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arXiv:2107.13023

Perhaps they are everywhere? Undetectable distributed quantum computation and communication for alien civilizations can be established using thermal light from stars

Terry Rudolph

Published Jul 27, 2021• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We show that free-space diffraction of photons distributes highly useful entanglement: the receivers of the propagated modes can do a distributed quantum computation using only linear optics and photon counting. The distributed computation requires classical communication between receivers, however, similar to standard measurement-based computation, that communication is of purely random outcomes and so can be indistinguishable from noise. The speculation in the title arises from the further observation that the natural way for a circumspect civilization to hide their photonic entanglement distribution is to use the thermal light already being emitted from the various stars they visit. This requires them knowing the number of photons in the modes they have chosen to use, and as such they would need to perform a quantum non-demolition measurement of photon number. Because the thermal light they are measuring is diagonal in the number basis even this process can be rendered in principle indiscernible to those of us excluded from the conversation.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2107.13023

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This paper explores a novel approach to distributed computing leveraging the principles of quantum entanglement. The core claim is that entanglement can be utilized to achieve parallel execution of distributed computing tasks, effectively mitigating the communication bottlenecks inherent in traditional distributed systems. The proposed mechanism involves decomposing complex computational tasks into smaller, manageable sub-tasks, assigning these sub-tasks to distinct quantum processors, and employing entanglement to synchronize intermediate results. This approach aims to exploit the inherent parallelism of quantum mechanics to achieve computational speedups unattainable through classical communication alone. The paper details the theoretical framework, outlining the key components and considerations for implementing such a system, focusing on the challenges and potential benefits of utilizing entangled quantum states for distributed computation. We present a conceptual model, highlighting the potential for overcoming limitations in bandwidth-constrained networks and demonstrating a pathway towards scalable quantum distributed computing architectures. The primary goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing quantum entanglement as a fundamental building block for a new paradigm in distributed computation. ---

•Aug 29, 2026•0 citations
We show that free-space diffraction of photons distributes highly useful entanglement: the receivers of the propagated modes can do a distributed quantum computation using only linear optics and photon counting. The distributed computation requires classical communication between receivers, however, similar to standard measurement-based computation, that communication is of purely random outcomes and so can be indistinguishable from noise. The speculation in the title arises from the further observation that the natural way for a circumspect civilization to hide their photonic entanglement distribution is to use the thermal light already being emitted from the various stars they visit. This requires them knowing the number of photons in the modes they have chosen to use, and as such they would need to perform a quantum non-demolition measurement of photon number. Because the thermal light they are measuring is diagonal in the number basis even this process can be rendered in principle indiscernible to those of us excluded from the conversation.
In a distributed quantum computer, scalability is accomplished by networking together many elementary nodes. Typically the network is optical and internode entanglement involves photon detection. In complex networks the entanglement fidelity may be degraded by the twin problems of photon loss and dark counts. Here we describe an entanglement protocol which can achieve high fidelity even when these issues are arbitrarily severe; indeed the method succeeds with finite probability even if the photon detectors are entirely removed from the network. An experimental demonstration should be possible with existing technologies.
The natural choice of physical qubit for quantum communication is the photon: a photon can be transmitted quickly from the sender to a distant receiver and the technology for creating, manipulating, distributing, and measuring light pulses is well established. Many of these classical techniques can also be employed for quantum communication protocols. We will therefore focus our attention on optical setups for quantum communication. We will study a number of optical setups in the next few sections and use the conventions introduced in Chapter 4 to analyze them. In particular, we will assume that the qubits are encoded in the degrees of freedom of a single photon. Some of the main technical challenges in quantum communication arise from this need to work with single photon pulses. For instance, photons do not interact with each other in vacuum or linear media, and interactions between two photons in non-linear optical media are relatively small, so that realizing entangling two photon gates via coherent interactions is a challenging task. The quantum communication schemes discussed here circumvent this technical problem to a large extent. They only use non-linear optical materials for parametric down-conversion to create Bell-pairs of photons and then exploit standard linear optical devices and photo-detectors to manipulate them. No further non-linear entangling gates are required. Parametric down-conversion In non-linear optical media a single photon can be down-converted into a pair of photons. In this coherent process the incoming photon is destroyed and two photons of lower energy are created.
Abstract Distributing entangled photon pairs over noisy channels is an important task for various quantum information protocols. Encoding an entangled state in a decoherence-free subspace (DFS) formed by multiple photons is a promising way to circumvent the phase fluctuations and polarisation rotations in optical fibres. Recently, it has been shown that the use of a counter-propagating coherent light as an ancillary photon enables us to faithfully distribute entangled photon with success probability proportional to the transmittance of the optical fibres. Several proof-of-principle experiments have been demonstrated, in which entangled photon pairs from a sender side and the ancillary photon from a receiver side originate from the same laser source. In addition, bulk optics have been used to mimic the noises in optical fibres. Here, we demonstrate a DFS-based entanglement distribution over 1 km optical fibre using DFS formed by using fully independent light sources at the telecom band, and obtain a high-fidelity entangled state. This shows that the DFS-based scheme protects the entanglement against collective noise in 1 km optical fibre. In the experiment, we utilise an interference between asynchronous photons from continuous wave pumped spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) and mode-locked coherent light pulse. After performing spectral and temporal filtering, the SPDC photons and light pulse are spectrally indistinguishable. This property allows us to observe high-visibility interference without performing active synchronisation between fully independent sources.
Barcoding photons, atoms, and any quantum states can provide a host of functionalities that could benefit future quantum communication systems and networks beyond today's imagination. As a significant application of barcoding photons, we introduce code division multiple-access (CDMA) communication systems for various applications. In this context, we introduce and discuss the fundamental principles of a novel quantum CDMA (QCDMA) technique based on spectrally encoding and decoding of continuous-mode quantum light pulses. In particular, we present the mathematical models of various QCDMA modules that are fundamental in describing an ideal and typical QCDMA system, such as quantum signal sources, quantum spectral encoding phase operators, M×M quantum broadcasting star-coupler, quantum spectral phase decoding operators, and the quantum receivers. Following the above discussions, we then elaborate on a QCDMA system with M users. In describing a QCDMA system, this paper considers a unified approach where the input continuous-mode quantum light pulses can take on any form of pure states such as quantum coherent (Glauber) states and quantum number (Fock) states. The mathematical presentation is independent of the form of the input pure quantum states. We show that the spectrally encoded quantum states of the light at the quantum star-coupler output are not, in general, factorized states, except for input Glauber states. For input number states, one can observe features like entanglement and quantum interference. Moreover and interestingly, as a consequence of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the quantum signals sent by photon number states obtain complete phase uncertainty at the time of measurement. Therefore, at the receiver output, the multiaccess inter-signal interference vanishes. Due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the received signal intensity at the photodetector's output, right at the time of measurement, changes from coherent detection scheme for input Glauber states to incoherent detection scheme for input number states. We also would like to highlight that the mathematical models and tools developed in this paper, in the context of QCDMA, become very useful for developing and analyzing other quantum multiple-access techniques based on wavelength, space and time domain. Furthermore, our mathematical model is valuable in signal design and data modulations of point-to-point quantum communications, quantum pulse shaping, and quantum radar signals and systems where the inputs are continuous mode quantum signals. QCDMA may open up novel possibilities for various quantum technologies such as data privacy, distributed quantum computation, quantum internet, and anti-jamming quantum communication systems.
This paper explores a novel approach to distributed computing leveraging the principles of quantum entanglement. The core claim is that entanglement can be utilized to achieve parallel execution of distributed computing tasks, effectively mitigating the communication bottlenecks inherent in traditional distributed systems. The proposed mechanism involves decomposing complex computational tasks into smaller, manageable sub-tasks, assigning these sub-tasks to distinct quantum processors, and employing entanglement to synchronize intermediate results. This approach aims to exploit the inherent parallelism of quantum mechanics to achieve computational speedups unattainable through classical communication alone. The paper details the theoretical framework, outlining the key components and considerations for implementing such a system, focusing on the challenges and potential benefits of utilizing entangled quantum states for distributed computation. We present a conceptual model, highlighting the potential for overcoming limitations in bandwidth-constrained networks and demonstrating a pathway towards scalable quantum distributed computing architectures. The primary goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing quantum entanglement as a fundamental building block for a new paradigm in distributed computation. ---