Device-Independent Quantum Information Processing: A Simplified Analysis

Rotem Arnon-Friedman

Rotem Arnon-Friedman

The field of device-independent (DI) quantum information processing concerns itself with devising and analysing protocols, such as quantum key distribution, without referring to the quality of the physical devices utilised to execute the protocols. Instead, the analysis is based on the observed correlations that arise during a repeated interaction with the devices and, in particular, their ability to violate the so called Bell inequalities. Since the analysis of DI protocols holds irrespectively of the underlying physical device, it implies that any device can be used to execute the protocols: If the apparatus is of poor quality, the users of the protocol will detect it and abort; otherwise, they will accomplish their goal. This strong statement comes at a price-- the analysis of DI protocols is, a priori, extremely challenging. The thesis presents an approach that can be taken to simplify the analysis of DI information processing protocols. The idea is the following: Instead of analysing the most general device leading to the observed correlations, one should first analyse a significantly simpler device that, in each interaction with the user, behaves in an identical way, independently of all other interactions. We call such a device an independently and identically distributed (IID) device. As the next step, special techniques are used to prove that, without loss of generality, the analysis of the IID device implies similar results for the most general device. These are termed reductions to IID. We present two mathematical techniques that can be used as reductions to IID in the DI setting, each accompanied by a showcase-application that exemplifies the reduction's usage and benefits. Performing the analysis via a reduction to IID leads to simpler proofs and significant quantitive improvements, matching the tight results proven when analysing IID devices.

Xiongfeng Ma, Norbert Lütkenhaus

Security proofs of quantum key distribution (QKD) often require post-processing schemes to simplify the data structure, and hence the security proof. We show a generic method to improve resulting secure key rates by partially reversing the simplifying post-processing for error correction purposes. We apply our method to the security analysis of device-independent QKD schemes and of detection-device-independent QKD schemes, where in both cases one is typically required to assign binary values even to lost signals. In the device-independent case, the loss tolerance threshold is cut down by our method from 92.4% to 90.9%. The lowest tolerable transmittance of the detection-device-independent scheme can be improved from 78.0% to 65.9%

Jean-Daniel Bancal

Yuanyuan Zhao, Chao Zhang, Shuming Cheng +10 more

Entanglement lies at the heart of quantum mechanics, and has been identified as an essential resource for diverse applications in quantum information. If entanglement could be verified without any trust in the devices of observers, i.e., in a device-independent (DI) way, then high security could be guaranteed for various quantum information processing tasks. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a DI protocol to certify the presence of entanglement based on Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) steering. We first establish the DI verification framework by taking advantage of a measurement-device-independent technique and self-testing, which is able to verify all bipartite EPR-steerable states. In the scenario of three-measurement settings per party, the protocol is robust in tolerance of inefficient measurements and imperfect self-testing. Moreover, a four-photon experiment is implemented for verification beyond Bell nonlocal states. Our work enables further insight into quantum physics and could facilitate realistic implementation of secure quantum information processing tasks.

Valerio Scarani