8,003 research outputs found
Quantum key distribution with an efficient countermeasure against correlated intensity fluctuations in optical pulses
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two distant parties to share secret
keys with the proven security even in the presence of an eavesdropper with
unbounded computational power. Recently, GHz-clock decoy QKD systems have been
realized by employing ultrafast optical communication devices. However,
security loopholes of high-speed systems have not been fully explored yet. Here
we point out a security loophole at the transmitter of the GHz-clock QKD, which
is a common problem in high-speed QKD systems using practical band-width
limited devices. We experimentally observe the inter-pulse intensity
correlation and modulation-pattern dependent intensity deviation in a practical
high-speed QKD system. Such correlation violates the assumption of most
security theories. We also provide its countermeasure which does not require
significant changes of hardware and can generate keys secure over 100 km fiber
transmission. Our countermeasure is simple, effective and applicable to wide
range of high-speed QKD systems, and thus paves the way to realize ultrafast
and security-certified commercial QKD systems
Simulations for Multi-Object Spectrograph Planet Surveys
Radial velocity surveys for extra-solar planets generally require substantial
amounts of large telescope time in order to monitor a sufficient number of
stars. Two of the aspects which can limit such surveys are the single-object
capabilities of the spectrograph, and an inefficient observing strategy for a
given observing window. In addition, the detection rate of extra-solar planets
using the radial velocity method has thus far been relatively linear with time.
With the development of various multi-object Doppler survey instruments, there
is growing potential to dramatically increase the detection rate using the
Doppler method. Several of these instruments have already begun usage in large
scale surveys for extra-solar planets, such as FLAMES on the VLT and Keck ET on
the Sloan 2.5m wide-field telescope.
In order to plan an effective observing strategy for such a program, one must
examine the expected results based on a given observing window and target
selection. We present simulations of the expected results from a generic
multi-object survey based on calculated noise models and sensitivity for the
instrument and the known distribution of exoplanetary system parameters. We
have developed code for automatically sifting and fitting the planet candidates
produced by the survey to allow for fast follow-up observations to be
conducted. The techniques presented here may be applied to a wide range of
multi-object planet surveys.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Relationship between Remittances and Macroeconomic Variables in Times of Political and Social Upheaval: Evidence from Tunisia's Arab Spring
If Tunisia was hailed as a success story with its high rankings on economic,
educational, and other indicators compared to other Arab countries, the 2011
popular uprisings demonstrate the need for political reforms but also major
economic reforms. The Arab spring highlights the fragility of its main economic
pillars including the tourism and the foreign direct investment. In such
turbulent times, the paper examines the economic impact of migrant'
remittances, expected to have a countercyclical behavior. Our results reveal
that prior to the Arab Spring, the impacts of remittances on growth and
consumption seem negative and positive respectively, while they varyingly
influence local investment. These three relationships held in the short-run. By
considering the period surrounding the 2011 uprisings, the investment effect of
remittances becomes negative and weak in the short-and medium-run, whereas
positive and strong remittances' impacts on growth and consumption are found in
the long term.Comment: ERF 23rd Annual Conference , Mar 2017, Amman, Jorda
Task Runtime Prediction in Scientific Workflows Using an Online Incremental Learning Approach
Many algorithms in workflow scheduling and resource provisioning rely on the
performance estimation of tasks to produce a scheduling plan. A profiler that
is capable of modeling the execution of tasks and predicting their runtime
accurately, therefore, becomes an essential part of any Workflow Management
System (WMS). With the emergence of multi-tenant Workflow as a Service (WaaS)
platforms that use clouds for deploying scientific workflows, task runtime
prediction becomes more challenging because it requires the processing of a
significant amount of data in a near real-time scenario while dealing with the
performance variability of cloud resources. Hence, relying on methods such as
profiling tasks' execution data using basic statistical description (e.g.,
mean, standard deviation) or batch offline regression techniques to estimate
the runtime may not be suitable for such environments. In this paper, we
propose an online incremental learning approach to predict the runtime of tasks
in scientific workflows in clouds. To improve the performance of the
predictions, we harness fine-grained resources monitoring data in the form of
time-series records of CPU utilization, memory usage, and I/O activities that
are reflecting the unique characteristics of a task's execution. We compare our
solution to a state-of-the-art approach that exploits the resources monitoring
data based on regression machine learning technique. From our experiments, the
proposed strategy improves the performance, in terms of the error, up to
29.89%, compared to the state-of-the-art solutions.Comment: Accepted for presentation at main conference track of 11th IEEE/ACM
International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computin
The Security of Practical Quantum Key Distribution
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is the first quantum information task to reach
the level of mature technology, already fit for commercialization. It aims at
the creation of a secret key between authorized partners connected by a quantum
channel and a classical authenticated channel. The security of the key can in
principle be guaranteed without putting any restriction on the eavesdropper's
power.
The first two sections provide a concise up-to-date review of QKD, biased
toward the practical side. The rest of the paper presents the essential
theoretical tools that have been developed to assess the security of the main
experimental platforms (discrete variables, continuous variables and
distributed-phase-reference protocols).Comment: Identical to the published version, up to cosmetic editorial change
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