Quantum PUF for Security and Trust in Quantum Computing

Abstract: Quantum computing is a promising paradigm to solve computationally intractable problems. Various companies such as, IBM, Rigetti and D-Wave offer quantum computers using a cloud-based platform that possess several interesting features. These factors motivate a new threat model. To mitigate this threat, we propose two flavors of QuPUF: one based on superposition, and another based on decoherence. Experiments on real IBM quantum hardware show that the proposed QuPUF can achieve inter-die Hamming Distance(HD) of 55% and intra-HD as low as 4%, as compared to ideal cases of 50% and 0% respectively. The proposed QuPUFs can also be used as a standalone solution for any other application.