15,700 research outputs found
Reduction of Quantum Noise in Transmittance Estimation Using PhotoneCorrelated Beams
The accuracy of optical measurements at low light levels is limited by the quantum noise of the source and by the random nature of the interaction with the measured object. The source noise may be reduced by use of nonclassical photon-number squeezed light. This paper considers the use of two photon-correlated beams (generated, for example, by spontaneous parametric downconversion) to measure the optical transmittance of an object. The photons of each beam obey a random Poisson process, but are synchronized in time. One beam is used to probe the object while the other is used as a reference providing information on the realization of the random arrival of photons at the object. The additional information available by such measurement may be exploited to improve the accuracy of the measurement. Various estimators, including the maximum likelihood estimator, are considered and their performance is evaluated and compared with the measurement based on single-beam conventional (Poisson) source and maximally squeezed (fixed photon number) source. The performance advantage established in this paper depends on parameters such as the intensity of the source, the transmittance of the object, the quantum efficiency of the detectors, the background noise, and the degree of correlation of the photon numbers in the two beams
Generating the local oscillator "locally" in continuous-variable quantum key distribution based on coherent detection
Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocols based on
coherent detection have been studied extensively in both theory and experiment.
In all the existing implementations of CV-QKD, both the quantum signal and the
local oscillator (LO) are generated from the same laser and propagate through
the insecure quantum channel. This arrangement may open security loopholes and
also limit the potential applications of CV-QKD. In this paper, we propose and
demonstrate a pilot-aided feedforward data recovery scheme which enables
reliable coherent detection using a "locally" generated LO. Using two
independent commercial laser sources and a spool of 25 km optical fiber, we
construct a coherent communication system. The variance of the phase noise
introduced by the proposed scheme is measured to be 0.04 (rad^2), which is
small enough to enable secure key distribution. This technology also opens the
door for other quantum communication protocols, such as the recently proposed
measurement-device-independent (MDI) CV-QKD where independent light sources are
employed by different users.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Security of quantum key distribution with imperfect devices
We prove the security of the Bennett-Brassard (BB84) quantum key distribution
protocol in the case where the source and detector are under the limited
control of an adversary. Our proof applies when both the source and the
detector have small basis-dependent flaws, as is typical in practical
implementations of the protocol. We derive a general lower bound on the
asymptotic key generation rate for weakly basis-dependent eavesdropping
attacks, and also estimate the rate in some special cases: sources that emit
weak coherent states with random phases, detectors with basis-dependent
efficiency, and misaligned sources and detectors.Comment: 22 pages. (v3): Minor changes. (v2): Extensively revised and
expanded. New results include a security proof for generic small flaws in the
source and the detecto
Fundamental Limits of Cooperation
Cooperation is viewed as a key ingredient for interference management in
wireless systems. This paper shows that cooperation has fundamental
limitations. The main result is that even full cooperation between transmitters
cannot in general change an interference-limited network to a noise-limited
network. The key idea is that there exists a spectral efficiency upper bound
that is independent of the transmit power. First, a spectral efficiency upper
bound is established for systems that rely on pilot-assisted channel
estimation; in this framework, cooperation is shown to be possible only within
clusters of limited size, which are subject to out-of-cluster interference
whose power scales with that of the in-cluster signals. Second, an upper bound
is also shown to exist when cooperation is through noncoherent communication;
thus, the spectral efficiency limitation is not a by-product of the reliance on
pilot-assisted channel estimation. Consequently, existing literature that
routinely assumes the high-power spectral efficiency scales with the log of the
transmit power provides only a partial characterization. The complete
characterization proposed in this paper subdivides the high-power regime into a
degrees-of-freedom regime, where the scaling with the log of the transmit power
holds approximately, and a saturation regime, where the spectral efficiency
hits a ceiling that is independent of the power. Using a cellular system as an
example, it is demonstrated that the spectral efficiency saturates at power
levels of operational relevance.Comment: 27 page
Self-referenced continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol
We introduce a new continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD)
protocol, self-referenced CV-QKD, that eliminates the need for transmission of
a high-power local oscillator between the communicating parties. In this
protocol, each signal pulse is accompanied by a reference pulse (or a pair of
twin reference pulses), used to align Alice's and Bob's measurement bases. The
method of phase estimation and compensation based on the reference pulse
measurement can be viewed as a quantum analog of intradyne detection used in
classical coherent communication, which extracts the phase information from the
modulated signal. We present a proof-of-principle, fiber-based experimental
demonstration of the protocol and quantify the expected secret key rates by
expressing them in terms of experimental parameters. Our analysis of the secret
key rate fully takes into account the inherent uncertainty associated with the
quantum nature of the reference pulse(s) and quantifies the limit at which the
theoretical key rate approaches that of the respective conventional protocol
that requires local oscillator transmission. The self-referenced protocol
greatly simplifies the hardware required for CV-QKD, especially for potential
integrated photonics implementations of transmitters and receivers, with
minimum sacrifice of performance. As such, it provides a pathway towards
scalable integrated CV-QKD transceivers, a vital step towards large-scale QKD
networks.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Published versio
Correlator Bank Detection of GW chirps. False-Alarm Probability, Template Density and Thresholds: Behind and Beyond the Minimal-Match Issue
The general problem of computing the false-alarm rate vs. detection-threshold
relationship for a bank of correlators is addressed, in the context of
maximum-likelihood detection of gravitational waves, with specific reference to
chirps from coalescing binary systems. Accurate (lower-bound) approximants for
the cumulative distribution of the whole-bank supremum are deduced from a class
of Bonferroni-type inequalities. The asymptotic properties of the cumulative
distribution are obtained, in the limit where the number of correlators goes to
infinity. The validity of numerical simulations made on small-size banks is
extended to banks of any size, via a gaussian-correlation inequality. The
result is used to estimate the optimum template density, yielding the best
tradeoff between computational cost and detection efficiency, in terms of
undetected potentially observable sources at a prescribed false-alarm level,
for the simplest case of Newtonian chirps.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Adaptive homodyne measurement of optical phase
We present an experimental demonstration of the power of real-time feedback
in quantum metrology, confirming a theoretical prediction by Wiseman regarding
the superior performance of an adaptive homodyne technique for single-shot
measurement of optical phase. For phase measurements performed on weak coherent
states with no prior knowledge of the signal phase, we show that the variance
of adaptive homodyne estimation approaches closer to the fundamental quantum
uncertainty limit than any previously demonstrated technique. Our results
underscore the importance of real-time feedback for reaching quantum
performance limits in coherent telecommunication, precision measurement and
information processing.Comment: RevTex4, color PDF figures (separate files), submitted to PR
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