Pushing the Boundaries of Classical and Quantum Information Processing Toward Enhanced Security and Energy-Efficient Reliability

这项研究旨在打破经典和量子信息科学中经常出现的两种边界。第一种类型的边界是指某些概念上的障碍，这些障碍阻碍了经典和量子信息理论领域之间的结果和科学思想的转换。在这个项目中，确定了三个主题，它们有望跨越经典量子鸿沟进行交叉受精和统一分析。具体来说，pi带来了来自经典和量子背景的专业知识，以研究多方相关度量，加密协议和节能纠错的问题。所获得的结果将与信息安全和能源领域的技术发展直接相关。这项工作挑战的第二类边界是指代表性不足的人口进入STEM领域时经常遇到的障碍。该项目计划在伊利诺伊大学香槟分校（University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign）的pi和传统黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）之间启动一个暑期实习项目。在技术层面上，本研究将开发具有明确操作意义的私有关联和量子的新度量。基于量子资源理论主题的见解，将构建经典状态和量子状态的秘密共享资源理论，并将量化给定状态对秘密共享的效用。此外，在经典和量子密码学研究的基本问题将被解决。已知单向函数的存在是经典设置中许多密码任务所需的最弱假设，并且提出的研究将寻找类似的最小量子假设。一个重要的目标是了解一种类型的安全量子加密功能可以用来模拟另一种类型的条件。作为对密码学工作的补充，本研究将研究可靠量子信息处理的电路复杂性和能量限制。来自电路复杂性、信息论、热力学和容错计算的分析技术将被用来理解在给定的计算过程中，像面积和能量这样的资源是如何受到限制的。作为一个应用，我们将首次从能量的角度来研究CHSH不等式的超量子破坏。这项工作还将引入量子创造力的概念，并将人工智能引入量子计算，以支持人类的创造力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research aims to disrupt two types of boundaries that often emerge within classical and quantum information science. The first type of boundary refers to certain conceptual roadblocks that prevent a translation of results and scientific ideas between the domains of classical and quantum information theory. In this project, three topics are identified that have promise for a cross-fertilization and unified analysis across the classical-quantum divide. Specifically, the PIs bring expertise from both classical and quantum backgrounds to investigate the problems of multi-party correlation measures, cryptographic protocols, and energy-efficient error correction. The results obtained will have direct relevance to the development of technologies in the information-security and energy sectors. The second type of boundary challenged by this work refers to barriers frequently encountered by underrepresented populations entering STEM fields. This project has plans to initiate a summer internship program between the PIs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and historically black college and universities (HBCUs).On a technical level, this research will develop new measures of private correlations and quantum with clear operational meanings. Building on insights from the subject of quantum resource theories, a resource theory of secret sharing will be constructed for both classical and quantum states, and the utility of a given state for secret sharing will be quantified. Additionally, fundamental questions in the study of classical and quantum cryptography will be addressed. The existence of one-way functions is known to be the weakest assumption necessary for many cryptographic tasks in the classical setting, and the proposed research will look for the analogous minimal quantum assumption. A significant objective will be to understand the conditions in which one type of secure quantum cryptographic functionality can be used to simulate another. As a complement to the work on cryptography, this research will investigate circuit complexity and the energy limits of reliable quantum information processing. Analysis techniques from circuit complexity, information theory, thermodynamics, and fault-tolerant computing will be used to understand how resources like area and energy are constrained in a given computational process. As one application, an energy perspective on superquantum violations of the CHSH inequality will be taken for the first time. This work will also introduce the concept of quantum creativity and bring artificial intelligence into quantum computing to support human creativity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.