PhysicsarXiv
Heuristic editor, no API keyVerdict: NotableWhere Quantum Fourier Sampling Stops Short: A Three-Gate Audit Protocol for Delay-PUF Security Models
Quantum Fourier sampling may help audit the spectral learnability of delay-based physical unclonable functions (PUFs).
Key numbers
- 1.55x the median dephasing time
- 91 % of all 2 n
- 90 % mass within 2 n
VerdictWorth a reader's time today.
Abstract
Quantum Fourier sampling may help audit the spectral learnability of delay-based physical unclonable functions (PUFs). We ask whether that promise survives access matching, a strong classical comparator, and oracle synthesis. Three gates structure the evaluation. Structure: low degree is not small support at reachable challenge lengths; for 4-XOR at n=14, degree ≤ d_f(0.1) admits 91% of all 2ⁿ characters and the median 90%-mass set spans a third of the spectrum. Algorithmics: constructing the phase oracle logically implies classical membership access, making Kushilevitz--Mansour the correct baseline; across 45 tasks it exhausts each finite domain, and no 4-XOR ideal-sampling case reaches 90% mass within 2ⁿ calls. A quantum-kernel diagnostic appears more favorable, with geometric difference rising to $2.151$ at N=512 challenges, but it correlates $0.991$ with 1/sqrtλ_min(K_C) for the classical Gram matrix K_C, and the 4-XOR label-complexity ratio does not exceed a balance-preserving permutation null (p=0.930). Trace-normalized geometric difference can therefore grow through classical ill-conditioning alone, without task-label alignment. Implementation: a simulator-validated fixed-point phase oracle based on the quantum Fourier transform admits an 18.9% routed-depth reduction, yet the least certified precisions have estimated durations of $1.18$--1.55× the median dephasing time T₂ of the mapped qubits on a static backend snapshot, without hardware execution. We find no end-to-end advantage in the evaluated regime, although ideal sampling does use fewer coherent calls on the thresholded task. The contribution is the Three-Gate Quantum Audit Protocol: a reproducible procedure separating an ideal query advantage from a realizable security benefit. This is not a claim about deployed silicon and not an impossibility result.
The editor's rubric
| Dimension | Level | Weight | What that level means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leverage | ███░░ 3 | 18% | A method or resource many groups across the field will adopt within a year. |
| Magnitude | ███░░ 3 | 20% | Large gain: roughly 2x, or a clear new state of the art on a hard, unsaturated problem. |
| Evidence | ████░ 4 | 22% | Strong: large scale, preregistered, independently replicated, or a well-powered randomized trial. |
| Novelty | ██░░░ 2 | 22% | A new combination of known ideas. |
| Trajectory | ██░░░ 2 | 10% | Some room to improve with obvious engineering. |
| Stakes | ██░░░ 2 | 8% | Benefits a professional community (practitioners, clinicians, engineers). |
Editor’s rationale
Heuristic triage from title and abstract text only, not a reading of the paper. Cues found: method (we report); breadth (many tasks); gains (x-fold, outperforms); verification (multiple benchmarks, experimental validation, independent replication).
How the score was computed
- Merit
- 5.6 / 10
- Adjusted merit
- 4.7 / 10
- Attention
- 0%
- Freshness
- 72%
- Citations0 (reference 20, via semantic-scholar, Oct 5, 2026, 07:29 UTC)