arXiv subjects

Eric Chitambar

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Chitambar.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum Secret Sharing with a Helper and Programmable Access Structures

Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a process in which the state of a quantum system is partitioned into multiple shares, allowing only specific subsets of shareholders to reconstruct the state, while others gain no information about its identity. In this work, we propose a variant of QSS, called ``helper QSS,'' which designates a special shareholder whose participation with any other group of parties is sufficient for recovering the state. We present different families of helper codes that function for an arbitrary number of parties and system sizes. As an application, we introduce the idea of a programmable access structure in QSS, which allows for a third-party programmer to independently choose the access structure of the code even after the shares are delivered to all the shareholders. This choice is made blindly, meaning that the programmer has no information about the secret being encoded, and it is implemented using the nonlocal process of quantum steering.

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arXiv2026

Codes for Quantum Secret Sharing with a Helper

Helper quantum secret sharing is a form of secret sharing defined by its unique access structure. One special fixed party, called the helper, can work together with any other party to fully decode the secret. A blind helper is one who can provide this assistance while not holding any local information about the encoded secret. In this work, we analyze the general structure of QSS helper codes and present new code constructions. We fully characterize the structure of blind helper stabilizer codes and show that for the encoding of a single qubit, recovery is always possible using one-way local operations and classical communication (LOCC) from the helper to the targeted party. Furthermore, we demonstrate how such codes also allow for the helper to target larger subsets of parties by one-way LOCC, enabling them to be authorized to recover the secret. Finally, when each party only holds a qubit, we identify the general form of all helper codes (including non-stabilizer codes) and find that LOCC recovery is only possible in special cases.

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arXiv2026

Playing Nonlocal Games with Little to No Shared Randomness

Bell nonlocality reveals correlations that cannot be explained by classical models and plays a central role in quantum information theory. In this work, we investigate classical models of Bell nonlocality under restrictions on shared randomness. For bipartite scenarios with bounded shared randomness, the set of classical correlations becomes nonconvex. We characterize the correlations achievable without shared randomness through the simultaneous evaluation of multiple linear Bell functionals. We then extend our analysis to quantum networks by relaxing the standard assumption of source independence. In this setting, the feasibility constraints derived for the bipartite case can be used to certify source dependence, and we further construct nonlinear inequalities that distinguish classical models with correlated sources from correlations achievable in standard quantum networks. As an application, we show that these nonlinear network inequalities give rise to an entropic Bell inequality for bipartite scenarios with limited shared randomness.

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arXiv2026

Enhancing Entanglement Purification with Shared Randomness

Entanglement purification protocols (EPPs) are essential for improving entanglement fidelity to support fault-tolerant distributed quantum information processing. Practical entanglement sources are often heterogeneous and source labels may be unavailable at the EPP layer. We show that classical shared randomness, together with buffer memories, can enhance entanglement purification when source labels are unavailable, without state characterization or EPP circuit optimization. The strategy is to accumulate multiple entanglement distribution rounds and then use shared randomness to shuffle all the stored entangled states before packaging them as inputs to the EPP. For any $n$ Werner sources and any fixed $n$-to-1 bilocal Clifford EPP, we prove that accumulating and shuffling improves the expected success probability and the success-weighted output Bell fidelity over the baseline without accumulating and shuffling, for every $n$, for every finite number of accumulation rounds and in the asymptotic limit, and the improvement increases monotonically with the number of accumulation rounds.

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arXiv2025

Quantum Channel Masking

Quantum masking is a special type of secret sharing in which some information gets reversibly distributed into a multipartite system, leaving the original information inaccessible to each subsystem. This paper proposes a dynamical extension of quantum masking to the level of quantum channels. In channel masking, the identity of a channel becomes locally hidden but still globally accessible after its output is sent through a bipartite broadcasting channel. We first characterize all families of d-dimensional unitaries that can be isometrically masked, a condition that holds even in the presence of depolarizing noise. For the case of qubits, we identify which families of Pauli channels can be masked, and we prove that a qubit channel can be masked against the identity if and only if it is unital and has a pure-state fixed point. Masking against the identity describes a scenario in which channel noise becomes completely delocalized through a broadcast map and undetectable through subsystem dynamics alone.

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arXiv2025

InterQnet: A Heterogeneous Full-Stack Approach to Co-designing Scalable Quantum Networks

Quantum communications have progressed significantly, moving from a theoretical concept to small-scale experiments to recent metropolitan-scale demonstrations. As the technology matures, it is expected to revolutionize quantum computing in much the same way that classical networks revolutionized classical computing. Quantum communications will also enable breakthroughs in quantum sensing, metrology, and other areas. However, scalability has emerged as a major challenge, particularly in terms of the number and heterogeneity of nodes, the distances between nodes, the diversity of applications, and the scale of user demand. This paper describes InterQnet, a multidisciplinary project that advances scalable quantum communications through a comprehensive approach that improves devices, error handling, and network architecture. InterQnet has a two-pronged strategy to address scalability challenges: InterQnet-Achieve focuses on practical realizations of heterogeneous quantum networks by building and then integrating first-generation quantum repeaters with error mitigation schemes and centralized automated network control systems. The resulting system will enable quantum communications between two heterogeneous quantum platforms through a third type of platform operating as a repeater node. InterQnet-Scale focuses on a systems study of architectural choices for scalable quantum networks by developing forward-looking models of quantum network devices, advanced error correction schemes, and entanglement protocols. Here we report our current progress toward achieving our scalability goals.

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arXiv2025

Quantum Graph States: Bridging Classical Theory and Quantum Innovation, Workshop Summary

This workshop brought together experts in classical graph theory and quantum information science to explore the intersection of these fields, with a focus on quantum graph states and their applications in computing, networking, and sensing. The sessions highlighted the foundational role of graph-theoretic structure, such as rank-width, vertex-minors, and hypergraphs, in enabling measurement-based quantum computation, fault-tolerant architectures, and distributed quantum sensing. Key challenges identified include the need for scalable entanglement generation, robust benchmarking methods, and deeper theoretical understanding of generalized graph states. The workshop concluded with targeted research recommendations, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration to address open problems in entanglement structure, simulation complexity, and experimental realization across diverse quantum platforms.

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arXiv2025

Quantum secret sharing in a triangular superconducting quantum network

We present a three-node quantum communication testbed with a triangular topology, each side of the triangle formed by a 1.3-meter-long transmission line. We demonstrate state transfer and entanglement generation between any two nodes, generate genuine multipartite entangled GHZ states, and implement quantum secret sharing (QSS) of classical information. Our experiments show that the QSS protocol can effectively detect eavesdropping, ensuring the secure sharing of secrets. This device forms a testbed for robust and secure quantum networking, enabling testing of more advanced quantum communication protocols.

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arXiv2025

Multiplication triples from entangled quantum resources

An efficient paradigm for multi-party computation (MPC) are protocols structured around access to shared pre-processed computational resources. In this model, certain forms of correlated randomness are distributed to the participants prior to their computation. The shared randomness is then consumed in a computation phase that involves public communication with efficient round complexity, and the computation is secure in this second phase provided the initial correlations were distributed securely. Usually the latter requires some strong setup assumptions, such as a trusted dealer and private channels. We present a novel approach for generating these correlations from entangled quantum graph states and yield information-theoretic privacy guarantees that hold against a malicious adversary, with limited assumptions. Our primary contribution is a tripartite resource state and measurement-based protocol for extracting a binary multiplication triple, a special form of shared randomness that enables the private multiplication of a bit conjunction. Here, we employ a third party as a Referee and demand only an honest pair among the three parties. The role of this Referee is weaker than that of a Dealer, as the Referee learns nothing about the underlying shared randomness that is disseminated. We prove perfect privacy for our protocol, assuming access to an ideal copy of the resource state, an assumption that is based on the existence of graph state verification protocols. Finally, we demonstrate its application as a primitive for more complex Boolean functionalities such as 1-out-of-2 oblivious transfer (OT) and MPC for an arbitrary $N$-party Boolean function, assuming access to the proper broadcasting channel.

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arXiv2025

Structure Theorem for Quantum Replacer Codes

Quantum replacer codes are codes that can be protected from errors induced by a given set of quantum replacer channels, an important class of quantum channels that includes the erasures of subsets of qubits that arise in quantum error correction. We prove a structure theorem for such codes that synthesizes a variety of special cases with earlier theoretical work in quantum error correction. We present several examples and applications of the theorem, including a mix of new observations and results together with some subclasses of codes revisited from this new perspective.

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arXiv2025

Entanglement Purification in Quantum Networks: Guaranteed Improvement and Optimal Time

While the concept of entanglement purification protocols (EPPs) is straightforward, the integration of EPPs in network architectures requires careful performance evaluations and optimizations that take into account realistic conditions and imperfections, especially probabilistic entanglement generation and quantum memory decoherence. It is important to understand what is guaranteed to be improved from successful EPP with arbitrary non-identical input, which determines whether we want to perform the EPP at all. When successful EPP can offer improvement, the time to perform the EPP should also be optimized to maximize the improvement. In this work, we study the guaranteed improvement and optimal time for the CNOT-based recurrence EPP, previously shown to be optimal in various scenarios. We firstly prove guaranteed improvement for multiple figures of merit, including fidelity and several entanglement measures when compared to practical baselines as functions of input states. However, it is noteworthy that the guaranteed improvement we prove does not imply the universality of the EPP as introduced in arXiv:2407.21760. Then we prove robust, parameter-independent optimal time for typical error models and figures of merit. We further explore memory decoherence described by continuous-time Pauli channels, and demonstrate the phenomenon of optimal time transition when the memory decoherence error pattern changes. Our work deepens the understanding of EPP performance in realistic scenarios and offers insights into optimizing quantum networks that integrate EPPs.

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arXiv2025

A resource theory of asynchronous quantum information processing

In standard quantum teleportation, the receiver must wait for a classical message from the sender before subsequently processing the transmitted quantum information. However, in port-based teleportation (PBT), this local processing can begin before the classical message is received, thereby allowing for asynchronous quantum information processing. Motivated by resource-theoretic considerations and practical applications, we propose different communication models that progressively allow for more powerful decoding strategies while still permitting asynchronous distributed quantum computation, a salient feature of standard PBT. Specifically, we consider PBT protocols augmented by free classical processing and/or different forms of quantum pre-processing, and we investigate the maximum achievable teleportation fidelities under such operations. Our analysis focuses specifically on the PBT power of isotropic states, bipartite graph states, and symmetrized EPR states, and we compute tight bounds on the optimal teleportation fidelities for such states. We finally show that, among this hierarchy of communication models consistent with asynchronous quantum information processing, the strongest resource theory is equally as powerful as any one-way teleportation protocol for surpassing the classical teleportation threshold. Thus, a bipartite state can break the one-way classical teleportation threshold if and only if it can be done using the trivial decoding map of discarding subsystems.

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arXiv2025

Exploring Non-Multiplicativity in the Geometric Measure of Entanglement

The geometric measure of entanglement (GME) quantifies how close a multi-partite quantum state is to the set of separable states under the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product. The GME can be non-multiplicative, meaning that the closest product state to two states is entangled across subsystems. In this work, we explore the GME in two families of states: those that are invariant under bilateral orthogonal $(O \otimes O)$ transformations, and mixtures of singlet states. In both cases, a region of GME non-multiplicativity is identified around the anti-symmetric projector state. We employ state-of-the-art numerical optimization methods and models to quantitatively analyze non-multiplicativity in these states for d = 3. We also investigate a constrained form of GME that measures closeness to the set of real product states and show that this measure can be non-multiplicative even for real separable states.

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arXiv2025

On the distinguishability of geometrically uniform quantum states

A geometrically uniform (GU) ensemble is a uniformly weighted quantum state ensemble generated from a fixed state by a unitary representation of a finite group $G$. In this work we analyze the problem of discriminating GU ensembles from various angles. Assuming that the representation of $G$ is irreducible, we first show that a particular optimal measurement can be understood as the limit of weighted `pretty good measurements' (PGM). This naturally provides examples of state discrimination for which the unweighted PGM is provably sub-optimal. We extend this analysis to certain reducible representations, and use Schur-Weyl duality to discuss two particular examples of GU ensembles in terms of Werner-type and permutation-invariant generator states. For the case of pure-state GU ensembles we give a streamlined proof of optimality of the PGM first proved in [Eldar et al., 2004]. We use this result to give simplified proofs of the optimality of the PGM, along with expressions for the corresponding success probabilities, for two tasks: the hidden subgroup problem over semidirect product groups (first proved in [Bacon et al., 2005]), and port-based teleportation (first proved in [Mozrzymas et al., 2019] and [Leditzky, 2022]). Finally, we consider the $n$-copy setting and adapt a result of [Montanaro, 2007] to derive a compact and easily evaluated lower bound on the success probability of the PGM for this task. This result can be applied to the hidden subgroup problem to obtain a new proof for an upper bound on the sample complexity by [Hayashi et al., 2006].

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arXiv2024

Capacities of Entanglement Distribution From a Central Source

Distribution of entanglement is an essential task in quantum information processing and the realization of quantum networks. In our work, we theoretically investigate the scenario where a central source prepares an N-partite entangled state and transmits each entangled subsystem to one of N receivers through noisy quantum channels. The receivers are then able to perform local operations assisted by unlimited classical communication to distill target entangled states from the noisy channel output. In this operational context, we define the EPR distribution capacity and the GHZ distribution capacity of a quantum channel as the largest rates at which Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) states and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states can be faithfully distributed through the channel, respectively. We establish lower and upper bounds on the EPR distribution capacity by connecting it with the task of assisted entanglement distillation. We also construct an explicit protocol consisting of a combination of a quantum communication code and a classical-post-processing-assisted entanglement generation code, which yields a simple achievable lower bound for generic channels. As applications of these results, we give an exact expression for the EPR distribution capacity over two erasure channels and bounds on the EPR distribution capacity over two generalized amplitude damping channels. We also bound the GHZ distribution capacity, which results in an exact characterization of the GHZ distribution capacity when the most noisy channel is a dephasing channel.

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arXiv2024

Random Distillation Protocols in Long Baseline Telescopy

In quantum-enhanced astronomical imaging, multiple distant apertures work together by utilizing quantum resources distributed from a central server. Our findings suggest that pre-processing the stellar light received by all telescopes can improve imaging performance without increasing resource consumption. The pre-processing leverages weak quantum measurements and modifies random-party entanglement distillation protocols from quantum information science. Intuitively, this approach allows us to collapse the stellar light that is originally coherent between all telescopes to one pair of telescopes with probability arbitrarily close to one. The central server can then distribute entanglement solely to the pair of telescopes receiving a photon, thereby enhancing the efficiency of resource utilization. We discuss two types of resources that benefit from this pre-processing: shared entanglement and a shared reference frame.

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arXiv2024

Implementing Quantum Secret Sharing on Current Hardware

Quantum secret sharing is a cryptographic scheme that enables a secure storage and reconstruction of quantum information. While the theory of secret sharing is mature in its development, relatively few studies have explored the performance of quantum secret sharing on actual devices. In this work, we provide a pedagogical description of encoding and decoding circuits for different secret sharing codes, and we test their performance on IBM's 127-qubit Brisbane system. We evaluate the quality of implementation by performing a SWAP test between the decoded state and the ideal one, as well as by estimating how well the code preserves entanglement with a reference system. Results indicate that a ((3,5)) threshold secret sharing scheme performs slightly better overall than a ((5,7)) scheme based on the SWAP test, but is outperformed by the Steane Code scheme in regards to the entanglement fidelity. We also investigate one implementation of a ((2,3)) qutrit scheme and find that it performs the worst of all, which is expected due to the additional number of multi-qubit gate operations needed to encode and decode qutrits.

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arXiv2024

No-Go Theorems for Universal Entanglement Purification

An entanglement purification protocol (EPP) aims to transform multiple noisy entangled states into a single entangled state with higher fidelity. In this work we consider EPPs that always yield an output fidelity no worse than each of the original noisy states, a property we call universality. We prove there is no $n$-to-1 EPP implementable by local operations and classical communication that is universal for all two-qubit entangled states, whereas such an EPP is possible using more general positive partial transpose-preserving (PPT) operations. We also show that universality is not possible by bilocal Clifford EPPs even when restricted to states with fidelities above an arbitrarily high threshold.

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