Plug‐and‐Play Continuous Variable Measurement‐Device‐Independent Quantum Key Distribution

Abstract

In this paper, a continuous variable (CV) measurement‐device‐independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol using Gaussian modulated coherent states is proposed. The MDI is first proposed to resist the attacks on the detection equipment by introducing an untrusted relay. However, the necessity of propagation of local oscillator between legitimate users and the relay makes the implementation of CV‐MDI‐QKD highly impractical. By introducing the plug‐and‐play (P&P) technique into CV‐MDI‐QKD, the problems of polarization drifts caused by environmental disturbance and the security loopholes during the local oscillator transmission are solved naturally. The proposed scheme is superior to the previous CV‐MDI‐QKD protocol on the aspect of implementation. The security bounds of the P&P CV‐MDI‐QKD under the Gaussian collective attack are analyzed. It is believed that the technique presented in this paper can be extended to quantum network.

Finite-size security proof of binary-modulation continuous-variable quantum key distribution using only heterodyne measurement

“…On the other hand, CV-QKD protocols encode information to quadrature in the phase space of an optical pulse. They use homodyne or heterodyne detection [3,4], which is highly compatible with the coherent optical communication technology currently widespread in industry [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. See [15,16] for comprehensive reviews of the topic.…”

Single‐Photon Based Three‐Party Quantum Secure Direct Communication with Identity Authentication

“…[7] Quantum secure communication can guarantee the unconditional DOI: 10.1002/andp.202300407 security of the message transmission based on the basic principle of quantum mechanics, which can even resist the increasingly powerful quantum computing. Quantum secure communication includes some important branches, such as the quantum key distribution (QKD), [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] quantum secret sharing (QSS), [19][20][21][22][23] and quantum secure direct communication (QSDC). [24][25][26][27] QKD and QSS are used to distribute secure keys through quantum channels between two distant parties and multiple parties, respectively.…”