Fluctuations of Internal Transmittance in Security of Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution with an Untrusted Source

Yang Wang, Wan‐Su Bao, Rui-Ke 瑞柯 Chen 陈 +3 more

Abstract Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) is immune to detector side channel attacks, which is a crucial security loophole problem in traditional QKD. In order to relax a key assumption that the sources are trusted in MDI-QKD, an MDI-QKD protocol with an untrusted source has been proposed. For the security of MDI-QKD with an untrusted source, imperfections in the practical experiment should also be taken into account. In this paper, we analyze the effects of fluctuations of internal transmittance on the security of a decoy-state MDI-QKD protocol with an untrusted source. Our numerical results show that both the secret key rate and the maximum secure transmission distance decrease when taken fluctuations of internal transmittance into consideration. Especially, they are more sensitive when Charlie’s mean photon number per pulse is smaller. Our results emphasize that the stability of correlative optical devices is important for practical implementations .

Anonymous, Guan‐Jie Fan‐Yuan, Wei-Xin Xie +7 more

Ming-Juan Chen, Xiang Liu

The most severe problem of a two-way "plug-and-play" (p& p) quantum key distribution system is that the source can be controlled by the eavesdropper. This kind of source is defined as an "untrusted source". This paper discusses the effects of the fluctuation of internal transmittance on the final key generation rate and the transmission distance. The security of the standard BB84 protocol, one-decoy state protocol, and weak+vacuum decoy state protocol, with untrusted sources and the fluctuation of internal transmittance are studied. It is shown that the one-decoy state is sensitive to the statistical fluctuation but weak+vacuum decoy state is only slightly affected by the fluctuation. It is also shown that both the maximum secure transmission distance and final key generation rate are reduced when Alice's laboratory transmittance fluctuation is considered.

Ziqi Chen, Mingshuo Sun, Huajian Ding +2 more

Lluís Masanes, Stefano Pironio, Antonio Acín

Chen Ming-juan, Xiang Liu

The security of the weak+vacuum decoy state protocol with untrusted sources is studied,and the effects of internal statistic fluctuation on the final key rate and the transmittance distance are discussed.The results showed that both the maximum safe transmission distance and final key generation rates are reduced when the statistic fluctuation is considered.