Papers for

quantum network designers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Quantum LDPC codes reach near optimal error correction limits

Random Quantum LDPC Codes Approaching the Gilbert-Varshamov Bound

Abstract: We show that for any $R,ε>0$ and any prime $p\geq 2$, there exists an infinite family of $p$-ary quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes, rate $R$, checks of weight $O_ε(1)$, and normalized distance at least $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)-ε$. Here, $δ_{\mathrm{GV}}(p,R)$ denotes the quantum Gilbert-Varshamov (GV) bound for $p$-ary stabilizer codes. In fact, we construct an ensemble of such QLDPC codes, such that a random code from this ensemble is close to the GV bound with high probability. Moreover, this ensemble matches the performance of random stabilizer codes on several quantum channels. Specifically, it approaches the quantum capacity of the erasure channel and the hashing bound for memoryless Pauli channels, including the depolarizing channel. A significant challenge in working with QLDPC codes is that they are necessarily \emph{degenerate}, i.e., contain many low-weight stabilizers. A key contribution of our work is a construction of QLDPC codes with quantitative control on their degeneracy. These codes are obtained by combining known constructions of asymptotically good QLDPC codes with the expander-based distance amplification procedure of Alon, Edmonds, and Luby [FOCS'95]. Our random ensemble is constructed by starting with these low-degeneracy QLDPC codes near the quantum Singleton bound and concatenating each coordinate with a random inner code. This can be viewed as a quantum analogue of Thommesen's construction, and as an LDPC version of a result of Ouyang, with an appropriately designed outer code.

Fri 2 OctInformation Theory
The gist
Quantum computers need special error-correcting codes to protect their fragile data. This paper shows that there are families of these quantum codes, called QLDPC codes, that can get very close to the best possible theoretical limits for correcting errors. The authors create these codes using a new construction that carefully manages tricky properties called degeneracy, allowing them to perform well in important quantum noise situations. Their methods combine existing good codes with a process to improve distance and add randomness in a clever way.
Open → 2610.02648v1

Quantum channels enable confidential messages for multiple users

Quantum Broadcast Channels with Mutually Confidential Messages

Abstract: We study the transmission of two independent confidential classical messages over a quantum broadcast channel, one for each receiver. Each message must remain secret from the other receiver, including when that receiver knows its own message. For classical inputs and quantum outputs, we establish the classical Marton-type inner bound under average reliability and conditional strong secrecy. The encoder selects pairs of codewords from independently generated codebooks using normalized likelihood weights. We prove reliability through a change-of-distribution argument. Our main technical result is a bipartite classical-quantum resolvability theorem that accounts for the dependence created by pair selection and establishes secrecy for the same encoder. We also obtain a multi-letter capacity characterization and extend it to arbitrary quantum inputs under secrecy against the other receiver, together with the Stinespring environment. We recover confidential capacity regions for deterministic classical and degraded classical-quantum channels, with an explicit evaluation for the classical Blackwell channel. For coherent isometric extensions of injective deterministic classical broadcast channels, we show that the confidential classical capacity region equals that of the corresponding classical channel. We then compare confidential classical communication with quantum transmission. For the coherent isometric extension of the Blackwell channel, we determine the unassisted quantum-capacity region and show that some achievable confidential classical rate pairs lie outside it. The Platypus channel provides another example of this separation.

Tue 22 SeptInformation Theory
The gist
This paper studies how to send secret messages to two different people using quantum communication channels so that each person cannot learn the other's message, even if they already know their own. The authors develop mathematical methods to show when this kind of secret communication is possible and how large the message rates can be under these secrecy constraints. They also compare sending secret classical messages to sending quantum information, finding some differences in what rates are achievable. Their work applies to various types of quantum channels, including some that behave like well-known classical channels.
Open → 2609.26750v1

Lower bounds reveal limits for quantum secret sharing and routing

New lower bounds for CDS and $f$-routing

Abstract: Understanding the entanglement cost of non-local quantum computation (NLQC) is relevant to complexity theory, cryptography, quantum gravity, and related areas. A central special case is $f$-routing, motivated in part by quantum position verification. Proving lower bounds on its entanglement cost in the fully robust setting has been a major open problem in NLQC. Motivated by this problem, we establish two related lower bounds. First, we study the shared-randomness cost of robust conditional disclosure of secrets (CDS). The connection between CDS and $f$-routing established by Allerstorfer et al. (Quantum 2024) makes understanding the randomness complexity of robust CDS a natural step toward lower bounds for the fully robust routing problem. We show that the shared-randomness cost of robust CDS is lower bounded by the logarithm of deterministic SMP communication complexity, even when communication and private randomness are unrestricted. Our lower bound is tight for the equality function. Second, we consider one-sided-perfect $f$-routing, in which the protocol is exact on one input class and has constant error on the other. By exploiting the positivity of the low-rank matrix arising in the method of Asadi, Culf, and May (ITCS 2025), we derive a general lower bound on the entanglement cost in terms of sign rank. In particular, this yields a linear lower bound on the entanglement cost of routing for the inner-product function in both one-sided-perfect settings, matching the known upper bound.

Mon 21 SeptCryptography and Security
The gist
Sending secret information securely and routing quantum data are challenging tasks in quantum computing. The authors found new limits on how much shared randomness and entanglement are needed to do these tasks under strict reliability requirements. They linked these limits to well-known communication complexity concepts, showing that some problems require a significant amount of resources. Specifically, they proved concrete lower bounds on the shared randomness for secret disclosure and on entanglement for quantum routing of certain functions. These results help understand the fundamental costs of quantum networks and protocols.
Open → 2609.24291v1

Transversal operations reduce communication in distributed quantum computing

Transversal Fanout for Fault Tolerant Distributed Quantum Computing: Analysis and Application

Abstract: We study a resource-efficient approach for implementing logical fanout operations in fault-tolerant distributed quantum computing using transversal operations on quantum error-correcting code blocks. Logical fanout, comprising multiple controlled-NOT operations from a common control qubit to target qubits located at remote nodes, is an important primitive for distributed quantum computation but can require substantial non-local communication when implemented directly between encoded blocks. We exploit the structure of encoded blocks and the availability of transversal logical operations to construct distributed fanout circuits that reduce the required non-local operations while preserving the logical action of the fanout operation. The construction is developed for encoded quantum information and illustrated using Bivariate Bicycle (BB)-code blocks. We analyze the resulting physical gate, entanglement, circuit-depth, and ancilla requirements. The approach provides a systematic method for implementing large logical fanout operations across distributed error-corrected quantum processors. Also, we study a distributed implementation of the global gate GCZ involving logical qubits (encoded using BB-code blocks), exploiting the concurrency in transversal distributed fanouts.

Tue 8 SeptDistributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
The gist
Fanout operations let one quantum bit control many others at different locations, but doing this safely and efficiently in error-corrected quantum computers is tricky and usually needs lots of communication between computers. The authors show a way to do these fanouts using special code properties and transversal gates that work across multiple quantum computers connected together. They test their ideas on a particular error-correcting code and analyze how many basic steps, entangled states, and helper qubits are needed. This helps make big fanout operations easier and more practical across separate quantum processors.
Open → 2609.08233v1