Robust Covert Quantum Communication under Bounded Channel Uncertainty

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 13 Apr 2026] Robust Covert Quantum Communication under Bounded Channel Uncertainty Abbas Arghavani, Alessandro V. Papadopoulos, Vahid Azimi Mousolou, Giuseppe Nebbione, Shahid Raza Covert quantum communication is usually analyzed under idealized assumptions that channel parameters, such as transmissivity and background noise, are perfectly known and constant. In realistic optical links, including satellite, fiber, and free-space systems, these parameters vary because of environmental fluctuations, calibration noise, and estimation errors. We study covert quantum communication over compound quantum optical channels with bounded uncertainty in both transmissivity and thermal noise, and derive guarantees that hold for all admissible channel realizations. We develop a robust framework for certifying both covertness and reliability under uncertainty. A central finding is that robustness cannot be obtained by simply inserting worst-case parameter values into known-channel bounds: the channel realizations that are most adverse for covertness and reliability generally occur at different corners of the uncertainty set. This creates a fundamental trade-off in secure system design. We derive a closed-form lower bound on the worst-case guaranteed number of covert qubits that can be transmitted reliably, identify a sharp feasibility boundary beyond which the guaranteed payload drops to zero, and quantify the security penalty caused by uncertainty. We validate the covertness term with QuTiP simulations of a four-mode bosonic model and combine it with an analytical reliability bound to evaluate the robust payload. Our results move covert quantum communication from nominal perfect-knowledge analysis to certified worst-case operation under uncertainty. Comments: Submitted to IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Signal Processing (eess.SP) Cite as: arXiv:2604.13116 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2604.13116v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.13116 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Abbas Arghavani [view email] [v1] Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:40:14 UTC (724 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cs eess eess.SP References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation 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 Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)