Converse bounds for private communication over bosonic Gaussian channels (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

We consider private communication over bosonic Gaussian channels via the most general adaptive protocols based on local operations and two-way classical communication. These protocols include all the possible strategies allowed by quantum mechanics where two remote parties have local quantum computers but do not share prior quantum entanglement. In this context, Pirandola-Laurenza-Ottaviani-Banchi (PLOB) [Nat. Commun. 8, 15043 (2017)] established weak converse upper bounds for the secret key capacity of these channels. These bounds were computed by combining teleportation stretching, able to simplify any adaptive protocol into a block form, and the channel’s relative entropy of entanglement, so that data-processing properties allow one to write simple single-letter quantities. Here we discuss an extension of these bounds to repeater-assisted quantum communications. Then, using an energy-constrained version of the diamond norm and the Braunstein-Kimble teleportation protocol, we can rigorously show the strong converse property of the bounds discovered by PLOB. Our analysis provides a full mathematical justification of recent claims appeared in the literature.