CAREER: Hybrid Approaches to Quantum Cryptography: New Methods and Protocols

量子密码学承诺未来的通信基础设施不仅可以抵御当今技术带来的威胁，还可以抵御未来技术突破带来的威胁，包括大规模量子计算机的开发和部署。 然而，尽管有巨大的潜力，但在这项技术被广泛采用之前，必须克服几个实践和理论障碍。 为了克服这些挑战，该项目有四个主要的高级目标：（1）降低当前量子密码系统的复杂性（特别是对于最终用户，这可以转化为潜在的成本有效的实现）;（2）增加量子通信协议的效率和噪声容限;（3）拓宽可以使用量子资源的密码应用的范围;（4）加深对量子保密通信基础的理解。 该项目还具有广泛的教育组成部分，为本科生提供参与量子密码研究的新机会，同时还开发新的教育材料，指导早期本科生和公众了解量子通信和密码学的理论和使用。 这些知识对未来的劳动力和未来的研究人员至关重要。该项目的最终目标是促进对量子密码学理论基础的理解，同时提高该领域的能力。 通过使用混合的经典和量子方法，PI将开发一种新的安全分析框架，该框架基于一类新的熵不确定性关系，依赖于经典和量子方法。 这样的框架将立即适用于各种“弱量子”协议，这些协议对用户有设备限制;它也将广泛适用于一般的量子密码学和量子信息理论研究。 PI还将利用经典和量子通信的力量来开发新的自适应对策，以提高当前量子密码协议的安全性和性能。 最后，将开发超越密钥分发的新量子密码原语，拓宽量子资源可能应用的范围。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Quantum cryptography promises a future communication infrastructure that is secure against threats posed not only by today's technology, but also against threats posed by future technological breakthroughs, including the development and deployment of large-scale quantum computers. Despite this great potential, however, there are several practical and theoretical hurdles that must be overcome before this technology can see wide-scale adoption. Towards overcoming these challenges, this project has four primary high-level goals: (1) to reduce the complexity of current quantum cryptographic systems (especially for the end-user, which can translate to potential cost effective implementations); (2) to increase the efficiency and noise tolerance of quantum communication protocols; (3) to broaden the range of cryptographic applications for which quantum resources may be used; and (4) to increase understanding of the foundations of quantum secure communication. This project also has an extensive educational component, providing new opportunities for undergraduate students to become involved in quantum cryptographic research, while also developing new educational material to instruct early undergraduates, and the general public, in the theory and use of quantum communication and cryptography. Such knowledge will be vital to the future workforce, and to future researchers.This project's ultimate goal is to advance the understanding of the theoretical foundations of quantum cryptography, while also advancing capabilities within this field. Through the use of a hybrid classical and quantum approach, the PI will develop a novel security analysis framework based on a new class of entropic uncertainty relation, relying on both classical and quantum methods. Such a framework will be immediately applicable to various "weakly-quantum" protocols which have device restrictions placed on users; it will also be broadly applicable to general quantum cryptography and quantum information theory research. The PI will also harness the power of classical and quantum communication to develop new adaptive countermeasures to improve the security and performance of current quantum cryptographic protocols. Finally, new quantum cryptographic primitives beyond key distribution will be developed, broadening the range of applications that quantum resources may be applied towards.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.