Charles Ci Wen Lim

Wen Yu Kon, Charles Ci Wen Lim

Private information retrieval (PIR) is a database query protocol that provides user privacy, in that the user can learn a particular entry of the database of his interest but his query would be hidden from the data centre. Symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) takes PIR further by additionally offering database privacy, where the user cannot learn any additional entries of the database. Unconditionally secure SPIR solutions with multiple databases are known classically, but are unrealistic because they require long shared secret keys between the parties for secure communication and shared randomness in the protocol. Here, we propose using quantum key distribution (QKD) instead for a practical implementation, which can realise both the secure communication and shared randomness requirements. We prove that QKD maintains the security of the SPIR protocol and that it is also secure against any external eavesdropper. We also show how such a classical-quantum system could be implemented practically, using the example of a two-database SPIR protocol with keys generated by measurement device-independent QKD. Through key rate calculations, we show that such an implementation is feasible at the metropolitan level with current QKD technology.

Yukun Wang, Ignatius William Primaatmaja, Emilien Lavie et al.

Prepare-and-measure (P&M) quantum networks are the basic building blocks of quantum communication and cryptography. These networks crucially rely on non-orthogonal quantum encodings to distribute quantum correlations, thus enabling superior communication rates and information-theoretic security. Here, we present a computational toolbox that is able to efficiently characterise the set of input-output probability distributions for any discrete-variable P&M quantum network, assuming only the inner-product information of the quantum encodings. Our toolbox is thus highly versatile and can be used to analyse a wide range of quantum network protocols, including those that employ infinite-dimensional quantum code states. To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of our toolbox, we use it to reveal new results in multipartite quantum distributed computing and quantum cryptography. Taken together, these findings suggest that our method may have implications for quantum network information theory and the development of new quantum technologies.

Charles Ci Wen Lim, Feihu Xu, George Siopsis et al.

Quantum position verification (QPV) is the art of verifying the geographical location of an untrusted party. Recently, it has been shown that the widely studied Bennett & Brassard 1984 (BB84) QPV protocol is insecure after the 3 dB loss point assuming local operations and classical communication (LOCC) adversaries. Here, we propose a time-reversed entanglement swapping QPV protocol (based on measurement-device-independent quantum cryptography) that is highly robust against quantum channel loss. First, assuming ideal qubit sources, we show that the protocol is secure against LOCC adversaries for any quantum channel loss, thereby overcoming the 3 dB loss limit. Then, we analyze the security of the protocol in a more practical setting involving weak laser sources and linear optics. In this setting, we find that the security only degrades by an additive constant and the protocol is able to verify positions up to 47 dB channel loss.