CAREER: Interactions with Untrusted Quantum Devices

自20世纪80年代以来对量子信息进行的基础研究表明，量子力学的原理可以导致戏剧性的计算和密码后果，从指数级更快的算法到牢不可破的密码系统。从用于量子密码学的单光子接收器到大规模量子优化器，第一批实用的量子器件现在正在积极开发中。这些惊人的实验进展提出了一个非常现实的挑战：经典用户如何与先验未知和不可信的量子设备建立并保持可信的交互？该项目旨在解决这个问题的许多方面，从开发新的安全密码协议到研究量子力学设备对计算理论的基本结果。这方面的研究对于建立可信相互作用的安全量子网络至关重要。要取得进展，需要计算机科学、物理和数学的洞察力相结合。从本质上讲，该项目是高度跨学科的，PI将投入大量精力来传播支持和产生于研究的想法。这包括最大限度地利用通过互联网进行交流的可能性(包括在线研讨会和课程)，并通过外展和教学鼓励出现一代研究人员，以应对物理和信息技术相互作用带来的即将到来的挑战。国际密码学对这一项目的研究将建立在密码学和复杂性理论的最新惊人发展的基础上，包括设备独立性的框架和量子多证明者交互证明系统的理论。最近在这些领域的工作已经确定了量子纠缠的一个关键性质，即纠缠的一夫一妻制，这对量子力学系统施加了非常强烈的约束。PI将开发利用纠缠及其一夫一妻制的技术，以实现经典用户和量子设备之间的测试和安全交互。在这一过程中获得的洞察力将超越该项目的框架，应用到许多物理领域，从超导体理论到黑洞理论，纠缠在其中发挥了作用。

Fundamental research in quantum information performed since the 1980s shows that the principles of quantum mechanics can lead to dramatic computational and cryptographic consequences, from exponentially faster algorithms to unbreakable cryptosystems. The first practical quantum devices, from single-photon receptors used in quantum cryptography to large-scale quantum optimizers, are now being actively developed. These stunning experimental advances raise a very practical challenge: how can classical users establish and maintain a trusted interaction with a priori unknown and untrusted quantum devices?This project aims to address the many aspects of this question, from the development of novel secure cryptographic protocols to the study of the fundamental consequences of quantum mechanical devices for the theory of computation. Research in this direction is essential for the establishment of a secure quantum network of trusted interactions. Making progress will require a combination of insights from computer science, physics, and mathematics. By nature the project is highly interdisciplinary, and the PI will put substantial effort into disseminating the ideas that support, and arise from, the research. This includes making best use of the possibilities for communication through the internet (including online seminars and courses) and encouraging, via outreach and teaching, the emergence of a generation of researchers equipped to address the upcoming challenges posed by the interaction of physics and information technologies.Research by the PI on this project will build upon recent striking developments in cryptography and complexity theory, including the framework of device-independence and the theory of quantum multi-prover interactive proof systems. Recent works in these areas have identified a key property of quantum entanglement, the monogamy of entanglement, which places very strong constraints on quantum mechanical systems. The PI will develop techniques that leverage entanglement and its monogamy in order to enable testing and secure interactions between classical users and quantum devices. The insights gained in the process will find applications beyond the framework of the project to the many areas of physics in which entanglement plays a role, from the theory of superconductors to that of black holes.