Covert Signaling for Communication and Sensing over the Bosonic Channels

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08066v1
• Date: Fri, 08 May 2026 17:52:18 GMT
• Title: Covert Signaling for Communication and Sensing over the Bosonic Channels
• Abstract summary: We study sparse signaling over lossy thermal-noise bosonic channels.<n>We find an unintuitive optimal quantum state structure.<n>In particular, in the low-brightness regime, the optimal signal state is a mixture of vacuum and a single photon.
• Score: 3.4532054548640247
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: 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.

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