5,786 research outputs found
Model checking quantum Markov chains
Although the security of quantum cryptography is provable based on the
principles of quantum mechanics, it can be compromised by the flaws in the
design of quantum protocols and the noise in their physical implementations.
So, it is indispensable to develop techniques of verifying and debugging
quantum cryptographic systems. Model-checking has proved to be effective in the
verification of classical cryptographic protocols, but an essential difficulty
arises when it is applied to quantum systems: the state space of a quantum
system is always a continuum even when its dimension is finite. To overcome
this difficulty, we introduce a novel notion of quantum Markov chain, specially
suited to model quantum cryptographic protocols, in which quantum effects are
entirely encoded into super-operators labelling transitions, leaving the
location information (nodes) being classical. Then we define a quantum
extension of probabilistic computation tree logic (PCTL) and develop a
model-checking algorithm for quantum Markov chains.Comment: Journal versio
Analysis of the Security of BB84 by Model Checking
Quantum Cryptography or Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a technique that
allows the secure distribution of a bit string, used as key in cryptographic
protocols. When it was noted that quantum computers could break public key
cryptosystems based on number theory extensive studies have been undertaken on
QKD. Based on quantum mechanics, QKD offers unconditionally secure
communication. Now, the progress of research in this field allows the
anticipation of QKD to be available outside of laboratories within the next few
years. Efforts are made to improve the performance and reliability of the
implemented technologies. But several challenges remain despite this big
progress. The task of how to test the apparatuses of QKD For example did not
yet receive enough attention. These devises become complex and demand a big
verification effort. In this paper we are interested in an approach based on
the technique of probabilistic model checking for studying quantum information.
Precisely, we use the PRISM tool to analyze the security of BB84 protocol and
we are focused on the specific security property of eavesdropping detection. We
show that this property is affected by the parameters of quantum channel and
the power of eavesdropper.Comment: 12 Pages, IJNS
Automated Verification of Quantum Protocols using MCMAS
We present a methodology for the automated verification of quantum protocols
using MCMAS, a symbolic model checker for multi-agent systems The method is
based on the logical framework developed by D'Hondt and Panangaden for
investigating epistemic and temporal properties, built on the model for
Distributed Measurement-based Quantum Computation (DMC), an extension of the
Measurement Calculus to distributed quantum systems. We describe the
translation map from DMC to interpreted systems, the typical formalism for
reasoning about time and knowledge in multi-agent systems. Then, we introduce
dmc2ispl, a compiler into the input language of the MCMAS model checker. We
demonstrate the technique by verifying the Quantum Teleportation Protocol, and
discuss the performance of the tool.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2012, arXiv:1207.055
Symbolic Abstractions for Quantum Protocol Verification
Quantum protocols such as the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution protocol exchange
qubits to achieve information-theoretic security guarantees. Many variants
thereof were proposed, some of them being already deployed. Existing security
proofs in that field are mostly tedious, error-prone pen-and-paper proofs of
the core protocol only that rarely account for other crucial components such as
authentication. This calls for formal and automated verification techniques
that exhaustively explore all possible intruder behaviors and that scale well.
The symbolic approach offers rigorous, mathematical frameworks and automated
tools to analyze security protocols. Based on well-designed abstractions, it
has allowed for large-scale formal analyses of real-life protocols such as TLS
1.3 and mobile telephony protocols. Hence a natural question is: Can we use
this successful line of work to analyze quantum protocols? This paper proposes
a first positive answer and motivates further research on this unexplored path
Quantum Weakly Nondeterministic Communication Complexity
We study the weakest model of quantum nondeterminism in which a classical
proof has to be checked with probability one by a quantum protocol. We show the
first separation between classical nondeterministic communication complexity
and this model of quantum nondeterministic communication complexity for a total
function. This separation is quadratic.Comment: 12 pages. v3: minor correction
Symbolic bisimulation for quantum processes
With the previous notions of bisimulation presented in literature, to check
if two quantum processes are bisimilar, we have to instantiate the free quantum
variables of them with arbitrary quantum states, and verify the bisimilarity of
resultant configurations. This makes checking bisimilarity infeasible from an
algorithmic point of view because quantum states constitute a continuum. In
this paper, we introduce a symbolic operational semantics for quantum processes
directly at the quantum operation level, which allows us to describe the
bisimulation between quantum processes without resorting to quantum states. We
show that the symbolic bisimulation defined here is equivalent to the open
bisimulation for quantum processes in the previous work, when strong
bisimulations are considered. An algorithm for checking symbolic ground
bisimilarity is presented. We also give a modal logical characterisation for
quantum bisimilarity based on an extension of Hennessy-Milner logic to quantum
processes.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures, comments are welcom
Quantitative Verification: Formal Guarantees for Timeliness, Reliability and Performance
Computerised systems appear in almost all aspects of our daily lives, often in safety-critical scenarios such as embedded control systems in cars and aircraft
or medical devices such as pacemakers and sensors. We are thus increasingly reliant on these systems working correctly, despite often operating in unpredictable or unreliable environments. Designers of such devices need ways to guarantee that they will operate in a reliable and efficient manner.
Quantitative verification is a technique for analysing quantitative aspects of a system's design, such as timeliness, reliability or performance. It applies formal methods, based on a rigorous analysis of a mathematical model of the system, to automatically prove certain precisely specified properties, e.g. ``the airbag will always deploy within 20 milliseconds after a crash'' or ``the probability of both sensors failing simultaneously is less than 0.001''.
The ability to formally guarantee quantitative properties of this kind is beneficial across a wide range of application domains. For example, in safety-critical systems, it may be essential to establish credible bounds on the probability with which certain failures or combinations of failures can occur. In embedded control systems, it is often important to comply with strict constraints on timing or resources. More generally, being able to derive guarantees on precisely specified levels of performance or efficiency is a valuable tool in the design of, for example, wireless networking protocols, robotic systems or power management algorithms, to name but a few.
This report gives a short introduction to quantitative verification, focusing in particular on a widely used technique called model checking, and its generalisation to the analysis of quantitative aspects of a system such as timing, probabilistic behaviour or resource usage.
The intended audience is industrial designers and developers of systems such as those highlighted above who could benefit from the application of quantitative verification,but lack expertise in formal verification or modelling
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