Unconditional Security Of Quantum Key Distribution Over Arbitrarily Long Distances
Abstract
Quantum key distribution is widely thought to offer unconditional security in communication between two users. Unfortunately, a widely accepted proof of its security in the presence of source, device and channel noises has been missing. This long-standing problem is solved here by showing that, given fault-tolerant quantum computers, quantum key distribution over an arbitrarily long distance of a realistic noisy channel can be made unconditionally secure. The proof is reduced from a noisy quantum scheme to a noiseless quantum scheme and then from a noiseless quantum scheme to a noiseless classical scheme, which can then be tackled by classical probability theory.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9803006,
title = {Unconditional Security Of Quantum Key Distribution Over Arbitrarily Long Distances},
author = {Hoi-Kwong Lo and H. F. Chau},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9803006},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
This reprint version contains the same material as the one published in Science 283, 2050-2056 (1999). We also include the refereed supplementary Notes (as in http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/984035.shl) explicitly in the appendix for easy reference