Karol Horodecki

Inspired by environmental sciences, we develop a framework to quantify the energy needed to generate quantum entanglement via noisy quantum channels, focusing on the hardware-independent, i.e. fundamental cost. Within this framework, we define a measure of the minimal fundamental energy consumption rate per distributed entanglement (expressed in Joule per ebit). We then derive a lower bound on the energy cost of distributing a maximally entangled state via a quantum channel, which yields a quantitative estimate of energy investment per entangled bit for future quantum networks. We thereby show that irreversibility in entanglement theory implies a non-zero energy cost in standard entanglement distribution protocols. We further establish an upper bound on the fundamental energy consumption rate of entanglement distribution by determining the minimal energy required to implement quantum operations via classical control. To this end, we formulate the axioms for an energy cost measure and introduce a Hamiltonian model for classically-controlled quantum operations. The fundamental cost is then defined as the infimum energy over all such Hamiltonian protocols, with or without specific hardware constraints. The study of the energy cost of a quantum operation is general enough to be naturally applicable to quantum computing and is of independent interest. Finally, we evaluate the energy demands of three entanglement distillation protocols for photonic polarization qubits, finding that, due to entanglement irreversibility, their required energy exceeds the fundamental lower bound by many orders of magnitude. The introduced paradigm can be applied to other quantum resources, with appropriate changes depending on their nature.

We propose a framework for quantum residual management, in which states discarded after a resource distillation process are repurposed as inputs for subsequent quantum information tasks. This approach extends conventional quantum resource theories by incorporating secondary resource extraction from residual states, thereby enhancing overall resource utility. As a concrete example, we investigate the distillation of private randomness from the residual states remaining after quantum key distribution (QKD). More specifically, we quantitatively show that after performing a well-known coherent Devetak-Winter protocol, one can locally extract private randomness from its residual. We further consider the Gottesman-Lo QKD protocol and provide the achievable rate of private randomness from the discarded states that are left after its performance. We also provide a formal framework that highlights a general principle for improving quantum resource utilization across sequential information processing tasks.

Inspired by environmental sciences, we develop a framework to quantify the energy needed to generate quantum entanglement via noisy quantum channels, focusing on the hardware-independent, i.e. fundamental cost. Within this framework, we define a measure of the minimal fundamental energy consumption rate per distributed entanglement (expressed in Joule per ebit). We then derive a lower bound on the energy cost of distributing a maximally entangled state via a quantum channel, which yields a quantitative estimate of energy investment per entangled bit for future quantum networks. We thereby show that irreversibility in entanglement theory implies a non-zero energy cost in standard entanglement distribution protocols. We further establish an upper bound on the fundamental energy consumption rate of entanglement distribution by determining the minimal energy required to implement quantum operations via classical control. To this end, we formulate the axioms for an energy cost measure and introduce a Hamiltonian model for classically-controlled quantum operations. The fundamental cost is then defined as the infimum energy over all such Hamiltonian protocols, with or without specific hardware constraints. The study of the energy cost of a quantum operation is general enough to be naturally applicable to quantum computing and is of independent interest. Finally, we evaluate the energy demands of three entanglement distillation protocols for photonic polarization qubits, finding that, due to entanglement irreversibility, their required energy exceeds the fundamental lower bound by many orders of magnitude. The introduced paradigm can be applied to other quantum resources, with appropriate changes depending on their nature.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is the most explored application of quantum information theory. A central problem in entanglement-based QKD (EB-QKD), is whether every entangled state can be used to extract a key. We observe that entanglement is not sufficient for standard practical EB-QKD protocols where the input choices are announced by the parties that want to share a secure key, such as E91 or entanglement-based BB84 type protocols, when even an arbitrarily small amount of leakage of classical side information occurs. We do this by identifying a class of two-qubit isotropic states that are entangled but cannot be used to distil the key under such protocols for any possible measurement by the parties. Counter-intuitively, this gap persists even when the leakage occurs from the "junk" rounds of the protocol, i.e, rounds that cannot be used to generate any key. We then extend this result to arbitrary dimensions and parties by identifying a class of isotropic states that are not useful to extract a secure key under such protocols, even if they are entangled. Finally, we demonstrate that our approach provides a tool to upper-bound the scalability of repeater-based QKD architectures in a protocol-independent manner. Interestingly, we find that allowing for even a tiny noise in the preparation drastically reduces the scalability of the QKD network.

The notions of privacy tests and k-extendible states have both been instrumental in quantum information theory, particularly in understanding the limits of secure communication. In this paper, we determine the maximum probability with which an arbitrary k-extendible state can pass a privacy test, and we prove that it is equal to the maximum fidelity between an arbitrary k-extendible state and the standard maximally entangled state. Our findings, coupled with the resource theory of k-unextendibility, lead to an efficiently computable upper bound on the one-shot, one-way distillable key of a bipartite state, and we prove that it is equal to the best-known efficiently computable upper bound on the one-shot, one-way distillable entanglement. We also establish efficiently computable upper bounds on the one-shot, forward-assisted private capacity of channels. Extending our formalism to the independent and identically distributed setting, we obtain single-letter efficiently computable bounds on the n-shot, one-way distillable key of a state and the n-shot, forward-assisted private capacity of a channel. For some key examples of interest, our bounds are significantly tighter than other known efficiently computable bounds.

In this paper, we develop the resource theory of quantum secret key. Operating under the assumption that entangled states with zero distillable key do not exist, we define the key cost of a quantum state, and device. We study its properties through the lens of a quantity that we call the key of formation. The main result of our paper is that the regularized key of formation is an upper bound on the key cost of a quantum state. The core protocol underlying this result is privacy dilution, which converts states containing ideal privacy into ones with diluted privacy. Next, we show that the key cost is bounded from below by the regularized relative entropy of entanglement, which implies the irreversibility of the privacy creation-distillation process for a specific class of states. We further focus on mixed-state analogues of pure quantum states in the domain of privacy, and we prove that a number of entanglement measures are equal to each other for these states, similar to the case of pure entangled states. The privacy cost and distillable key in the single-shot regime exhibit a yield-cost relation, and basic consequences for quantum devices are also provided.

Entanglement is an intriguing quantum phenomenon with crucial implications for both fundamental physics and technological applications, e.g., quantum key distribution (QKD). In this paper, we show that multipartite private states from which secret keys are directly accessible to trusted partners are genuinely multipartite entangled states. With application to secure Quantum Internet, we consider the most general setup of multipartite quantum process (channel) in a network setting: multiplex quantum channel with involved parties having one of the three possible roles-- that of only sender or receiver, or both sender and receiver. We derive divergence-based measures for entangling abilities of multipartite quantum channels. We describe an LOCC-assisted secret key agreement (SKA) protocol for generation or distillation of key (private random bits) among multiple trusted allies connected through a quantum multiplex channel secure against a quantum eavesdropper, of which measurement-device-independent QKD and SKA protocols over quantum network laced with key repeaters are particular instances. We are able to provide upper bounds on the non-asymptotic private capacities, maximum rate at which secret key can be distilled via finite uses of channels, and lower bounds on asymptotic capacities. These bounds are expressed in terms of the divergence-based entanglement measures of the channels. Some of these measures lead to strong converse bounds on the private capacities. Our upper bounds on the private capacities also are upper bound on the multipartite quantum capacities where goal is to distill Greenberger{Horne{Zeilinger (GHZ) state. Also, we are able to derive upper bound on the secret key bits that can be distilled via LOCC among trusted allies sharing finite copies of multipartite quantum states.

We initiate a systematic study to provide upper bounds on device-independent key, secure against a non-signaling adversary (NSDI), distilled by a wide class of operations, currently used in both quantum and non-signaling device-independent protocols. These operations consist of a direct measurements on the devices followed by Local Operations and Public Communication (MDLOPC). We formulate a security condition for the considered class of protocols, that is based on the newly introduced non-signaling norm. This norm takes supremum over certain operations, that can be used to discriminate devices. It is shown that the security condition based on this norm, is equivalent to two security conditions present in the literature. We employ the idea of ``squashing" on the secrecy monotones, which provide upper bounds on the key rate in secret key agreement (SKA) scenario, and show that squashed secrecy monotones are the upper bounds on NSDI key. As an important instance, an upper bound on NSDI key rate called ``squashed non-locality", has been constructed. It exhibits several important properties, including convexity, monotonicity, and additivity on tensor products. Using this bound, we identify numerically a domain of two binary inputs and two binary outputs non-local devices for which the squashed non-locality is zero. Therefore one can not distill key from them via MDLOPC operations. These are mixtures of Popescu-Rohrlich (PR) and anti-PR box with the weight of PR less than 80%. This example confirms the intuition that non-locality need not imply secrecy in the non-signaling scenario. The approach is general, describing how to construct other tighter yet possibly less computable upper bounds. Our technique for obtaining upper bounds is based on the non-signaling analog of quantum purification: the complete extension. This extension provides the ultimate eavesdropping power with the minimal consumption of eavesdropper's memory and, as we prove, yields equivalent security conditions as previously known in the literature.

A direct analysis of the protocol of randomness amplification using Bell inequality violation is performed in terms of the convex combination of no-signaling boxes required to simulate quantum violation of the inequality. The probability distributions of bits generated by a Santha-Vazirani source are shown to be mixtures of permutations of Bernoulli distributions with parameter defined by the source. An intuitive proof is provided for the range of partial randomness from which perfect randomness can be extracted using quantum correlations violating the chain inequalities. Exact values are derived in the asymptotic limit of a large number of measurement settings.