995 research outputs found
Deep Random based Key Exchange protocol resisting unlimited MITM
We present a protocol enabling two legitimate partners sharing an initial
secret to mutually authenticate and to exchange an encryption session key. The
opponent is an active Man In The Middle (MITM) with unlimited computation and
storage capacities. The resistance to unlimited MITM is obtained through the
combined use of Deep Random secrecy, formerly introduced and proved as
unconditionally secure against passive opponent for key exchange, and universal
hashing techniques. We prove the resistance to MITM interception attacks, and
show that (i) upon successful completion, the protocol leaks no residual
information about the current value of the shared secret to the opponent, and
(ii) that any unsuccessful completion is detectable by the legitimate partners.
We also discuss implementation techniques.Comment: 14 pages. V2: Updated reminder in the formalism of Deep Random
assumption. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1611.01683,
arXiv:1507.0825
Equivalent efficiency of a simulated photon-number detector
Homodyne detection is considered as a way to improve the efficiency of
communication near the single-photon level. The current lack of commercially
available {\it infrared} photon-number detectors significantly reduces the
mutual information accessible in such a communication channel. We consider
simulating direct detection via homodyne detection. We find that our particular
simulated direct detection strategy could provide limited improvement in the
classical information transfer. However, we argue that homodyne detectors (and
a polynomial number of linear optical elements) cannot simulate photocounters
arbitrarily well, since otherwise the exponential gap between quantum and
classical computers would vanish.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Coherence of marine alien species biosecurity legislation: A study of England and Wales
The marine environment is particularly at risk from the intentional and unintentional introduction and spread of invasive alien species (IAS); preventing their introduction and spread from occurring is therefore, a key component in the on-going management of marine IAS. Ensuring legislation is coherent and consistent is essential to the success of managing the existing and future impacts of marine IAS. We explore the coherence (determined as consistency and interaction) of marine biosecurity legislation for IAS at different geopolitical scales. There was consistency between both the Bern Convention and Convention on Biological Diversity and European and national legislation that had been created in response. There was a lack of interaction evidenced by the Ballast Water Management Convention, which had not yet been transposed into regional (mainly European) or national legislation. Implementation measures such as legislation should be coherent as any failure in the chain could potentially weaken the overall effort to establish and maintain biosecurity and achieve behaviour change
Exploring the attitudes to and uptake of biosecurity practices for invasive non-native species: views amongst stakeholder organisations working in UK natural environments
Invasions by invasive non-native species (INNS) can have profound consequences for natural environments, impacting on biodiversity and the biophysical landscape in ways that can endanger other species, human wellbeing and infrastructure. The financial costs of dealing with established INNS populations can be extremely high. Biosecurity measures (simple procedures designed to reduce the risk of human activities spreading INNS to new areas) are being promoted in order to minimize these negative impacts and associated costs. This paper reports on research undertaken with stakeholder organisations that operate within UK natural environments. It aims to evaluate stakeholder perceptions of their role in INNS biosecurity practice in the UK, and the implications of this for INNS strategy more broadly. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with organisation representatives to explore current practices and communications about INNS and perceptions of barriers and opportunities to implement better biosecurity. Whilst participants generally agreed on the need for biosecurity, there were variations among participants in levels of knowledge about INNS (related to background) and the capacity of organisations to engage in biosecurity practices (related to organisational size). Critical barriers to biosecurity were identified as costs, lack of clear guidance, difficulties changing attitudes and implementing collective responsibility, and reactionary versus precautionary approaches. As a result, partnership working on INNS is difficult and action tends to focus on individual species perceived as the most threatening to a particular organisations’ interests. In this way, action on INNS biosecurity faces the kinds of barriers that are common to many environmental problems where individuals/organisations prioritise self-interest despite the potential to obtain greater benefits if collective action could be achieved
Quantum key distribution using gaussian-modulated coherent states
Quantum continuous variables are being explored as an alternative means to
implement quantum key distribution, which is usually based on single photon
counting. The former approach is potentially advantageous because it should
enable higher key distribution rates. Here we propose and experimentally
demonstrate a quantum key distribution protocol based on the transmission of
gaussian-modulated coherent states (consisting of laser pulses containing a few
hundred photons) and shot-noise-limited homodyne detection; squeezed or
entangled beams are not required. Complete secret key extraction is achieved
using a reverse reconciliation technique followed by privacy amplification. The
reverse reconciliation technique is in principle secure for any value of the
line transmission, against gaussian individual attacks based on entanglement
and quantum memories. Our table-top experiment yields a net key transmission
rate of about 1.7 megabits per second for a loss-free line, and 75 kilobits per
second for a line with losses of 3.1 dB. We anticipate that the scheme should
remain effective for lines with higher losses, particularly because the present
limitations are essentially technical, so that significant margin for
improvement is available on both the hardware and software.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Quantum Noise Randomized Ciphers
We review the notion of a classical random cipher and its advantages. We
sharpen the usual description of random ciphers to a particular mathematical
characterization suggested by the salient feature responsible for their
increased security. We describe a concrete system known as AlphaEta and show
that it is equivalent to a random cipher in which the required randomization is
effected by coherent-state quantum noise. We describe the currently known
security features of AlphaEta and similar systems, including lower bounds on
the unicity distances against ciphertext-only and known-plaintext attacks. We
show how AlphaEta used in conjunction with any standard stream cipher such as
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) provides an additional, qualitatively
different layer of security from physical encryption against known-plaintext
attacks on the key. We refute some claims in the literature that AlphaEta is
equivalent to a non-random stream cipher.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A; Discussion augmented and
re-organized; Section 5 contains a detailed response to 'T. Nishioka, T.
Hasegawa, H. Ishizuka, K. Imafuku, H. Imai: Phys. Lett. A 327 (2004) 28-32
/quant-ph/0310168' & 'T. Nishioka, T. Hasegawa, H. Ishizuka, K. Imafuku, H.
Imai: Phys. Lett. A 346 (2005) 7
Restoration of the rabbit corneal surface after total epithelial debridement and complete limbal excision
How is the corneal epithelium restored when all of it plus the limbus have been eliminated? This investigation explored the possibility that this may be achieved through the conjunctival epithelium. The corneal epithelium of the right eye of 12 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was totally scraped followed by surgical excision of the limbus plus 1.0-1.5 mm of the adjacent conjunctiva. Antibiotics and corticosteroids were applied for 1 week after surgery. Histological and immunohistochemical techniques were used to monitor the events taking place on the eye surface 2 weeks and 1, 3 and 6 months thereafter. Initially, the corneal surface was covered by conjunctival-like epithelium. After 1 month and more prominently at 3 and 6 months an epithelium displaying the morphological features of the cornea and reacting with the AE5 antibody was covering the central region. It is likely that the corneal epithelium originated from undifferentiated cells of the conjunctiva interacting with the corneal stroma.CNPqCNPqFAPESPFAPESPFAEPA-HC-FMRPFAEPAHCFMR
Quantum information can be negative
Given an unknown quantum state distributed over two systems, we determine how
much quantum communication is needed to transfer the full state to one system.
This communication measures the "partial information" one system needs
conditioned on it's prior information. It turns out to be given by an extremely
simple formula, the conditional entropy. In the classical case, partial
information must always be positive, but we find that in the quantum world this
physical quantity can be negative. If the partial information is positive, its
sender needs to communicate this number of quantum bits to the receiver; if it
is negative, the sender and receiver instead gain the corresponding potential
for future quantum communication. We introduce a primitive "quantum state
merging" which optimally transfers partial information. We show how it enables
a systematic understanding of quantum network theory, and discuss several
important applications including distributed compression, multiple access
channels and multipartite assisted entanglement distillation (localizable
entanglement). Negative channel capacities also receive a natural
interpretation
Multiscale Modeling of a Nanoelectromechanical Shuttle
In this article, we report a theoretical analysis of a nanoelectromechanical
shuttle based on a multiscale model that combines microscopic electronic
structure data with macroscopic dynamics. The microscopic part utilizes a
(static) density functional description to obtain the energy levels and
orbitals of the shuttling particle together with the forces acting on the
particle. The macroscopic part combines stochastic charge dynamics that
incorporates the microscopically evaluated tunneling rates with a Newtonian
dynamics.
We have applied the multiscale model to describe the shuttling of a single
copper atom between two gold-like jellium electrodes. We find that energy
spectrum and particle surface interaction greatly influence shuttling dynamics;
in the specific example that we studied the shuttling is found to involve only
charge states Q=0 and Q=+e. The system is found to exhibit two quasi-stable
shuttling modes, a fundamental one and an excited one with a larger amplitude
of mechanical motion, with random transitions between them.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Quantum authentication with key recycling
We show that a family of quantum authentication protocols introduced in
[Barnum et al., FOCS 2002] can be used to construct a secure quantum channel
and additionally recycle all of the secret key if the message is successfully
authenticated, and recycle part of the key if tampering is detected. We give a
full security proof that constructs the secure channel given only insecure
noisy channels and a shared secret key. We also prove that the number of
recycled key bits is optimal for this family of protocols, i.e., there exists
an adversarial strategy to obtain all non-recycled bits. Previous works
recycled less key and only gave partial security proofs, since they did not
consider all possible distinguishers (environments) that may be used to
distinguish the real setting from the ideal secure quantum channel and secret
key resource.Comment: 38+17 pages, 13 figures. v2: constructed ideal secure channel and
secret key resource have been slightly redefined; also added a proof in the
appendix for quantum authentication without key recycling that has better
parameters and only requires weak purity testing code
- …