Quantum communication with coherent states and linear optics

We introduce a general mapping for encoding quantum communication protocols involving pure states of multiple qubits, unitary transformations, and projective measurements into another set of protocols that employ a coherent state of light in a linear combination of optical modes, linear-optics transformations, and measurements with single-photon threshold detectors. This provides a general framework for transforming protocols in quantum communication into a form in which they can be implemented with current technology. We explore the similarity between properties of the original qubit protocols and the coherent-state protocols obtained from the mapping and make use of the mapping to construct additional protocols in the context of quantum communication complexity and quantum digital signatures. Our results have the potential of bringing a wide class of quantum communication protocols closer to their experimental demonstration.