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2Physics Quote:
"Many of the molecules found by ROSINA DFMS in the coma of comet 67P are compatible with the idea that comets delivered key molecules for prebiotic chemistry throughout the solar system and in particular to the early Earth increasing drastically the concentration of life-related chemicals by impact on a closed water body. The fact that glycine was most probably formed on dust grains in the presolar stage also makes these molecules somehow universal, which means that what happened in the solar system could probably happen elsewhere in the Universe."
-- Kathrin Altwegg and the ROSINA Team

(Read Full Article: "Glycine, an Amino Acid and Other Prebiotic Molecules in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko"
)

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Communicating Quantum States with Alice on a Satellite

Some authors of "Experimental Satellite Quantum Communications" [4] during a night shift: (Right to Left) Davide Bacco, Simone Gaiarin, Daniele Dequal, Giuseppe Vallone and Paolo Villoresi.

Authors: Giuseppe Vallone1, Davide Bacco1, Daniele Dequal1, Simone Gaiarin1, Vincenza Luceri2, Giuseppe Bianco3, Paolo Villoresi1

Affiliation:
1Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy 
2e-GEOS spa, Matera, Italy 
3Matera Laser Ranging Observatory, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Matera, Italy.

The exchange of quantum bits – or qubits – is a fundamental process in all Quantum Information protocols. The faithful transport of the fragile quantum content of a photon is needed inside the prototypes of photonic quantum computers as well for the teleportation of a given state.

Past 2Physics articles by this group:
August 31, 2014: "A True Randomness Generator Exploiting a Very Long and Turbulent Path" by Davide G. Marangon, Giuseppe Vallone, Paolo Villoresi.
November 24, 2013: "How to Realize Quantum Key Distribution with a Limited and Noisy Link" by Paolo Villoresi.
May 19, 2008: "The Frontier of Quantum Communication is the Space"
by Paolo Villoresi.

Image 1: The scenario where satellites uses Quantum Communications for distributing secure keys to a global communications network.

Moreover, in the relevant application of Quantum-Key-Distribution (QKD), which allows to create a private key between two terminals exploiting the laws of Quantum Physics, such exchange of qubits is expected to cover very long distances [1]. Indeed, in order to connect with secure communications two embassies, two corporate branches and so on, effective quantum communication schemes on a planetary scale are needed. The fibre channels were investigated first for the realization of QKD, such that now several commercial devices based on optical cables are already in operations. Fibers are very efficient up to about 100 km, and the present limit for QKD in fiber is 300 km as demonstrated in a recent experiment [2]; beyond that scale there is the need of quantum repeaters, which presently are in development in advanced research labs. A radically different approach is to go along a Space channels, and exploit a satellite as the sender or the receiver. From the link budget analysis and the effect of turbulence in the propagation, it is evident that the transmitter (Alice) is most conveniently located on the satellite and the receiver (Bob) on the ground [3,4,5].

The first attempt of quantum communication in Space, was made in 2008 by Villoresi et al [6,7], where photons launched from a ground station were reflected by CCRs (corner cube retroreflectors) and aimed back to the Earth. In that case it was used the Japanese satellite Ajisai for emulate an optical transmitter in space. In that work it was demonstrated the application of spectral, spatial and temporal filtering capable to point out the return photons with global losses in the up- and down-link as strong as 157 dB.

In the present experiment, reported recently in Ref. [8], we introduced novel schemes for temporal synchronization and the optical interface, realizing a significant improvement in SNR (signal to noise ratio), dark counts and total transmissivity. We proved that a generic qubit with polarization encoding preserves its characteristics in a channel starting from a source realized again by a retroreflector in orbit and measured on ground by a state analyzer connected to an astronomical telescope designed for satellite-laser ranging [9]. Moreover we were able to prove a communication protocol measuring not only one polarization degree, but a complete set of four polarization states required for protocols as QKD [5].

A very important parameter in QCs (Quantum communications) is represented by the QBER factor (Quantum bit error rate), defined as the number of wrong bits received in a slot time. In case this factor is too high (the threshold depends on the chosen protocol, and on the sending rate), the security of the generated key is not guaranteed [8]. In our experiment we showed, by using some LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites (Starlette, Stella, Larets, Jason-2), that our method and setup allows a secure communication in a very long distance scenario (~2000 km). The measured QBER in different runs results of the order of a few percent. It was possible to attest that even with high losses, variable attenuation, and high background a quantum key distribution system works, and an unconditionally secure key, needful for encryption, can be generated also in this case.

Image 2: Picture of the SLR laser and MLRO station situated in Matera.

For the first time qubits bouncing from space were measured and analyzed in different polarization states. Moreover, all the results were obtained with existing satellites naturally used for geodetic studies and other activities usually equipped with CCRs. The optical setup used in the experiment is yet completely integrable in a lot of OGS (optical ground station) and present an easy interface between quantum and classical signals. Furthermore, the technology of SLR and classical satellite communications was exploited for synchronizing the transmitter and the receiver, even though the synchronization process is not so easy with satellite in motion.

What’s next? The possibility of sending and receiving single photons in very long distances paves the way to a lot of future experiments and brings Quantum Physics and Quantum Communication in a privilege position. Firstly, the big effort made by the Governments and by the University is surely compensated. From a scientific point of view these experimental results are very fascinating because they allow new experiments based on this technology. In particular, QKD could be realized with a small and compact device capable of changing polarization of photons, creating a base element for quantum two-way protocols. Additionally, experiments like entanglement distribution involving long distances, Bell inequality and teleportation protocol could be possible in next few years.

With this experiment, it was demonstrated that, not only free-space quantum key distribution is a ready technology, but also the quantum satellite communication is nowadays possible and realizable. The results open the way to look towards a global space quantum network, where OGS could talk with satellite and vice-versa creating a global secure network.

Acknowledgments: The work was carried out within QuantumFuture, one of ten Strategic Projects funded by the University of Padova in 2009. Coordinated by Prof. Villoresi, the project has established the Quantum Communication Laboratory and engaged four research groups in a joint activity: Quantum Communications, Quantum Control Theory, Quantum Astronomy and Quantum Optics.

References:
[1] Valerio Scarani, Helle Bechmann-Pasquinucci, Nicolas J. Cerf, Miloslav Dušek, Norbert Lütkenhaus, Momtchil Peev, "The security of practical quantum key distribution", Review of Modern Physics, 81, 1301 (2009). Abstract.
[2] Boris Korzh, Charles Ci Wen Lim, Raphael Houlmann, Nicolas Gisin, Ming Jun Li, Daniel Nolan, Bruno Sanguinetti, Rob Thew, Hugo Zbinden, “Provably Secure and Practical Quantum Key Distribution over 307 km of Optical Fibre”. Nature Photonics, 9(3), 7. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2014.327 (2014). Abstract.
[3] Cristian Bonato, Markus Aspelmeyer, Thomas Jennewein, Claudio Pernechele, Paolo Villoresi, Anton Zeilinger, “In- fluence of satellite motion on polarization qubits in a Space-Earth quantum communication link,” Optics Express, 14,  10050 (2006). Full Article.
[4] Andrea Tomaello, Cristian Bonato, Vania Da Deppo, Giampiero Naletto, Paolo Villoresi, “Link budget and background noise for satellite quantum key distribution,” Advances in Space Research, 47, 802 (2011). Abstract.
[5] C. Bonato, A. Tomaello, V. Da Deppo, G. Naletto, and P. Villoresi, “Feasibility of satellite quantum key distribution,” New Journal of Physics, 11, 45017 (2009). Full Article.
[6] P Villoresi, T Jennewein, F Tamburini, M Aspelmeyer, C Bonato, R Ursin, C Pernechele, V Luceri, G Bianco, A Zeilinger and C Barbieri, "Experimental verification of the feasibility of a quantum channel between space and Earth", New Journal of Physics, 10, 033038 (2008). Full Article. 2Physics Article.
[7] Giuseppe Vallone, Davide Bacco, Daniele Dequal, Simone Gaiarin, Vincenza Luceri, Giuseppe Bianco, and Paolo Villoresi, “Experimental Satellite Quantum Communication” Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 040502 (2015). Abstract.
[8] Davide Bacco, Matteo Canale, Nicola Laurenti, Giuseppe Vallone, Paolo Villoresi, "Experimental quantum key distribution with finite-key security analysis for noisy channels", Nature Communications, 4:2363, doi: 10.1038/ncomms3363 (2013). Abstract. 2Physics Article.
[9] http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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