Quantum Chernoff divergence in advantage distillation for quantum key distribution and device-independent quantum key distribution

Abstract

Device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) aims to mitigate adversarial exploitation of imperfections in quantum devices, by providing an approach for secret key distillation with modest security assumptions. Advantage distillation, a two-way communication procedure in error correction, has proven effective in raising noise tolerances in both device-dependent and device-independent QKD. Previously, device-independent security proofs against IID collective attacks were developed for an advantage distillation protocol known as the repetition-code protocol, based on security conditions involving the fidelity between some states in the protocol. However, there exists a gap between the sufficient and necessary security conditions, which hinders the calculation of tight noise-tolerance bounds based on the fidelity. We close this gap by presenting an alternative proof structure that replaces the fidelity with the quantum Chernoff divergence, a distinguishability measure that arises in symmetric hypothesis testing. Working in the IID collective attacks model, we derive matching sufficient and necessary conditions for the repetition-code protocol to be secure (up to a natural conjecture regarding the latter case) in terms of the quantum Chernoff divergence, hence indicating that this serves as the relevant quantity of interest for this protocol. Furthermore, using this security condition we obtain some improvements over previous results on the noise tolerance thresholds for DIQKD. Our results provide insight into a fundamental question in quantum information theory regarding the circumstances under which DIQKD is possible.