Indispensability of orbital angular momentum states in secure quantum communication tasks

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether orbital angular momentum states are essential for secure quantum communication, finding they are not necessary for basic tasks but offer advantages in enhancing key rates and simplifying measurements in advanced quantum protocols.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that orbital angular momentum states are not essential for layered quantum key distribution but are crucial for improving key rates and reducing measurement complexity in high-dimensional quantum tasks.

Findings

OAM states are not necessary for layered quantum key distribution.

High-dimensional OAM states enhance key generation rates.

OAM states eliminate the need for resource-intensive entangled measurements.

Abstract

Quantum key distribution protocols have been designed for layered networks employing multidimensional entangled and separable orbital angular momentum states [Phys. Rev. A 97, 032312 (2018), Int. J. Theor. Phys. 62, 104 (2023)]. This paper seeks an answer to the overarching question -- in the context of secure quantum communication tasks, do orbital angular momentum states act merely as an alternative or do they act as an indispensable resource? We start by showing that the task of quantum key distribution in layered networks can also be accomplished with several copies of lower-dimensional states such as polarization qubits. For this reason, orbital angular momentum states do not offer any intrinsic advantage in layered quantum key distribution. The potential of OAM states unveils itself in the enhancement of key generation rates and integrated quantum communication tasks, which we present in this paper. These tasks can be implemented exclusively with high-dimensional OAM entangled states. In fact, we show that the employment of orbital angular momentum states eliminates the need for entangled state measurements, whose implementation is resource-intensive. We believe that this study opens up a possibility for designing several quantum information processing tasks in which multidimensional OAM states act as an indispensable resource.