English

Blind post-processing for the unbalanced BB84

Quantum Physics 2013-02-11 v2

Abstract

For the realization of quantum key distribution, it is important to investigate its security based on a mathematical model that captures properties of the actual devices used by the legitimate users. Recently, Ferenczi, et. al. (Phys. Rev. A 86 042327 (2012)) pointed out potential influences that the losses in phase modulators and/or the unbalance in the transmission rate of beam splitters may have on the security of the phase-encoded BB84 and analyzed the security of this scheme, which is called the unbalanced BB84. In this paper, we ask whether blindly applying the post-processing of the balanced BB84 to the unbalanced BB84 would lead to an insecure key or not, and we conclude that we can safely distill a secure key even with this post-processing. It follows from our proof that as long as the unbalances are basis-independent, our conclusion holds even if the unbalances are unknown and fluctuate in time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1302.1701,
  title  = {Blind post-processing for the unbalanced BB84},
  author = {Satoshi Sunohara and Kiyoshi Tamaki and Nobuyuki Imoto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.1701},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

6 pages, two-column format, 5 figures, layout corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-21T23:22:29.617Z