Covert Signaling for Communication and Sensing over the Bosonic Channels
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866913103882485760 |
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| author | Tan, Tianrui Anderson, Evan J. D. Bullock, Michael S. Bash, Boulat A. |
| author_facet | Tan, Tianrui Anderson, Evan J. D. Bullock, Michael S. Bash, Boulat A. |
| contents | Preventing signal detection in communication and active sensing requires careful control of transmission power. In fact, the square-root laws (SRL) for covert classical and quantum communication and sensing prescribe that the average output power per channel use scales as $1/\sqrt{n}$ for $n$ channel uses. Two strategies for achieving this are diffuse and sparse signaling. The former transmits signals with power decaying as $1/\sqrt{n}$ on all $n$ channel uses, which is convenient for mathematical analysis. The latter transmits constant-power signals rarely, on approximately $\sqrt{n}$ out of $n$ channel uses, while remaining silent on the others. This offers significant practical advantages in compatibility with modern digital transmitters. Here, we study sparse signaling over lossy thermal-noise bosonic channels, which describe quantumly many practical channels (including optical, microwave, and radio-frequency). We characterize the input signal state that minimizes detectability. We find an unintuitive optimal quantum state structure: a mixture of just two consecutive photon-number states. In particular, in the low-brightness regime, the optimal signal state is a mixture of vacuum and a single photon. Since these states are generally suboptimal for both communication and active sensing, we explore the resulting trade-off and identify input-power thresholds for transitions between optimizing for covertness vs. performance in communication and sensing tasks. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_08066 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Covert Signaling for Communication and Sensing over the Bosonic Channels Tan, Tianrui Anderson, Evan J. D. Bullock, Michael S. Bash, Boulat A. Quantum Physics Information Theory Preventing signal detection in communication and active sensing requires careful control of transmission power. In fact, the square-root laws (SRL) for covert classical and quantum communication and sensing prescribe that the average output power per channel use scales as $1/\sqrt{n}$ for $n$ channel uses. Two strategies for achieving this are diffuse and sparse signaling. The former transmits signals with power decaying as $1/\sqrt{n}$ on all $n$ channel uses, which is convenient for mathematical analysis. The latter transmits constant-power signals rarely, on approximately $\sqrt{n}$ out of $n$ channel uses, while remaining silent on the others. This offers significant practical advantages in compatibility with modern digital transmitters. Here, we study sparse signaling over lossy thermal-noise bosonic channels, which describe quantumly many practical channels (including optical, microwave, and radio-frequency). We characterize the input signal state that minimizes detectability. We find an unintuitive optimal quantum state structure: a mixture of just two consecutive photon-number states. In particular, in the low-brightness regime, the optimal signal state is a mixture of vacuum and a single photon. Since these states are generally suboptimal for both communication and active sensing, we explore the resulting trade-off and identify input-power thresholds for transitions between optimizing for covertness vs. performance in communication and sensing tasks. |
| title | Covert Signaling for Communication and Sensing over the Bosonic Channels |
| topic | Quantum Physics Information Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08066 |