Bielefeld, University, Diss., 1999.

Diese Dissertation behandelt die Kodierung und Verschickung von Information durch einen Quantenkanal. Ein Quantenkanal besteht aus einem quantenmechanischen System, welches vom Sender manipuliert und vom Empfänger ausgelesen werden kann. Dabei repräsentiert der individuelle Zustand des Kanals die Nachricht. <br /> <br /> Die zwei Themen der Dissertation umfassen 1) die Möglichkeit, eine Nachricht in einem Quantenkanal verlustfrei zu komprimieren und 2) die Möglichkeit eine Nachricht von einer Partei zu einer einer anderen direkt und auf sichere Weise zu übermitteln, d.h. ohne dass es einer dritte Partei möglich ist, die Nachricht abzuhören und dabei unerkannt zu bleiben.<br /> <br /> Die wesentlichen Ergebnisse der Dissertation sind die folgenden. <br /> Ein allgemeiner Formalismus für Quantencodes mit variabler Länge wird ausgearbeitet. Diese Codes sind notwendig um verlustfreie Kompression zu ermöglichen. Wegen der Quantennatur des Kanals sind die codierten Nachrichten allgemein in einer Superposition von verschiedenen Längen. Es zeigt sich, daß es unmöglich ist eine Quantennachricht verlustfrei zu komprimieren, wenn diese dem Sender nicht apriori bekannt ist. Im anderen Falle wird die Möglichkeit verlustfreier Quantenkompression gezeigt und eine untere Schranke für die Kompressionsrate abgeleitet. Des weiteren wird ein expliziter Kompressionsalgorithmus konstruiert, der für beliebig vorgegebene Ensembles aus Quantennachrichten funktioniert.<br /> <br /> Ein quantenkryptografisches Prokoll - das &ldquo;Ping-Pong Protokoll&rdquo; - wird vorgestellt, welches die sichere direkte übertragung von klassischen Nachrichten durch einen Quantenkanal ermöglicht. Die Sicherheit des Protokolls gegen beliebige Abhörangriffe wird bewiesen für den Fall eines idealen Quantenkanals. Im Gegensatz zu anderen quantenkryptografischen Verfahren ist das Ping-Pong Protokoll deterministisch und kann somit sowohl für die Übermittlung eines zufälligen Schlüssels als auch einer komponierten Nachricht verwendet werden. Das Protokoll is perfekt sicher für die Übertragung eines Schlüssels und quasi-sicher für die direkte Übermittlung einer Nachricht. Letzteres bedeutet, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines erfolgreichen Abhörangriffs exponenziell mit der Länge der Nachricht abnimmt. / This thesis deals with the encoding and transmission of information through a quantum channel. A quantum channel is a quantum mechanical system whose state is manipulated by a sender and read out by a receiver. The individual state of the channel represents the message.<br /> <br /> The two topics of the thesis comprise 1) the possibility of compressing a message stored in a quantum channel without loss of information and 2) the possibility to communicate a message directly from one party to another in a secure manner, that is, a third party is not able to eavesdrop the message without being detected.<br /> <br /> The main results of the thesis are the following. <br /> A general framework for variable-length quantum codes is worked out. These codes are necessary to make lossless compression possible. Due to the quantum nature of the channel, the encoded messages are in general in a superposition of different lengths. It is found to be impossible to compress a quantum message without loss of information if the message is not apriori known to the sender. In the other case it is shown that lossless quantum data compression is possible and a lower bound on the compression rate is derived. Furthermore, an explicit compression scheme is constructed that works for arbitrarily given source message ensembles. <br /> <br /> A quantum cryptographic protocol - the &ldquo;ping-pong protocol&rdquo; - is presented that realizes the secure direct communication of classical messages through a quantum channel. The security of the protocol against arbitrary eavesdropping attacks is proven for the case of an ideal quantum channel. In contrast to other quantum cryptographic protocols, the ping-pong protocol is deterministic and can thus be used to transmit a random key as well as a composed message. <br /> The protocol is perfectly secure for the transmission of a key, and it is quasi-secure for the direct transmission of a message. The latter means that the probability of successful eavesdropping exponentially decreases with the length of the message.

We address the excitation of quantum breathers in small nonlinear networks of two and three degrees of freedom, in order to study their properties. The invariance under permutation of two sites of these networks substitutes the translation invariance that is present in nonlinear lattices, where (classical) discrete breathers are time periodic space localized solutions of the underlying classical equations of motion. We do a systematic analysis of the spectrum and eigenstates of such small systems, characterizing quantum breather states by their tunnelling rate (energy splitting), site correlations, fluctuations of the number of quanta, and entanglement. We observe how these properties are reflected in the time evolution of initially localized excitations. Quantum breathers manifest as pairs of nearly degenerate eigenstates that show strong site correlation of quanta, and are characterized by a strong excitation of quanta on one site of the network which perform slow coherent tunnelling motion from one site to another. They enhance the fluctuations of quanta, and are the least entangled states among the group of eigenstates in the same range of the energy spectrum. We use our analysis methods to consider the excitation of quantum breathers in a cell of two coupled Josephson junctions, and study their properties as compared with those in the previous cases. We describe how quantum breathers could be experimentally observed by employing the already developed techniques for quantum information processing with Josephson junctions.

We address the excitation of quantum breathers in small nonlinear networks of two and three degrees of freedom, in order to study their properties. The invariance under permutation of two sites of these networks substitutes the translation invariance that is present in nonlinear lattices, where (classical) discrete breathers are time periodic space localized solutions of the underlying classical equations of motion. We do a systematic analysis of the spectrum and eigenstates of such small systems, characterizing quantum breather states by their tunnelling rate (energy splitting), site correlations, fluctuations of the number of quanta, and entanglement. We observe how these properties are reflected in the time evolution of initially localized excitations. Quantum breathers manifest as pairs of nearly degenerate eigenstates that show strong site correlation of quanta, and are characterized by a strong excitation of quanta on one site of the network which perform slow coherent tunnelling motion from one site to another. They enhance the fluctuations of quanta, and are the least entangled states among the group of eigenstates in the same range of the energy spectrum. We use our analysis methods to consider the excitation of quantum breathers in a cell of two coupled Josephson junctions, and study their properties as compared with those in the previous cases. We describe how quantum breathers could be experimentally observed by employing the already developed techniques for quantum information processing with Josephson junctions.