Decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) has convincingly been shown the core solution to secure key exchange. While standard BB84 protocol needs to prepare and measure all states of two complementary bases, which seriously restricts its real life applications in photonic integration and high speed system. Fortunately, a simplified BB84, only sending and receiving three states, achieves the same asymptotic secret key rate compared with standard BB84 under coherent attacks. In this work, by skillfully exploiting uncertainty relation for smooth entropies, we provide the finite-key security bounds for decoy-state simplified BB84 QKD against coherent attacks in the universally composable framework. Simulation results show that it can also achieve almost the same performance compared with standard BB84 even the total number of pulses is as low as $10^{8}$. We conclude that simplified BB84 can completely replace standard BB84 to be the best choice for QKD in most common practical scenarios.
Simplified quantum key distribution implementation secure in the presence of state preparation flaws
Vigo Quantum Communication Center, University of Vigo（维戈量子通信中心，维戈大学）；Escuela de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación, Department of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Vigo（电信工程学院，信号理论与通信系，维戈大学）；AtlanTTic Research Center, University of Vigo（AtlanTTic研究中心，维戈大学）；Department of Applied Physics, University of Geneva（应用物理系，日内瓦大学）
We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that secure communication using intermediate-energy (mesoscopic) coherent states is possible. Our scheme is different from previous quantum cryptographic schemes in that a short secret key is explicitly used and in which quantum noise hides both the bit and the key. This encryption scheme can be optically amplified. New avenues are open to secure communications at high speeds in fiber-optic or free-space channels.
In a recent letter, Barbosa et al [PRL 90, 227901(2003)] claim that secure communication is possible with bright coherent pulses, by using quantum noise to hide the data from an eavesdropper. We show here that the secrecy in the scheme of Barbosa et al is unrelated to quantum noise, but rather derives from the secret key that sender and receiver share beforehand.
We demonstrate that secure communication using coherent states is possible. The optimal eavesdropping strategy for an M-ry ciphering scheme shows that the minimum probability of error in a measurement for bit determination can be made arbitrarily close to the pure guessing value P_e=1/2. This ciphering scheme can be optically amplified without degrading the security level. New avenues are open to secure communications at high speeds in fiber-optic or free-space channels.
In this paper, we investigate the long-standing gap of quantum key rate between the Weak Coherent Pulse (WCP) and Heralded Single Photon Sources(HSPS) implementation of quantum cryptographical protocol. We prove that, by utilizing the Heralded Pair Coherent State (HPCS) photon sources, such a gap can be actually filled in both BB84 and SARG quantum key distribution. Thus, a universal photon source which achieves the up-to-date optimal key rate for each transmission distance is obtained.
We study the equivalence between a realistic quantum key distribution protocol using coherent states and homodyne detection and a formal entanglement purification protocol. Maximally-entangled qubit pairs that one can extract in the formal protocol correspond to secret key bits in the realistic protocol. More specifically, we define a qubit encoding scheme that allows the formal protocol to produce more than one entangled qubit pair per coherent state, or equivalently for the realistic protocol, more than one secret key bit. The entanglement parameters are estimated using quantum tomography. W…
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BB84-based quantum key distribution system is limited in high speed and chip integration due to the requirement of four states preparation and measurement. Recently, the simplified BB84 protocol with only three states preparation and measurement has showed the approximate secret key rate with standard BB84. However, the security proof is only valid under the collective attack and requires the basis-independent detection efficiency condition. Here, we provide a security proof against the coherent attack, which simultaneously removes the basis-independent detection efficiency condition. Importan…
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A general study of arbitrary finite-size coherent attacks against continuous-variable quantum cryptographic schemes is presented. It is shown that, if the size of the blocks that can be coherently attacked by an eavesdropper is fixed and much smaller than the key size, then the optimal attack for a given signal-to-noise ratio in the transmission line is an individual gaussian attack. Consequently, non-gaussian coherent attacks do not need to be considered in the security analysis of such quantum cryptosystems.
Yuan and Shields claim that our data-encryption protocol is entirely equivalent to a classical stream cipher utilizing no quantum phenomena. Their claim is, indeed, false. Yuan and Shields also claim that schemes similar to the one presented in Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 227901 are not suitable for key generation. This claim is also refuted. In any event, we welcome the opportunity to clarify the situation for a wider audience.
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