title: Experimental demonstration of graph-state quantum secret sharing.
abstract: Quantum communication and computing offer many new opportunities for information processing in a connected world. Networks using quantum resources with tailor-made entanglement structures have been proposed for a variety of tasks, including distributing, sharing and processing information. Recently, a class of states known as graph states has emerged, providing versatile quantum resources for such networking tasks. Here we report an experimental demonstration of graph state-based quantum secret sharing--an important primitive for a quantum network with applications ranging from secure money transfer to multiparty quantum computation. We use an all-optical setup, encoding quantum information into photons representing a five-qubit graph state. We find that one can reliably encode, distribute and share quantum information amongst four parties, with various access structures based on the complex connectivity of the graph. Our results show that graph states are a promising approach for realising sophisticated multi-layered communication protocols in quantum networks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Centre for Communications Research, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK.
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: CNRS LTCI, Département Informatique et Réseaux, Telecom ParisTech, 23 avenue d'Italie, CS 51327, 75214 Paris, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Markham
authors.affiliation: Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Herrera-Martí
authors.affiliation: CNRS LTCI, Département Informatique et Réseaux, Telecom ParisTech, 23 avenue d'Italie, CS 51327, 75214 Paris, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wadsworth
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Centre for Communications Research, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Rarity
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa [2] National Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Tame