Reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution with two-way classical communication

The data post-processing scheme based on two-way classical communication(TWCC)can improve the tolerable bit error rate and extend the maximal transmission distance when used in a quantum key distribution(QKD)system.In this study,we apply the TWCC method to improve the performance of reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution(RFI-QKD),and analyze the influence of the TWCC method on the performance of decoy-state RFI-QKD in both asymptotic and non-asymptotic cases.Our numerical simulation results show that the TWCC method is able to extend the maximal transmission distance from 175 km to 198 km and improve the tolerable bit error rate from 10.48%to 16.75%.At the same time,the performance of RFI-QKD in terms of the secret key rate and maximum transmission distance are still greatly improved when statistical fluctuations are considered.We conclude that RFI-QKD with the TWCC method is of practical interest.

Dynamic quantum secret sharing protocol based on two-particle transform of Bell states

To solve the problems of updating sub-secrets or secrets as well as adding or deleting agents in the quantum secret sharing protocol, we propose a two-particle transform of Bell states, and consequently present a novel dynamic quantum secret sharing protocol. The new protocol can not only resist some typical attacks, but also be more efficient than the existing protocols. Furthermore, we take advantage of the protocol to establish the dynamic secret sharing of a quantum state protocol for two-particle maximum entangled states.

Realization of -bit semiclassical quantum Fourier transform on IBM's quantum cloud computer

To overcome the difficulty of realizing large-scale quantum Fourier transform(QFT) within existing technology, this paper implements a resource-saving method(named t-bit semiclassical QFT over Z_(2~n)), which could realize large-scale QFT using an arbitrary-scale quantum register. By developing a feasible method to realize the control quantum gate Rk, we experimentally realize the 2-bit semiclassical QFT over Z_(2~3) on IBM's quantum cloud computer, which shows the feasibility of the method. Then, we compare the actual performance of 2-bit semiclassical QFT with standard QFT in the experiments.The squared statistical overlap experimental data shows that the fidelity of 2-bit semiclassical QFT is higher than that of standard QFT, which is mainly due to fewer two-qubit gates in the semiclassical QFT. Furthermore, based on the proposed method, N = 15 is successfully factorized by implementing Shor's algorithm.

Finite-key analysis of practical time-bin high-dimensional quantum key distribution with afterpulse effect

High-dimensional quantum resources provide the ability to encode several bits of information on a single photon,which can particularly increase the secret key rate rate of quantum key distribution(QKD) systems. Recently, a practical four-dimensional QKD scheme based on time-bin quantum photonic state, only with two single-photon avalanche detectors as measurement setup, has been proven to have a superior performance than the qubit-based one. In this paper, we extend the results to our proposed eight-dimensional scheme. Then, we consider two main practical factors to improve its secret key bound. Concretely, we take the afterpulse effect into account and apply a finite-key analysis with the intensity fluctuations.Our secret bounds give consideration to both the intensity fluctuations and the afterpulse effect for the high-dimensional QKD systems. Numerical simulations show the bound of eight-dimensional QKD scheme is more robust to the intensity fluctuations but more sensitive to the afterpulse effect than the four-dimensional one.

Round-Robin Differential Phase Shift with Heralded Single-Photon Source

Round-robin differential phase shift （RRDPS） is a novel quantum key distribution protocol which can bound information leakage without monitoring signal disturbance. In this work, to decrease the effect of the vacuum component in a weak coherent pulses source, we employ a practical decoy-state scheme with heralded singlephoton source for the RRDPS protocol and analyze the performance of this method. In this scheme, only two decoy states are needed and the yields of single-photon state and multi-photon states, as well as the bit error rates of each photon states, can be estimated. The final key rate of this scheme is bounded and simulated over transmission distance. The results show that the two-decoy-state method with heralded single-photon source performs better than the two-decoy-state method with weak coherent pulses.

Temperature effects on atmospheric continuous-variable quantum key distribution

Compared with the fiber channel,the atmospheric channel offers the possibility of a broader geographical coverage and more flexible transmission for continuous-variable quantum key distribution(CVQKD).However,the fluctuation of atmospheric conditions will lead to the loss of performance in atmospheric quantum communication.In this paper,we study how temperature affects atmospheric CVQKD.We mainly consider the temperature effects on the transmittance and interruption probability.From the numerical simulation analysis,it can be shown that the performance of atmospheric CVQKD is improved as temperature increases,with the other factors fixed.Moreover,the results in this work can be used to evaluate the feasibility of the experimental implementation of the atmospheric CVQKD protocols.

Research on co-propagation of QKD and classical communication by reducing the classical optical power

We investigate the crosstalk noise, especially the spontaneous Raman scattering, in the optical fiber of a copropagation system between quantum key distribution(QKD) and classical communications. Although many methods have been proposed, such as increasing the wavelength spacing and narrowband filtering technique, to suppress Raman scattering noise, these methods greatly affect the performance of QKD. One way to solve the obstacle restricting the coexistence is to decrease the classical signal power. Based on the high gain of the gated avalanche photodiode and pulse position modulation, we demonstrate that the co-propagation system works effectively with only a small effect on long-haul fibers, which has great significance for the practical widespread commercialization of QKD.

Attacking a high-dimensional quantum key distribution system with wavelength-dependent beam splitter

The unconditional security of quantum key distribution(QKD) can be guaranteed by the nature of quantum physics.Compared with the traditional two-dimensional BB84 QKD protocol, high-dimensional quantum key distribution(HDQKD) can be applied to generate much more secret key.Nonetheless, practical imperfections in realistic systems can be exploited by the third party to eavesdrop the secret key.The practical beam splitter has a correlation with wavelength,where different wavelengths have different coupling ratios.Using this property, we propose a wavelength-dependent attack towards time-bin high-dimensional QKD system.What is more, we demonstrate that this attacking protocol can be applied to arbitrary d-dimensional QKD system, and higher-dimensional QKD system is more vulnerable to this attacking strategy.

Finite-Key Analysis for a Practical High-Dimensional Quantum Key Distribution System Based on Time-Phase States

High-dimensional quantum states key distribution(HD-QKD) can enable more than one bit per photon and tolerate more noise. Recently, a practical HD-QKD system based on time-phase states has provided a secret key at Mbps over metropolitan distances. For the purposes of further improving the secret key rate of a practical HD-QKD system, we make two main contributions in this work. Firstly, we present an improved parameter estimation for this system in the finite-key scenario based on the Chernoff bound and the improved Chernoff bound. Secondly, we analyze how the dimension d affects the performance of the practical HD-QKD system.We present numerical simulations about the secret key rate of the practical HD-QKD system based on different parameter estimation methods. It is found that using the improved Chernoff bound can improve the secret key rate and maximum channel loss of the practical HD-QKD system. In addition, a mixture of the 4-level and 8-level practical HD-QKD system can provide better performance in terms of the key generation rate over metropolitan distances.

Reference-frame-independent quantum key distribution with an untrusted source

Reference frame independent quantum key distribution(RFI-QKD) allows two legitimate parties to share the common secret keys with the drift of reference frames. In order to reduce the actual requirements of RFI-QKD protocol on light source and make it more suitable for practical applications, this paper gives a specific description of RFI-QKD protocol with an untrusted source and analyzes the practical security of this protocol based on the two-way "plug and play" structure commonly used in practical systems. In addition, we also investigate the performance of RFI-QKD with an untrusted source considering statistical fluctuations based on Chernoff bound. Using simulations, we compare the secret key rate of RFIQKD with an untrusted source to RFI-QKD with trusted source. The results show that the performance of RFI-QKD with an untrusted source is similar to that of RFI-QKD with trusted source, and the finite data size clearly effects the performance of our protocol.

Performance analysis of continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution under diverse weather conditions

The effects of weather conditions are ubiquitous in practical wireless quantum communication links.Here in this work,the performances of atmospheric continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution(CV-MDI-QKD)under diverse weather conditions are analyzed quantitatively.According to the Mie scattering theory and atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD model,we numerically simulate the relationship between performance of CV-MDI-QKD and the rainy and foggy conditions,aiming to get close to the actual combat environment in the future.The results show that both rain and fog will degrade the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol.Under the rainy condition,the larger the raindrop diameter,the more obvious the extinction effect is and the lower the secret key rate accordingly.In addition,we find that the secret key rate decreases with the increase of spot deflection distance and the fluctuation of deflection.Under the foggy condition,the results illustrate that the transmittance decreases with the increase of droplet radius or deflection distance,which eventually yields the decrease in the secret key rate.Besides,in both weather conditions,the increase of transmission distance also leads the secret key rate to deteriorate.Our work can provide a foundation for evaluating the performance evaluation and successfully implementing the atmospheric CV-MDI-QKD in the future field operation environment under different weather conditions.

Measurement-device-independent quantum cryptographic conferencing with an untrusted source

Measurement-device-independent quantum cryptographic conferencing（MDI-QCC） protocol puts MDI quantum key distribution（MDI-QKD） forwards to multi-party applications, and suggests a significant framework for practical multi-party quantum communication. In order to mitigate the experimental complexity of MDI-QCC and remove the key assumption（the sources are trusted） in MDI-QCC, we extend the framework of MDI-QKD with an untrusted source to MDI-QCC and give the rigorous security analysis of MDI-QCC with an untrusted source. What is more, in the security analysis we clearly provide a rigorous analytical method for parameters＇ estimation, which with simple modifications can be applied to not only MDI-QKD with an untrusted source but also arbitrary multi-party communication protocol with an untrusted source. The simulation results show that at reasonable distances the asymptotic key rates for the two cases（with trusted and untrusted sources） almost overlap, which indicates the feasibility of our protocol.

Quantum search for unknown number of target items by hybridizing fixed-point method with trail-and-error method

For the unsorted database quantum search with the unknown fraction λ of target items, there are mainly two kinds of methods, i.e., fixed-point and trail-and-error.(i) In terms of the fixed-point method, Yoder et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett.113 210501(2014)] claimed that the quadratic speedup over classical algorithms has been achieved. However, in this paper, we point out that this is not the case, because the query complexity of Yoder’s algorithm is actually in O(1/λ01/2)rather than O(1/λ1/2), where λ0 is a known lower bound of λ.(ii) In terms of the trail-and-error method, currently the algorithm without randomness has to take more than 1 times queries or iterations than the algorithm with randomly selected parameters. For the above problems, we provide the first hybrid quantum search algorithm based on the fixed-point and trail-and-error methods, where the matched multiphase Grover operations are trialed multiple times and the number of iterations increases exponentially along with the number of trials. The upper bound of expected queries as well as the optimal parameters are derived. Compared with Yoder’s algorithm, the query complexity of our algorithm indeed achieves the optimal scaling in λ for quantum search, which reconfirms the practicality of the fixed-point method. In addition, our algorithm also does not contain randomness, and compared with the existing deterministic algorithm, the query complexity can be reduced by about 1/3. Our work provides a new idea for the research on fixed-point and trial-and-error quantum search.

Controlling a sine wave gating single-photon detector by exploiting its filtering loophole

GHz single-photon detector （SPD） is a crucial part in the practical high speed quantum key distribution （QKD） system. However, any imperfections in a practical QKD system may be exploited by an eavesdropper （Eve） to collect information about the key without being discovered. The sine wave gating SPD （SG-SPD） based on InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode, one kind of practical high speed SPD, may also contain loopholes. In this paper, we study the principle and characteristic of the SG-SPD and find out the filtering loophole of the SG-SPD for the first time. What is more, the proof-of-principle experiment shows that Eve could blind and control Bob＇s SG-SPD by exploiting this loophole. We believe that giving enough attention to this loophole can improve the practical security of the existing QKD system. GHz single-photon detector （SPD） is a crucial part in the practical high speed quantum key distribution （QKD） system. However, any imperfections in a practical QKD system may be exploited by an eavesdropper （Eve） to collect information about the key without being discovered. The sine wave gating SPD （SG-SPD） based on InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode, one kind of practical high speed SPD, may also contain loopholes. In this paper, we study the principle and characteristic of the SG-SPD and find out the filtering loophole of the SG-SPD for the first time. What is more, the proof-of-principle experiment shows that Eve could blind and control Bob＇s SG-SPD by exploiting this loophole. We believe that giving enough attention to this loophole can improve the practical security of the existing QKD system.

Pulse-gated mode of commercial superconducting nanowire single photon detectors

High detection efficiency and low intrinsic dark count rate are two advantages of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors(SNSPDs).However,the stray photons penetrated into the fiber would cause the extrinsic dark count rate,owing to the free running mode of SNSPDs.In order to improve the performance of SNSPDs in realistic scenarios,stray photons should be investigated and suppression methods should be adopted.In this study,we demonstrate the pulsegated mode,with 500 kHz gating frequency,of a commercial SNSPD system for suppressing the response of stray photons about three orders of magnitude than its free-running counterpart on the extreme test conditions.When we push the gating frequency to 8 MHz,the dark count rate still keeps under 4% of free-running mode.In experiments,the intrinsic dark count rate is also suppressed to 4.56 × 10^(-2) counts per second with system detection efficiency of 76.4372%.Furthermore,the time-correlated single-photon counting analysis also approves the validity of our mode in suppressing the responses of stray photons.

Ground state cooling of an optomechanical resonator with double quantum interference processes

We present a cooling scheme with a tripod configuration atomic ensemble trapped in an optomechanical cavity.With the employment of two different quantum interference processes,our scheme illustrates that it is possible to cool a resonator to its ground state in the strong cavity-atom coupling regime.Moreover,with the assistance of one additional energy level,our scheme takes a larger cooling rate to realize the ground state cooling.In addition,this scheme is a feasible candidate for experimental applications.

Proof of Security of a Semi-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Protocol

Semi-device-independent quantum key distribution （SDI-QKD） has been proposed by applying the quantum dimension correlation, and the security relies on the violation of quantum dimension witness inequalities. We prove the security of the SDI-QKD protocol under the depolarization channel by considering the quantum dimension witness inequalities and minimum entropy and the specific process of the QKD protocol, combining with a four- quantum-state preparation and three measurement bases. We also provide the relationship between the dimension witness value, the error rate and the security key rate by the numerical simulation.

Quantum adiabatic algorithms using unitary interpolation

We present two efficient quantum adiabatic algorithms for Bernstein–Vazirani problem and Simon’s problem.We show that the time complexities of the algorithms for Bernstein–Vazirani problem and Simon’s problem are O(1)and O(n),respectively,which are the same complexities as the corresponding algorithms in quantum circuit model.In these two algorithms,the adiabatic Hamiltonians are realized by unitary interpolation instead of standard linear interpolation.Comparing with the adiabatic algorithms using linear interpolation,the energy gaps of our algorithms keep constant.Therefore,the complexities are much easier to analyze using this method.

Round-robin differential quadrature phase-shift quantum key distribution

Recently,a round-robin differential phase-shift（RRDPS） protocol was proposed[Nature 509,475（2014）],in which the amount of leakage is bounded without monitoring the signal disturbance.Introducing states of the phase-encoded Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol（PE-BB84） to the RRDPS,this paper presents another quantum key distribution protocol called round-robin differential quadrature phase-shift（RRDQPS） quantum key distribution.Regarding a train of many pulses as a single packet,the sender modulates the phase of each pulse by one of {0,π/2,π,3π/2},then the receiver measures each packet with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer having a phase basis of 0 or π/2.The RRDQPS protocol can be implemented with essential similar hardware to the PE-BB84,so it has great compatibility with the current quantum system.Here we analyze the security of the RRDQPS protocol against the intercept-resend attack and the beam-splitting attack.Results show that the proposed protocol inherits the advantages arising from the simplicity of the RRDPS protocol and is more robust against these attacks than the original protocol.

Near-term quantum computing techniques: Variational quantum algorithms, error mitigation, circuit compilation, benchmarking and classical simulation

Quantum computing is a game-changing technology for global academia,research centers and industries including computational science,mathematics,finance,pharmaceutical,materials science,chemistry and cryptography.Although it has seen a major boost in the last decade,we are still a long way from reaching the maturity of a full-fledged quantum computer.That said,we will be in the noisy-intermediate scale quantum(NISQ)era for a long time,working on dozens or even thousands of qubits quantum computing systems.An outstanding challenge,then,is to come up with an application that can reliably carry out a nontrivial task of interest on the near-term quantum devices with non-negligible quantum noise.To address this challenge,several near-term quantum computing techniques,including variational quantum algorithms,error mitigation,quantum circuit compilation and benchmarking protocols,have been proposed to characterize and mitigate errors,and to implement algorithms with a certain resistance to noise,so as to enhance the capabilities of near-term quantum devices and explore the boundaries of their ability to realize useful applications.Besides,the development of near-term quantum devices is inseparable from the efficient classical sim-ulation,which plays a vital role in quantum algorithm design and verification,error-tolerant verification and other applications.This review will provide a thorough introduction of these near-term quantum computing techniques,report on their progress,and finally discuss the future prospect of these techniques,which we hope will motivate researchers to undertake additional studies in this field.