arXiv subjects

Charles H. Bennett

Publications and source records attributed to Charles H. Bennett.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

How Community Agreements Can Improve Workplace Culture in Physics

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committees and Codes of Conduct (CoC) have become common in laboratories and physics departments across the country. However, very often these EDI committees and CoC are not equipped to provide practical consequences for violations, and therefore are mostly performative in nature. A considerable effort has been devoted by various groups within APS units and beyond the APS in developing instead what are now called Community Guidelines. Community Guidelines help implement the core principles in CoC, by setting expectations for participation in in-person events and virtual communication. When further accompanied by accountability and enforcement processes, they develop into Community Agreements. This White Paper discusses the elements necessary to create and implement an effective Community Agreement, reviews examples of Community Agreements in physics, and argues that physics collaborations, physics departments, and ultimately as many physics organizations as possible, however large or small, should have a Community Agreement in place. We advocate that Community Agreements should become part of the bylaws of any entity that has bylaws.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantum cryptography: Public key distribution and coin tossing

When elementary quantum systems, such as polarized photons, are used to transmit digital information, the uncertainty principle gives rise to novel cryptographic phenomena unachievable with traditional transmission media, e.g. a communications channel on which it is impossible in principle to eavesdrop without a high probability of disturbing the transmission in such a way as to be detected. Such a quantum channel can be used in conjunction with ordinary insecure classical channels to distribute random key information between two users with the assurance that it remains unknown to anyone else, even when the users share no secret information initially. We also present a protocol for coin-tossing by exchange of quantum messages, which is secure against traditional kinds of cheating, even by an opponent with unlimited computing power, but ironically can be subverted by use of a still subtler quantum phenomenon, the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Comment on 'The aestivation hypothesis for resolving Fermi's paradox'

In their article [arXiv:1705.03394], 'That is not dead which can eternal lie: the aestivation hypothesis for resolving Fermi's paradox', Sandberg et al. try to explain the Fermi paradox (we see no aliens) by claiming that Landauer's principle implies that a civilization can in principle perform far more (${\sim} 10^{30}$ times more) irreversible logical operations (e.g., error-correcting bit erasures) if it conserves its resources until the distant future when the cosmic background temperature is very low. So perhaps aliens are out there, but quietly waiting. Sandberg et al. implicitly assume, however, that computer-generated entropy can only be disposed of by transferring it to the cosmological background. In fact, while this assumption may apply in the distant future, our universe today contains vast reservoirs and other physical systems in non-maximal entropy states, and computer-generated entropy can be transferred to them at the adiabatic conversion rate of one bit of negentropy to erase one bit of error. This can be done at any time, and is not improved by waiting for a low cosmic background temperature. Thus aliens need not wait to be active. As Sandberg et al. do not provide a concrete model of the effect they assert, we construct one and show where their informal argument goes wrong.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Cryptography II: How to re-use a one-time pad safely even if P=NP

When elementary quantum systems, such as polarized photons, are used to transmit digital information, the uncertainty principle gives rise to novel cryptographic phenomena unachievable with traditional transmission media, e.g. a communications channel on which it is impossible in principle to eavesdrop without a high probability of being detected. With such a channel, a one-time pad can safely be reused many times as long as no eavesdrop is detected, and, planning ahead, part of the capacity of these uncompromised transmissions can be used to send fresh random bits with which to replace the one-time pad when an eavesdrop finally is detected. Unlike other schemes for stretching a one-time pad, this scheme does not depend on complexity-theoretic assumptions such as the difficulty of factoring.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Reverse Shannon Theorem

Dual to the usual noisy channel coding problem, where a noisy (classical or quantum) channel is used to simulate a noiseless one, reverse Shannon theorems concern the use of noiseless channels to simulate noisy ones, and more generally the use of one noisy channel to simulate another. For channels of nonzero capacity, this simulation is always possible, but for it to be efficient, auxiliary resources of the proper kind and amount are generally required. In the classical case, shared randomness between sender and receiver is a sufficient auxiliary resource, regardless of the nature of the source, but in the quantum case the requisite auxiliary resources for efficient simulation depend on both the channel being simulated, and the source from which the channel inputs are coming. For tensor power sources (the quantum generalization of classical IID sources), entanglement in the form of standard ebits (maximally entangled pairs of qubits) is sufficient, but for general sources, which may be arbitrarily correlated or entangled across channel inputs, additional resources, such as entanglement-embezzling states or backward communication, are generally needed. Combining existing and new results, we establish the amounts of communication and auxiliary resources needed in both the classical and quantum cases, the tradeoffs among them, and the loss of simulation efficiency when auxiliary resources are absent or insufficient. In particular we find a new single-letter expression for the excess forward communication cost of coherent feedback simulations of quantum channels (i.e. simulations in which the sender retains what would escape into the environment in an ordinary simulation), on non-tensor-power sources in the presence of unlimited ebits but no other auxiliary resource. Our results on tensor power sources establish a strong converse to the entanglement-assisted capacity theorem.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

On the security of key distribution based on Johnson-Nyquist noise

We point out that arguments for the security of Kish's noise-based cryptographic protocol have relied on an unphysical no-wave limit, which if taken seriously would prevent any correlation from developing between the users. We introduce a noiseless version of the protocol, also having illusory security in the no-wave limit, to show that noise and thermodynamics play no essential role. Then we prove generally that classical electromagnetic protocols cannot establish a secret key between two parties separated by a spacetime region perfectly monitored by an eavesdropper. We note that the original protocol of Kish is vulnerable to passive time-correlation attacks even in the quasi-static limit. Finally we show that protocols of this type can be secure in practice against an eavesdropper with noisy monitoring equipment. In this case the security is a straightforward consequence of Maurer and Wolf's discovery that key can be distilled by public discussion from correlated random variables in a wide range of situations where the eavesdropper's noise is at least partly independent from the users' noise.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Information Distance

While Kolmogorov complexity is the accepted absolute measure of information content in an individual finite object, a similarly absolute notion is needed for the information distance between two individual objects, for example, two pictures. We give several natural definitions of a universal information metric, based on length of shortest programs for either ordinary computations or reversible (dissipationless) computations. It turns out that these definitions are equivalent up to an additive logarithmic term. We show that the information distance is a universal cognitive similarity distance. We investigate the maximal correlation of the shortest programs involved, the maximal uncorrelation of programs (a generalization of the Slepian-Wolf theorem of classical information theory), and the density properties of the discrete metric spaces induced by the information distances. A related distance measures the amount of nonreversibility of a computation. Using the physical theory of reversible computation, we give an appropriate (universal, anti-symmetric, and transitive) measure of the thermodynamic work required to transform one object in another object by the most efficient process. Information distance between individual objects is needed in pattern recognition where one wants to express effective notions of "pattern similarity" or "cognitive similarity" between individual objects and in thermodynamics of computation where one wants to analyse the energy dissipation of a computation from a particular input to a particular output.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2010

Postulates for measures of genuine multipartite correlations

A lot of research has been done on multipartite correlations. However, it seems strange that there is no definition of so called genuine multipartite correlations. In this paper we propose three reasonable postulates which each measure or indicator of genuine multipartite correlations (or genuine multipartite entanglement) should satisfy. We also introduce degree of correlations which gives partial characterization of multipartite correlations. Then, we show that covariance does not satisfy two postulates and hence, it cannot be used as an indicator of genuine multipartite correlations. Finally, we propose candidate for a measure of genuine multipartite correlations based on the work that can be drawn from local bath by means of a multipartite state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Can closed timelike curves or nonlinear quantum mechanics improve quantum state discrimination or help solve hard problems?

We study the power of closed timelike curves (CTCs) and other nonlinear extensions of quantum mechanics for distinguishing nonorthogonal states and speeding up hard computations. If a CTC-assisted computer is presented with a labeled mixture of states to be distinguished--the most natural formulation--we show that the CTC is of no use. The apparent contradiction with recent claims that CTC-assisted computers can perfectly distinguish nonorthogonal states is resolved by noting that CTC-assisted evolution is nonlinear, so the output of such a computer on a mixture of inputs is not a convex combination of its output on the mixture's pure components. Similarly, it is not clear that CTC assistance or nonlinear evolution help solve hard problems if computation is defined as we recommend, as correctly evaluating a function on a labeled mixture of orthogonal inputs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Inequalities and separations among assisted capacities of quantum channels

We exhibit discrete memoryless quantum channels whose quantum capacity assisted by two-way classical communication, $Q_2$, exceeds their unassisted one-shot Holevo capacity $C_H$. These channels may be thought of as having a data input and output, along with a control input that partly influences, and a control output that partly reveals, which of a set of unitary evolutions the data undergoes en route from input to output. The channel is designed so that the data's evolution can be exactly inferred by a classically coordinated processing of 1) the control output, and 2) a reference system entangled with the control input, but not from either of these resources alone. Thus a two-way classical side channel allows the otherwise noisy evolution of the data to be corrected, greatly increasing the capacity. The same family of channels provides examples where the classical capacity assisted by classical feedback, $C_B$, and the quantum capacity assisted by classical feedback $Q_B$, both exceed $C_H$. A related channel, whose data input undergoes dephasing before interacting with the control input, has a classical capacity $C=C_H$ strictly less than its $C_2$, the classical capacity assisted by independent classical communication.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Remote preparation of quantum states

Remote state preparation is the variant of quantum state teleportation in which the sender knows the quantum state to be communicated. The original paper introducing teleportation established minimal requirements for classical communication and entanglement but the corresponding limits for remote state preparation have remained unknown until now: previous work has shown, however, that it not only requires less classical communication but also gives rise to a trade-off between these two resources in the appropriate setting. We discuss this problem from first principles, including the various choices one may follow in the definitions of the actual resources. Our main result is a general method of remote state preparation for arbitrary states of many qubits, at a cost of 1 bit of classical communication and 1 bit of entanglement per qubit sent. In this "universal" formulation, these ebit and cbit requirements are shown to be simultaneously optimal by exhibiting a dichotomy. Our protocol then yields the exact trade-off curve for arbitrary ensembles of pure states and pure entangled states (including the case of incomplete knowledge of the ensemble probabilities), based on the recently established quantum-classical trade-off for quantum data compression. The paper includes an extensive discussion of our results, including the impact of the choice of model on the resources, the topic of obliviousness, and an application to private quantum channels and quantum data hiding.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Universal quantum data compression via gentle tomography

Quantum state tomography--the practice of estimating a quantum state by performing measurements on it--is useful in a variety of contexts. We introduce "gentle tomography" as a version of tomography that preserves the measured quantum data. As an application of gentle tomography, we describe a simple polynomial-time method for universal source coding.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Improvements to time bracketed authentication

We describe a collection of techniques whereby audiovisual or other recordings of significant events can be made in a way that hinders falsification, pre-dating, or post-dating by interested parties, even by the makers and operators of the recording equipment. A central feature of these techniques is the interplay between private information, which by its nature is untrustworthy and susceptible to suppression or manipulation by interested parties, and public information, which is too widely known to be manipulated by anyone. While authenticated recordings may be infeasible to falsify, they can be abused in other ways, such as being used for blackmail or harassment; but susceptibility to these abuses can be reduced by encryption and secret sharing.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2003

Notes on Landauer's principle, Reversible Computation and Maxwell's Demon

Landauer's principle, often regarded as the foundation of the thermodynamics of information processing, holds that any logically irreversible manipulation of information, such as the erasure of a bit or the merging of two computation paths, must be accompanied by a corresponding entropy increase in non-information bearing degrees of freedom of the information processing apparatus or its environment. Conversely, it is generally accepted that any logically reversible transformation of information can in principle be accomplished by an appropriate physical mechanism operating in a thermodynamically reversible fashion. These notions have sometimes been criticized either as being false, or as being trivial and obvious, and therefore unhelpful for purposes such as explaining why Maxwell's Demon cannot violate the Second Law of thermodynamics. Here I attempt to refute some of the arguments against Landauer's principle, while arguing that although in a sense it is indeed a trivial and obvious restatement of the Second Law, it still has considerable pedagogic and explanatory power, especially in the context of other influential ideas in 19'th and 20'th century physics. Similar arguments have been given by Jeffrey Bub [arXiv:quant-ph/0203017].

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2002

Entanglement-assisted capacity of a quantum channel and the reverse Shannon theorem

The entanglement-assisted classical capacity of a noisy quantum channel is the amount of information per channel use that can be sent over the channel in the limit of many uses of the channel, assuming that the sender and receiver have access to the resource of shared quantum entanglement, which may be used up by the communication protocol. We show that this capacity is given by an expression parallel to that for the capacity of a purely classical channel: i.e., the maximum, over channel inputs $ρ$, of the entropy of the channel input plus the entropy of the channel output minus their joint entropy, the latter being defined as the entropy of an entangled purification of $ρ$ after half of it has passed through the channel. We calculate entanglement-assisted capacities for two interesting quantum channels, the qubit amplitude damping channel and the bosonic channel with amplification/attenuation and Gaussian noise. We discuss how many independent parameters are required to completely characterize the asymptotic behavior of a general quantum channel, alone or in the presence of ancillary resources such as prior entanglement. In the classical analog of entanglement assisted communication--communication over a discrete memoryless channel (DMC) between parties who share prior random information--we show that one parameter is sufficient, i.e., that in the presence of prior shared random information, all DMC's of equal capacity can simulate one another with unit asymptotic efficiency.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2002

Trust enhancement by multiple random beacons

Random beacons-information sources that broadcast a stream of random digits unknown by anyone beforehand-are useful for various cryptographic purposes. But such beacons can be easily and undetectably sabotaged, so that their output is known beforehand by a dishonest party, who can use this information to defeat the cryptographic protocols supposedly protected by the beacon. We explore a strategy to reduce this hazard by combining the outputs from several noninteracting (eg spacelike-separated) beacons by XORing them together to produce a single digit stream which is more trustworthy than any individual beacon, being random and unpredictable if at least one of the contributing beacons is honest. If the contributing beacons are not spacelike separated, so that a dishonest beacon can overhear and adapt to earlier outputs of other beacons, the beacons' trustworthiness can still be enhanced to a lesser extent by a time sharing strategy. We point out some disadvantages of alternative trust amplification methods based on one-way hash functions.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2001

Remote State Preparation

Quantum teleportation uses prior entanglement and forward classical communication to transmit one instance of an unknown quantum state. Remote state preparation (RSP) has the same goal, but the sender knows classically what state is to be transmitted. We show that the asymptotic classical communication cost of RSP is one bit per qubit - half that of teleportation - and becomes even less when transmitting part of a known entangled state. We explore the tradeoff between entanglement and classical communication required for RSP, and discuss RSP capacities of general quantum channels.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2000

Exact and Asymptotic Measures of Multipartite Pure State Entanglement

In an effort to simplify the classification of pure entangled states of multi (m) -partite quantum systems, we study exactly and asymptotically (in n) reversible transformations among n'th tensor powers of such states (ie n copies of the state shared among the same m parties) under local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC). With regard to exact transformations, we show that two states whose 1-party entropies agree are either locally-unitarily (LU) equivalent or else LOCC-incomparable. In particular we show that two tripartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states are LOCC-incomparable to three bipartite Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) states symmetrically shared among the three parties. Asymptotic transformations result in a simpler classification than exact transformations. We show that m-partite pure states having an m-way Schmidt decomposition are simply parameterizable, with the partial entropy across any nontrivial partition representing the number of standard ``Cat'' states (|0^m>+|1^m>) asymptotically interconvertible to the state in question. For general m-partite states, partial entropies across different partitions need not be equal, and since partial entropies are conserved by asymptotically reversible LOCC operations, a multicomponent entanglement measure is needed, with each scalar component representing a different kind of entanglement, not asymptotically interconvertible to the other kinds. In particular the m=4 Cat state is not isentropic to, and therefore not asymptotically interconvertible to, any combination of bipartite and tripartite states shared among the four parties. Thus, although the m=4 cat state can be prepared from bipartite EPR states, the preparation process is necessarily irreversible, and remains so even asymptotically.

quant-ph↗