A comparative study of protocols for secure quantum communication under noisy environment: single-qubit-based protocols versus entangled-state-based protocols

The effect of noise on various protocols of secure quantum communication has been studied. Specifically, we have investigated the effect of amplitude damping, phase damping, squeezed generalized amplitude damping, Pauli type as well as various collective noise models on the protocols of quantum key distribution, quantum key agreement,quantum secure direct quantum communication and quantum dialogue. From each type of protocol of secure quantum communication, we have chosen two protocols for our comparative study; one based on single qubit states and the other one on entangled states. The comparative study reported here has revealed that single-qubit-based schemes are generally found to perform better in the presence of amplitude damping, phase damping, squeezed generalized amplitude damping noises, while entanglement-based protocols turn out to be preferable in the presence of collective noises. It is also observed that the effect of noise entirely depends upon the number of rounds of quantum communication involved in a scheme of quantum communication. Further, it is observed that squeezing, a completely quantum mechanical resource present in the squeezed generalized amplitude channel, can be used in a beneficial way as it may yield higher fidelity compared to the corresponding zero squeezing case.Comment: 23 pages 7 figure

Which verification qubits perform best for secure communication in noisy channel?

In secure quantum communication protocols, a set of single qubits prepared using 2 or more mutually unbiased bases or a set of $n$-qubit ($n\geq2$) entangled states of a particular form are usually used to form a verification string which is subsequently used to detect traces of eavesdropping. The qubits that form a verification string are referred to as decoy qubits, and there exists a large set of different quantum states that can be used as decoy qubits. In the absence of noise, any choice of decoy qubits provides equivalent security. In this paper, we examine such equivalence for noisy environment (e.g., in amplitude damping, phase damping, collective dephasing and collective rotation noise channels) by comparing the decoy-qubit assisted schemes of secure quantum communication that use single qubit states as decoy qubits with the schemes that use entangled states as decoy qubits. Our study reveals that the single qubit assisted scheme perform better in some noisy environments, while some entangled qubits assisted schemes perform better in other noisy environments. Specifically, single qubits assisted schemes perform better in amplitude damping and phase damping noisy channels, whereas a few Bell-state-based decoy schemes are found to perform better in the presence of the collective noise. Thus, if the kind of noise present in a communication channel (i.e., the characteristics of the channel) is known or measured, then the present study can provide the best choice of decoy qubits required for implementation of schemes of secure quantum communication through that channel.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Hierarchical Joint Remote State Preparation in Noisy Environment

A novel scheme for quantum communication having substantial applications in practical life is designed and analyzed. Specifically, we have proposed a hierarchical counterpart of the joint remote state preparation (JRSP) protocol, where two senders can jointly and remotely prepare a quantum state. One sender has the information regarding amplitude, while the other one has the phase information of a quantum state to be jointly prepared at the receiver's port. However, there exists a hierarchy among the receivers, as far as powers to reconstruct the quantum state is concerned. A 5-qubit cluster state has been used here to perform the task. Further, it is established that the proposed scheme for hierarchical JRSP (HJRSP) is of enormous practical importance in critical situations involving defense and other sectors, where it is essential to ensure that an important decision/order that can severely affect a society or an organization is not taken by a single person, and once the order is issued all the receivers don't possess an equal right to implement it. Further, the effect of different noise models (e.g., amplitude damping (AD), phase damping (PD), collective noise and Pauli noise models) on the HJRSP protocol proposed here is investigated. It is found that in AD and PD noise models a higher power agent can reconstruct the quantum state to be remotely prepared with higher fidelity than that done by the lower power agent(s). In contrast, the opposite may happen in the presence of collective noise models. We have also proposed a scheme for probabilistic HJRSP using a non-maximally entangled 5-qubit cluster state.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure