Robust quantum key distribution with imperfections in state preparation and characterization
Abstract
Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers an approach for secure communication over quantum channels, based on the principles of quantum mechanics. However, the inevitable imperfections in QKD systems can introduce critical vulnerabilities, posing significant challenges to the deployment of QKD in terms of both practical security and performance. In this work, we present a comprehensive security analysis of QKD in the practical scenarios involving imperfections in modulation spaces. Specifically, our analysis focuses on the imperfections related to encoding, intensity modulation, and their characterization. We provide a unified framework based on the operator dominance method to overcome these issues and achieve a tight estimation of the secret key rate (SKR). The simulation results show that the SKR in practical scenarios, with parameters characterized from commercial QKD systems, closely matches the SKR under ideal conditions. In the finite case, the maximum transmission distance can reach up to 250 km with total pulse number N=1012 and the SKR closely approaches the asymptotic limit up to 250 km with N=1014. This validates the robustness of our method against imperfections in state preparation and characterization. Furthermore, the feasibility and robustness of method in measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD have also been demonstrated. Our analysis not only promotes advancements in enhancing practical security and performance but also highlights the feasibility of deploying QKD for actual applications.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{lu2026robust,
title = {{Robust quantum key distribution with imperfections in state preparation and characterization}},
author = {Yi-Fei Lu and Yan-Yang Zhou and Yang Wang and Xin-Hang Li and Yu Zhou and Xiao-Lei Jiang and Jia-Ji Li and Chun Zhou and Hong-Wei Li and Yu-Yao Guo and Lin-Jie Zhou and Wan-Su Bao},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11438},
eprint = {2610.11438},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11438},
note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Robust quantum key distribution with imperfections in state preparation and characterization
AU - Yi-Fei Lu
AU - Yan-Yang Zhou
AU - Yang Wang
AU - Xin-Hang Li
AU - Yu Zhou
AU - Xiao-Lei Jiang
AU - Jia-Ji Li
AU - Chun Zhou
AU - Hong-Wei Li
AU - Yu-Yao Guo
AU - Lin-Jie Zhou
AU - Wan-Su Bao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11438
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11438
AB - Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers an approach for secure communication over quantum channels, based on the principles of quantum mechanics. However, the inevitable imperfections in QKD systems can introduce critical vulnerabilities, posing significant challenges to the deployment of QKD in terms of both practical security and performance. In this work, we present a comprehensive security analysis of QKD in the practical scenarios involving imperfections in modulation spaces. Specifically, our analysis focuses on the imperfections related to encoding, intensity modulation, and their characterization. We provide a unified framework based on the operator dominance method to overcome these issues and achieve a tight estimation of the secret key rate (SKR). The simulation results show that the SKR in practical scenarios, with parameters characterized from commercial QKD systems, closely matches the SKR under ideal conditions. In the finite case, the maximum transmission distance can reach up to 250 km with total pulse number N=10^12 and the SKR closely approaches the asymptotic limit up to 250 km with N=10^14. This validates the robustness of our method against imperfections in state preparation and characterization. Furthermore, the feasibility and robustness of method in measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD have also been demonstrated. Our analysis not only promotes advancements in enhancing practical security and performance but also highlights the feasibility of deploying QKD for actual applications.
ER -