Postponement of dark-count effects in practical quantum key-distribution by two-way post-processing
Abstract
The influence of imperfections on achievable secret-key generation rates of quantum key distribution protocols is investigated. As examples of relevant imperfections, we consider tagging of Alice's qubits and dark counts at Bob's detectors, while we focus on a powerful eavesdropping strategy which takes full advantage of tagged signals. It is demonstrated that error correction and privacy amplification based on a combination of a two-way classical communication protocol and asymmetric Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes may significantly postpone the disastrous influence of dark counts. As a result, the distances are increased considerably over which a secret key can be distributed in optical fibres reliably. Results are presented for the four-state, the six-state, and the decoy-state protocols.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0604025,
title = {Postponement of dark-count effects in practical quantum key-distribution by two-way post-processing},
author = {Aeysha Khalique and Georgios M. Nikolopoulos and Gernot Alber},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0604025},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
Fully revised version (12 pages and 8 figures). Improved figures and discussion added. To appear in Eur. Phys. J. D