Matteo Rosati - DICITA, Università Roma Tre

Secure Remote Quantum Sensing: Navigating the Crypto-Metrology Tradeoff in Quantum Networks

Secure remote quantum sensing merges quantum cryptography and metrology, and is recently emerging as a vital application for future quantum networks. In this distributed paradigm, a fundamental crypto-metrology tradeoff arises: users must maximize the estimation precision of a parameter while protecting it from eavesdroppers and minimizing malicious tampering on the quantum probes.

This talk presents recent advancements in security and integrity proofs that navigate this tradeoff. 

First, we briefly outline certifications in the continuous-variable (CV) setting under realistic lossy channels [1].

Then, focusing on the discrete-variable (DV) domain, we demonstrate that applying channel randomization via Pauli twirling achieves unconditional certification of both security and privacy, at little-to-no additional hardware cost. By reducing adversarial tampering to a mathematically tractable noise model, we establish strict bounds on the eavesdropper’s information and test them in a phase-estimation experiment with entangled photons. Ultimately, this rigorously defines the crypto-metrology tradeoff, providing a robust theoretical framework for deploying practical, tamper-resilient quantum sensor networks [2].

Refs:

[1] F. Kianvash, M. Barbieri, and M. Rosati. ""Private Remote Phase Estimation over a Lossy Quantum Channel."" Physical Review Letters 136.6 (2026): 060805.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/rhgw-t21z

[2] manuscript in preparation