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arXiv:2208.07887 · Physical Review Letters

Almost Qudits in the Prepare-and-Measure Scenario

Jef Pauwels, Stefano Pironio, Erik Woodhead, Armin Tavakoli

Published Dec 16, 2022• 20 citations
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Abstract

Quantum communication is often investigated in scenarios where only the dimension of Hilbert space is known. However, assigning a precise dimension is often an approximation of what is actually a higher-dimensional process. Here, we introduce and investigate quantum information encoded in carriers that nearly, but not entirely, correspond to standard qudits. We demonstrate the relevance of this concept for semi-device-independent quantum information by showing how small higher-dimensional components can significantly compromise the conclusions of established protocols. Then we provide a general method, based on semidefinite relaxations, for bounding the set of almost qudit correlations, and apply it to remedy the demonstrated issues. This method also offers a novel systematic approach to the well-known task of device-independent tests of classical and quantum dimensions with unentangled devices. Finally, we also consider viewing almost qubit systems as a physical resource available to the experimenter and determine the optimal quantum protocol for the well-known random access code.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.129.250504

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Quantum communication is often investigated in scenarios where only the dimension of Hilbert space is known. However, assigning a precise dimension is often an approximation of what is actually a higher-dimensional process. Here, we introduce and investigate quantum information encoded in carriers that nearly, but not entirely, correspond to standard qudits. We demonstrate the relevance of this concept for semi-device-independent quantum information by showing how small higher-dimensional components can significantly compromise the conclusions of established protocols. Then we provide a general method, based on semidefinite relaxations, for bounding the set of almost qudit correlations, and apply it to remedy the demonstrated issues. This method also offers a novel systematic approach to the well-known task of device-independent tests of classical and quantum dimensions with unentangled devices. Finally, we also consider viewing almost qubit systems as a physical resource available to the experimenter and determine the optimal quantum protocol for the well-known random access code.
We investigate the correlations that can arise between Alice and Bob in prepare-and-measure communication scenarios where the source (Alice) and the measurement device (Bob) can share prior entanglement.The paradigmatic example of such a scenario is the quantum dense-coding protocol, where the communication capacity of a qudit can be doubled if a two-qudit entangled state is shared between Alice and Bob.We provide examples of correlations that actually require more general protocols based on higher-dimensional entangled states.This motivates us to investigate the set of correlations that can be obtained from communicating either a classical or a quantum d-dimensional system in the presence of an unlimited amount of entanglement.We show how such correlations can be characterized by a hierarchy of semidefinite programming relaxations by reducing the problem to a noncommutative polynomial optimization problem.We also introduce an alternative relaxation hierarchy based on the notion of informationally restricted quantum correlations, which, though it represents a strict (nonconverging) relaxation scheme, is less computationally demanding.As an application, we introduce device-independent tests of the dimension of classical and quantum systems that, in contrast to previous results, do not make the implicit assumption that Alice and Bob share no entanglement.We also establish several relations between communication with and without entanglement as resources for creating correlations.
An absolutely entangled set (AES) is a collection of states for which at least one member remains entangled under any choice of global unitary transformation. We develop a semi-device-independent framework for certifying this property from dimensionally bounded prepare-and-measure correlations. A witness value above the maximum attainable with separable preparations of a given dimension rules out every non-AES realization. To upperbound this limit, we construct a semidefinite-programming (SDP) hierarchy tailored to separable preparations. For a two-qubit random-access-code witness, the SDP upper bound and the heuristic lower bound coincide to the reported precision, yielding a concrete AES certification. We also formulate a general construction of witnesses for extended preparation sets containing target pure-state AESs. Examples based on equiangular tight frames, a minimal AES, and mutually unbiased bases further illustrate the scope of the method. In summary, our results establish a systematic and experimentally feasible approach to the certification of AESs in semi-device-independent quantum information protocols.
The semi-device-independent approach provides a framework for prepare-and-measure quantum protocols using devices whose behavior must not be characterized nor trusted, except for a single assumption on the dimension of the Hilbert space characterizing the quantum carriers. Here, we propose instead to constrain the quantum carriers through a bound on the mean value of a well-chosen observable. This modified assumption is physically better motivated than a dimension bound and closer to the description of actual experiments. In particular, we consider quantum optical schemes where the source emits quantum states described in an infinite-dimensional Fock space and model our assumption as an upper bound on the average photon number in the emitted states. We characterize the set of correlations that may be exhibited in the simplest possible scenario compatible with our new framework, based on two energy-constrained state preparations and a two-outcome measurement. Interestingly, we uncover the existence of quantum correlations exceeding the set of classical correlations that can be produced by devices behaving in a purely pre-determined fashion (possibly including shared randomness). This feature suggests immediate applications to certified randomness generation. Along this line, we analyze the achievable correlations in several prepare-and-measure optical schemes with a mean photon number constraint and demonstrate that they allow for the generation of certified randomness. Our simplest optical scheme works by the on-off keying of an attenuated laser source followed by photocounting. It opens the path to more sophisticated energy-constrained semi-device-independent quantum cryptography protocols, such as quantum key distribution.
A key aspect in quantum information is to understand the advantage offered by quantum systems over classical ones in communication tasks. In recent years, a fundamental approach to this problem has been developed, focusing on quantum correlations in prepare-and-measure scenarios. Inspired by the developments in Bell nonlocality and device-independent information processing, this line of research aims to characterize the possibilities and limits of quantum systems for communication, in particular to precisely capture the advantage they offer over classical systems. In addition to fundamental insights, these ideas also underpin the concept of semi-device-independent quantum information processing. Exploring trade-offs between security, performance and ease-of-implementation, this approach opens promising directions for novel quantum information processing technologies and devices. A number of protocols and proof-of-principle demonstrations have been reported in recent years, in particular for quantum randomness certification and key distribution. Here, we provide a comprehensive introduction to quantum prepare-and-measure correlations and semi-device independent applications.
The quantum prepare-and-measure scenario has been studied under various physical assumptions on the emitted states. Here, we first discuss how different assumptions are conceptually and formally related. We then identify one that can serve as a relaxation of all others, corresponding to a limitation on the one-shot accessible information of the state ensemble. This motivates us to study the optimal state discrimination probability of a source subject to these various physical assumptions. We derive general and tight bounds for states restricted by their quantum dimension, their vacuum component, an arbitrary uniform overlap, the magnitude of higher-dimensional signals and the experimenter's trust in their device. Our results constitute a first step towards a more unified picture of semi-device-independent quantum information processing.
While fully device-independent security in (BB84-like) prepare-and-measure quantum key distribution (QKD) is impossible, it can be guaranteed against individual attacks in a semi-device-independent (SDI) scenario, wherein no assumptions are made on the characteristics of the hardware used except for an upper bound on the dimension of the communicated system. Studying security under such minimal assumptions is especially relevant in the context of the recent quantum hacking attacks wherein the eavesdroppers can not only construct the devices used by the communicating parties but are also able to remotely alter their behavior. In this work, we study the security of a SDIQKD protocol based on the prepare-and-measure quantum implementation of a well-known cryptographic primitive, the random access code (RAC). We consider imperfect detectors and establish the critical values of the security parameters (the observed success probability of the RAC and the detection efficiency) required for guaranteeing security against eavesdroppers with and without quantum memory. Furthermore, we suggest a minimal characterization of the preparation device in order to lower the requirements for establishing a secure key.