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Author

Li Zhou

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Jul 2026

Reasoning about Continuous-Variable Quantum Systems

Continuous-variable quantum computing (CVQC) is a computing paradigm in which measurements yield values over a continuous domain. CVQC is both a convenient omputational framework for modeling physical quantum systems, and a good abstraction for hardware platforms based on quantum optics. Yet, the semantic foundations of CVQC remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, we develop a formal semantics for a core CV quantum programming language, and sound verification methods for program correctness. A main contribution of this work is to isolate a well-behaved quantitative predicate domain that achieves sufficient expressiveness to accommodate unbounded values as they arise in the infinite-dimensional, continuous setting. Specifically, we choose closed positive quadratic forms as semantic predicates, representing finite expectations, domains of finiteness, and infinite penalties in one ordered object. We validate our choice by establishing that our semantic predicates satisfy desirable closure properties including the definition of weakest preconditions. We validate our design with two case studies, including an example based on the celebrated GKP error-correcting code, for which we establish a second moment bound.

Tianshi Yu, Gilles Barthe, Min-Bo Gao et al. · 0 citations
Preprint Aug 2026

A Drop-in KEM Replacement for Client Signatures in Post-Quantum SSH

The transition to post-quantum cryptography is reshaping the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol for remote administration. Post-quantum key exchange has been deployed in OpenSSH and is being standardized, while SSH authentication largely remains a signature-replacement effort. This path preserves the familiar public-key credential model, but inherits the size and computation overhead of post-quantum signatures, which can increase latency, traffic, and server-side load. KEM-based authentication offers a natural alternative to this signature-centric path, and SSH makes this especially attractive at the user-authentication layer, which is method-extensible, separated from transport-layer key exchange and host-key authentication, and already protected by the established channel. We present a drop-in KEM-based user-authentication method for SSH that replaces client public-key signatures with a session-bound challenge-response proof. The method fits into SSH's existing user-authentication framework, preserving the public-key credential model and enabling incremental deployment alongside existing methods. We provide a reduction-based security argument in the post-quantum ACCE framework, implement the design in OpenSSH using liboqs, and evaluate it under representative RTTs, TCP initial-window settings, and post-quantum migration configurations. Our results show that KEM-based authentication is competitive with compact signature-based authentication under representative network settings, while reducing median handshake latency by up to about 10% against large-signature hybrid baselines. The advantages are clearer when post-quantum signatures stress transmission or computation: median latency under small TCP initial windows falls by up to 7.3% versus ML-DSA and 17.9% versus SLH-DSA, while server-side online cryptographic cost is 59.1% lower than that for ML-DSA in the same NIST category.

Hong-Bo Liu, Yufan Su, Jia-Ao Ge et al. · 0 citations
Preprint Aug 2026

Quantum Uncomputation of Clean and Dirty Ancilla Qubits

This work introduces two complementary synthesis-oriented existence-checking methods: a rewrite-based normalization algorithm (RwUn) and a template-based reasoning system (TpUn) that guarantees uncomputation through structured Store-Use patterns.

Chenke Liu, Li Zhou, Bo-Ning Meng · 0 citations
Open access Jul 2026

Tlcp hardening with formal analysis and post-quantum design

KEMTLCP is proposed, a post-quantum secure variant of TLCP that leverages key encapsulation mechanisms (KEMs) for both key exchange and authentication while preserving TLCP’s architectural principles through a novel explicit authentication mechanism.

Hongbo Liu, Jingnan He, Jia-ao Ge et al. · 0 citations

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