Simultaneous two-way classical communication and measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution on oceanic quantum channels

Simultaneous two-way classical and quantum (STCQ) communication combines both continuous classical coherent optical communication and continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD), which eliminates all detection-related imperfections by being measurement-device-independent (MDI). In this paper, we propose a protocol relying on STCQ communication on the oceanic quantum channel, in which the superposition-modulation-based coherent states depend on the information bits of both the secret key and the classical communication ciphertext. We analyse the encoding combination in classical communication and consider the probability distribution transmittance under seawater turbulence with various interference factors. Our numerical simulations of various practical scenarios demonstrate that the proposed protocol can simultaneously enable two-way classical communication and CV-MDI QKD with just a slight performance degradation transmission distance compared to the original CV-MDI QKD scheme. Moreover, the asymmetric situation outperforms the symmetric case in terms of transmission distance and optical modulation variance. We further take into consideration the impact of finite-size effects to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme in practical scenarios. The results show the feasibility of the underwater STCQ scheme, which contributes toward developing a global quantum communication network in free space.     

基于量子图态的量子秘密共享

本文基于量子图态的几何结构特征,利用生成矩阵分割法,提出了一种量子秘密共享方案.利用量子图态基本物理性质中的稳定子实现信息转移的模式、秘密信息的可扩展性以及新型的组恢复协议,为安全的秘密共享协议提供了多重保障.更重要的是,方案针对生成矩阵的循环周期问题和因某些元素不存在本原元而不能构造生成矩阵的问题提出了有效的解决方案.在该方案中,利用经典信息与量子信息的对应关系提取经典信息,分发者根据矩阵分割理论获得子秘密集,然后将子秘密通过酉操作编码到量子图态中,并分发给参与者,最后依据该文提出的组恢复协议及图态相关理论得到秘密信息.理论分析表明,该方案具有较好的安全性及信息的可扩展性,适用于量子网络通信中的秘密共享,保护秘密数据并防止泄露.     

Graph State-Based Quantum Secret Sharing with the Chinese Remainder Theorem

Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a significant quantum cryptography technology in the literature. Dividing an initial secret into several sub-secrets which are then transferred to other legal participants so that it can be securely recovered in a collaboration fashion. In this paper, we develop a quantum route selection based on the encoded quantum graph state, thus enabling the practical QSS scheme in the small-scale complex quantum network. Legal participants are conveniently designated with the quantum route selection using the entanglement of the encoded graph states. Each participant holds a vertex of the graph state so that legal participants are selected through performing operations on specific vertices. The Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) strengthens the security of the recovering process of the initial secret among the legal participants. The security is ensured by the entanglement of the encoded graph states that are cooperatively prepared and shared by legal users beforehand with the sub-secrets embedded in the CRT over finite fields.     

Security Analysis of Continuous-Variable Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Systems in Complex Communication Environments

Continuous-variable measure-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI QKD) is proposed to remove all imperfections originating from detection. However, there are still some inevitable imperfections in a practical CV-MDI QKD system. For example, there is a fluctuating channel transmittance in the complex communication environments. Here we investigate the security of the system under the effects of the fluctuating channel transmittance, where the transmittance is regarded as a fixed value related to communication distance in theory. We first discuss the parameter estimation in fluctuating channel transmittance based on these establishing of channel models, which has an obvious deviation compared with the estimated parameters in the ideal case. Then, we show the evaluated results when the channel transmittance respectively obeys the two-point distribution and the uniform distribution. In particular, the two distributions can be easily realized under the manipulation of eavesdroppers. Finally, we analyze the secret key rate of the system when the channel transmittance obeys the above distributions. The simulation analysis indicates that a slight fluctuation of the channel transmittance may seriously reduce the performance of the system, especially in the extreme asymmetric case. Furthermore, the communication between Alice, Bob and Charlie may be immediately interrupted. Therefore, eavesdroppers can manipulate the channel transmittance to complete a denial-of-service attack in a practical CV-MDI QKD system. To resist this attack, the Gaussian post-selection method can be exploited to calibrate the parameter estimation to reduce the deterioration of performance of the system.     

Performance improvement of eight-state continuous-variable quantum key distribution with an optical amplifier

Discrete modulation is proven to be beneficial to improving the performance of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) in long-distance transmission. In this paper, we suggest a construct to improve the maximal generated secret key rate of discretely modulated eight-state CVQKD using an optical amplifier (OA) with a slight cost of transmission distance. In the proposed scheme, an optical amplifier is exploited to compensate imperfection of Bob's apparatus, so that the generated secret key rate of eight-state protocol is enhanced. Specifically, we investigate two types of optical amplifiers, phase-insensitive amplifier (PIA) and phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA), and thereby obtain approximately equivalent improved performance for eight-state CVQKD system when applying these two different amplifiers. Numeric simulation shows that the proposed scheme can well improve the generated secret key rate of eight-state CVQKD in both asymptotic limit and finite-size regime. We also show that the proposed scheme can achieve the relatively high-rate transmission at long-distance communication system.     

Counteracting a Saturation Attack in Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Using an Adjustable Optical Filter Embedded in Homodyne Detector

A saturation attack can be employed for compromising the practical security of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD). In this paper, we suggest a countermeasure approach to resisting this attack by embedding an adjustable optical filter (AOF) in the CVQKD system. Numerical simulations illustrate the effects of the AOF-enabled countermeasure on the performance in terms of the secret key rate and transmission distance. The legal participants can trace back the information that has been eavesdropped by an attacker from the imperfect receiver, which indicates that this approach can be used for defeating a saturation attack in practical quantum communications.     

Simultaneous measurement-device-independent continuous variable quantum key distribution with realistic detector compensation

We propose a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent (MDI) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) by simultaneously conducting classical communication and QKD, which is called “simultaneous MDI-CVQKD” protocol. In such protocol, each sender (Alice, Bob) can superimpose random numbers for QKD on classical information by taking advantage of the same weak coherent pulse and an untrusted third party (Charlie) decodes it by using the same coherent detectors, which could be appealing in practice due to that multiple purposes can be realized by employing only single communication system. What is more, the proposed protocol is MDI, which is immune to all possible side-channel attacks on practical detectors. Security results illustrate that the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can secure against arbitrary collective attacks. In addition, we employ phasesensitive optical amplifiers to compensate the imperfection existing in practical detectors. With this technology, even common practical detectors can be used for detection through choosing a suitable optical amplifier gain. Furthermore, we also take the finite-size effect into consideration and show that the whole raw keys can be taken advantage of to generate the final secret key instead of sacrificing part of them for parameter estimation. Therefore, an enhanced performance of the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can be obtained in finite-size regime.     

具有经典相干性的两组EPR纠缠态光场的实验产生

纠缠交换，即纠缠态的量子离物传送，是实现远程量子通讯及量子信息网络的必要手段之一 . 要完成纠缠交换实验，首先必须具有两组相互独立的纠缠源. 对于连续变量系统，两独立 的纠缠源为具有经典相干但量子起伏互不关联的两组EPR纠缠态光场. 利用自行研制的瓦级 连续双波长输出Nd³⁺: YAP/KTP稳频激光器为抽运源，抽运两台结 构完全相同的非简 并光学参量放大器，获得了具有经典相干性的两组独立的EPR纠缠光束. 讨论了两组具有经 典相干性的EPR光束产生的实验方法，及不完善模匹配效率对关联测量的影响. 关键词： EPR纠缠态光场 经典相干 非简并光学参量放大器     

基于Bell态的三方量子密钥协商

提出了基于两粒子纠缠态的一个三方量子密钥协商协议. 方案中的三个参与者是完全对等的, 且对建立的共享密钥具有相同的贡献. 除此之外, 三方中的任何一方或两方都不能事先单独决定共享密钥. 安全分析表明本协议既能抵抗外部窃听者的攻击, 又能抵抗内部参与者攻击. 关键词： 量子密码学 量子密钥协商 Bell态     

Quantum Dialogue with Authentication Based on Bell States

We propose an authenticated quantum dialogue protocol, which is based on a shared private quantum entangled channel. In this protocol, the EPR pairs are randomly prepared in one of the four Bell states for communication. By performing four Pauli operations on the shared EPR pairs to encode their shared authentication key and secret message, two legitimate users can implement mutual identity authentication and quantum dialogue without the help from the third party authenticator. Furthermore, due to the EPR pairs which are used for secure communication are utilized to implement authentication and the whole authentication process is included in the direct secure communication process, it does not require additional particles to realize authentication in this protocol. The updated authentication key provides the counterparts with a new authentication key for the next authentication and direct communication. Compared with other secure communication with authentication protocols, this one is more secure and efficient owing to the combination of authentication and direct communication. Security analysis shows that it is secure against the eavesdropping attack, the impersonation attack and the man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack.     

Multi-party Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Based on Cluster States

We propose a novel multi-party measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol based on cluster states. A four-photon analyzer which can distinguish all the 16 cluster states serves as the measurement device for four-party MDI-QKD. Any two out of four participants can build secure keys after the analyzers obtains successful outputs and the two participants perform post-processing. We derive a security analysis for the protocol, and analyze the key rates under different values of polarization misalignment. The results show that four-party MDI-QKD is feasible over 280 km in the optical fiber channel when the key rate is about 10^??6 with the polarization misalignment parameter 0.015. Moreover, our work takes an important step toward a quantum communication network.     

Multi-state Quantum Teleportation via One Entanglement State

A multi-sender-controlled quantum teleportation scheme is proposed to teleport several secret quantum states from different senders to a distance receiver based on only one Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pair with controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates. In the present scheme, several secret single-qubit quantum states are encoded into a multi-qubit entangled quantum state. Two communication modes, i.e., the detecting mode and the message mode, are employed so that the eavesdropping can be detected easily and the teleported message may be recovered efficiently. It has an advantage over teleporting several different quantum states for one scheme run with more efficiency than the previous quantum teleportation schemes.     

Construction and application of multi-partner communication network

In this paper, we present a multi-partner communication network protocol. The supervisor prepares numerous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen （EPR） pairs and auxiliary qubits. He then performs a controlled-NOT（CNOT） gate operation on one qubit of each EPR pair and an auxiliary, which induces the entanglement between the EPR pair and the auxiliary. The supervisor keeps one qubit sequence in his laboratory and sends the others to the outside world. After security approval, the network can be constructed successfully, which can be applied to quantum secret sharing and quantum secure direct communication.     

A Multi-party Quantum Key Agreement Protocol Based on Shamir’s Secret Sharing

Quantum networks can extend the advantages of quantum key distribution protocols to more than two remote participants. Based on Shamir threshold secret sharing scheme, a new quantum key agreement protocol on a quantum network with any number of participants is proposed. First, each participant and distributor negotiate a sub-secret key using a kind of quantum key distribution protocol, and then each of these participants, as distributor, shares these sub-secret keys with other participants using Shamir threshold secret sharing scheme. Furthermore, each participant combines all these shared sub-secret keys and his own sub-secret key in sequence to form secret key, and sends the hash function values of this secret key to the master distributor to authenticate, finally they obtain the security key. Our scheme is practical and secure, and it can also prevent fraudulent from participants.

     

Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Modulation

We demonstrate a multicarrier QKD protocol for continuous-variables (CV) using the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique which was employed in frequency domain. The multicarrier communication formulates sub-channels from OFDM technique and physical quantum channel, each dedicated to the transmission of a subcarrier CV. In the OFDM-CVQKD scenario, the input quantum states of the legal parties are granulated into subcarrier CVs, at the receiver, the subcarriers are decoded by an unitary CV operation, which results in the recovered single-carrier CVs. Compared with the device of the multichannel parallel CVQKD protocol that utilizes N arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWG) in optical domain, this protocol shows better feasibility of implementation from both equipment and technique. We derive the formulas of the secret key rate, moreover, analyze the security in the finite-size through the OFDM-CVQKD scheme. Simulation results indicate that the OFDM-CVQKD scheme leads to improved secret key rates and higher tolerable excess noise in comparison to single-carrier CVQKD. Particularly, the secret key rate of the 64 subcarrier CVQKD has increased by roughly an order of magnitude of the single-channel CVQKD, whereas the tolerable excess noise can be controlled in a small range. The results reveal that the OFDM-CVQKD protocol provides a feasible framework for the experimental implementation of an unconditionally secure communication over standard telecommunication networks.     

基于纠缠态的量子通信网络的量子信道建立速率模型

针对基于纠缠态的量子通信网络, 提出了网络模型. 基于网络模型, 首先分析了基础链路的量子信道建立速率. 然后根据基础链路的量子信道建立速率, 针对不同的量子信道建立方法, 对中继长链路上的量子信道建立速率进行分析, 得到在逐点方法和分段方法下所对应的量子信道建立速率. 最后, 利用逾渗模型, 对大规模纠缠态量子通信网络中任意两点间的量子信道建立速率进行分析, 推导出n个节点量子通信网络中, 量子信道建立速率为Ω (1/n).     

Security Analysis of Sending or Not-Sending Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution with Weak Randomness

Sending-or-not sending twin-field quantum key distribution (SNS TF-QKD) has the advantage of tolerating large amounts of misalignment errors, and its key rate can exceed the linear bound of repeaterless quantum key distribution. However, the weak randomness in a practical QKD system may lower the secret key rate and limit its achievable communication distance, thus compromising its performance. In this paper, we analyze the effects of the weak randomness on the SNS TF-QKD. The numerical simulation shows that SNS TF-QKD can still have an excellent performance under the weak random condition: the secret key rate can exceed the PLOB boundary and achieve long transmission distances. Furthermore, our simulation results also show that SNS TF-QKD is more robust to the weak randomness loopholes than the BB84 protocol and the measurement-device-independent QKD (MDI-QKD). Our results emphasize that keeping the randomness of the states is significant to the protection of state preparation devices.     

Four-State Modulation in Middle of a Quantum Channel for Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Protocol with Noiseless Linear Amplifier

We characterize a modified continuous-variable quantum key distribution(CV-QKD)protocol with four states in the middle of a quantum channel.In this protocol,two noiseless linear amplifiers(NLAs) are inserted before each detector of the two parts,Alice and Bob,with the purpose of increasing the secret key rate and the maximum transmission distance.We present the performance anal.ysis of the new four-state CV-QKD protocol over a Gaussian lossy and noisy channel.The simulation results show that the NLAs with a reasonable gain g can effectively enhance the secret key rate as well as the maximum transmission distance,which is generally satisfied in practice.     

Measurement-device-independent quantum secret sharing with hyper-encoding

Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a typical multi-party quantum communication mode, in which the key sender splits a key into several parts and the participants can obtain the key by cooperation. Measurement-device-independent quantum secret sharing (MDI-QSS) is immune to all possible attacks from measurement devices and can greatly enhance QSS's security in practical applications. However, previous MDI-QSS's key generation rate is relatively low. Here, we adopt the polarization-spatial-mode hyper-encoding technology in the MDI-QSS, which can increase single photon's channel capacity. Meanwhile, we use the cross-Kerr nonlinearity to realize the complete hyper-entangled Greenberger—Horne—Zeilinger state analysis. Both above factors can increase MDI-QSS's key generation rate by about 10³. The proposed hyper-encoded MDI-QSS protocol may be useful for future multiparity quantum communication applications.     

Continuous-Variable Quantum Secret Sharing Based on Thermal Terahertz Sources in Inter-Satellite Wireless Links

We propose a continuous-variable quantum secret sharing (CVQSS) scheme based on thermal terahertz (THz) sources in inter-satellite wireless links (THz-CVQSS). In this scheme, firstly, each player locally preforms Gaussian modulation to prepare a thermal THz state, and then couples it into a circulating spatiotemporal mode using a highly asymmetric beam splitter. At the end, the dealer measures the quadrature components of the received spatiotemporal mode through performing the heterodyne detection to share secure keys with all the players of a group. This design enables that the key can be recovered only by the whole group players’ knowledge in cooperation and neither a single player nor any subset of the players in the group can recover the key correctly. We analyze both the security and the performance of THz-CVQSS in inter-satellite links. Results show that a long-distance inter-satellite THz-CVQSS scheme with multiple players is feasible. This work will provide an effective way for building an inter-satellite quantum communication network.