Quantum prepare-and-measure scenarios: concepts and methods

Quantum Physics arXiv:2610.20725 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 Oct 2026] Title:Quantum prepare-and-measure scenarios: concepts and methods Authors:A. de Oliveira Junior, Santiago Zamora, Jonatan Bohr Brask, Rafael Chaves, Armin Tavakoli View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum prepare-and-measure scenarios: concepts and methods, by A. de Oliveira Junior and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Prepare-and-measure scenarios are among the simplest and most widely used settings for quantum communication. A sender prepares a physical system in one of several possible states, which a receiver then measures. Despite this simple structure, these scenarios offer a rich framework for exploring the differences between classical and quantum communication, revealing quantum advantages, and developing protocols for quantum cryptography and device certification. In this tutorial, we give a ground-up introduction to prepare-and-measure scenarios and the methods used to study them. We introduce different frameworks for constraining and characterising communication, with an emphasis on semi-device-independent approaches to quantum information. We also cover modern convex-optimisation techniques for characterising the correlations achievable in these scenarios and illustrate how these tools can be applied in practice. Our aim is to give newcomers the conceptual and technical foundations needed to approach the current literature and apply prepare-and-measure methods in their own research. We conclude with a discussion of open problems and directions for future work. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2610.20725 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2610.20725v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.20725 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Alexssandre De Oliveira Junior [view email] [v1] Wed, 14 Oct 2026 18:00:05 UTC (2,349 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum prepare-and-measure scenarios: concepts and methods, by A. de Oliveira Junior and 4 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-10 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)