. Quantum Key Distribution, the working mechanism of quantum repeaters and the various quantum communication protocols are all based on quantum entanglement. On the other hand, quantum entanglement is extremely fragile and sensitive to the noise of the communication channel over which it has been transmitted. To share entanglement between distant points, high fidelity quantum channels are needed. In practice, these communication links are noisy, which makes it impossible or extremely difficult and expensive to distribute entanglement. In this work we first show that quantum entanglement can be generated by a new idea, exploiting the most natural effect of the communication channels: the noise itself of the link. We prove that the noise transformation of quantum channels that are not able to transmit quantum entanglement can be used to generate distillable (useable) entanglement from classically correlated input. We call this new phenomenon the Correlation Conversion property (CC-property) of quantum channels. The proposed solution does not require any non-local operation or local measurement by the parties, only the use of standard quantum channels. Our results have implications and consequences for the future of quantum communications, and for global-scale quantum communication networks. The discovery also revealed that entanglement generation by local operations is possible.
Transmission of quantum entanglement will play a crucial role in future networks and long-distance quantum communications. Quantum Key Distribution, the working mechanism of quantum repeaters and the various quantum communication protocols are all based on quantum entanglement. On the other hand, quantum entanglement is extremely fragile and sensitive to the noise of the communication channel over which it has been transmitted. To share entanglement between distant points, high fidelity quantum channels are needed. In practice, these communication links are noisy, which makes it impossible or extremely difficult and expensive to distribute entanglement. In this work we first show that quantum entanglement can be generated by a new idea, exploiting the most natural effect of the communication channels: the noise itself of the link. We prove that the noise transformation of quantum channels that are not able to transmit quantum entanglement can be used to generate distillable (useable) entanglement from classically correlated input. We call this new phenomenon the Correlation Conversion property (CC-property) of quantum channels. The proposed solution does not require any non-local operation or local measurement by the parties, only the use of standard quantum channels. Our results have implications and consequences for the future of quantum communications, and for global-scale quantum communication networks. The discovery also revealed that entanglement generation by local operations is possible.
Transmission of quantum entanglement will play a crucial role in future networks and long-distance quantum communications. Quantum Key Distribution, the working mechanism of quantum repeaters and the various quantum communication protocols are all based on quantum entanglement. To share entanglement between distant points, high fidelity quantum channels are needed. In practice, these communication links are noisy, which makes it impossible or extremely difficult and expensive to distribute entanglement. In this work we first show that quantum entanglement can be generated by a new idea, exploiting the most natural effect of the communication channels: the noise itself of the link. We prove that the noise transformation of quantum channels that are not able to transmit quantum entanglement can be used to generate distillable (useable) entanglement from classically correlated input. We call this new phenomenon the Correlation Conversion property (CC-property) of quantum channels. The proposed solution does not require any nonlocal operation or local measurement by the parties, only the use of standard quantum channels. Our results have implications and consequences for the future of quantum communications, and for global-scale quantum communication networks. The discovery also revealed that entanglement generation by local operations is possible.
Quantum entanglement plays a central role in many quantum communication protocols. It allows distant particles to share correlations beyond the limits of classical interactions. Entanglement is essential for superdense coding, quantum teleportation, and secure cryptographic key distribution in quantum communication. It is also a pillar for developing quantum networks, where the management and distribution of entanglement are crucial for connecting distant nodes. Although perfect entanglement is a sought-after ideal, experimental imperatives, including entanglement distribution over long distances, often limit the quality of entangled states. An important question is whether weaker entanglement still offers advantages. First, we study more general tasks than dense coding to show that simpler measurements, combined with entanglement, allow advantageous and sometimes even optimal qubit communication protocols to be obtained. We also demonstrate that simple measurements can generate quantum correlations that cannot be modelled by two classical communication bits and can constitute an optimal protocol with quantum resources. We implement a novel Bell-type inequality tailored for certifying full network non-locality (FNN) to develop certification methods guaranteeing security on an entanglement-based network. Our experiment uses two pairs of polarised entangled photons in a network configuration with three nodes, briefly referred to as a bilocal network scenario. Finally, we show that weakly entangled states can improve communication over a qubit channel using only separate (local) measurements on isotropic non-steerable two-qubit states, without interference, of individual photons, across two communication tasks: secret sharing and its stochastic variant.
Quantum correlations as the resource for quantum communication can be distributed over long distances by quantum repeaters. In this Letter, we introduce the notion of a noisy quantum repeater, and examine its role in quantum communication. Quantum correlations shared through noisy quantum repeaters are then characterized and their secrecy properties are studied. Remarkably, noisy quantum repeaters naturally introduce private states in the key distillation scenario, and consequently key distillation protocols are demonstrated to be more tolerant.
Entanglement distribution is key to the success of secure communication schemes based on quantum mechanics, and there is a strong need for an ultimate architecture able to overcome the limitations of recent proposals such as those based on entanglement percolation or quantum repeaters. In this work we provide a broad theoretical background for the development of such technologies. In particular, we investigate the question of whether entanglement distribution is more efficient if some amount of entanglement---or some amount of correlations in general---is available prior to the transmission stage of the protocol. We show that in the presence of noise the answer to this question strongly depends on the type of noise and on the way the entanglement is quantified. On the one hand, subadditive entanglement measures do not show an advantage of preshared correlations if entanglement is established via combinations of single-qubit Pauli channels. On the other hand, based on the superadditivity conjecture of distillable entanglement, we provide evidence that this phenomenon occurs for this measure. These results strongly suggest that sending one half of some pure entangled state down a noisy channel is the best strategy for any subadditive entanglement quantifier, thus paving the way to a unified approach for entanglement distribution which does not depend on the nature of noise. We also provide general bounds for entanglement distribution involving quantum discord and present a counterintuitive phenomenon of the advantage of arbitrarily little entangled states over maximally entangled ones, which may also occur for quantum channels relevant in experiments.
Quantum information science is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the principles and applications of quantum mechanics in information processing. Upcoming quantum technologies promise a range of valuable applications, including powerful simulation of complex systems, enhanced computational capabilities, high-precision sensing and metrology, and secure communication via quantum key distribution. A central concept is entanglement, a unique type of correlation between quantum systems that has no classical counterpart. Entanglement plays a pivotal role in many quantum protocols, particularly as a key resource in quantum communication, where protocols such as distributed quantum computation and secret sharing are executed in a distributed setting. Hence, distributing entanglement over long distances and manipulating it locally is essential for enabling quantum communication applications. However, the effectiveness of such applications is limited by the challenges of transmitting quantum information and maintaining precise control over quantum systems. For example, quantum information carriers, such as photons traveling through optical fibers, may be lost, or the operations performed may not be perfect. Consequently, it is crucial to develop robust tools for distributing and manipulating entanglement in distributed settings in order to fully unlock the capabilities of quantum technologies. In this thesis, we explore the influence of noise on the manipulation of entanglement in entanglement-based quantum networks. First, we examine the noise resilience of various resource states, i.e., pre-established entangled states, used to achieve bipartite or tripartite communication. This is followed by an analysis of a fully asymmetric network scenario, incorporating the noise introduced by the delays from classical messaging within the quantum network. We then propose classical communication protocols to achieve bipartite communication and evaluate their noise impact under the optimization of the arrangement of the pre-established entanglement. In addition, we propose an alternative approach to quantum repeaters, a key device for entanglement distribution, based on growing multipartite states, allowing entanglement to be recycled and patched. All investigations have been carried out employing a novel formalism, also developed in this thesis, for efficiently and accurately simulating noisy quantum processes on classical hardware, with broader applicability beyond quantum communication.