# Questions tagged [key-distribution]

For questions about quantum key distribution (QKD). It is a secure communication method which implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics. (Wikipedia) In case it's also a question about quantum-cryptography, use the [cryptography] tag along with this.

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### Why is Measurement Device Independent (MDI) Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) truly MDI?

This is a repost from a question I posted in the physics stack exchange I am having a hard time understanding why MDI-QKD is truly measurement device independent. My current vision is that Charlie (...
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### Average secret key rate calculation

I am working on a problem related to average secret key rate calculation in satellite quantum key distribution (QKD). The problem is similar to a paper on arXiv:1712.09722 (P. No. 21). In a single ...
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### Quantum bit error rate

I am trying to understand the quantum key distribution and Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER). I have question: Why is the QBER given by the average of the diagonals of the crosstalk matrix? Why the need ...
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### What is meant with "reconciliation" in CV QKD?

I am working on a paper about Continuous Variable QKD. (https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08500v2) I read about direct and reverse reconciliation in this paper. I don't understand what exactly Reconciliation ...
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### The Methodology of Quantum Key Distributions Systems

While reading an answer in Cryptography.SE I saw this As for security, that's one possible way to perform Quantum Key Distribution, another real thing. However, most current QKD systems sold today do ...
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### How are Franson Interferometers used to prove security in Photonic QKD Experiments?

I am currently reading this paper about Quantum Key Distribution Protocols which use Franson Interferometers to secure against eavesdroppers. I am having trouble understanding how the interferometers ...
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### What is the intuition behind the following entanglement distillation protocol for continuous variable systems?

The protocol is: We start with a supply of identically prepared bipartite non-Gaussian states. The overall protocol then amounts to an iteration of the following basic steps. The states will be mixed ...
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### In the BICONF information reconciliation protocol for QKD: should I also run BINARY on the complementary bits subset?

The descriptions of the BICONF information reconciliation protocol in the literature appear to be inconsistent. All descriptions agree that in each iteration Alice and Bob should select a random ...
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### BB84 and B92 protocols: what is maximum and minimum bits that Alice and Bob might agree on?

Say Alice wants to transmit a 10-bit key. For the BB84 protocol, if we assume that Alice and Bob use the same basis to encode and decode 6 qubits (and different ones for the other 4), then what ...
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### What authentication protocol to use for BB84 and other QKD protocols?

Just like other classical and quantum key distribution protocols, BB84 is vulnerable to "man"-in-the-middle attacks, where Eve pretends to be Bob to Alice, and Eve pretends to be Alice to ...
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### In what ways can qubits be used for applications that do not require entanglement?

Many good questions on this site have explored how entanglement lies at the boundary between the quantum world and the classical. For example in computational speedups, or teleportation or superdense ...
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### Counting channel uses of the lossy bosonic channel or definition of channel uses

The PLOB-bound ("Fundamental Limits of Repeaterless Quantum Communications") gives an asymptotic upper bound on the secret-key rate per used lossy bosonic channel. However, I'm not sure how to count ...
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### What role do Hecke operators and ideal classes perform in “Quantum Money from Modular Forms?”

Cross-posted on MO The original ideas from the 70's/80's - that begat the [BB84] quantum key distribution - concerned quantum money that is unforgeable by virtue of the no-cloning theorem. A ...
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### What is the difference between quantum key distribution and quantum key exchange?

Both the words 'Quantum Key Distribution' and 'Quantum Key Exchange' are used in quantum cryptography in the problem of a secure key distribution for encryption/decryption between parties. There are ...
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### Implementing BB84 protocol with easily-obtained consumer hardware

Following on from my question on educational quantum computing toys, I was wondering whether it is possible to implement the BB84 key distribution protocol with easily-obtained consumer hardware - ...
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### Lattice based cryptography vs BB84

Am I correct in thinking that post-quantum cryptography such as lattice-based solutions run on classical computers are resistant to quantum attacks (as opposed to RMS), whereas quantum key ...