Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2110.13707 · Scientific Reports

Quantum cryptographic resource distillation and entanglement

Minjin Choi, Soojoon Lee

Published Oct 26, 2021• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We look into multipartite quantum states on which quantum cryptographic protocols including quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing can be perfectly performed, and define the quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate as the asymptotic rate at which such multipartite state can be distilled from a given multipartite state. Investigating several relations between entanglement and the rate, we show that there exists a multipartite bound entangled state whose quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate is strictly positive, that is, there exists a multipartite entangled state which is not distillable, but can be useful for quantum cryptography such as quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-021-00547-5

Related papers

Rates of Multipartite Entanglement Transformations

Alexander Streltsov, Clément Meignant, Jens Eisert

The theory of the asymptotic manipulation of pure bipartite quantum systems can be considered completely understood: the rates at which bipartite entangled states can be asymptotically transformed into each other are fully determined by a single number each, the respective entanglement entropy. In the multipartite setting, similar questions of the optimally achievable rates of transforming one pure state into another are notoriously open. This seems particularly unfortunate in the light of the revived interest in such questions due to the perspective of experimentally realizing multipartite quantum networks. In this Letter, we report substantial progress by deriving simple upper and lower bounds on the rates that can be achieved in asymptotic multipartite entanglement transformations. These bounds are based on ideas of entanglement combing and state merging. We identify cases where the bounds coincide and hence provide the exact rates. As an example, we bound rates at which resource states for the cryptographic scheme of quantum secret sharing can be distilled from arbitrary pure tripartite quantum states. This result provides further scope for quantum internet applications, supplying tools to study the implementation of multipartite protocols over quantum networks.

arXiv:1709.09693•Physical Review Letters•Aug 17, 2020•17 citations

Secret Key Rate of Quantum Key Distribution Assuming Worst-Case Attacks

Amelie Sophia Ettinger, Marcel Kokorsch, Guido K.E. Dietl

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) represents a revolutionary approach in the field of cryptography, offering the potential for unconditional security by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics. This paper addresses the crucial issue of calculating secure key rates in entanglement based QKD systems. We present a method of key rate calculations that is independent of an eavesdropper's quantum system, relying solely on the quantum states shared between two communicating parties under the assumption of a worst-case attack. We undertake a comparison of asymptotic key rates with those observed in the finite regime, in which only a limited number of quantum states are exchanged. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of entanglement distillation on the achievable key rates. By identifying the numerically optimal number of entanglement distillation iterations based on the initial fidelity and the number of exchanged quantum states, we demonstrate how to achieve a balance between the quantity and quality of entangled states, thereby maximizing the secure key rate. Our results show that there is a unique optimum within a defined search range. Moreover, we determine the minimum number of exchanged quantum states necessary to attain a positive key rate and to obtain a desired number of secure key bits, which are both contingent upon the quality of the communication channel. It is anticipated that the insights gained from this work will prove instrumental in the development of optimal routing strategies in quantum communication networks.

International ITG Conference on Systems, Communications and Coding (SCC)•Mar 10, 2025•3 citations

Enhancing distillability of secret keys with entanglement distillation and classical advantage distillation

Shin Sun, Kenneth Goodenough, Daniel Bhatti +2 more

Realizing secure communication between distant parties is one of the main goals of quantum technology. Although quantum key distribution (QKD) promises information-theoretic security for sharing a secret key, the key rate heavily depends on the level of noise in the quantum channel. To overcome the noise, both quantum and classical techniques exist, i.e., entanglement distillation and classical advantage distillation. So far, these techniques have only been used separately from each other. Herein, we present a two-stage distillation scheme concatenating entanglement distillation with classical advantage distillation. For the advantage distillation, we utilize a fixed protocol, specifically, the repetition code; in the case of entanglement distillation, we employ an enumeration algorithm to find an optimal protocol. We test our scheme for noisy entangled states and demonstrate its quantitative advantage: Our two-stage distillation scheme achieves finite key rates even in a high-noise regime where entanglement distillation or advantage distillation alone cannot afford key sharing. We also calculate the security bounds for relevant QKD protocols with our key-distillation scheme and show that they exceed the previous security bounds on the critical quantum bit error rates with only advantage distillation. Since the advantage distillation part does not introduce further requirements for quantum resources other than those required for entanglement distillation, the proposed scheme is well suited for quantum key distribution tasks with entanglement distribution networks.

arXiv:2410.19334•Physical Review A•Sep 11, 2025•3 citations

Private States, Quantum Data Hiding, and the Swapping of Perfect Secrecy

Matthias Christandl, Roberto Ferrara

An important contribution to the understanding of quantum key distribution has been the discovery of entangled states from which secret bits, but no maximally entangled states, can be extracted [Horodecki et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 200501 (2005)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.94.200501]. The construction of those states was based on an intuition that the quantum mechanical phenomena of data hiding and privacy might be related. In this Letter we firmly connect these two phenomena and highlight three aspects of this result. First, we simplify the definition of the secret key rate. Second, we give a formula for the one-way distillable entanglement of certain private states. Third, we consider the problem of extending the distance of quantum key distribution with help of intermediate stations, a setting called the quantum key repeater. We show that for protocols that first distill private states, it is essentially optimal to use the standard quantum repeater protocol based on entanglement distillation and entanglement swapping.

arXiv:1609.04696•Physical Review Letters•Nov 30, 2017•19 citations

Multipartite entanglement and secret key distribution in quantum networks

Masahiro Takeoka, Eneet Kaur, Wojciech Roga +1 more

Distribution and distillation of entanglement over quantum networks is a basic task for Quantum Internet applications. A fundamental question is then to determine the ultimate performance of entanglement distribution over a given network. Although this question has been extensively explored for bipartite entanglement-distribution scenarios, less is known about multipartite entanglement distribution. Here we establish the fundamental limit of distributing multipartite entanglement, in the form of GHZ states, over a quantum network. In particular, we determine the multipartite entanglement distribution capacity of a quantum network, in which the nodes are connected through lossy bosonic quantum channels. This setting corresponds to a practical quantum network consisting of optical links. The result is also applicable to the distribution of multipartite secret key, known as common key, for both a fully quantum network and trusted-node based quantum key distribution network. Our results set a general benchmark for designing a network topology and network quantum repeaters (or key relay in trusted nodes) to realize efficient GHZ state/common key distribution in both fully quantum and trusted-node-based networks. We show an example of how to overcome this limit by introducing a network quantum repeater. Our result follows from an upper bound on distillable GHZ entanglement introduced here, called the "recursive-cut-and-merge" bound, which constitutes major progress on a longstanding fundamental problem in multipartite entanglement theory. This bound allows for determining the distillable GHZ entanglement for a class of states consisting of products of bipartite pure states.

arXiv:1912.10658•Dec 23, 2019•8 citations

Information complementarity in multipartite quantum states and security in cryptography

Anindita Bera, Asutosh Kumar, Debraj Rakshit +3 more

We derive complementarity relations for arbitrary quantum states of multiparty systems of any number of parties and dimensions between the purity of a part of the system and several correlation quantities, including entanglement and other quantum correlations as well as classical and total correlations, of that part with the remainder of the system. We subsequently use such a complementarity relation between purity and quantum mutual information in the tripartite scenario to provide a bound on the secret key rate for individual attacks on a quantum key distribution protocol.

arXiv:1509.07777•Physical Review A•Mar 25, 2016•8 citations
We look into multipartite quantum states on which quantum cryptographic protocols including quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing can be perfectly performed, and define the quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate as the asymptotic rate at which such multipartite state can be distilled from a given multipartite state. Investigating several relations between entanglement and the rate, we show that there exists a multipartite bound entangled state whose quantum cryptographic resource distillable rate is strictly positive, that is, there exists a multipartite entangled state which is not distillable, but can be useful for quantum cryptography such as quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing.
The theory of the asymptotic manipulation of pure bipartite quantum systems can be considered completely understood: the rates at which bipartite entangled states can be asymptotically transformed into each other are fully determined by a single number each, the respective entanglement entropy. In the multipartite setting, similar questions of the optimally achievable rates of transforming one pure state into another are notoriously open. This seems particularly unfortunate in the light of the revived interest in such questions due to the perspective of experimentally realizing multipartite quantum networks. In this Letter, we report substantial progress by deriving simple upper and lower bounds on the rates that can be achieved in asymptotic multipartite entanglement transformations. These bounds are based on ideas of entanglement combing and state merging. We identify cases where the bounds coincide and hence provide the exact rates. As an example, we bound rates at which resource states for the cryptographic scheme of quantum secret sharing can be distilled from arbitrary pure tripartite quantum states. This result provides further scope for quantum internet applications, supplying tools to study the implementation of multipartite protocols over quantum networks.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) represents a revolutionary approach in the field of cryptography, offering the potential for unconditional security by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics. This paper addresses the crucial issue of calculating secure key rates in entanglement based QKD systems. We present a method of key rate calculations that is independent of an eavesdropper's quantum system, relying solely on the quantum states shared between two communicating parties under the assumption of a worst-case attack. We undertake a comparison of asymptotic key rates with those observed in the finite regime, in which only a limited number of quantum states are exchanged. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of entanglement distillation on the achievable key rates. By identifying the numerically optimal number of entanglement distillation iterations based on the initial fidelity and the number of exchanged quantum states, we demonstrate how to achieve a balance between the quantity and quality of entangled states, thereby maximizing the secure key rate. Our results show that there is a unique optimum within a defined search range. Moreover, we determine the minimum number of exchanged quantum states necessary to attain a positive key rate and to obtain a desired number of secure key bits, which are both contingent upon the quality of the communication channel. It is anticipated that the insights gained from this work will prove instrumental in the development of optimal routing strategies in quantum communication networks.
Realizing secure communication between distant parties is one of the main goals of quantum technology. Although quantum key distribution (QKD) promises information-theoretic security for sharing a secret key, the key rate heavily depends on the level of noise in the quantum channel. To overcome the noise, both quantum and classical techniques exist, i.e., entanglement distillation and classical advantage distillation. So far, these techniques have only been used separately from each other. Herein, we present a two-stage distillation scheme concatenating entanglement distillation with classical advantage distillation. For the advantage distillation, we utilize a fixed protocol, specifically, the repetition code; in the case of entanglement distillation, we employ an enumeration algorithm to find an optimal protocol. We test our scheme for noisy entangled states and demonstrate its quantitative advantage: Our two-stage distillation scheme achieves finite key rates even in a high-noise regime where entanglement distillation or advantage distillation alone cannot afford key sharing. We also calculate the security bounds for relevant QKD protocols with our key-distillation scheme and show that they exceed the previous security bounds on the critical quantum bit error rates with only advantage distillation. Since the advantage distillation part does not introduce further requirements for quantum resources other than those required for entanglement distillation, the proposed scheme is well suited for quantum key distribution tasks with entanglement distribution networks.
An important contribution to the understanding of quantum key distribution has been the discovery of entangled states from which secret bits, but no maximally entangled states, can be extracted [Horodecki et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 200501 (2005)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.94.200501]. The construction of those states was based on an intuition that the quantum mechanical phenomena of data hiding and privacy might be related. In this Letter we firmly connect these two phenomena and highlight three aspects of this result. First, we simplify the definition of the secret key rate. Second, we give a formula for the one-way distillable entanglement of certain private states. Third, we consider the problem of extending the distance of quantum key distribution with help of intermediate stations, a setting called the quantum key repeater. We show that for protocols that first distill private states, it is essentially optimal to use the standard quantum repeater protocol based on entanglement distillation and entanglement swapping.
Distribution and distillation of entanglement over quantum networks is a basic task for Quantum Internet applications. A fundamental question is then to determine the ultimate performance of entanglement distribution over a given network. Although this question has been extensively explored for bipartite entanglement-distribution scenarios, less is known about multipartite entanglement distribution. Here we establish the fundamental limit of distributing multipartite entanglement, in the form of GHZ states, over a quantum network. In particular, we determine the multipartite entanglement distribution capacity of a quantum network, in which the nodes are connected through lossy bosonic quantum channels. This setting corresponds to a practical quantum network consisting of optical links. The result is also applicable to the distribution of multipartite secret key, known as common key, for both a fully quantum network and trusted-node based quantum key distribution network. Our results set a general benchmark for designing a network topology and network quantum repeaters (or key relay in trusted nodes) to realize efficient GHZ state/common key distribution in both fully quantum and trusted-node-based networks. We show an example of how to overcome this limit by introducing a network quantum repeater. Our result follows from an upper bound on distillable GHZ entanglement introduced here, called the "recursive-cut-and-merge" bound, which constitutes major progress on a longstanding fundamental problem in multipartite entanglement theory. This bound allows for determining the distillable GHZ entanglement for a class of states consisting of products of bipartite pure states.
We derive complementarity relations for arbitrary quantum states of multiparty systems of any number of parties and dimensions between the purity of a part of the system and several correlation quantities, including entanglement and other quantum correlations as well as classical and total correlations, of that part with the remainder of the system. We subsequently use such a complementarity relation between purity and quantum mutual information in the tripartite scenario to provide a bound on the secret key rate for individual attacks on a quantum key distribution protocol.