Asymptotically Optimal prepare-measure Quantum Key Distribution Protocol

TL;DR

This paper investigates the theoretical limits of prepare-measure quantum key distribution protocols, establishing asymptotic bounds on error rates and demonstrating the potential for optimal security under specific attack models.

Contribution

It introduces an abstraction framework for analyzing asymptotically optimal prepare-measure QKD protocols and derives bounds on quantum bit error rates for different state encodings.

Findings

Optimal QBER bounds are about 27.28% for orthogonal qubits under certain attacks.

Non-orthogonal states in mutually unbiased bases achieve bounds of 22.73% and 28.69%.

The framework provides a basis for analyzing ultimate potential of QKD protocols.

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) could be the most significant application of quantum information theory. In nearly four decades, although substantial QKD protocols are developed, the BB84 protocol and its variants are still the most researched ones. It is well-known that the secure bound of qubit error rate (QBER) of BB84 protocol is about 11$\%$ while it can be increased to 12.6$\%$ by six-state protocol. It would not be surprising that employing more basis could increase the bound. However, what is the optimal protocol, and how to analyze it? In this paper, investigations of asymptotically optimal QKD protocols are proposed. Precisely, We present an abstraction of prepare-measure QKD protocols and investigate two special cases which are optimal among all protocols coding by the same states. Our analysis demonstrates that the asymptotically optimal QBER bounds coding by orthogonal qubits are about 27.28$\%$ for both memory C-NOT attacks and memoryless C-NOT attacks while the bounds coding by non-orthogonal states in two mutually unbiased bases are about 22.73$\%$ for memory and 28.69$\%$ for memoryless C-NOT attacks. The protocols are idealized but might be asymptotically realized while their optimality indicates the ultimate potential of QKD protocols. Although the analysis only contains a special kind of attack, it provides a framework for investigating such protocols.