2024/02/12 by Ashutosh Marwah, Marwah, Ashutosh, Frédéric Dupuis +1 · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Chaos-based Image/Signal Encryption #Cryptographic Implementations and Security #FOS: Physical sciences #Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.12346
openalex publication_date 2024/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Device imperfections and memory effects can result in undesired correlations among the states generated by a realistic quantum source. These correlations are called source correlations. Proving the security of quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols in the presence of these correlations has been a persistent challenge. We present a simple and general method to reduce the security proof of the BB84 protocol with source correlations to one with an almost perfect source, for which security can be proven using previously known techniques. For this purpose, we introduce a simple source test, which randomly tests the output of the QKD source and provides a bound on the source correlations. We then use the recently proven entropic triangle inequality for the smooth min-entropy to carry out the reduction to the protocol with the almost perfect source.