Influence of satellite motion on polarization qubits in a Space-Earth quantum communication link

In a Space quantum-cryptography experiment a satellite pointing system is needed to send single photons emitted by the source on the satellite to the polarization analysis apparatus on Earth. In this paper a simulation is presented regarding how the satellite pointing systems affect the polarization state of the single photons, to help designing a proper compensation system

Space QUEST mission proposal: experimentally testing decoherence due to gravity

Models of quantum systems on curved space-times lack sufficient experimental verification. Some speculative theories suggest that quantum correlations, such as entanglement, may exhibit different behavior to purely classical correlations in curved space. By measuring this effect or lack thereof, we can test the hypotheses behind several such models. For instance, as predicted by Ralph et al [5] and Ralph and Pienaar [1], a bipartite entangled system could decohere if each particle traversed through a different gravitational field gradient. We propose to study this effect in a ground to space uplink scenario. We extend the above theoretical predictions of Ralph and coworkers and discuss the scientific consequences of detecting/failing to detect the predicted gravitational decoherence. We present a detailed mission design of the European Space Agency's Space QUEST (Space—Quantum Entanglement Space Test) mission, and study the feasibility of the mission scheme.© 2018 The Author(s