An efficiency-loophole-free quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme is proposed, which involves no hardware change but a modification in the data post-processing step. The scheme applies to a generic class of detection systems which allow correlations between the detection efficiency and the outcomes. We study the system transmittance and the detection error rate that allow implementing this scheme. We also consider the case that a quantum memory is used to boost the performance and investigate the criteria of the readout probability. The simulation result shows that the lowest tolerable system transmittance (readout probability) is 50%, while the necessary efficiency for an efficiency-loophole-free Bell's inequality test is 82.8%.
Semi-device-independent quantum protocols realize information tasks - e.g. secure key distribution, random access coding, and randomness generation - in a scenario where no assumption on the internal working of the devices used in the protocol is made, except their dimension. These protocols offer two main advantages: first, their implementation is often less demanding than fully-device-independent protocols. Second, they are more secure than their device-dependent counterparts. Their classical analogous is represented by random access codes, which provide a general framework for describing on…
A loophole-free violation of Bell inequalities is of fundamental importance for demonstrating quantum nonlocality and long-distance device-independent secure communication. However, transmission losses represent a fundamental limitation for photonic loophole-free Bell tests. A local precertification of the presence of the photons immediately before the local measurements may solve this problem. We show that local precertification is feasible by integrating three current technologies: (i) enhanced single-photon down-conversion to locally create a flag photon, (ii) nanowire-based superconducting…
Device and semi-device independent quantum randomness generators (DI- and SDI-QRNGs) are crucial for applications requiring private randomness. However, they are vulnerable to detection inefficiency attacks and this limits severely their usage for practical purposes. Here, we present a method for protecting SDI-QRNGs in prepare-and-measure scenarios against detection inefficiency attacks. The key idea is the introduction of a blocking device that adds failures in the communication between the preparation and measurement devices. We prove that, for any detection efficiency, there is a blocking …
We present a source of entangled photons that violates a Bell inequality free of the "fair-sampling" assumption, by over 7 standard deviations. This violation is the first experiment with photons to close the detection loophole, and we demonstrate enough "efficiency" overhead to eventually perform a fully loophole-free test of local realism. The entanglement quality is verified by maximally violating additional Bell tests, testing the upper limit of quantum correlations. Finally, we use the source to generate secure private quantum random numbers at rates over 4 orders of magnitude beyond prev…
Entanglement is an invaluable resource for fundamental tests of physics and the implementation of quantum information protocols such as device-independent secure communications. In particular, time-bin entanglement is widely exploited to reach these purposes both in free-space and optical fiber propagation, due to the robustness and simplicity of its implementation. However, all existing realizations of time-bin entanglement suffer from an intrinsic postselection loophole, which undermines their usefulness. Here, we report the first experimental violation of Bell's inequality with "genuine" ti…
Practical Phase-Coding Side-Channel-Secure Quantum Key Distribution
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学院量子信息重点实验室，中国科学技术大学）；CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学院量子信息与量子物理学前沿卓越中心，中国科学技术大学）；State Key Laboratory of Cryptology（密码学国家重点实验室）
Tests of the predictions of quantum mechanics for entangled systems have provided increasing evidence against local realistic theories. However, there still remains the crucial challenge of simultaneously closing all major loopholes - the locality, freedom-of-choice, and detection loopholes - in a single experiment. An important sub-class of local realistic theories can be tested with the concept of "steering". The term steering was introduced by Schrödinger in 1935 for the fact that entanglement would seem to allow an experimenter to remotely steer the state of a distant system as in the Eins…
Any practical realization of entanglement-based quantum communication must be intrinsically secure and able to span long distances avoiding the need of a straight line between the communicating parties. The violation of Bell's inequality offers a method for the certification of quantum links without knowing the inner workings of the devices. Energy-time entanglement quantum communication satisfies all these requirements. However, currently there is a fundamental obstacle with the standard configuration adopted: an intrinsic geometrical loophole that can be exploited to break the security of th…
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution removes all detector-side attacks in quantum cryptography, and in the meantime doubles the secure distance. The source side, however, is still vulnerable to various attacks. In particular, the continuous phase randomization assumption on the source side is normally not fulfilled in experimental implementation and may potentially open a loophole. In this work, we first show that indeed there are loopholes for imperfect phase randomization in measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution by providing a concrete attack. Then we pro…
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is an important branch of quantum communication that transmits confidential message directly in a quantum channel without utilizing encryption and decryption. It not only prevents eavesdropping during transmission, but also eliminates the security loophole associated with key storage and management. Recently measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocols in which the measurement is performed by an untrusted party using imperfect measurement devices have been constructed, and MDI-QSDC eliminates the security loopholes originating from the imperfec…
Loophole-free Bell-inequality violation between atomic states in cavity-QED systems mediated by hybrid atom-light entanglement
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University（冲绳科学技术大学院大学）；NextQuantum Innovation Research Center, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University（首尔大学物理与天文学系 NextQuantum 创新中心）；Department of Physics, SRM University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh - 522540, India（印度安得拉邦阿马拉瓦蒂 SRM 大学物理系）；National Institute of Informatics（国立情报学研究所）
Quantum cryptography is information-theoretically secure owing to its solid basis in quantum mechanics. However, generally, initial implementations with practical imperfections might open loopholes, allowing an eavesdropper to compromise the security of a quantum cryptographic system. This has been shown to happen for quantum key distribution (QKD). Here we apply experience from implementation security of QKD to several other quantum cryptographic primitives. We survey quantum digital signatures, quantum secret sharing, source-independent quantum random number generation, quantum secure direct…
Based on the detection loophole-free photon key distribution (PKD) compatible with classical optical systems, an optical key distribution (OKD) protocol is presented for unconditionally secured cryptography in fiber-optic communications networks using addressable continuous phase basis, where each communication channel is composed of paired transmission lines. The unconditional security in OKD lies in quantum superposition between the paired lines of each channel. The continuous phase basis in OKD can be applied for one-time-pad optical cryptography in networks, whose network address capacity …
Violating a nonlocality inequality enables the most powerful remote quantum information tasks and fundamental tests of quantum physics. Loophole-free photonic verification of nonlocality has been achieved with polarization-entangled photon pairs, but not with states entangled in other degrees of freedom. Here we demonstrate completion of the quantum steering nonlocality task, with the detection loophole closed, when entanglement is distributed by transmitting a photon in an optical vector vortex state, formed by optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization. As well as opening up a h…
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) uses the quantum channel to transmit information reliably and securely. In order to eliminate the security loopholes resulting from practical detectors, the measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocol has been proposed. However, block-based transmission of quantum states is utilized in MDI-QSDC, which requires practical quantum memory that is still unavailable at the time of writing. For circumventing this impediment, we propose a single-photon-memory MDI QSDC protocol (SPMQC) for dispensing with high-performance quantum memory. The performance…
Device-independent (DI) quantum communication will require a loophole-free violation of Bell inequalities. In typical scenarios where line-of-sight between the communicating parties is not available, it is convenient to use energy-time entangled photons due to intrinsic robustness while propagating over optical fibers. Here we show an energy-time Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality violation with two parties separated by 3.7 km over the deployed optical fiber network belonging to the University of Concepción in Chile. Remarkably, this is the first Bell violation with spatially separated…
We consider a Bell-like inequality performed using various instances of multi-photon entangled states to demonstrate that losses occurring after the unitary transformations used in the nonlocality test can be counteracted by enhancing the "size" of such entangled states. In turn, this feature can be used to overcome detection inefficiencies affecting the test itself: a slight increase in the size of such states, pushing them towards a more "macroscopic" form of entanglement, significantly improves the state robustness against detection inefficiency, thus easing the closing of the detection loo…
Loophole-free Bell tests for quantum nonlocality and long-distance secure communication require photodetection efficiencies beyond a threshold eta_{crit} that depends on the Bell inequality and the noise affecting the entangled state received by the distant parties. Most calculations of eta_{crit} assume that the noise is random and can be modeled as white noise. However, most sources suffer from colored noise. Indeed, since entangled states are usually created as a superposition of two possible deexcitation paths, a partial distinguishability between the two processes leads to the appearance …
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD), which is immune to all detector side-channel attacks, is the most promising solution to the security issues in practical quantum key distribution systems. Though several experimental demonstrations of MDI QKD have been reported, they all make one crucial but not yet verified assumption, that is there are no flaws in state preparation. Such an assumption is unrealistic and security loopholes remain in the source. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first MDI-QKD experiment with state preparation flaws taken into consideration…
Secure cryptographic protocols are indispensable for modern communication systems. It is realized through an encryption process in cryptography. In quantum cryptography, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a widely popular quantum communication scheme that enables two parties to establish a shared secret key that can be used to encrypt and decrypt messages. But security loopholes still exist in this cryptographic protocol, as an eavesdropper can in principle still intercept all the ciphertext to perform cryptanalysis and the key may get leaked to the eavesdropper, although it happens very rarely…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) systems can send signals over more than 100 km standard optical fiber and are widely believed to be secure. Here, we show experimentally for the first time a technologically feasible attack, namely the time-shift attack, against a commercial QKD system. Our result shows that, contrary to popular belief, an eavesdropper, Eve, has a non-negligible probability (~4%) to break the security of the system. Eve's success is due to the well-known detection efficiency loophole in the experimental testing of Bell inequalities. Therefore, the detection efficiency loophole pl…
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is the technology to transmit secret information directly through a quantum channel without neither key nor ciphertext. It provides us with a secure communication structure that is fundamentally different from the one that we use today. In this Letter, we report the first measurement-device-independent(MDI) QSDC protocol with sequences of entangled photon pairs and single photons. It eliminates security loopholes associated with the measurement device. In addition, the MDI technique doubles the communication distance compared to those without using th…
To establish a time reference frame between two users in quantum key distribution, a synchronization calibration process is usually applied for the case of using gated mode single-photon detectors (SPDs). Traditionally, the synchronization calibration is independently implemented by the line length measurement for each SPD. However, this will leave a loophole which has been experimentally demonstrated by a special attack. Here, we propose an alternative synchronization scheme by fixing the relative delay of the signal time window among all SPDs and jointly performing the line length measuremen…
Quantum mechanics provides means of generating genuine randomness that is impossible with deterministic classical processes. Remarkably, the unpredictability of randomness can be certified in a self-testing manner that is independent of implementation devices. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of self-testing quantum random number generation based on an detection-loophole free Bell test with entangled photons. In the randomness analysis, without the assumption of independent identical distribution, we consider the worst case scenario that the adversary launches the most powerful a…
Inspired by the recent remarkable progress in the experimental test of local realism, we report here such a test that achieves an efficiency greater than (78%)^2 for entangled photon pairs separated by 183 m. Further utilizing the randomness in cosmic photons from pairs of stars on the opposite sides of the sky for the measurement setting choices, we not only close the locality and detection loopholes simultaneously, but also test the null hypothesis against local hidden variable mechanisms for events that took place 11 years ago (13 orders of magnitude longer than previous experiments). After…
For more than 80 years, the counterintuitive predictions of quantum theory have stimulated debate about the nature of reality. In his seminal work, John Bell proved that no theory of nature that obeys locality and realism can reproduce all the predictions of quantum theory. Bell showed that in any local realist theory the correlations between distant measurements satisfy an inequality and, moreover, that this inequality can be violated according to quantum theory. This provided a recipe for experimental tests of the fundamental principles underlying the laws of nature. In the past decades, num…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) utilizes the laws of quantum mechanics to achieve information-theoretically secure key generation. This field is now approaching the stage of commercialization, but many practical QKD systems still suffer from security loopholes due to imperfect devices. In fact, practical attacks have successfully been demonstrated. Fortunately, most of them only exploit detection-side loopholes which are now closed by the recent idea of measurement-device-independent QKD. On the other hand, little attention is paid to the source which may still leave QKD systems insecure. In th…
Local finite rate semi device independent randomness expansion from quantum contextuality
Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi（印度技术学院曼迪分校量子科学与技术中心）；School of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi（印度技术学院曼迪分校物理科学学院）
The recently reported violation of a Bell inequality using entangled electronic spins in diamonds (Hensen et al., Nature 526, 682-686) provided the first loophole-free evidence against local-realist theories of nature. Here we report on data from a second Bell experiment using the same experimental setup with minor modifications. We find a violation of the CHSH-Bell inequality of $2.35 \pm 0.18$, in agreement with the first run, yielding an overall value of $S = 2.38 \pm 0.14$. We calculate the resulting $P$-values of the second experiment and of the combined Bell tests. We provide an addition…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two distant parties to share secret keys with the proven security even in the presence of an eavesdropper with unbounded computational power. Recently, GHz-clock decoy QKD systems have been realized by employing ultrafast optical communication devices. However, security loopholes of high-speed systems have not been fully explored yet. Here we point out a security loophole at the transmitter of the GHz-clock QKD, which is a common problem in high-speed QKD systems using practical band-width limited devices. We experimentally observe the inter-pulse intensit…
Device-independent quantum key distribution secure against collective attacks
设备无关的量子密钥分发（DIQKD）是对通常的量子密钥分发（QKD）安全性假设的放松。与通常的QKD一样，DIQKD的安全性遵循量子物理定律，但与通常的QKD相反，它不依赖于协议中使用的量子设备的内部工作的任何假设。我们在这里详细介绍了[Phys. Rev. Lett. 98，230501（2008）]。这个证明利用了量子理论的完整结构（与其他仅利用无信号原理的证明相反），但仅再次保持集体攻击，其中假设窃听者在协议的每一轮独立且相同地作用于诚实方的量子系统（尽管她可以在任何时候一致地作用于她的系统）。任何DIQKD协议的安全性都必须依赖于违反贝尔不等式。我们讨论的问题，在贝尔实验中的漏洞在这方面。
Although our understanding of Bell's theorem and experimental techniques to test it have improved over the last 40 years, thus far all Bell tests have suffered at least from the detection or the locality loophole. Most photonic Bell tests rely on inefficient discrete-outcome measurements, often provided by photon counting detection. One possible way to close the detection loophole in photonic Bell tests is to involve efficient continuous-variable measurements instead, such as homodyne detection. Here, we propose a test of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality that applies photon cou…
In this paper, we show that the zero-knowledge construction for Hamiltonian cycle remains secure against quantum adversaries in the relativistic setting. Our main technical contribution is a tool for studying the action of consecutive measurements on a quantum state which in turn gives upper bounds on the value of some entangled games. This allows us to prove the security of our protocol against quantum adversaries. We also prove security bounds for the (single-round) relativistic string commitment and bit commitment in parallel against quantum adversaries. As an additional consequence of our …
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been proved to be information-theoretically secure in theory. Unfortunately, the imperfect devices in practice compromise its security. Thus, to improve the security property of practical QKD systems, a commonly used method is to patch the loopholes in the existing QKD systems. However, in this work, we show an adversary's capability of exploiting the imperfection of the patch itself to bypass the patch. Specifically, we experimentally demonstrate that, in the detector under test, the patch of photocurrent monitor against the detector blinding attack can be d…
Distributing cryptographic keys over public channels in a way that can provide information-theoretic security is the holy grail for secure communication. This can be achieved by exploiting quantum mechanical principles in so-called quantum key distribution (QKD). Continuous-variable (CV) QKD based on coherent states, in particular, is an attractive scheme for secure communication since it requires only standard telecommunication technology that can operate at room temperature. However, a recently discovered side-channel created in the process of state preparation leads to a leakage of informat…
So far, most of existed single-shot quantum coin flipping(QCF) protocols failed in a noisy quantum channel. Here, we present a nested-structured framework that makes it possible to achieve partially noise-tolerant QCF, due to that there is a trade-off between the security and the justice correctness. It is showed that noise-tolerant single-shot QCF protocols can be produced by filling the presented framework up with existed or even future protocols. We also proved a lower bound of 0.25, with which a cheating Alice or Bob could bias the outcome.
Continuous-variable measurement-independent-device quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) can offer high secure key rate at metropolitan distance and remove all side channel loopholes of detection as well. However, there is no complete experimental demonstration of CV-MDI-QKD due to the remote distance phase-locking techniques challenge. Here, we present a new optical scheme to overcome this difficulty and also removes the requirement of two identical independent lasers. We anticipate that our new scheme can be used to demonstrate the in-field CV-MDI-QKD experiment and build the CV-MDI-QKD netw…
We further study the security of the quantum bit commitment (QBC) protocol we previously proposed [Phys. Rev. A 74, 022332 (2006).], by analyzing the reduced density matrix ρ_{b}^{B} which describes the quantum state at Bob's side corresponding to Alice's committed bit b. It is shown that Alice will find ρ_{0}^{B}\perp ρ_{1}^{B} while the protocol remains concealing to Bob. On the contrary, the existing no-go theorem of unconditionally secure QBC is based on the condition ρ_{0}^{B}\simeq ρ_{1}^{B}. Thus the specific cheating strategy proposed in the no-go theorem does not necessarily applies t…
