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Reference-free-independent quantum key distribution immune to detector side channel attacks

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Abstract

Usually, a shared reference frame is indispensable for practical quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. As a result, most QKD systems need active alignment of reference frame due to the unknown and slowly variances of reference frame introduced by environment. Quite interestingly, reference-free-independent (RFI) QKD can generate secret-key bits without alignment of reference frame. However, RFI QKD may be still vulnerable to detector side channel attacks. Here, we propose a new RFI QKD protocol, in which all detector side channels are removed. Furthermore, our protocol can still tolerate unknown and slow variance of reference frame without active alignment. And a numerical simulation shows that long security distance is probable in this protocol.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grants No. 2011CBA00200 and No. 2011CB921200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 61101137, No. 61201239 and No. 61205118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Zhen-Qiang Yin, Shuang Wang, Wei Chen, Hong-Wei Li, Guang-Can Guo & Zheng-Fu Han

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  1. Zhen-Qiang Yin
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  2. Shuang Wang
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  3. Wei Chen
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  4. Hong-Wei Li
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  5. Guang-Can Guo
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  6. Zheng-Fu Han
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Correspondence to Zhen-Qiang Yin.

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Yin, ZQ., Wang, S., Chen, W. et al. Reference-free-independent quantum key distribution immune to detector side channel attacks. Quantum Inf Process 13, 1237–1244 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-013-0726-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-013-0726-2

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