Bound on Noise of Coherent Source for Secure Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

Abstract

Coherent source of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV QKD) system may become noisy in practical applications. The security of CV-QKD scheme with the noisy coherent source is investigated under realistic conditions of quantum channel and detector. In particular, two models are proposed to characterize the noisy coherent source through introducing a party (Fred) who induces the noise with an optical amplifier. When supposing the party Fred is untrusted, two lower security bounds to the noise of the coherent source are derived for reverse reconciliation and realistic homodyne and heterodyne detections. While supposing Fred is a neutral party, we derive two tight security bounds without knowing Fred’s exact state for ideal detections. Moreover, the simulation results show that the security of the reverse reconciliation CV-QKD protocols is very sensitive to the noise of coherent source for both the homodyne and heterodyne detections.