TARA Test-by-Adaptive-Ranks for Quantum Anomaly Detection with Conformal Prediction Guarantees

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) security fundamentally relies on the ability to distinguish genuine quantum correlations from classical eavesdropper simulations, yet existing certification methods lack rigorous statistical guarantees under finite-sample conditions and adversarial scenarios. We introduce TARA (Test by Adaptive Ranks), a novel framework combining conformal prediction with sequential martingale testing for quantum anomaly detection that provides distribution-free validity guarantees. TARA offers two complementary approaches. TARA k, based on Kolmogorov Smirnov calibration against local hidden variable (LHV) null distributions, achieving ROC AUC = 0.96 for quantum-classical discrimination. And TARA-m, employing betting martingales for streaming detection with anytime valid type I error control that enables real time monitoring of quantum channels. We establish theoretical guarantees proving that under (context conditional) exchangeability, conformal p-values remain uniformly distributed even for strongly contextual quantum data, confirming that quantum contextuality does not break conformal prediction validity a result with implications beyond quantum certification to any application of distribution-free methods to nonclassical data. Extensive validation on both IBM Torino (superconducting, CHSH = 2.725) and IonQ Forte Enterprise (trapped ion, CHSH = 2.716) quantum processors demonstrates cross-platform robustness, achieving 36% security margins above the classical CHSH bound of 2. Critically, our framework reveals a methodological concern affecting quantum certification more broadly: same-distribution calibration can inflate detection performance by up to 44 percentage points compared to proper cross-distribution calibration, suggesting that prior quantum certification studies using standard train test splits may have systematically overestimated adversarial robustness.