Implementation of Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Composable and One-Sided-Device-Independent Security Against Coherent Attacks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a practical continuous-variable quantum key distribution system that achieves composable security against coherent attacks and is one-sided device-independent, advancing secure quantum communication using standard telecom technology.

Contribution

It presents the first implementation of continuous-variable QKD with composable security and one-sided device independence against coherent attacks, compatible with existing optical communication infrastructure.

Findings

Achieved composable security against coherent attacks.

Implemented one-sided device-independent QKD.

Utilized standard telecom components for practical deployment.

Abstract

Secret communication over public channels is one of the central pillars of a modern information society. Using quantum key distribution this is achieved without relying on the hardness of mathematical problems which might be compromised by improved algorithms or by future quantum computers. State-of-the-art quantum key distribution requires composable security against coherent attacks for a finite number of distributed quantum states as well as robustness against implementation side-channels. Here, we present an implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution satisfying these requirements. Our implementation is based on the distribution of continuous-variable Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled light. It is one-sided device independent, which means the security of the generated key is independent of any memory-free attacks on the remote detector. Since continuous-variable encoding is compatible with conventional optical communication technology, our work is a crucial step towards practical implementations of quantum key distribution with state-of-the-art security based solely on telecom components.