Quantum secret-sharing and quantum error-correction schemes rely on multipartite decoding protocols, yet the nonlocal operations involved are challenging and sometimes infeasible. Here we construct a quantum secret-sharing protocol with a reduced number of quantum communication channels between the players. We introduce a scheme based on embedding a classical linear code into a quantum error-correcting code and then mapping the latter to a quantum secret-sharing protocol. In contrast to the Calderbank-Shor-Steane construction, we do not impose any restriction on the classical code; our protocol works with any arbitrary linear code. Our work paves the way towards the more general problem of simplifying the decoding of quantum error-correcting codes.

• Received 11 July 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.022340