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Improving the security of quantum key distribution with multi-step advantage distillation

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Abstract

How to improve the key rate is an important question to analyze the security of quantum key distribution (QKD). Based on the one-step advantage distillation (OSAD), the key rate and transmission distance can be improved. In this work, we propose the multi-step advantage distillation (MSAD), which can further improve the key rate compared with OSAD. By applying MSAD, the single-photon QKD protocol and decoy-state QKD protocol are, respectively, analyzed. The analysis results demonstrate that MSAD can sharply improve the key rate under the condition of high error rate or long transmission distance.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the NSAF (Grant no. U2130205), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFA0309702) and the Natural Science Foundation of Henan (Grant No. 202300410532).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henan Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Cryptography, SSF IEU, Zhengzhou, 450001, Henan, China

    Chen-Peng Hao, Yang Wang, Chun Zhou, Yan-Yang Zhou, Wan-Su Bao & Hong-Wei Li

  2. Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou, 450001, Henan, China

    Yang Liu

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  1. Chen-Peng Hao
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  2. Yang Liu
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  3. Yang Wang
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  4. Chun Zhou
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  7. Hong-Wei Li
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Correspondence to Hong-Wei Li.

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Hao, CP., Liu, Y., Wang, Y. et al. Improving the security of quantum key distribution with multi-step advantage distillation. Quantum Inf Process 23, 148 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-024-04354-5

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