Noise Inference by Recycling Test Rounds in Verification Protocols

2026-03-31

AI Summary

This work addresses the high resource overhead incurred by repeated test rounds in quantum computation verification protocols and the challenge service providers face in real-time monitoring of device noise. We propose a novel approach within the framework of quantum communication–based interactive verification protocols, wherein test-round data—traditionally discarded after security verification—are repurposed for continuous estimation of device noise model parameters. This method simultaneously achieves secure verification and ongoing noise characterization without compromising security guarantees. By reusing existing protocol data, our approach significantly reduces additional resource costs and enhances the multifunctionality of verification protocols, offering an efficient and practical integrated solution for noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.

Abstract

Interactive verification protocols for quantum computations allow to build trust between a client and a service provider, ensuring the former that the instructed computation was carried out faithfully. They come in two variants, one without quantum communication that requires large overhead on the server side to coherently implement quantum-resistant cryptographic primitives, and one with quantum communication but with repetition as the only overhead on the service provider's side. Given the limited number of available qubits on current machines, only quantum communication-based protocols have yielded proof of concepts. In this work, we show that the repetition overhead of protocols with quantum communication can be further mitigated if one examines the task of operating a quantum machine from the service provider's point of view. Indeed, we show that the test rounds data, whose collection is necessary to provide security, can indeed be recycled to perform continuous monitoring of noise model parameters for the service provider. This exemplifies the versatility of these protocols, whose template can serve multiple purposes and increases the interest in considering their early integration into development roadmaps of quantum machines.

Problem

• quantum verification
• test rounds
• repetition overhead
• noise inference
• quantum communication

Innovation

• noise inference
• test round recycling
• quantum verification protocols
• quantum communication
• noise monitoring