arXiv subjects

Xiao-Long Hu

Publications and source records attributed to Xiao-Long Hu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The practical issues of side-channel-secure quantum key distribution

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to provide theoretically unconditional security for cryptographic key sharing. However, practical implementations remain vulnerable due to non-ideal devices and potential security loopholes at both the source and detection sides of QKD systems. The side-channel-secure (SCS) protocol addresses these challenges by encoding bits in vacuum and non-vacuum states and introducing a third-party measurement node, thereby repelling attacks targeting the detection side as well as external lab attacks on the source side. In this work, we consider the state-dependent correlated errors and Trojan-horse attack while preserving the SCS protocol's key advantage-specifically, requiring only upper bounds on intensities characterization without needing a full description of quantum states in infinite dimensions. Numerical results demonstrate that when the reflected light intensity from Trojan-horse attacks falls below $10^{-6}$, Eve can scarcely extract additional key information from the reflections. This work makes the SCS protocol more practical.

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arXiv2023

Side-channel-secure quantum key distribution

We present a result of side-channel-secure (SCS) quantum key distribution (QKD) under fully realistic conditions. Our result is not only measurement-device independent but also effective with imperfect (and unstable) source devices including imperfect vacuum and imperfect coherent-state source. Applying the virtual mapping idea, we present a general security proof under whatever out-side-lab attack, including whatever side-channel coherent attack. As a byproduct, we also present an improved method for SCS protocols which can raise the key rate by 1-2 orders of magnitude. Using these results, we obtain a non-asymptotic key rate which is instantly useful with full realistic conditions.

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arXiv2023

Sending-or-Not-Sending Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution with Redundant Space

We propose to adopt redundant space such as polarization mode in the sending-or-not-sending Twin-Field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) in the Fock space. With the help of redundant space such as photon polarization, we can post-select events according to the outcome of the observation to the additional quantity. This compresses the bit-flip error rate in the post-selected events of the SNS protocol. The calculation shows that the method using redundant space can greatly improve the performance in practical TF-QKD, especially when the total number of pulses is small.

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arXiv2023

State Transfer and Entanglement between Two- and Four-Level Atoms in A Cavity

Qudits with a large Hilbert space to host quantum information are widely utilized in various applications, such as quantum simulation and quantum computation, but the manipulation and scalability of qudits still face challenges. Here, we propose a scheme to directly and locally transfer quantum information from multiple atomic qubits to a single qudit and vice versa in an optical cavity. With the qubit-qudit interaction, our scheme can transfer quantum states efficiently and measurement-independently. In addition, this scheme can be extended to the non-local case, where a high-dimensional maximal entangled state with asymmetric particle numbers can be robustly generated for realizing long-distance quantum communication. Such an information interface for qubits and qudit may have enlightening significance for future research on quantum systems in hybrid dimensions.

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arXiv2022

Robust twin-field quantum key distribution through sending-or-not-sending

The sending-or-not-sending (SNS) protocol is one of the most major variants of the twin-field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol and has been realized in a 511 km field fiber, the farthest field experiment to date. In practice, however, all decoy-state methods have unavoidable source errors, and the source errors may be non-random, which compromises the security condition of the existing TF-QKD protocols. In this study, we present a general approach for efficiently calculating the SNS protocol's secure key rate with source errors, by establishing the equivalent protocols through virtual attenuation and tagged model. This makes the first result for TF-QKD in practice where source intensity cannot be controlled exactly. Our method can be combined with the two-way classical communication method such as active odd-parity pairing to further improve the key rate. The numerical results show that if the intensity error is within a few percent, the key rate and secure distance only decrease marginally. The key rate of the recent SNS experiment in the 511 km field fiber is still positive using our method presented here, even if there is $\pm 9.5\%$ intensity fluctuation. This shows that the SNS protocol is robust against source errors.

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arXiv2022

Side-channel-free quantum key distribution with practical devices

Based on the idea that there is no side channel in the vacuum state, the side-channel-free quantum key distribution (SCFQKD) protocol was proposed, which is immune to all attacks in the source side-channel space and all attacks in the detectors. In the original SCFQKD protocol, an important assumption is that Alice and Bob can produce the perfect vacuum pulses. But due to the finite extinction ratio of the intensity modulators, the perfect vacuum pulse is impossible in practice. In this paper, we solve this problem and make the quantum key distribution side-channel secure with real source device which does not emit perfect vacuum pulses. Our conclusion only depends on the upper bounds of the intensities of the sources. No other assumptions such as stable sources and stable side channels are needed. The numerical results show that, comparing with the results of SCFQKD protocol with perfect vacuum sources, the key rates and secure distance are only slightly decreased if the upper bound of the intensity of the imperfect vacuum source is less than $10^{-8}$ which can be achieved in experiment by two-stage intensity modulator. We also show that the two-way classical communication can be used to the data post-processing of SCFQKD protocol to improve the key rate. Specially, the active odd-parity pairing method can improve the key rates in all distances by about two times and the secure distance by about 40 km. Give that the side channel security based on imperfect vacuum, this work makes it possible to realize side channel secure QKD with real devices.

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arXiv2022

Universal approach to sending-or-not-sending twin field quantum key distribution

We present the method of decoy-state analysis after bit-flip error correction and using confidential observed numbers. Taking this tool we then construct a universal approach to sending-or-not-sending (SNS) protocol of twin-field quantum key distribution. In this improved protocol, the code bits are not limited to heralded events in time windows participated by pulses of intensity $μ_z$ and vacuum. All kinds of heralded events can be used for code bits to distill the final keys. The number of intensities (3 or 4) and the kinds of heralded events for code bits are automatically chosen by the key rate optimization itself. Numerical simulation shows that the key rate rises drastically in typical settings, up to 80\% improvement compared with the prior results. Also, larger intensity value can be used for decoy pulses. This makes the protocol more robust in practical experiments.

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arXiv2021

Experimental Side-Channel-Free Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum key distribution can provide unconditionally secure key exchange for remote users in theory. In practice, however, in most quantum key distribution systems, quantum hackers might steal the secure keys by listening to the side channels in the source, such as the photon frequency spectrum, emission time, propagation direction, spatial angular momentum, and so on. It is hard to prevent such kinds of attacks because side channels may exist in any of the encoding space whether the designers take care of or not. Here we report an experimental realization of a side-channel-free quantum key distribution protocol which is not only measurement-device-independent, but also immune to all side-channel attacks in the source. We achieve a secure key rate of 4.80e-7 per pulse through 50 km fiber spools.

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arXiv2021

Composable security for practical quantum key distribution with two way classical communication

We present methods to strictly calculate the finite-key effects in quantum key distribution (QKD) with error rejection through two-way classical communication (TWCC) for the sending-or-not-sending twin-field protocol. Unlike the normal QKD without TWCC, here the probability of tagging or untagging for each two-bit random group is not independent. We rigorously solve this problem by imagining a virtual set of bits where every bit is independent and identical. We show the relationship between the outcome starting from this imagined set containing independent and identical bits and the outcome starting with the real set of non-independent bits. With explicit formulas, we show that simply applying Chernoff bound in the calculation gives correct key rate, but the failure probability changes a little bit.

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arXiv2021

Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution over 511 km Optical Fiber Linking two Distant Metropolitans

The basic principle of quantum mechanics guarantee the unconditional security of quantum key distribution (QKD) at the cost of inability of amplification of quantum state. As a result, despite remarkable progress in worldwide metropolitan QKD networks over the past decades, long haul fiber QKD network without trustful relay has not been achieved yet. Here, through sending-or-not-sending (SNS) protocol, we complete a twin field QKD (TF-QKD) and distribute secure keys without any trusted repeater over a 511 km long haul fiber trunk linking two distant metropolitans. Our secure key rate is around 3 orders of magnitudes greater than what is expected if the previous QKD field test system over the same length were applied. The efficient quantum-state transmission and stable single-photon interference over such a long distance deployed fiber paves the way to large-scale fiber quantum networks.

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arXiv2021

Higher key rate of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution through joint data processing

We propose a method named as double-scanning method, to improve the key rate of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) drastically. In the method, two parameters are scanned simultaneously to tightly estimate the counts of single-photon pairs and the phase-flip error rate jointly. Numerical results show that the method in this work can improve the key rate by $35\%-280\%$ in a typical experimental set-up. Besides, we study the optimization of MDI-QKD protocol with all parameters including the source parameters and failure probability parameters, over symmetric channel or asymmetric channel. Compared with the optimized results with only the source parameters, the all-parameter-optimization method could improve the key rate by about $10\%$.

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arXiv2021

Field Test of Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution through Sending-or-Not-Sending over 428 km

Quantum key distribution endows people with information-theoretical security in communications. Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) has attracted considerable attention because of its outstanding key rates over long distances. Recently, several demonstrations of TF-QKD have been realized. Nevertheless, those experiments are implemented in the laboratory, remaining a critical question about whether the TF-QKD is feasible in real-world circumstances. Here, by adopting the sending-or-not-sending twin-field QKD (SNS-TF-QKD) with the method of actively odd parity pairing (AOPP), we demonstrate a field-test QKD over 428~km deployed commercial fiber and two users are physically separated by about 300~km in a straight line. To this end, we explicitly measure the relevant properties of the deployed fiber and develop a carefully designed system with high stability. The secure key rate we achieved breaks the absolute key rate limit of repeater-less QKD. The result provides a new distance record for the field test of both TF-QKD and all types of fiber-based QKD systems. Our work bridges the gap of QKD between laboratory demonstrations and practical applications, and paves the way for intercity QKD network with high-speed and measurement-device-independent security.

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arXiv2020

Sending-or-not-sending twin-filed quantum key distribution with discrete phase modulation

We study the sending-or-not-sending (SNS) protocol with discrete phase modulation of coherent states. We first make the security of the SNS protocol with discrete phase modulation. We then present analytic formulas for key rate calculation. We take numerical simulations for the key rate through discrete phase modulation of both the original SNS protocol and the SNS protocol with two way classical communications of active-odd-parity pairing (AOPP). Our numerical simulation results show that only with $6$ phase values, the key rates of the SNS protocol can exceed the linear bound, and with $12$ phase values, the key rates are very close to the results of the SNS protocol with continuously modulated phase-randomization.

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arXiv2020

Long-distance free-space measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD), based on two-photon interference, is immune to all attacks against the detection system and allows a QKD network with untrusted relays. Since the MDI-QKD protocol was proposed, fibre-based implementations have been rapidly developed towards longer distance, higher key rates, and network verification. However, owing to the effect of atmospheric turbulence, MDI-QKD over free-space channel remains experimentally challenging. Here, by developing the robust adaptive optics system, high precision time synchronization and frequency locking between independent photon sources located far apart, we realised the first free-space MDI-QKD over a 19.2-km urban atmospheric channel, which well exceeds the effective atmospheric thickness. Our experiment takes the first step towards satellite-based MDI-QKD. Moreover, the technology developed here opens the way to quantum experiments in free space involving long-distance interference of independent single photons.

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arXiv2020

Improved results for sending-or-not-sending twin-field quantun key distribution: breaking the absolute limit of repeaterless key rate

We present improved method of sending-or-not-sending twin-field quantum key distribution (SNS TF-QKD) based on its structure and the application of error rejection. %And we present iteration formula for bit-flip error rate of the survived bits after error rejection. Taking the finite key effect into consideration with only $10^{11}$ total pulses, we show that the method here exceeds the absolute limit of repeater-less key rate with whatever detection efficiency. We also make comparative study of different protocols numerically. It shows that the method here presents advantageous results at long distance regime and large noise regime, asymptotically or non-asymptotically. Applying the de Finetti theorem, we present the iteration formula of phase-flip error rate for survived bits from odd-parity events only. With this, the performance of SNS protocol can be further improved a lot.

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arXiv2020

Zigzag approach to higher key rate of sending-or-not-sending twin field quantum key distribution with finite key effects

Odd-parity error rejection (OPER) can drastically improve the asymptotic key rate of sending-or-not-sending twin-field (SNS-TF) quantum key distribution (QKD). However, in practice, the finite key effects have to be considered for security. Here, we propose a zigzag approach to verify the phase-flip error of the survived bits after OPER. Based on this, we can take all the finite key effect efficiently in calculating the non-asymptotic key rate. Numerical simulation shows that our method here produces the highest key rate over all distances among all existing methods, improving the key rate by more than $100\%$ to $3000\%$ in comparison with different prior art methods with typical experimental setting. Also, we show that with the method here, the SNS-TF QKD can by far break the the absolute bound of repeater-less key rate with whatever detection efficiency. We can even reach a non-asymptotic key rate more than $40$ times of the practical bound and $13$ times of the absolute bound with $10^{12}$ pulses. Besides, we apply the McDiarmid inequality to estimate the phase flip error rate, further improving the key rate by more than $20\%$.

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arXiv2019

Sending-or-Not-Sending with Independent Lasers: Secure Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution Over 509 km

Twin field quantum key distribution promises high key rates at long distance to beat the rate distance limit. Here, applying the sending or not sending TF QKD protocol, we experimentally demonstrate a secure key distribution breaking the absolute key rate limit of repeaterless QKD over 509 km, 408 km ultra-low loss optical fibre and 350 km standard optical fibre. Two independent lasers are used as the source with remote frequency locking technique over 500 km fiber distance; Practical optical fibers are used as the optical path with appropriate noise filtering; And finite key effects are considered in the key rate analysis. The secure key rates obtained at different distances are more than 5 times higher than the conditional limit of repeaterless QKD, a bound value assuming the same detection loss in the comparison. The achieved secure key rate is also higher than that a traditional QKD protocol running with a perfect repeaterless QKD device and even if an infinite number of sent pulses. Our result shows that the protocol and technologies applied in this experiment enable TF QKD to achieve high secure key rate at long distribution distance, and hence practically useful for field implementation of intercity QKD.

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arXiv2019

Experimental Twin-Field Quantum Key Distribution Through Sending-or-Not-Sending

Channel loss seems to be the most severe limitation on the practical application of long distance quantum key distribution. The idea of twin-field quantum key distribution can improve the key rate from the linear scale of channel loss in the traditional decoy-state method to the square root scale of the channel transmittance. However, the technical demanding is rather tough because it requests single photon level interference of two remote independent lasers. Here, we adopt the technology developed in the frequency and time transfer to lock two independent lasers' wavelengths and utilize additional phase reference light to estimate and compensate the fiber fluctuation. Further with a single photon detector with high detection rate, we demonstrate twin field quantum key distribution through the sending-or-not-sending protocol with realistic phase drift over 300 km optical fiber spools. We calculate the secure key rates with finite size effect. The secure key rate at 300 km ($1.96\times10^{-6}$) is higher than that of the repeaterless secret key capacity ($8.64\times10^{-7}$).

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