Security of "Counterfactual Quantum Cryptography"

Recently, a "counterfactual" quantum key distribution scheme was proposed by Tae-Gon Noh [1]. In this scheme, two legitimate distant peers may share secret keys even when the information carriers are not traveled in the quantum channel. We find that this protocol is equivalent to an entanglement distillation protocol (EDP). According to this equivalence, a strict security proof and the asymptotic key bit rate are both obtained when perfect single photon source is applied and Trojan-horse attack can be detected. We also find that the security of this scheme is deeply related with not only the bit error rate but also the yields of photons. And our security proof may shed light on security of other two-way protocols.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Detection efficiency and noise in semi-device independent randomness extraction protocol

In this paper, we analyze several critical issues in semi-device independent quantum information processing protocol. In practical experimental realization randomness generation in that scenario is possible only if the efficiency of the detectors used is above a certain threshold. Our analysis shows that the critical detection efficiency is 0.7071 in the symmetric setup, while in the asymmetric setup if one of the bases has perfect critical detection efficiency then the other one can be arbitrarily close to 0. We also analyze the semi-device independent random number generation efficiency based on different averages of guessing probability. To generate more randomness, the proper averaging method should be applied. Its choice depends on the value of a certain dimension witness. More importantly, the general analytical relationship between the maximal average guessing probability and dimension witness is given

Quantum discord of ensemble of quantum states

We highlight an information-theoretic meaning of quantum discord as the gap between the ac- cessible information and the Holevo bound in the framework of ensemble of quantum states. This complementary relationship implies that a large amount of pre-existing arguments about the evaluation of quantum discord can be directly applied to the accessible information and vice versa. For an ensemble of two pure qubit states, we show that one can evade the optimization problem with the help of the Koashi-Winter relation. Further, for the general case (two mixed qubit states), we recover the main results presented by Fuchs and Caves [Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 3047 (1994)], but totally from the perspective of quantum discord. Following this line of thought, we also investigate the geometric discord as an indicator of quantumness of ensembles in detail. Finally, we give an example to elucidate the difference between quantum discord and geometric discord with respect to optimal measurement strategies.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Already submitted. We notice a recent related work arXiv:1303.465

Security of quantum key distribution with state-dependent imperfections

In practical quantum key distribution (QKD) system, the state preparation and measurement are imperfect comparing with the ideal BB84 protocol, which are always state-dependent in practical realizations. If the state-dependent imperfections can not be regarded as an unitary transformation, it should not be considered as part of quantum channel noise introduced by the eavesdropper, the commonly used secret key rate formula GLLP can not be applied correspondingly. In this paper, the unconditional security of quantum key distribution with state-dependent imperfection has been analyzed by estimating the upper bound of the phase error rate about the quantum channel

Two-dimensional Multi-fiber Spectrum Image Correction Based on Machine Learning Techniques

Due to limited size and imperfect of the optical components in a spectrometer, aberration has inevitably been brought into two-dimensional multi-fiber spectrum image in LAMOST, which leads to obvious spacial variation of the point spread functions (PSFs). Consequently, if spatial variant PSFs are estimated directly , the huge storage and intensive computation requirements result in deconvolutional spectral extraction method become intractable. In this paper, we proposed a novel method to solve the problem of spatial variation PSF through image aberration correction. When CCD image aberration is corrected, PSF, the convolution kernel, can be approximated by one spatial invariant PSF only. Specifically, machine learning techniques are adopted to calibrate distorted spectral image, including Total Least Squares (TLS) algorithm, intelligent sampling method, multi-layer feed-forward neural networks. The calibration experiments on the LAMOST CCD images show that the calibration effect of proposed method is effectible. At the same time, the spectrum extraction results before and after calibration are compared, results show the characteristics of the extracted one-dimensional waveform are more close to an ideal optics system, and the PSF of the corrected object spectrum image estimated by the blind deconvolution method is nearly central symmetry, which indicates that our proposed method can significantly reduce the complexity of spectrum extraction and improve extraction accuracy.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure

Security of practical phase-coding quantum key distribution

Security proof of practical quantum key distribution (QKD) has attracted a lot of attentions in recent years. Most of real-life QKD implementations are based on phase-coding BB84 protocol, which usually uses Unbalanced Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (UMZI) as the information coder and decoder. However, the long arm and short arm of UMZI will introduce different loss in practical experimental realizations, the state emitted by Alice's side is nolonger standard BB84 states. In this paper, we will give a security analysis in this situation. Counterintuitively, active compensation for this different loss will only lower the secret key bit rate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

Quantum Hacking on Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution System using a Wavelength Attack

The security proofs of continuous-variable quantum key distribution are based on the assumptions that the eavesdropper can neither act on the local oscillator nor control Bob's beam splitter. These assumptions may be invalid in practice due to potential imperfections in the implementations of such protocols. In this paper, we consider the problem of transmitting the local oscillator in a public channel and propose a wavelength attack which can allow the eavesdropper to control the intensity transmission of Bob's beam splitter by switching the wavelength of the input light. Specifically we target continuous-variable quantum key distribution systems that use the heterodyne detection protocol using either direct or reverse reconciliation. Our attack is proved to be feasible and renders all of the final key shared between the legitimate parties insecure, even if they have monitored the intensity of the local oscillator. To prevent our attack on commercial systems, a simple wavelength filter should be added before performing the monitoring detection.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1206.655

Quantum key distribution based on quantum dimension and independent devices

In this paper, we propose a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol based on only a two-dimensional Hilbert space encoding a quantum system and independent devices between the equipment for state preparation and measurement. Our protocol is inspired by the fully device-independent quantum key distribution (FDI-QKD) protocol and the measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol. Our protocol only requires the state to be prepared in the two dimensional Hilbert space, which weakens the state preparation assumption in the original MDI-QKD protocol. More interestingly, our protocol can overcome the detection loophole problem in the FDI-QKD protocol, which greatly limits the application of FDI-QKD. Hence our protocol can be implemented with practical optical components

Characterizing high-quality high-dimensional quantum key distribution by state mapping between different degree of freedoms

Quantum key distribution (QKD) guarantees the secure communication between legitimate parties with quantum mechanics. High-dimensional QKD (HDQKD) not only increases the secret key rate but also tolerates higher quantum bit error rate (QBER). Many HDQKD experiments have been realized by utilizing orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) photons as the degree of freedom (DOF) of OAM of the photon is a prospective resource for HD quantum information. In this work we proposed and characterized that a high-quality HDQKD based on polarization-OAM hybrid states can be realized by utilizing state mapping between different DOFs. Both the preparation and measurement procedures of the proof-of-principle verification experiment are simple and stable. Our experiment verified that $(0.60\pm 0.06)\%$ QBER and $1.849\pm 0.008$ bits secret key rate per sifted signal can be achieved for a four-dimensional QKD with the weak coherent light source and decoy state method.Comment: 5 figures, 2 table

Dove prism in single-path Sagnac interferometer for orbital-angular-momentum photon states

The degree of freedom of orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an important resource in high-dimensional quantum information processing, as the quantum number of OAM can be infinite. The Dove prism (DP) is a most common tool to manipulate the OAM light, such as in interferometers. However, the Dove prism does not preserve the polarization of the photon states and decreases the sorting fidelity of the interferometer. In this work, we analyze the polarization-dependent effect of the DP on single-path Sagnac interferometers. The results are instructive to quantum information processing with OAM light. We also proposed a modified single-path beam splitter Sagnac interferometer (BSSI), of which the sorting fidelity is independent on input polarization and can be 100\% in principle. The single-path BSSI is stable for free running. These merits are crucial in quantum information processing, such as quantum cryptography.Comment: 9 pages and 6 figures. To be submitted, comments are welcom