Physical Unclonable Functions with Boson Sampling

TL;DR

This paper proposes using boson sampling devices as physically unclonable functions for security, leveraging quantum properties to enhance identification and prevent classical simulation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of boson sampling as a PUF, enabling secure identification with quantum advantage over classical methods.

Findings

Boson sampling devices can serve as secure PUFs with unique output distributions.

Quantum properties ensure classical intractability under certain fabrication errors.

A potential challenge-response protocol for device authentication is outlined.

Abstract

Boson sampling is a problem for which quantum devices could prove to go beyond classical computing using only linear optics and photon preparation and counting. While theoretically important, there is a lack of practical applications for this task. This paper presents a way to turn any boson sampling device for which there are certain fabrication limits into a physically unclonable function which could be used in identification systems and other security protocols. For a minimum fabrication error, there are scenarios for which the photon distribution at the output of two different devices has a minimum distance and they can be told apart. When compared to classical PUFs these linear optical tokens have the advantage that, for the right choice of parameters, there is a computational guarantee that no classical computer can simulate the output. The paper describes the basic limitations of boson sampling which allow these results and gives a possible choice for a challenge-response identification protocol. This gives a direct application of boson sampling which could be simpler than solving the general problem.