CIF: Small: Secure Quantum Communication with Limited Resources

开发一种通信基础设施，防止强大的对手(有可能获得先进的量子计算机和能力)，对我们的社会至关重要。仅使用经典通信，双方不能建立共享密钥(彼此安全通信所需)，除非对对手的力量进行某种计算假设。然而，通过谨慎地使用量子通信的力量，人们可以为这项任务实现无条件的安全。这个项目试图了解量子通信协议的能力，在这种协议中，用户只能有限地访问量子功能，而对手可以无限访问这些资源。对用户的这些限制可能是有意的(例如，为了降低量子通信设备的成本)，也可能是无意的(例如，如果设备在操作过程中发生故障或故障)。该项目的工作将为量子信息科学的广泛应用提供新的理论成果，并为未来的通信基础设施铺平道路，该基础设施高度安全、实用，对设备故障和成本限制具有健壮性。除了这项工作的理论和实践益处外，这一项目还对教育活动和外联工作产生了影响。该项目的工作将使本科生研究人员不仅有机会为量子密码学研究做出贡献，而且还可以学习和洞察这一重要领域。未来量子技术的使用将会大量增加，这使得对这一领域的学生的教育变得更加重要。这个项目将通过发现和分析利用有限量子功能参与者的新型量子密码协议，加深对安全量子通信理论基础的理解。研究工作涉及在各种安全模型(包括各种形式的设备独立性)下分析这些有限资源协议，并为用户设计创新方法，尽管用户拥有有限的量子能力，但仍能对抗敌意代理，从而允许高度安全和高效的通信系统，即使在高噪声信道上也是如此。为了实现这一点，PI还将开发在这种高度受限的环境中分析这些协议所需的新的量子信息理论技术。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Developing a communication infrastructure, secure against powerful adversaries (with potential access to advanced quantum computers and capabilities), is of vital importance to our society. Using only classical communication, two parties cannot establish a shared secret key (needed to securely communicate with one another) unless some computational assumption is made on the power of the adversary. However, by carefully using the power of quantum communication, one can achieve unconditional security for this task. This project seeks to understand the capabilities of quantum communication protocols where users have only limited access to quantum functionality while an adversary has unlimited access to such resources. These limitations on the users may be intentional (for instance, to reduce the cost of a quantum communication device), or unintentional (for instance, if a device malfunctions or breaks down during operation). The work in this project will provide new theoretical results of broad application to quantum information science and also pave the way for a future communication infrastructure that is highly secure, practical, and robust to device failure and cost limitations. Besides the theoretical and practical benefits of this work, there are also impacts in this project in educational activities and outreach efforts. The work on this project will enable undergraduate researchers an opportunity to not only contribute to quantum cryptographic research, but to also learn and gain insight into this important field. The future will see a vast increase in the use of quantum technologies, making the education of students in this field all the more important.This project will develop a deeper understanding of the theoretical foundations of secure quantum communication by discovering and analyzing novel quantum cryptographic protocols that utilize participants with limited quantum functionality. The research efforts involve analyzing these limited-resource protocols in a variety of security models (including various forms of device independence) and devise innovative methods for users, despite having limited quantum capabilities, to counter an adversarial agent allowing for highly secure, and efficient, communication systems, even over high-noise channels. To achieve this, the PI will also be developing new quantum information theoretic techniques needed to analyze these protocols in such highly restricted setting.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.