Optimum ratio between two bases in Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol with second order analysis

TL;DR

This paper optimizes the ratio of basis choices in the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol using second order asymptotics, revealing significant differences from conventional analysis and providing practical key length estimates.

Contribution

It introduces a second order analysis for basis ratio optimization in BB84, deriving new formulas and highlighting the importance of higher-order effects.

Findings

Second order correction order is $n^{3/4}$, larger than the conventional $n^{1/2}$.

Optimal basis ratio balances basis disagreement and error estimation.

Numerical plots demonstrate the impact of second order corrections.

Abstract

Bennet-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol, we optimize the ratio of the choice of two bases, the bit basis and the phase basis by using the second order expansion for the length of the generation keys under the coherent attack. This optimization addresses the trade-off between the loss of transmitted bits due to the disagreement of their bases and the estimation error of the error rate in the phase basis. Then, we derive the optimum ratio and the optimum length of the generation keys with the second order asymptotics. Surprisingly, the second order has the order $n^{3/4}$, which is much larger than the second order $n^{1/2}$ in the conventional setting when $n$ is the number of quantum communication. This fact shows that our setting has much larger importance for the second order analysis than the conventional problem. To illustrate this importance, we numerically plot the effect of the second order correction.