via University of the Witwatersrand
Wits Researchers demonstrate a new quantum approach for sharing a secret amongst many parties, setting a new record for the highest dimensions and parties.
Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have demonstrated a record setting quantum protocol for sharing a secret amongst many parties. The team created an 11-dimensional quantum state and used it to share a secret amongst 10 parties. By using quantum tricks, the secret can only be unlocked if the parties trust one another. The work sets a new record for the dimension of the state (which impacts on how big the secret can be) and the number of parties with whom it is shared and is an important step towards distributing information securely across many nodes in a quantum network.
Laser & Photonics Reviews published online the research by the Wits team led by Professor Andrew Forbes from the School of Physics at Wits University. In their paper titled: Experimental Demonstration of 11-Dimensional 10-Party Quantum Secret Sharing, the Wits team beat all prior records to share a quantum secret.
“In traditional secure quantum communication, information is sent securely from one party to another, often named Alice and Bob. In the language of networks, this would be considered peer-to-peer communication and by definition has only the two nodes: sender and receiver,” says Forbes.
“Anyone who has sent an email will know that often information must be sent to several people: one sender and many receiving parties. Traditional quantum communication such as quantum key distribution (QKD) does not allow this, and is only of the peer-to-peer form.”
Using structured light as quantum photon states, the Wits team showed how to distribute information from one sender to 10 parties. Then, by using some nifty quantum tricks, they could engineer the protocol so that only if the parties trust one another can the secret be revealed.
“In essence, each party has no useful information, but if they trust one another then the secret can be revealed. The level of trust can be set from just a few of the parties to all of them,” says Forbes. Importantly, at no stage is the secret ever revealed through communication between the parties: they don’t have to reveal any secrets. In this way a secret can be shared in a fundamentally secure manner across many nodes of a network: quantum secret sharing.
“Our work pushes the state-of-the-art and brings quantum communication closer to true network implementation,” says Forbes. “When you think of networks you think of many connections, many parties, who wish to share information and not just two. Now we know how to do this the quantum way.”
The team used structured photons to reach high dimensions. Structured light means ‘’Patterns of light” and here the team could use many patterns to push the dimension limit. More dimensions mean more information in the light, and translates directly to larger secrets.
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Quantum communication
- China's quantum communication to be strengthened, CPPCC adviser sayson March 6, 2021 at 5:15 pm
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China will realize a fully localized long-distance, high-speed and integrated quantum communication system compatible with classical communication ...
- This Switch Takes Us an Important Step Closer to a Quantum Interneton March 5, 2021 at 1:30 pm
Efforts to build a super-fast, super-secure quantum internet are steadily progressing, and scientists have now figured out how an important part of that network could function: an integral switch that ...
- New quantum theory heats up thermodynamic researchon March 5, 2021 at 2:01 am
Researchers have developed a new quantum version of a 150-year-old thermodynamical thought experiment that could pave the way for the development of quantum heat engines.
- Quantum Xchange Wins Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards for the Third Consecutive Yearon March 4, 2021 at 6:18 am
Quantum Xchange, announced today that The Globee® Awards, organizers of world's premier business awards programs and business ranking lists, has named Phio Trusted Xchange (TX) a gold winner in the ...
- Researchers realize quantum communications milestone using lighton March 3, 2021 at 5:30 am
Few terms are more ubiquitous in the scientific arena these days than "quantum." Technologies based on the notoriously tricky laws of quantum mechanics promise to enable computers much more powerful ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Quantum communication
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Quantum network
- The Universe Might Be One Big Neural Network, Study Findson March 5, 2021 at 1:53 pm
One scientist says the universe is a giant neural net. The wild concept uses neural net theory to unify quantum and classical mechanics. This is a great jumping-off point for larger philosophical ...
- This Switch Takes Us an Important Step Closer to a Quantum Interneton March 5, 2021 at 1:30 pm
Efforts to build a super-fast, super-secure quantum internet are steadily progressing, and scientists have now figured out how an important part of that network could function: an integral switch that ...
- IBM Says Quantum Error Correcting Software Coming in 2023 – ‘Quantum Really Comes of Age’on March 5, 2021 at 12:50 am
If quantum isn’t to be a technology “that’s always 10 years away,” then quantum error correction (QEC) – one of the high hurdles to quantum becoming a practical reality – must be tamed. This week at ...
- The Decade of Quantum Computing Is Upon Us, IBM Exec Sayson March 3, 2021 at 5:09 pm
With business uses poised to accelerate, CIOs need to start tinkering with platforms, forming work groups and looking for problems the technology could address, says IBM Research’s Dario Gil.
- Photonic chip brings optical quantum computers a step closeron March 3, 2021 at 9:08 am
Quantum computers promise to deliver enormous computational power and solve problems that cannot be tackled by ordinary (classical) machines. There are many hardware platforms on ...