EAGER: FET: Enhancing the Capacity of Quantum Channel Using Information Entropy-Based Metrics guided Adaptive Purification

Quantum communication has the potential to support a future quantum internet that can transmit information more efficiently and securely than today’s communication systems. One promising approach, called superdense coding, uses shared quantum connections to send more classical information with fewer transmissions. However, real quantum systems are highly sensitive to noise, which can weaken these shared connections and reduce the reliability and capacity of communication. Current methods for managing this noise often require discarding valuable quantum resources, which limits scalability. This project will investigate a new way to make quantum communication more reliable while preserving these resources. The work supports national needs in secure communication, advanced computing, and emerging quantum technologies, with potential applications in secure satellite communication, distributed quantum computing, critical infrastructure protection, and future cybersecurity. The project will also release open-source simulation software and educational materials to support reproducible research and student training. This project will develop an adaptive protocol for improving superdense coding in noisy quantum networks. The approach combines quantum error correction with pair-preserving adaptive purification, a process that improves the quality of shared quantum states without discarding linked quantum pairs. The research will first evaluate whether measures of quantum correlation, including quantum discord and entanglement of formation, provide better indicators of channel noise than fidelity alone. It will then develop low-overhead methods to estimate these indicators, design tunable purification circuits that adapt in real time, integrate the method with a five-qubit quantum error correction code, and quantify effects on throughput, latency, fidelity, and bit accuracy under realistic noise models. The project will also develop lightweight controllers that map measured quantum correlations to purification parameters. The expected outcome is a framework for noise-resilient superdense coding, along with open-source software for modeling and evaluating correlation-aware quantum networking protocols. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2608182 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Tasnuva Farheen | Institution: Louisiana State University, BATON ROUGE, LA | Award Amount: $194,596 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2608182 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2608182.html