Ian George

In classical information theory, the maximal correlation and \chi^{2}-contraction coefficient establish limits on distributed and sequential processing. Two distinct quantum maximal correlation coefficients have been proposed, but they do not extend all the classical results. Building on work of Petz, we use the family of non-commutative L^{2}(p) spaces that extend the data processing inequality for variance to quantum theory to extend the classical results to quantum theory. We introduce families of quantum maximal correlation coefficients and identify quantum \chi^{2}-divergences as non-commutative generalizations of the variance of the likelihood ratio. We establish a family of maximal correlation coefficients that must all be ordered on a single copy level for an arbitrary number of copies of one state to be able to be converted to a single copy of another target state under local operations. We prove the equivalent characterizations of perfect classical correlation extraction via local operations in quantum theory. We clarify the relationship between maximal correlation and \chi^{2}-contraction coefficients by proving they are the same operator norms evaluated on distinct maps. Then we establish new equivalent conditions to the saturation of the data processing inequality for \chi^{2}-divergences. This implies previous saturation results for the \chi^{2} and sandwiched Rényi divergences. Finally, we establish the quantum maximal correlation coefficients and \chi^{2}-contraction coefficients are often efficiently computable. This results in a generic method for efficiently computing mixing times of time-homogeneous quantum Markov chains with a unique full rank fixed point.

The no-cloning theorem leads to information-theoretic security in various quantum cryptographic protocols. However, this security typically derives from a possibly weaker property that classical information encoded in certain quantum states cannot be broadcast. To formally capture this property, we introduce the study of ``orthogonality broadcasting." When attempting to broadcast the orthogonality of two different qubit bases, we establish that the power of classical and quantum communication is equivalent. However, quantum communication is shown to be strictly more powerful for broadcasting orthogonality in higher dimensions. We then relate orthogonality broadcasting to quantum position verification and provide a new method for establishing error bounds in the no pre-shared entanglement model that can address protocols previous methods could not. Our key technical contribution is an uncertainty relation that uses the geometric relation of the states that undergo broadcasting rather than the non-commutative aspect of the final measurements.

Finite key analysis of quantum key distribution (QKD) is an important tool for any QKD implementation. While much work has been done on the framework of finite key analysis, the application to individual protocols often relies on the the specific protocol being simple or highly symmetric as well as represented in small finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. In this work, we extend our preexisting reliable, efficient, tight, and generic numerical method for calculating the asymptotic key rate of device-dependent QKD protocols in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces to the finite key regime using the security analysis framework of Renner. We explain how this extension preserves the reliability, efficiency, and tightness of the asymptotic method. We then explore examples which illustrate both the generality of our method as well as the importance of parameter estimation and data processing within the framework.

In classical information theory, the Doeblin coefficient of a classical channel provides an efficiently computable upper bound on the total-variation contraction coefficient of the channel, leading to what is known as a strong data-processing inequality. Here, we investigate quantum Doeblin coefficients as a generalization of the classical concept. In particular, we define various new quantum Doeblin coefficients, one of which has several desirable properties, including concatenation and multiplicativity, in addition to being efficiently computable. We also develop various interpretations of two of the quantum Doeblin coefficients, including representations as minimal singlet fractions, exclusion values, reverse max-mutual and oveloH informations, reverse robustnesses, and hypothesis testing reverse mutual and oveloH informations. Our interpretations of quantum Doeblin coefficients as either entanglement-assisted or unassisted exclusion values are particularly appealing, indicating that they are proportional to the best possible error probabilities one could achieve in state-exclusion tasks by making use of the channel. We also outline various applications of quantum Doeblin coefficients, ranging from limitations on quantum machine learning algorithms that use parameterized quantum circuits (noise-induced barren plateaus), on error mitigation protocols, on the sample complexity of noisy quantum hypothesis testing, and on mixing, distinguishability, and decoupling times of time-varying channels. All of these applications make use of the fact that quantum Doeblin coefficients appear in upper bounds on various trace-distance contraction coefficients of a channel. Furthermore, in all of these applications, our analysis using Doeblin coefficients provides improvements of various kinds over contributions from prior literature, both in terms of generality and being efficiently computable.

Discrete-Modulated Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution (DMCVQKD) protocols are amenable for deployment in quantum communication networks due to their experimental simplicity, but pose theoretical challenges impeding their tight security analyses. Major progress has recently been made in the finite-size regime against independent and identical (iid) collective attacks (Kanitschar, F. et. al., (2023), PRX Quantum, 4(4), p.040306). However, a complete and rigorous analysis must take into account correlated rounds of attack beyond the iid-collective assumption, and must not assume a photon-number cutoff on the signal states. The difficulty of achieving this lies in the absence of an information-theoretic framework for proving security that handles infinite dimensional multipartite quantum states that are a priori unstructured, i.e., beyond the asymptotic iid setting. We present a composable security proof against coherent attacks in the finite-size regime for a general DMCVQKD protocol. We introduce a framework to handle states that are in part iid and in part unstructured (almost iid) in infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces. We use a de Finetti reduction for infinite dimensional almost iid states (Renner, R., Cirac, J. I., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 110504 (2009)), and generalise the acceptance test and the energy test to almost iid states handling Eve’s correlated infinite dimensional side information. As work in progress, we address the issue of a missing chain rule that formulates an explicit key rate expression. Numerical simulation of key rates (Winick, A. et. al., Quantum 2, 77 (2018)) can then be performed, demonstrating the efficacy of the security proof.

An important goal in quantum key distribution (QKD) is the task of providing a finite-size security proof without the assumption of collective attacks. For prepare-and-measure QKD, one approach for obtaining such proofs is the generalized entropy accumulation theorem (GEAT), but thus far it has only been applied to study a small selection of protocols. In this work, we present techniques for applying the GEAT in finite-size analysis of generic prepare-and-measure protocols, with a focus on decoy-state protocols. In particular, we present an improved approach for computing entropy bounds for decoy-state protocols, which has the dual benefits of providing tighter bounds than previous approaches (even asymptotically) and being compatible with methods for computing min-tradeoff functions in the GEAT. Furthermore, we develop methods to incorporate some improvements to the finite-size terms in the GEAT, and implement techniques to automatically optimize the min-tradeoff function. Our approach also addresses some numerical stability challenges specific to prepare-and-measure protocols, which were not addressed in previous works.

An important goal in quantum key distribution (QKD) is the task of providing a finite-size security proof without assuming that the states across the protocol rounds are independent and identically distributed (IID). For prepare-and-measure QKD, one recently developed approach for obtaining such proofs is the generalized entropy accumulation theorem (GEAT), but thus far it has only been applied to study a small selection of protocols. In this work, we present techniques for applying the GEAT in finite-size analysis of generic prepare-and-measure protocols, incorporating several methods to optimize the min-tradeoff function and minimize the second-order term in the GEAT. As a particular focus, we analyze decoy-state protocols and present a method for generically obtaining min-tradeoff functions for such protocols, even those where a closed-form expression for the asymptotic rate is not known. Furthermore, we highlight that the techniques we develop in the process should also yield improved bounds on the keyrates of decoy-state protocols even in the asymptotic limit.

The pursuit of tight finite-key analysis for general QKD protocols is an exciting but challenging task for theorists. Entropy accumulation theorem (EAT) was developed recently and been successfully applied to device-independent QKD protocols. In the present work, we use EAT to prove the security of a very large class of entanglement-based QKD protocols, covering most discrete-variable protocols as well as their optical implementations.

In this work, we present an open-source software platform that calculates key rate for general QKD protocols, building upon the numerical framework proposed by our group that can perform automated security proof of QKD protocols. The software platform is fully modularized with mutually independent modules for descriptions of protocols/channels, solvers for bounding key rate, and parameter optimization algorithms. It currently supports BB84 and measurement-device-independent QKD (including decoy states), as well as discrete-modulated continuous variable QKD. It also supports finite-size analysis for non-decoy-state protocols. We hope that the open-sourcing can attract theorists to test new protocols and/or contribute to new solvers, as well as appeal to experimentalists who wish to analyze their data or optimize parameters for new experiments.

A numerical approach for the calculation of QKD key rates allows a uniform framework to be applied to general QKD protocols. Based on our group's previous work, we would like to build a universal software platform that is fully modularized and user-friendly, where one can easily swap in and out different QKD protocol descriptions, channel simulation models or experimental data, backend numerical solvers, and parameter optimization algorithms. Our goal is to build an open-source platform that can be both useful for theorists testing new protocols as well as experimentalists looking for optimal parameters or analyzing their experimental data.