Security of quantum key distribution with source and detector imperfections through phase-error estimation

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03549v1
• Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:58:12 GMT
• Title: Security of quantum key distribution with source and detector imperfections through phase-error estimation
• Authors: Guillermo Currás-Lorenzo, Margarida Pereira, Shlok Nahar, Devashish Tupkary,
• Abstract summary: Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises information-theoretic security based on quantum mechanics, but practical implementations face security vulnerabilities due to device imperfections.<n>Recent advances have separately addressed source and detector imperfections in phase-error-estimation based security proof frameworks.<n>We show that existing techniques for BB84-type protocols can be combined to construct a unified security proof that simultaneously accounts for both source and detector imperfections.
• Score: 0.3749861135832072
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises information-theoretic security based on quantum mechanics, but practical implementations face security vulnerabilities due to device imperfections. Recent advances have separately addressed source and detector imperfections in phase-error-estimation based security proof frameworks, but this is not enough to protect real-world QKD systems suffering from both types of imperfections simultaneously. In this work, we show that existing techniques for BB84-type protocols can be combined to construct a unified security proof that simultaneously accounts for both source and detector imperfections. Our approach thus represents a significant step towards closing the gap between theoretical security proofs and practical QKD implementations.

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