LEDAkem: a post-quantum key encapsulation mechanism based on QC-LDPC codes

This work presents a new code-based key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) called LEDAkem. It is built on the Niederreiter cryptosystem and relies on quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check codes as secret codes, providing high decoding speeds and compact keypairs. LEDAkem uses ephemeral keys to foil known statistical attacks, and takes advantage of a new decoding algorithm that provides faster decoding than the classical bit-flipping decoder commonly adopted in this kind of systems. The main attacks against LEDAkem are investigated, taking into account quantum speedups. Some instances of LEDAkem are designed to achieve different security levels against classical and quantum computers. Some performance figures obtained through an efficient C99 implementation of LEDAkem are provided.Comment: 21 pages, 3 table

Analysing correlated noise on the surface code using adaptive decoding algorithms

Laboratory hardware is rapidly progressing towards a state where quantum error-correcting codes can be realised. As such, we must learn how to deal with the complex nature of the noise that may occur in real physical systems. Single qubit Pauli errors are commonly used to study the behaviour of error-correcting codes, but in general we might expect the environment to introduce correlated errors to a system. Given some knowledge of structures that errors commonly take, it may be possible to adapt the error-correction procedure to compensate for this noise, but performing full state tomography on a physical system to analyse this structure quickly becomes impossible as the size increases beyond a few qubits. Here we develop and test new methods to analyse blue a particular class of spatially correlated errors by making use of parametrised families of decoding algorithms. We demonstrate our method numerically using a diffusive noise model. We show that information can be learnt about the parameters of the noise model, and additionally that the logical error rates can be improved. We conclude by discussing how our method could be utilised in a practical setting blue and propose extensions of our work to study more general error models.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, comments welcome; v2 - minor typos corrected some references added; v3 - accepted to Quantu

Enhanced Feedback Iterative Decoding of Sparse Quantum Codes

Decoding sparse quantum codes can be accomplished by syndrome-based decoding using a belief propagation (BP) algorithm.We significantly improve this decoding scheme by developing a new feedback adjustment strategy for the standard BP algorithm. In our feedback procedure, we exploit much of the information from stabilizers, not just the syndrome but also the values of the frustrated checks on individual qubits of the code and the channel model. Furthermore we show that our decoding algorithm is superior to belief propagation algorithms using only the syndrome in the feedback procedure for all cases of the depolarizing channel. Our algorithm does not increase the measurement overhead compared to the previous method, as the extra information comes for free from the requisite stabilizer measurements.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, Second version, To be appeared in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Quantum Error Correction beyond the Bounded Distance Decoding Limit

In this paper, we consider quantum error correction over depolarizing channels with non-binary low-density parity-check codes defined over Galois field of size $2^p$ . The proposed quantum error correcting codes are based on the binary quasi-cyclic CSS (Calderbank, Shor and Steane) codes. The resulting quantum codes outperform the best known quantum codes and surpass the performance limit of the bounded distance decoder. By increasing the size of the underlying Galois field, i.e., $2^p$, the error floors are considerably improved.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Upper Bounds on the Rate of Low Density Stabilizer Codes for the Quantum Erasure Channel

Using combinatorial arguments, we determine an upper bound on achievable rates of stabilizer codes used over the quantum erasure channel. This allows us to recover the no-cloning bound on the capacity of the quantum erasure channel, R is below 1-2p, for stabilizer codes: we also derive an improved upper bound of the form : R is below 1-2p-D(p) with a function D(p) that stays positive for 0 < p < 1/2 and for any family of stabilizer codes whose generators have weights bounded from above by a constant - low density stabilizer codes. We obtain an application to percolation theory for a family of self-dual tilings of the hyperbolic plane. We associate a family of low density stabilizer codes with appropriate finite quotients of these tilings. We then relate the probability of percolation to the probability of a decoding error for these codes on the quantum erasure channel. The application of our upper bound on achievable rates of low density stabilizer codes gives rise to an upper bound on the critical probability for these tilings.Comment: 32 page