Critical infrastructure-including Smart Grids and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks-faces a novel physical-layer vulnerability: synthetic 1.022 MeV dark photon signals generated via electron bremsstrahlung in coherent scattering. These “ghost” modulations induce phase-squeezed vacuum noise, enabling false data injection, grid desynchronization, and decoherence in QKD registers or digital currency ledgers. This paper proposes a unified topological defense architecture integrating a non-empathic Hardened Soldier triage partition with a distributed GHz Haloscope Mesh sink. The Soldier module performs zero-trust “Friend or Foe” identification and redirects kinetic energy away from conventional grounding paths. The Haloscope Mesh-based on USTC Q-band (33.141 GHz) superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities with loaded quality factor QL ≈ 2520 and Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPA)-captures and dissipates sub-harmonics before coupling into QKD or grid timing systems, establishing Topological Silence Zones around critical registers. The protocol ensures infrastructure immunity from the vacuum upward.
Critical infrastructure-including Smart Grids and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks-faces a novel physical-layer vulnerability: synthetic 1.022 MeV dark photon signals generated via electron bremsstrahlung in coherent scattering. These “ghost” modulations induce phase-squeezed vacuum noise, enabling false data injection, grid desynchronization, and decoherence in QKD registers or digital currency ledgers. This paper proposes a unified topological defense architecture integrating a non-empathic Hardened Soldier triage partition with a distributed GHz Haloscope Mesh sink. The Soldier module performs zero-trust “Friend or Foe” identification and redirects kinetic energy away from conventional grounding paths. The Haloscope Mesh-based on USTC Q-band (33.141 GHz) superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities with loaded quality factor QL ≈ 2520 and Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPA)-captures and dissipates sub-harmonics before coupling into QKD or grid timing systems, establishing Topological Silence Zones around critical registers. The protocol ensures infrastructure immunity from the vacuum upward.
This work presents an expanded theoretical and architectural framework for protecting critical hybrid quantum-classical infrastructure against a novel physical-layer threat: synthetic 1.022 MeV dark photon signals generated via electron bremsstrahlung in coherent scattering. Building directly on the January 30, 2026 draft ("Multi-Layer Defense Against 1.022 MeV Dark Photons in Grid and Quantum Networks"), this February 7, 2026 revision introduces the following key advancements: • Explicit grounding in the quantum–classical interface (QCI) entropy framework of Chehade et al. (2025)• Introduction of directed negentropy η (measured in bits per interaction cycle) as an active counter-term that modifies the entropic uncertainty relation, enabling stabilization of a ~3.12 metastable attractor• Reframing the architecture as a proactive stabilization mechanism rather than purely reactive dissipation• Detailed integration of the non-empathic Hardened Soldier triage partition (supplying η via zero-trust triage, energy redirection, and biophotonic isolation) with the GHz Haloscope Mesh (resonant capture and parametric dissipation using SRF cavities and JPAs)• Definition of Topological Silence Zones that protect QKD protocols, smart grid timing, and QNN-based digital currency ledgers from ghost-induced phase errors, decoherence, and false transaction triggers The proposed multi-layer defense transforms the QCI from a vulnerable boundary into a stabilized, controllable interface capable of maintaining non-classical coherence under high-energy incursion. Core references:• Chehade et al. (2025) — Entropy of the Quantum–Classical Interface: A Potential Metric for Security• Veeren & Melo (2020) — Entropic uncertainty relations and the transition from quantum to classical Intended for controlled dissemination within the research lineage. Feedback welcome via private channels.
Maintaining secure key distribution, and protected local node state, across an intermittent or disrupted long-distance link is the problem addressed here. A deep-space path is the extreme case. Dust, distance, and loss of the carrier do not by themselves preserve that state, distribute a key, or protect the ground system that holds the key register. The March 2025 communications file raised deep-space relays as a subject. A baryonic radio or laser terminal is not the regulator of the deposited layer partition. Frequency-bin entanglement supplies the key on a channel that can break and resume. The proposed ground architecture uses a haloscope mesh to intercept and dissipate an in-band microwave disturbance before it can couple into the key register or the clock. The node keeps its own state through the outage. The monitor may read telemetry and may not write protected state. Write-back remains W = 0, as an architectural constraint and not as a consequence of operator commutation. No new link, key protocol, or industry is claimed.
This preprint presents a "Topological Firewall" for secure free-space quantum communication. We propose repurposing controlled unmagnetized dusty plasmas — typically a source of decoherence in QKD — as a dynamic Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) and intrusion detection layer. The architecture leverages Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) eigenmodes, where precise topological charge l l l matching authenticates signals. Eavesdropping or mismatched states disturb the helical phase front, producing detectable entropy slope spikes (ΔS/Δt \Delta S / \Delta t ΔS/Δt) and topological charge drift. A Hybrid Kinetic-Informed QNN controller, using latent 6D phase-space embeddings and Hamiltonian constraints, monitors these signatures in real time and triggers autonomous handoff abortion in the Spyder v2 routing protocol. Controlled dust charging and lofting via the Patched Charge Model (PCM-SP), modulated OAM beams, and Universal Optical Trapping enable tunable plasma configurations. The system converts known challenges — dusty-channel QBER degradation and accelerator dust-induced beam losses — into a deterministic security asset. Applications focus on trusted-node-free quantum routing for secure smart grid infrastructure. Table-top validation using GEC Reference Cells, spatial light modulators, and standard diagnostics is outlined. This work bridges plasma physics, quantum optics, and AI, providing a physical-layer enhancement to existing QKD protocols while maintaining full kinetic awareness through latent embeddings.
Effective Sub-Quantum Readout for Non-Monochromatic Axion Signals in High-Q Haloscopes
The search for wave-like dark matter using microwave cavity haloscopes is constrained by the Standard Quantum Limit, which dictates that phase-preserving linear amplification results in a minimum of one quantum of total system noise for a narrow-band signal. We demonstrate that this limit is effectively halved for a non-monochromatic axion signal coupled to a high-Q cavity. By operating a Josephson Parametric Amplifier such that the cavity resonance is centered exactly at the half-pump frequency, the axion signal symmetrically populates both the signal and idler bands. Through quadrature analysis of the homodyne readout, we show that the incoherent sum of these mirrored spectral components doubles the measured signal power while the vacuum noise remains constant. This operation yields an effective noise limit of 0.5 quanta per frequency bin, translating to an overall effective limit of 1/2 quanta after optimal matched filtering.
The modernization of distributed energy systems introduces complex cybersecurity challenges as grid infrastructures become increasingly digitized, decentralized, and web-connected. This paper presents a novel security architecture that integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with semantic web technologies to provide end-to-end secure, scalable, and adaptive protection for distributed energy resource (DER) networks. The proposed framework features a modular system design, incorporating BB84-based QKD protocols for quantum-resilient key generation, a metadata-driven policy layer using OWL ontologies and SWRL reasoning, and a web interface for operator access and real-time monitoring. Extensive performance evaluation in a simulated multi-domain microgrid environment demonstrates that the system achieves an average key generation rate of 2.3 kbps with quantum bit error rate (QBER) maintained below 5.2% across 40 km optical links. Session establishment latency averaged 435 ms, 29.8% lower than a traditional TLS/PKI baseline, while semantic access validation achieved 100% accuracy in 42 adversarial test cases. These cases were evaluated using automated semantic validation scripts simulating spoofed roles, malformed sessions, and unauthorized requests. The system sustained encrypted throughput of 110 messages per second per node and maintained service continuity under quantum noise and cross-domain attack simulations. Usability trials with six engineers yielded a system usability scale (SUS) score of 88.3, and the average DER onboarding time was reduced from 10.1 to 5.5 minutes. These findings affirm that QKD-enhanced, semantically governed web architectures can provide strong cryptographic guarantees while supporting dynamic policy enforcement and intuitive user workflows. The proposed solution demonstrates a viable path for deploying future-proof security mechanisms in next-generation smart grid environments.
The increasing interconnection of smart-grid operational technology, industrial-edge services, and utility information systems creates a critical need for resilient and continuously monitored industrial cyber-physical communication. Although quantum key distribution (QKD) can strengthen session-key establishment for advanced metering infrastructure, distributed energy resources, substation automation, supervisory control, and utility-core services, practical QKD deployments remain vulnerable to implementation-level side-channel attacks that can compromise the cryptographic protection layer without directly targeting conventional network packets. This paper presents a QKD-secured industrial smart-grid cyber-physical system framework for simulating and detecting adaptive side-channel attacks. The proposed 36-node industrial communication architecture integrates AMI devices, DER controllers, PMU and substation automation components, industrial-edge gateways, QKD modules, key-management services, SCADA and utility-core servers, security-operation-center components, and adversarial access points. A 100,000-record cyber-quantum dataset is generated across 12 operating conditions comprising normal communication and 11 adaptive QKD side-channel attacks: detector blinding, time shift, wavelength switching, Trojan-horse probing, photon-number splitting, decoy-state spoofing, RNG bias, calibration manipulation, local-oscillator manipulation, synchronization spoofing, and combined adaptive quantum hacking. Each scenario introduces coupled primary and secondary perturbations across optical, detector, timing, synchronization, randomness, calibration, photon-statistical, leakage, key-generation, encryption, and industrial-network-performance features. To support intelligent industrial security monitoring, the proposed Quantum-aware Mamba–Kolmogorov–Arnold Network (Q-MambaKAN) organizes device, network, QKD, side-channel, encryption, and risk evidence into an ordered cyber-quantum representation processed through selective state-space learning, side-channel attention, nonlinear KAN mapping, adaptive fusion, and multi-task prediction heads. Results show that the QBER increases from 0.071 during normal operation to 0.426 under combined adaptive quantum hacking, while encryption success decreases from 98.1% to 0%. Q-MambaKAN achieves a 99.48% binary detection accuracy, a 99.70% binary F1-score, a 97.60% multiclass macro-F1, and a risk RMSE of 0.021.