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arXiv:2603.20035

Full Network Nonlocality Based Security In Quantum Key Distribution

Kaushiki Mukherjee

quant-phSubmitted Mar 20, 2026• Announced Mar 23, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Mar 20, 2026v2 · Sep 22, 2026
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Abstract

In the last decade research of quantum nonlocality has moved beyond the regime of standard Bell nonlocality to consider network-based experimental set-ups involving multiple independent sources. Notion of full network nonlocality has emerged as some truly network phenomena that cannot be realized in traditional Bell experiments. Present work manifests utility of such form of truly network non-classicality in designing a four partite network-based entanglement assisted quantum key distribution protocol. To be more precise, security of the protocol relies upon full network nonlocality detection via violation of some suitable trilocal inequality. Based on the quantum bit error rate and violation of trilocal inequality, arbitrary two qubit entangled states are characterized in accordance with their utility in successfully executing the protocol. Intuitively, owing to connected structure of entangled sources, any genuine form of network nonlocality may offer advantage over standard Bell nonlocality for designing secure key distribution protocols. To establish that as a fact, another QKD protocol relying upon Bell-CHSH nonlocality detection in all pairs of sender and a receiver party is designed. The former turns out to be more secure compared to the latter. Importantly, while the quantum bit error rate can be less than 14.6% exploiting Bell-CHSH nonlocality, it can be reduced below 13.7% by exploiting full network nonlocality.

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In the last decade research of quantum nonlocality has moved beyond the regime of standard Bell nonlocality to consider network-based experimental set-ups involving multiple independent sources. Notion of full network nonlocality has emerged as some truly network phenomena that cannot be realized in traditional Bell experiments. Present work manifests utility of such form of truly network non-classicality in designing a four partite network-based entanglement assisted quantum key distribution protocol. To be more precise, security of the protocol relies upon full network nonlocality detection via violation of some suitable trilocal inequality. Based on the quantum bit error rate and violation of trilocal inequality, arbitrary two qubit entangled states are characterized in accordance with their utility in successfully executing the protocol. Intuitively, owing to connected structure of entangled sources, any genuine form of network nonlocality may offer advantage over standard Bell nonlocality for designing secure key distribution protocols. To establish that as a fact, another QKD protocol relying upon Bell-CHSH nonlocality detection in all pairs of sender and a receiver party is designed. The former turns out to be more secure compared to the latter. Importantly, while the quantum bit error rate can be less than 14.6% exploiting Bell-CHSH nonlocality, it can be reduced below 13.7% by exploiting full network nonlocality.
Violation of Bell's inequality has been the mainspring for secure key generation in an entanglement assisted Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol. Various contributions have relied on the violation of Bell inequalities to build an appropriate QKD protocol. Residing between Bell nonlocality and entanglement, there exists a hybrid trait of correlations, namely correlations exhibited through the violation of steering inequalities. However, such correlations have not been put to use in QKD protocols as much as their stronger counterpart, the Bell violations. In the present work, we show that the violations of the Cavalcanti–Jones–Wiseman–Reid (CJWR) steering inequalities can act as key ingredients in an entanglement assisted QKD protocol. We work with arbitrary two-qubit entangled states, and characterize them by their utility in such protocols. The characterization is based on the quantum bit error rate and violation of the CJWR inequality. Furthermore, we show that subsequent applications of local filtering operations on initially entangled states exhibiting no violation, lead to violations necessary for the successful implementation of the protocol. An additional vindication of our protocol is provided by the use of absolutely Bell–Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (Bell–CHSH) local states, states which remain Bell–CHSH local even under global unitary operations. Quanta 2023; 12: 1–21.
Quantum entanglement is a unique property of quantum particles. It can correlate them in such a way, that further correlations to an additional unwanted party is prevented. This renders quantum theory as the prime candidate to implement a secure distribution of an encryption key. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is dedicated to this task. A striking feature of correlations in a statistical experiment is, that they can, in principle, always be approximated. Even more so, correlations can be obtained without a detailed knowledge about the underlying physical process that generated the experimental data. This no-characterization approach is at the heart of the device-independent (DI) paradigm. Here, Bell inequalities are an imperative tool to detect nonlocal correlations, which are necessary for a DI secret key. One central subject of this thesis is multipartite DIQKD and the implications of Bell nonlocality in this context. Any DIQKD protocol involves test rounds in which the violation of a Bell inequality is checked. For multipartite DIQKD, however, not all Bell inequalities are suitable. We identify the crucial properties a Bell test requires to be a viable option. In this light, a published protocol for multipartite DIQKD is examined. We establish an incompatibility which is inherent to the proposed Bell test in combination with the required quantum states. This leads us to the conclusion, that the proposed protocol necessarily aborts. In a subsequent work, we develop a family of multipartite Bell inequalities, specifically tailored to the task of DI conference key agreement (CKA). Several features of this Bell inequality are analytically characterized. In addition, we prove its usefulness for the purposes of DICKA. To this end, semidefinite programming techniques are employed and extended to the multipartite scenario which allows us to quantify asymptotic DI conference key rates. In a second part, we explore the challenges of implementing (bipartite) long-distance DIQKD with quantum repeaters. For two repeater protocols, we describe how experimental parameters manifest themselves in DI secret-key rates. In doing so, we shed light on the fundamental differences between the usual and the DI scenario and we benchmark the threshold requirements of quantum devices to make profitable DI secret-key rates feasible. Finally, we develop a general method to describe in a non-DI setting the propagation of an important class of errors through quantum circuits in arbitrary dimensions. With this, we discuss the potential of error-corrected quantum repeaters to overcome fundamental point-to-point limitations.
The nonlocality arising in a multiparty network involving multiple independent sources radically differs from the standard multipartite Bell nonlocality involving a single source. The notion of the full network nonlocality (FNN) [A. Pozas-Kerstjens et al., Full network nonlocality, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 010403 (2022)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.128.010403] characterizes the quantum correlations that cannot be reproduced by a local-nonlocal model featuring one local source and the rest of nonlocal no-signaling sources. However, the demonstration of FNN was limited to bilocal and trilocal star-shaped network scenarios involving three or two dichotomic measurements for edge parties. In this Letter, we first demonstrate that a large class of prevailing network inequalities does not exhibit FNN. We then introduce an elegant set of arbitrary-party and unbounded-input network inequalities in star-shaped and linear-chain networks whose optimal quantum violation exhibits FNN, certifying that the nonlocality is genuinely distributed to the entire network. Contrasting to existing demonstrations of FNN that inevitably require fixed-input and four-output elegant joint measurements for the central party, our generalized inequalities are more experimentally friendly, requiring only two output measurements. Moreover, our derivation of optimal quantum violation is fully analytic and devoid of assuming the dimension of the quantum system, thereby showcasing its potential for device-independent self-testing.
Network Nonlocality is an advanced study of quantum nonlocality that comprises network structure beyond Bell's theorem. The development of quantum networks has the potential to bring a lot of technological applications in sevaral quantum information processing tasks. Here, we are focusing on how the role of the independence of the measurement choices of the end parties in a network works and can be used to enhance the security in a quantum network. In both three-parties two-sources bilocal network and four-parties three-sources star network scenarios, we are able to show, a practical way to understand the relaxation of the assumptions to enhance a real security protocol if someone wants to breach in a network communications. Theoratically, we have proved that by relaxing the independence of the measurement choices of only one end party we can create a Standard Network Nonlocality(SNN) and more stronger Full Network Nonlocality(FNN) and we can get maximum quantum violation by the classical no-signalling local model. We are able to distinguish between two types of network nonlocality in the sense that the FNN is stronger than SNN, i.e., FNN states all the sources in a network need to distribute nonlocal resources.
Quantum theory admits correlations between distant parties that are stronger than those permitted by classical physics. Such correlations, which are termed nonlocal, have been studied extensively since their discovery by John Bell in 1964. This thesis makes progress on various aspects of quantum nonlocality both from a foundational and practical perspective. We begin by studying a foundational question on the relationship between nonlocality and quantum entanglement. We show that the strongest form of nonlocality, also called pseudo-telepathy or full nonlocality, can be demonstrated by non-maximally entangled states and prove that all pure entangled states can demonstrate full nonlocality in the many-copy scenario. We also provide non-trivial examples of fully nonlocal mixed states. We then turn to the study of another phenomenon in quantum theory which is essential in almost all demonstrations of non-classicality—measurement incompatibility. We generalise the notion of measurement incompatibility and show that our notion has strong operational relevance: it captures the randomness in the outcomes of an untrusted measurement device against a classical adversary. We use our formalism to derive new bounds on the experimental losses and noise that can be tolerated in quantum communication protocols before they become insecure. We then begin a systematic study of routed Bell experiments, a variant of standard Bell experiments that was introduced to demonstrate nonlocality over long distances in the presence of losses and noise. We formalize the notion of genuine long-range quantum correlations in routed Bell experiments and develop numerical and analytical tools to characterize them. We show that routed Bell experiments allow for the demonstration of long-range quantum correlations at arbitrarily large distances using only entangled qubit states. We then prove the security of fully device-independent (DI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols based on routed Bell tests and quantify the resulting improvement in key rate and distance compared to standard DI QKD protocols.