Quantum entanglement cannot be used to achieve direct communication between remote parties, but it can reduce the communication needed for some problems. Let each of k parties hold some partial input data to some fixed k-variable function f. The communication complexity of f is the minimum number of classical bits required to be broadcasted for every party to know the value of f on their inputs.
We construct a function G such that for the one-round communication model and three parties, G can be computed with n+1 bits of communication when the parties share prior entanglement. We then show that without entangled particles, the one-round communication complexity of G is (3/2)n + 1. Next we generalize this function to a function F. We show that if the parties share prior quantum entanglement, then the communication complexity of F is exactly k. We also show that if no entangled particles are provided, then the communication complexity of F is roughly k*log(k).
These two results prove for the first time communication complexity separations better than a constant number of bits.
We investigate multiparty communication scenarios where information is sent from several sender to several receivers. We establish a relation between the quantum capacity of multiparty communication channels and their distillability properties which enables us to show that the quantum capacity of such channels is not additive.
Extending the eavesdropping strategy devised by Zhang, Li and Guo [Phys. Rev. A 63, 036301 (2001)], we show that the multiparty quantum communication protocol based on entanglement swapping, which was proposed by Cabello [quant-ph/0009025], is not secure. We modify the protocol so that entanglement swapping can secure multiparty quantum communication, such as multiparty quantum key distribution and quantum secret sharing of classical information, and show that the modified protocol is secure against the Zhang-Li-Guo's strategy for eavesdropping as well as the basic intercept-resend attack.
Multiparty quantum communication provides delightful applications including quantum cryptographic communication and quantum secret sharing. Measurement-Device-Independent (MDI) quantum communication based on the Greenberg-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state measurement provides a practical way to implement multiparty quantum communication. With the standard spatially localized GHZ state measurement, however, information can be imbalanced among the communication parties that can cause significant problems in multiparty cryptographic communication. Here, we propose an equitable multiparty quantum commun…
The continuous-variable coherent (conat) channel is a useful resource for coherent communication, producing coherent teleportation and coherent superdense coding. We extend the conat channel to multiparty conditions by proposing definitions about multiparty position-quadrature conat channel and multiparty momentum-quadrature conat channel. We additionally provide two methods to implement this channel using linear optics. One method is the multiparty version of coherent communication assisted by entanglement and classical communication (CCAECC). The other is multiparty coherent superdense codin…
Multiparty quantum communication is an important branch of quantum networks. It enables private information transmission with information-theoretic security among legitimate parties. We propose a sender-controlled measurement-device-independent multiparty quantum communication protocol. The sender Alice divides a private message into several parts and delivers them to different receivers for secret sharing with imperfect measurement devices and untrusted ancillary nodes. Furthermore, Alice acts as an active controller and checks the security of quantum channels and the reliability of each rece…
The Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entanglement, originally introduced to uncover the extreme violation of local realism against quantum mechanics, is an important resource for multiparty quantum communication tasks. But the low intensity and fragility of the GHZ entanglement source in current conditions have made the practical applications of these multiparty tasks an experimental challenge. Here we propose a feasible scheme for practically distributing the post-selected GHZ entanglement over a distance of more than 100 km for experimentally accessible parameter regimes. Combining the deco…
We define a quantum model for multiparty communication complexity and prove a simulation theorem between the classical and quantum models. As a result of our simulation, we show that if the quantum k-party communication complexity of a function f is $Ω(n/2^k)$, then its classical k-party communication is $Ω(n/2^{k/2})$. Finding such an f would allow us to prove strong classical lower bounds for (k>log n) players and hence resolve a main open question about symmetric circuits. Furthermore, we prove that for the Generalized Inner Product (GIP) function, the quantum model is exponentially more ef…
In this comment, we show that the special attack [S.-J. Qin, F. Gao, Q.-Y. Wen, F.-C. Zhu, Opt. Commun. 281 (2008) 5472.], which claims to be able to obtain all the transmitted secret message bit values of the protocol of the multiparty quantum secret sharing of secure direct communication using single photons with random phase shift operations, fails. Furthermore, a class of similar attacks are also shown to fail to extract the secrete message.
Based on the two-step protocol [Phys. Rev. A68(03)042317], we propose a $(n,n)$-threshold multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol of secure direct communication. In our protocol only all the sharers collaborate can the sender's secure direct communication message be extracted. We show a variant version of this protocol based on the variant two-step protocol. This variant version can considerably reduce the realization difficulty in experiment. In contrast to the use of multi-particle GHZ states in the case that the sharer number is larger than 3, the use and identification of Bell states ar…
We analyze different aspects of multiparty communication over quantum memoryless channels and generalize some of key results known from bipartite channels to that of multiparty scenario. In particular, we introduce multiparty versions of minimal subspace transmission fidelity and entanglement transmission fidelity. We also provide alternative, local, versions of fidelities and show their equivalence to the global ones in context of capacity regions defined. The equivalence of two different capacity notions with respect to two types of the fidelities is proven. In analogy to bipartite case it i…
Quantum information science breaks limitations of conventional information transfer, cryptography and computation by using quantum superpositions or entanglement as resources for information processing. Here, we report on the experimental realization of three-party quantum communication protocols using single three-level quantum system (qutrit) communication: secret sharing, detectable Byzantine agreement, and communication complexity reduction for a three-valued function. We have implemented these three schemes using the same optical fiber interferometric setup. Our realization is easily scal…
Base on the idea of dense coding of three-photon entangled state and qubit transmission in blocks, we present a multiparty controlled quantum secret direct communication scheme using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. In the present scheme, the sender transmits her three bits of secret message to the receiver directly and the secret message can only be recovered by the receiver under the permission of all the controllers. All three-photon entangled states are used to transmit the secret messages except those chosen for eavesdropping check and the present scheme has a high source capacity becau…
Random access code (RAC), a primitive for many information processing protocols, enables one party to encode n-bit string into one bit of message such that another party can retrieve partial information of that string. We introduce the multiparty version of RAC in which the n-bit string is distributed among many parties. For this task, we consider two distinct quantum communication scenarios: one allows shared quantum entanglement among the parties with classical communication, and the other allows communication through a quantum channel. We present several multiparty quantum RAC protocols tha…
We propose a 2N qubit entangled channel that can be used to teleport N qubits in a network to a single receiver. We describe the construction of this channel and explicitly demonstrate how the protocol works. The protocol is different from teleportation using $N$ Bell pairs shared between $N$ senders and a single receiver, as it ensures that all parties have to participate in order for the teleportation to be successful. This can be advantageous in various scenarios and we discuss potential application of this protocol to voting.
For quantum states of two subsystems, entanglement measures are related to capacities of communication tasks -- highly entangled states give higher capacity of transmitting classical as well as quantum information. However, we show that this is no more the case in general: quantum capacities of multi-access channels, motivated by communication in quantum networks, do not have any relation with genuine multiparty entanglement measures. Along with revealing the structural richness of multi-access channel capacities, this gives us a tool to classify multiparty quantum states from the perspective …
We demonstrate the capability of continuous variable Gaussian states to communicate multipartite quantum information. A quantum teamwork protocol is presented according to which an arbitrary possibly entangled multimode state can be faithfully teleported between two teams each comprising many cooperative users. We prove that N-mode Gaussian weighted graph states exist for arbitrary N, that enable unconditional quantum teamwork implementations for any arrangement of the teams. These perfect continuous variable maximally multipartite entangled resources are typical among pure Gaussian states and…
There are three different types of nondeterminism in quantum communication: i) $\nqp$-communication, ii) $\qma$-communication, and iii) $\qcma$-communication. In this \redout{paper} we show that multiparty $\nqp$-communication can be exponentially stronger than $\qcma$-communication. This also implies an exponential separation with respect to classical multiparty nondeterministic communication complexity. We argue that there exists a total function that is hard for $\qcma$-communication and easy for $\nqp$-communication. The proof of it involves an application of the pattern tensor method and …
In this paper, we present an (n, n) threshold quantum secret sharing scheme of secure direct communication using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. The present scheme is efficient in that all the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states used in the quantum secret sharing scheme are used to generate shared secret messages except those chosen for checking eavesdropper. In our scheme, the measuring basis of communication parties is invariable and the classical information used to check eavesdropping needs only the results of measurements of the communication parties. Another nice feature of our scheme …
Based on a quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol [Phys. Rev. A69(04)052319], we propose a $(n,n)$-threshold scheme of multiparty quantum secret sharing of classical messages (QSSCM) using only single photons. We take advantage of this multiparty QSSCM scheme to establish a scheme of multiparty secret sharing of quantum information (SSQI), in which only all quantum information receivers collaborate can the original qubit be reconstructed. A general idea is also proposed for constructing multiparty SSQI schemes from any QSSCM scheme.
Quantum Key Agreement (QKA) signifies that two or more participants together generate a key and QKA has to satisfy the following conditions: 1 Every participant can change the key and the key is not decided by any participant individually. 2 Only participants can know the key; nonparticipants cannot get the key through illegal means. Because of the condition 1 of participating together, it makes transport inefficient in the current mainstream protocols. They use unicast to exchange messages one by one, so it will considerably limit transmission efficiency and increase cost time spent. This stu…
Recently, Yan and Gao proposed a quantum secret sharing protocol between multiparty ($m$ members in group 1) and multiparty ($n$ members in group 2) using a sequence of single photons (Phys. Rev. A \textbf{72}, 012304 (2005)). We find that it is secure if the quantum signal transmitted is only a single photon but insecure with a multi-photon signal as some agents can get the information about the others' message if they attack the communication with a Trojan horse. However, security against this attack can be attained with a simple modification.
Quantum communication networks are connected by various devices to achieve communication or distributed computing for users in remote locations. In order to solve the problem of generating temporary session key for secure communication in optical-ring quantum networks, a quantum key agreement protocol is proposed. In the key agreement protocols, an attacker can impersonate a legal user to participate in the negotiation process and eavesdrop the agreement key easily. This is often overlooked in most quantum key agreement protocols, which makes them insecure in practical implementation. Consider…
Locally accessible information is a useful information-theoretic physical quantity of an ensemble of multiparty quantum states. We find it has properties akin to quantum as well as classical correlations of single multiparty quantum states. It satisfies monotonicity under local quantum operations and classical communication. However we show that it does not follow monogamy, an important property usually satisfied by quantum correlations, and actually violates any such relation to the maximal extent. Violation is obtained even for locally indistinguishable, but globally orthogonal, multisite en…
There is much interest in the multiparty quantum communications where quantum teleportation using high dimensional entangled quantum channel is one of the promising tools. In this paper, we propose a more general scheme for M-party controlled teleportation of an arbitrary N-particle quantum state using N-1 identical Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs and one (M+2)-particle Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state together as quantum channel. Based on which a 2-party controlled teleportation of an arbitrary 3-particle state is tested with our scheme as an example.
The majority of research to date has concentrated on the quantum key distribution (QKD) between two parties. In general, the QKD protocols proposed for the multiparty scenario often involve the usage of a maximally entangled state, such as GHZ, which is challenging to implement in practice. This paper examines the prepare and measure version of multiparty communication through quantum key distribution. It is sufficient to have the capability of preparing and measuring a single qubit state. The security of the multiparty prepare and measure QKD is demonstrated by utilizing the well-known techni…
In this paper we study quantum nondeterminism in multiparty communication. There are three (possibly) different types of nondeterminism in quantum computation: i) strong, ii) weak with classical proofs, and iii) weak with quantum proofs. Here we focus on the first one. A strong quantum nondeterministic protocol accepts a correct input with positive probability, and rejects an incorrect input with probability 1. In this work we relate strong quantum nondeterministic multiparty communication complexity to the rank of the communication tensor in the Number-On-Forehead and Number-In-Hand models. I…
We present a strategy for implementing multiparty-controlled remote state preparation (MCRSP) for a family of four-qubit cluster-type states with genuine entanglements while employing, Greenberg-Horne-Zeilinger-class states as quantum channels. In this scenario, the encoded information is transmitted from the sender to a spatially separated receiver via the control of multi-party. Predicated on the collaboration of all participants, the desired state can be entirely restored within the receiver's place with high success probability by application of appropriate local operations and necessary c…
We present a scheme for multiparty quantum secret sharing of a private key with pure entangled states and decoy photons. The boss, say Alice uses the decoy photons, which are randomly in one of the four nonorthogonal single-photon states, to prevent a potentially dishonest agent from eavesdropping freely. This scheme requires the parties of communication to have neither an ideal single-photon quantum source nor a maximally entangled one, which makes this scheme more convenient than others in a practical application. Moreover, it has the advantage of having high intrinsic efficiency for qubits …
A single quantum state can be shared by many distant parties. In this thesis, we try to characterize the information contents of such distributed states by defining the multiparty information and the multiparty squashed entanglement, two steps toward a general theory of multiparty quantum information. As a further step in that direction, we partially solve the multiparty distributed compression problem where multiple parties use quantum communication to faithfully transfer their shares of a state to a common receiver. We build a protocol for multiparty distributed compression based on the full…
We introduce "binding complexity", a new notion of circuit complexity which quantifies the difficulty of distributing entanglement among multiple parties, each consisting of many local degrees of freedom. We define binding complexity of a given state as the minimal number of quantum gates that must act between parties to prepare it. To illustrate the new notion we compute it in a toy model for a scalar field theory, using certain multiparty entangled states which are analogous to configurations that are known in AdS/CFT to correspond to multiboundary wormholes. Pursuing this analogy, we show t…
We present a quantum secure direct communication protocol and a multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol based on Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs and entanglement swapping. The present quantum secure direct communication protocol makes use of the ideal of block transmission. We also point out that the sender can encode his or her secret message without ensuring the security of the quantum channel firstly. In the multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol, the communication parties adopt checking mode or encoding mode with a certain probability. It is not necessary for the protocol to perform l…
Multipartite quantum correlations are important resources for the development of quantum information and computation protocols. However, the resourcefulness of multipartite quantum correlations in practical settings is limited by its fragility under decoherence due to environmental interactions. Though there exist protocols to protect bipartite entanglement under decoherence, the implementation of such protocols for multipartite quantum correlations has not been sufficiently explored. Here, we study the effect of local amplitude damping channel on the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger st…
Generalizing a boolean function from Cleve and Buhrman \cite{cb:sqec}, we consider the class of {\it accumulative boolean functions} of the form $f_B(X_1,X_2,..., X_m)=\bigoplus_{i=1}^n t_B(x_i^1x_i^2... x_i^m)$, where $X_j=(x^j_1,x^j_2,..., x^j_n), 1\leq j\leq m$ and $t_B(x_i^1x_i^2... x_i^m)=1$ for input $m$-tuples $x_i^1x_i^2...x_i^m\in B\subseteq A\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$, and 0, if $x_i^1x_i^2...x_i^m\in A\setminus B$. Here the set $A$ is the input {\it promise} set for function $f_B$. The input vectors $X_j, 1\leq j\leq m$ are given to the $m\geq 3$ parties respectively, who communicate cbit…
We analyzed the security of the multiparty quantum secret sharing (MQSS) protocol recently proposed by Zhang, Li and Man [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{71}, 044301 (2005)] and found that this protocol is secure for any other eavesdropper except for the agent Bob who prepares the quantum signals as he can attack the quantum communication with a Trojan horse. That is, Bob replaces the single-photon signal with a multi-photon one and the other agent Charlie cannot find this cheating as she does not measure the photons before they runs back from the boss Alice, which reveals that this MQSS protocol is not …
We present a simple and practical protocol for the solution of a secure multiparty communication task, the secret sharing, and its experimental realization. In this protocol, a secret message is split among several parties in a way that its reconstruction require the collaboration of the participating parties. In the proposed scheme the parties solve the problem by a sequential communication of a single qubit. Moreover we show that our scheme is equivalent to the use of a multiparty entangled GHZ state but easier to realize and better scalable in practical applications.
A multiparty quantum secret report scheme is proposed with quantum encryption. The boss Alice and her $M$ agents first share a sequence of ($M$+1)-particle Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger (GHZ) states that only Alice knows which state each ($M$+1)-particle quantum system is in. Each agent exploits a controlled-not (CNot) gate to encrypt the travelling particle by using the particle in the GHZ state as the control qubit. The boss Alice decrypts the travelling particle with a CNot gate after performing a $σ_x$ operation on her particle in the GHZ state or not. After the GHZ states (the quantum key…
Near-term quantum communication protocols suffer inevitably from channel noises, whose alleviation has been mostly attempted with resources such as multiparty entanglement or sophisticated experimental techniques. Generation of multiparty higher dimensional entanglement is not easy. This calls for exploring realistic solutions which are implementable with current devices. Motivated particularly by the difficulty in generation of multiparty entangled states, in this paper, we have investigated error-free information transfer with minimal requirements. For this, we have proposed a new informatio…
Consider the problem: Alice wishes to send the same key to $n-1$ users (Bob, Carol,. . . , Nathan), while preventing eavesdropper Eve from acquiring information without being detected. The problem has no solution in the classical cryptography but in quantum telecommunication there are some codes to solve the problem. In the paper \cite{zengetall}, Guo-Jyun Zeng, Kuan-Hung Chen, Zhe-Hua Chang, Yu-Shan Yang, and Yao-Hsin Chou from one side and Cabello in \cite{cabello} from other side, used Hadamard gates, Pauli gates in providing the quantum communication code for two-partity telecommunication …
Quantum information theory is a multidisciplinary field whose objective is to understand what happens when information is stored in the state of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics provides us with a new resource, called quantum entanglement, which can be exploited to achieve novel tasks such as teleportation and superdense coding. Current technologies allow the transmission of entangled photon pairs across distances up to roughly 100 kilometers. For longer distances, noise arising from various sources degrade the transmission of entanglement to the point that it becomes impossible to use the …
We present multiparty entanglement purification protocols that are capable of purifying arbitrary graph states directly. We develop recurrence and breeding protocols and compare our methods with strategies based on bipartite entanglement purification in static and communication scenarios. We find that direct multiparty purification is of advantage with respect to achievable yields and minimal required fidelity in static scenarios, and with respect to obtainable fidelity in the case of noisy operations in both scenarios.
Two protocols of quantum direct communication with authentication [Phys. Rev. A 73, 042305(2006)] were recently indicated to be insecure against the authenticator Trent's attacks [Phys. Rev. A 75, 026301(2007)]. We present two efficient protocols by using four Pauli operations, which are secure against inner Trent's attacks as well as outer Eve's attacks. Finally, we generalize them to multiparty quantum direction communication.
Digital signatures are widely used in electronic communications to secure important tasks such as financial transactions, software updates, and legal contracts. The signature schemes that are in use today are based on public-key cryptography and derive their security from computational assumptions. However, it is possible to construct unconditionally secure signature protocols. In particular, using quantum communication, it is possible to construct signature schemes with security based on fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. Several quantum signature protocols have been proposed, but n…
We study a protocol in which many parties use quantum communication to transfer a shared state to a receiver without communicating with each other. This protocol is a multiparty version of the fully quantum Slepian-Wolf protocol for two senders and arises through the repeated application of the two-sender protocol. We describe bounds on the achievable rate region for the distributed compression problem. The inner bound arises by expressing the achievable rate region for our protocol in terms of its vertices and extreme rays and, equivalently, in terms of facet inequalities. We also prove an ou…
We show a surprising link between experimental setups to realize high-dimensional multipartite quantum states and Graph Theory. In these setups, the paths of photons are identified such that the photon-source information is never created. We find that each of these setups corresponds to an undirected graph, and every undirected graph corresponds to an experimental setup. Every term in the emerging quantum superposition corresponds to a perfect matching in the graph. Calculating the final quantum state is in the complexity class #P-complete, thus cannot be done efficiently. To strengthen the li…
Digital signatures are widely used for providing security of communications. At the same time, the security of currently deployed digital signature protocols is based on unproven computational assumptions. An efficient way to ensure an unconditional (information-theoretic) security of communication is to use quantum key distribution (QKD), whose security is based on laws of quantum mechanics. In this work, we develop an unconditionally secure signature scheme that guarantees authenticity and transferability of arbitrary length messages in a QKD network. In the proposed setup, the QKD network c…
Based on the ideal of order rearrangement and block transmission of photons, we present a quantum secure direct communication scheme using single photons. The security of the present scheme is ensured by quantum no-cloning theory and the secret transmitting order of photons. The present scheme is efficient in that all of the polarized photons are used to transmit the sender's secret message except those chosen for eavesdropping check. We also generalize this scheme to a multiparty controlled quantum secret direct communication scheme which the sender's secret message can only be recovered by t…
A notion of quantum conference is introduced in analogy with the usual notion of a conference that happens frequently in today's world. Quantum conference is defined as a multiparty secure communication task that allows each party to communicate their messages simultaneously to all other parties in a secure manner using quantum resources. Two efficient and secure protocols for quantum conference have been proposed. The security and efficiency of the proposed protocols have been analyzed critically. It is shown that the proposed protocols can be realized using a large number of entangled states…
