Semantic Security With Infinite-Dimensional Quantum Eavesdropping Channel

• Published in: IEEE transactions on information theory Vol. 71; no. 4; pp. 2662 - 2697
• Main Authors: Frey, Matthias, Bjelakovic, Igor, Notzel, Janis, Stanczak, Slawomir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.2025
• Subjects: Cryptography; Eavesdropping; Forensics; Oral communication; Photonics; physical layer security; Quantum computing; quantum information theory; Quantum mechanics; quantum resolvability; quantum Shannon theory; semantic security; Semantics; Surveillance; Wireless communications; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 0018-9448; 1557-9654
• DOI: 10.1109/TIT.2025.3531250

We propose a new proof method for direct coding theorems for wiretap channels where the eavesdropper has access to a quantum version of the transmitted signal on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space and the legitimate parties communicate through a classical channel or a classical input, quantum output (cq) channel. The transmitter input can be subject to an additive cost constraint, which specializes to the case of an average energy constraint. This method yields errors that decay exponentially with increasing block lengths. Moreover, it provides a guarantee of a quantum version of semantic security, which is an established concept in classical cryptography and physical layer security. Therefore, it complements existing works which either do not prove the exponential error decay or use weaker notions of security. The main part of this proof method is a direct coding result on channel resolvability which states that there is only a doubly exponentially small probability that a standard random codebook does not solve the channel resolvability problem for the cq channel. Semantic security has strong operational implications meaning essentially that the eavesdropper cannot use its quantum observation to gather any meaningful information about the transmitted signal. We also discuss the connections between semantic security and various other established notions of secrecy.