Device-dependent and device-independent quantum key distribution without a shared reference frame

Abstract

Standard quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols typically assume that the distant parties share a common reference frame. In practice, however, establishing and maintaining a good alignment between distant observers is rarely a trivial issue, which may significantly restrain the implementation of long-distance quantum communication protocols. Here we propose simple QKD protocols that do not require the parties to share any reference frame, and study their security and feasibility in both the usual device-dependent case--in which the two parties use well characterized measurement devices--as well as in the device-independent case--in which the measurement devices can be untrusted, and the security relies on the violation of a Bell inequality. To illustrate the practical relevance of these ideas, we present a proof-of-principle demonstration of our protocols using polarization entangled photons distributed over a coiled 10-km-long optical fiber. We consider two situations, in which either the fiber spool freely drifts, or randomly chosen polarization transformations are applied. The correlations obtained from measurements allow, with high probability, to generate positive asymptotic secret key rates in both the device-dependent and device-independent scenarios (under the fair-sampling assumption for the latter case).

12 pages, 11 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quantum entanglement from random measurements
• The future of secure communications: device independence in quantum key distribution
• Reference frame independent Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering
• Device-independent certification of multipartite entanglement using measurements performed in randomly chosen triads
• Experimentally friendly approach towards nonlocal correlations in multisetting N -partite Bell scenarios
• Quantum Key Distribution with no Shared Reference Frame