Following is a summary of the discussion that took place for the Quantum Communication and Security track, as part of the startup meeting for the Gemini Centre on Quantum Technologies, January 16, 2025, at Sintef's offices in Oslo.
#### Attendees
Hans Heum, NTNU (track leader, in person)
Alexander Müller-Hermes, UiO (in person)
Tron Omland, NSM/UiO (in person)
Carlos Cid, Simula UiB (online)
Kristian Gjøsteen, NTNU (online)
#### Name
Much of the early discussion centered around the naming of the track. We all agreed that any question that involves a setup like Alice and Bob communicating, possibly eavesdropped on by Eve, and possibly also communication with servers in the cloud, should fall under the umbrella of the track. By selecting which of the communicating parties are using quantum technologies, we get several settings, studied by separate research communities, such as the post-quantum setting, the quantum server/classical client setting, and the quantum internet setting. We further agreed that the post-quantum setting, in which only the adversary has access to a quantum computer, should not be the *focus* of the track (though it may certainly be included when appropriate), as this mostly falls under the umbrella of classical cryptography.
In the end, we opted for the name "Quantum Communication and Security", as this was found to be most inclusive: The name "Quantum Communication" would likely not attract cryptography students; "Quantum Security" would exclude quantum protocols, such as entanglement establishement and teleportation, that are not concerned with security; while "Quantum Communication and Cryptography" would exclude privacy researchers that approach security from an information-theoretical angle. Aside from the tongue-in-cheek suggestion "The Alice-and-Bob track", these constraints meant that the name was almost uniquely decided in the end.
One question that remained unsettled is whether the word "Quantum" is redundant here, given that we are "The Gemini Centre on Quantum Technologies' (Quantum) Communication and Security track".
#### Focus
Here is an overview of some of the research directions that follow from different configurations of Alice (A), Bob (B), their *goal* (G), Eve the adversary (E), and the server (S): C means "classical", **Q** means "quantum", and "$\perp
quot; means "not present". (A quantum goal means that the goal of Alice and Bob is to perform a quantum computation or maintain a quantum network.)
|G|A & B|E|S|Research directions|
|:--:|:---------:|:-:|:----:|:------:|
|C|C|**Q**|$\perp$|Post-quantum cryptography; quantum cryptanalysis|
|C|**Q**|**Q**|$\perp$|Classically-impossible protocols; quantum cryptography|
|**Q**|C|$\perp$|**Q**|Verifiable QC; Quantum Fully-Homomorphic Encryption|
|**Q**|**Q**|C/**Q**|$\perp$|(Quantum) side-channel attacks on quantum hardware|
|**Q**|**Q**|$\perp$|$\perp$/**Q**|Quantum networking protocols|
|C/**Q**|**Q**|**Q**|$\perp$/**Q**|Cryptography in a fully-quantum world|
|**Q**|**Q**|**Q**|**Q**|Quantum Multi-Party Computation|
It was suggested that we should strive to focus on present and near-future technology, such as asking questions like: If we got access to a small quantum network right now, what could we *do* with it? If we were to talk Norway into building a quantum network, what should we say to convince them of its utility? And which of the listed research directions are relevant also for near-term quantum devices?
The prospect of implementing proof-of-concept quantum protocols on real hardware also makes the photonics group at NTNU, with whom Franz had already been in touch, a natural fit within our research track. This will be followed up.
Still, it was pointed out that this should not mean that foundational research in quantum information theory and cryptography, which may only be relevant on much longer timescales, would be neglected.
#### Activities
We want to continue the tradition of monthly Zoom seminars. We will ensure they do not overlap with seminars from the other tracks, as there are members of the Gemini Centre who would like to follow more than one track.
Monthly online seminars will help us keep in touch and build a sense of community, but it was pointed out that it hardly fosters collaboration. Therefore, at least one in-person meeting per year seems appropriate. It is possible that this can be arranged to coincide with Gemini's centre-wide yearly meeting.
There were suggestions that the track could come together on grant applications, and to organize seminar series, a workshop, or a PhD school, but no specifics were discussed. One idea (discussed after the meeting) is to organize a centre-wide PhD school on quantum technologies, in order to attract as many students as possible, with parallel tracks reflecting our three research tracks.
As with the centre in general, part of our focus should be on inspiring the next generation of researchers to study quantum technologies. Tron mentioned that NSM takes in summer students every year, and that they would be open to suggestions from the members of our track on small research topics that could be a good fit for these students to look at.
Finally, it was highlighted that Norway is sorely lacking in expertise in our fields. In order to fix this, we should invite international experts to attend our events, to make ourselves known and establish connections, while simultaneously stressing to the research council the importance of funding new, tenure-track permanent positions at our universities, so that they may in time join us.