Modeling and simulation of quantum information, quantum communication, and quantum key distribution (QKD) systems
In this special issue of the Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, we present six papers focused on research in quantum information science (QIS) QIS enables multiple revolutionary technologies, which benefit military applications by combining the areas of quantum, material, computer, information, and engineering sciences. QIS leverages the quantum properties of matter, such as particle wave duality, the superposition principle, quantum statistics, and entanglement to enable new technologies that exceed classical physics based theoretical limits. In 'A model to estimate performance of space based quantum communication protocols including quantum key distribution systems, Denton et al. present a model to estimate the performance of space based, optical based, quantum communication protocols. The model accounts for optical channel propagation effects based on orbit selection and atmospheric conditions and can be leveraged to evaluate the performance of a variety of quantum communication protocols. In 'Modeling quantum optics for quantum key distribution system simulation, Hodson et al. present the background, development, and implementation of a simulation framework used to model the quantum exchange aspects of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. The simulation framework enables the modeling of real world systems built from non ideal components to evaluate the impact non idealities have on system performance and security. In 'Implementing the decoy state protocol in a practically oriented Quantum Key Distribution system level model, Engle et al. present the development of a systemlevel model designed to study implementation nonidealities in commercially available decoy state enabled QKD systems. The authors provide a detailed discussion of the decoy state protocol, its implementation, and its usage to detect sophisticated attacks, such as the photon number splitting attack. The authors employ an efficient and repeatable system engineering methodology to understand and study the communications protocols, architectures, operational configurations, and implementation tradeoffs in complex cyber systems. In 'A module based simulation framework to facilitate the modeling of Quantum Key Distribution System postprocessing functionalities, Engle et al. describe the development of a module based QKD simulation framework that facilitates the modeling of QKD post processing functionalities to model and study the security and performance characteristics of specific QKD system designs. The authors present design choices that provide a significantly enhanced analysis capability over existing models. In 'A quantum algorithm for uniform sampling of models of propositional logic based on quantum probability, Balu et al. describe a class of algorithms that produces models for propositional logic according to uniform distribution. Inspired by the von Neumann skew removal algorithm, the authors constructed classical Markov chains with fixed points. The corresponding quantum stochastic flows for SAT problems are shown to have uniform measures. Additionally, the authors discuss the implementation of a few SAT instances on the D Wave quantum annealer and explained the systematic removal of the bias. The authors show that quantum probability provides a framework to express algorithms for sampling models of propositional logic with uniform probabilities that can be extended to arbitrary distributions and to models of first order logic.