R. Srikanth

Counterfactual quantum certificate authorization

We present a multipartite protocol in a counterfactual paradigm. In counterfactual quantum cryptography, secure information is transmitted between two spatially separated parties even when there is no physical travel of particles transferring the information between them. We propose here a tripartite counterfactual quantum protocol for the task of certificate authorization. Here a trusted third party, Alice, authenticates an entity Bob (e.g., a bank) that a client Charlie wishes to securely transact with. The protocol is counterfactual with respect to either Bob or Charlie. We prove its security against a general incoherent attack, where Eve attacks single particles.

Unification of Bell, Leggett-Garg and Kochen-Specker inequalities: Hybrid spatio-temporal inequalities

The Bell-type (spatial), Kochen-Specker (contextuality) or Leggett-Garg (temporal) inequalities are based on classically plausible but otherwise quite distinct assumptions. For any of these inequalities, satisfaction is equivalent to a joint probability distribution for all observables in the experiment. This implies a joint distribution for all pairs of observables, and is indifferent to whether or not they commute in the theory. This indifference underpins a unification of the above inequalities into a general framework of correlation inequalities. When the physical scenario is such that the correlated pairs are all compatible, the resulting correlation is nonsignaling, which may be local or multi-particle, corresponding to contextuality or Bell-type inequalities. If the pairs are incompatible, the resulting correlation corresponds to Leggett-Garg (LG) inequalities. That quantum mechanics (QM) violates all these inequalities suggests a close connection between the local, spatial and temporal properties of the theory. As a concrete manifestation of the unification, we extend the method due to Roy and Singh (J. Phys. A, 11 (1978) L167) to derive and study a new class of hybrid spatio-temporal inequalities, where the correlated pairs in the experiment are both compatible or incompatible. The implications for cryptography and monogamy inequalities of the unification are briefly touched upon.

EFFICIENT QUANTUM RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION USING QUANTUM INDISTINGUISHABILITY

In this paper, we propose a quantum method for generation of random numbers based on bosonic stimulation. Randomness arises through the path-dependent indeterministic amplification of two competing bosonic modes. We show that the process provides an efficient method for macroscopic extraction of microscopic randomness.

Semi-counterfactual cryptography

In counterfactual quantum key distribution (QKD), two remote parties can securely share random polarization-encoded bits through the blocking rather than the transmission of particles. We propose a semi-counterfactual QKD, i.e., one where the secret bit is shared, and also encoded, based on the blocking or non-blocking of a particle. The scheme is thus semi-counterfactual and not based on polarization encoding. As with other counterfactual schemes and the Goldenberg-Vaidman protocol, but unlike BB84, the encoding states are orthogonal and security arises ultimately from single-particle non-locality. Unlike any of them, however, the secret bit generated is maximally indeterminate until the joint action of Alice and Bob. We prove the general security of the protocol, and study the most general photon-number–preserving incoherent attack in detail.

Toward secure communication using intra-particle entanglement

We explore the use of the resource of intra-particle entanglement for secure quantum key distribution in the device-independent scenario. By virtue of the local nature of such entanglement, Bell tests must be implemented locally, which leads to a natural decoupling of device errors from channel errors. We consider a side-channel attack on the sender’s state preparation device, for which the intra-particle entanglement-based scheme is shown to be more secure than the one that uses separable states. Of practical relevance is the fact that such entanglement can be easily generated using linear optics.