arXiv subjects

Michele Mosca

Publications and source records attributed to Michele Mosca.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

A new spin on quantum cryptography: Avoiding trapdoors and embracing public keys

We give new arguments in support of \emph{signed quantum key establishment}, where quantum cryptography is used in a public-key infrastructure that provides the required authentication. We also analyze more thoroughly than previous works the benefits that quantum key establishment protocols have over certain classical protocols, motivated in part by the various objections to quantum key establishment that are sometimes raised. Previous knowledge of quantum cryptography on the reader's part is not required for this article, as the definition of "quantum key establishment" that we use is an entirely classical and black-box characterization (one need only trust that protocols satisfying the definition exist).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Public-key cryptography based on bounded quantum reference frames

We demonstrate that the framework of bounded quantum reference frames has application to building quantum-public-key cryptographic protocols and proving their security. Thus, the framework we introduce can be seen as a public-key analogue of the framework of Bartlett et al. (Phys. Rev. A 70, 032307), where a private shared reference frame is shown to have cryptographic application. The protocol we present in this paper is an identification scheme, which, like a digital signature scheme, is a type of authentication scheme. We prove that our protocol is both reusable and secure under the honest-verifier assumption. Thus, we also demonstrate that secure reusable quantum-public-key authentication is possible to some extent.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Unconditionally-secure and reusable public-key authentication

We present a quantum-public-key identification protocol and show that it is secure against a computationally-unbounded adversary. This demonstrates for the first time that unconditionally-secure and reusable public-key authentication is possible in principle with (pure-state) public keys.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Universal quantum computation in a hidden basis

Let $\ket{\0}$ and $\ket{\1}$ be two states that are promised to come from known subsets of orthogonal subspaces, but are otherwise unknown. Our paper probes the question of what can be achieved with respect to the basis $\{\ket{\0},\ket{\1}}^{\otimes n}$ of $n$ logical qubits, given only a few copies of the unknown states $\ket{\0}$ and $\ket{\1}$. A phase-invariant operator is one that is unchanged under the relative phase-shift $\ket{\1} \mapsto e^{i θ}\ket{\1}$, for any $θ$, of all of the $n$ qubits. We show that phase-invariant unitary operators can be implemented exactly with no copies and that phase-invariant states can be prepared exactly with at most $n$ copies each of $\ket{\0}$ and $\ket{\1}$; we give an explicit algorithm for state preparation that is efficient for some classes of states (e.g. symmetric states). We conjecture that certain non-phase-invariant operations are impossible to perform accurately without many copies. Motivated by optical implementations of quantum computers, we define ``quantum computation in a hidden basis'' to mean executing a quantum algorithm with respect to the phase-shifted hidden basis $\{\ket{\0}, e^{iθ}\ket{\1}\}$, for some potentially unknown $θ$; we give an efficient approximation algorithm for this task, for which we introduce an analogue of a coherent state of light, which serves as a bounded quantum phase reference frame encoding $θ$. Our motivation was quantum-public-key cryptography, however the techniques are general. We apply our results to quantum-public-key authentication protocols, by showing that a natural class of digital signature schemes for classical messages is insecure. We also give a protocol for identification that uses many of the ideas discussed and whose security relates to our conjecture (but we do not know if it is secure).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Generalized self-testing and the security of the 6-state protocol

Self-tested quantum information processing provides a means for doing useful information processing with untrusted quantum apparatus. Previous work was limited to performing computations and protocols in real Hilbert spaces, which is not a serious obstacle if one is only interested in final measurement statistics being correct (for example, getting the correct factors of a large number after running Shor's factoring algorithm). This limitation was shown by McKague et al. to be fundamental, since there is no way to experimentally distinguish any quantum experiment from a special simulation using states and operators with only real coefficients. In this paper, we show that one can still do a meaningful self-test of quantum apparatus with complex amplitudes. In particular, we define a family of simulations of quantum experiments, based on complex conjugation, with two interesting properties. First, we are able to define a self-test which may be passed only by states and operators that are equivalent to simulations within the family. This extends work of Mayers and Yao and Magniez et al. in self-testing of quantum apparatus, and includes a complex measurement. Second, any of the simulations in the family may be used to implement a secure 6-state QKD protocol, which was previously not known to be implementable in a self-tested framework.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Algorithms for Quantum Computers

This paper surveys the field of quantum computer algorithms. It gives a taste of both the breadth and the depth of the known algorithms for quantum computers, focusing on some of the more recent results. It begins with a brief review of quantum Fourier transform based algorithms, followed by quantum searching and some of its early generalizations. It continues with a more in-depth description of two more recent developments: algorithms developed in the quantum walk paradigm, followed by tensor network evaluation algorithms (which include approximating the Tutte polynomial).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

The Case for Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises secure key agreement by using quantum mechanical systems. We argue that QKD will be an important part of future cryptographic infrastructures. It can provide long-term confidentiality for encrypted information without reliance on computational assumptions. Although QKD still requires authentication to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, it can make use of either information-theoretically secure symmetric key authentication or computationally secure public key authentication: even when using public key authentication, we argue that QKD still offers stronger security than classical key agreement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Quantum Coins

One of the earliest cryptographic applications of quantum information was to create quantum digital cash that could not be counterfeited. In this paper, we describe a new type of quantum money: quantum coins, where all coins of the same denomination are represented by identical quantum states. We state desirable security properties such as anonymity and unforgeability and propose two candidate quantum coin schemes: one using black box operations, and another using blind quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Interacting boson problems are QMA-hard

Computing the ground-state energy of interacting electron (fermion) problems has recently been shown to be hard for QMA, a quantum analogue of the complexity class NP. Fermionic problems are usually hard, a phenomenon widely attributed to the so-called sign problem occurring in Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The corresponding bosonic problems are, according to conventional wisdom, tractable. Here, we discuss the complexity of interacting boson problems and show that they are also QMA-hard. In addition, we show that the bosonic version of the so-called N-representability problem is QMA-complete, as hard as its fermionic version. As a consequence, these problems are unlikely to have efficient quantum algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Simulating quantum systems using real Hilbert spaces

We develop a means of simulating the evolution and measurement of a multipartite quantum state under discrete or continuous evolution using another quantum system with states and operators lying in a real Hilbert space. This extends previous results which were unable to simulate local evolution and measurements with local operators and was limited to discrete evolution. We also detail applications to Bell inequalities and self-testing of quantum apparatus.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Quantum Algorithms

This article surveys the state of the art in quantum computer algorithms, including both black-box and non-black-box results. It is infeasible to detail all the known quantum algorithms, so a representative sample is given. This includes a summary of the early quantum algorithms, a description of the Abelian Hidden Subgroup algorithms (including Shor's factoring and discrete logarithm algorithms), quantum searching and amplitude amplification, quantum algorithms for simulating quantum mechanical systems, several non-trivial generalizations of the Abelian Hidden Subgroup Problem (and related techniques), the quantum walk paradigm for quantum algorithms, the paradigm of adiabatic algorithms, a family of ``topological'' algorithms, and algorithms for quantum tasks which cannot be done by a classical computer, followed by a discussion.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Limitations of some simple adiabatic quantum algorithms

Let $H(t)=(1-t/T)H_0 + (t/T)H_1$, $t\in [0,T]$, be the Hamiltonian governing an adiabatic quantum algorithm, where $H_0$ is diagonal in the Hadamard basis and $H_1$ is diagonal in the computational basis. We prove that $H_0$ and $H_1$ must each have at least two large mutually-orthogonal eigenspaces if the algorithm's running time is to be subexponential in the number of qubits. We also reproduce the optimality proof of Farhi and Gutmann's search algorithm in the context of this adiabatic scheme; because we only consider initial Hamiltonians that are diagonal in the Hadamard basis, our result is slightly stronger than the original.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Optimal phase estimation in quantum networks

We address the problem of estimating the phase phi given N copies of the phase rotation u(phi) within an array of quantum operations in finite dimensions. We first consider the special case where the array consists of an arbitrary input state followed by any arrangement of the N phase rotations, and ending with a POVM. We optimise the POVM for a given input state and fixed arrangement. Then we also optimise the input state for some specific cost functions. In all cases, the optimal POVM is equivalent to a quantum Fourier transform in an appropriate basis. Examples and applications are given.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Single spin measurement using cellular automata techniques

We propose an approach for single spin measurement. Our method uses techniques from the theory of quantum cellular automata to correlate a large amount of ancillary spins to the one to be measured. It has the distinct advantage of being efficient, and to a certain extent fault-tolerant. Under ideal conditions, it requires the application of only order of cube root of N steps (each requiring a constant number of rf pulses) to create a system of N correlated spins. It is also fairly robust against pulse errors, imperfect initial polarization of the ancilla spin system, and does not rely on entanglement. We study the scalability of our scheme through numerical simulation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2005

Self-Testing of Quantum Circuits

We prove that a quantum circuit together with measurement apparatuses and EPR sources can be fully verified without any reference to some other trusted set of quantum devices. Our main assumption is that the physical system we are working with consists of several identifiable sub-systems, on which we can apply some given gates locally. To achieve our goal we define the notions of simulation and equivalence. The concept of simulation refers to producing the correct probabilities when measuring physical systems. To enable the efficient testing of the composition of quantum operations, we introduce the notion of equivalence. Unlike simulation, which refers to measured quantities (i.e., probabilities of outcomes), equivalence relates mathematical objects like states, subspaces or gates. Using these two concepts, we prove that if a system satisfies some simulation conditions, then it is equivalent to the one it is purposed to implement. In addition, with our formalism, we can show that these statements are robust, and the degree of robustness can be made explicit (unlike the robustness results of [DMMS00]). In particular, we also prove the robustness of the EPR Test [MY98]. Finally, we design a test for any quantum circuit whose complexity is linear in the number of gates and qubits, and polynomial in the required precision.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Quantum Networks for Generating Arbitrary Quantum States

Quantum protocols often require the generation of specific quantum states. We describe a quantum algorithm for generating any prescribed quantum state. For an important subclass of states, including pure symmetric states, this algorithm is efficient.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Quantum Search on Bounded-Error Inputs

Suppose we have n algorithms, quantum or classical, each computing some bit-value with bounded error probability. We describe a quantum algorithm that uses O(sqrt{n}) repetitions of the base algorithms and with high probability finds the index of a 1-bit among these n bits (if there is such an index). This shows that it is not necessary to first significantly reduce the error probability in the base algorithms to O(1/poly(n)) (which would require O(sqrt{n}log n) repetitions in total). Our technique is a recursive interleaving of amplitude amplification and error-reduction, and may be of more general interest. Essentially, it shows that quantum amplitude amplification can be made to work also with a bounded-error verifier. As a corollary we obtain optimal quantum upper bounds of O(sqrt{N}) queries for all constant-depth AND-OR trees on N variables, improving upon earlier upper bounds of O(sqrt{N}polylog(N)).

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Exact quantum Fourier transforms and discrete logarithm algorithms

We show how the quantum fast Fourier transform (QFFT) can be made exact for arbitrary orders (first for large primes). For most quantum algorithms only the quantum Fourier transform of order $2^n$ is needed, and this can be done exactly. Kitaev \cite{kitaev} showed how to approximate the Fourier transform for any order. Here we show how his construction can be made exact by using the technique known as ``amplitude amplification''. Although unlikely to be of any practical use, this construction e.g. allows to make Shor's discrete logarithm quantum algorithm exact. Thus we have the first example of an exact non black box fast quantum algorithm, thereby giving more evidence that ``quantum'' need not be probabilistic. We also show that in a certain sense the family of circuits for the exact QFFT is uniform. Namely the parameters of the gates can be calculated efficiently.

quant-ph↗