A Review of Quantum communication using high-dimensional Hilbert spaces

TL;DR

This review analyzes quantum key distribution protocols using high-dimensional Hilbert spaces, focusing on their theoretical and experimental advantages, especially with orbital angular momentum of twisted photons, and compares their performance metrics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of qubit and qudit-based quantum communication protocols, highlighting their merits and limitations in practical applications.

Findings

Qudit protocols can tolerate higher noise levels.

Orbital angular momentum enables high-dimensional quantum encoding.

Different protocols suit different application needs.

Abstract

In this project we examine several different quantum key distribution protocols which we divide into ones utilizing qubits whose Hilbert spaces are two dimensional and ones whose Hilbert space dimension is greater than two, these units of data in quantum computers are known as qudits and in the papers we'll examine are implemented using the orbital angular momentum of twisted photons. In sections [3] and [4] the specific procedures of each protocol are briefly described and followed by an examination of the theoretical and experimental merits of each protocol. These merits are measured in the bit error rate tolerance $e_b$, which quantifies the maximum channel noise and the key rate $R$ which quantifies the rate at which data is transferred in the protocol. In section [7] we present a unified view of all the relevant data for the different protocols, and argue for the benefits and drawbacks of the different protocols for different applications.