Quantum key distribution without authentication and information leakage
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.02846 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 6 Jan 2026] Title:Quantum key distribution without authentication and information leakage Authors:Zixuan Hu, Zhenyu Li View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum key distribution without authentication and information leakage, by Zixuan Hu and Zhenyu Li View PDF Abstract:Quantum key distribution (QKD) is the most widely studied quantum cryptographic model that exploits quantum effects to achieve information-theoretically secure key establishment. Conventional QKD contains public classical post-processing steps that require authentication to prevent impersonation and maintain security. However, a major limitation of QKD is it cannot perform authentication by itself, and thus requires a separate authentication mechanism. In addition, these public classical steps also have information leakage which subjects QKD to additional attack strategies and reduces the final key rate. In this work, we propose a new QKD variant that removes the need for a separate authentication mechanism, eliminates information leakage, and achieves a substantially higher key rate. By having two more protocol keys than conventional QKD and no public classical steps, our design achieves (almost) perfect information-theoretic security with the protocol keys reusable. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.02846 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.02846v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.02846 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Zixuan Hu [view email] [v1] Tue, 6 Jan 2026 09:25:45 UTC (765 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum key distribution without authentication and information leakage, by Zixuan Hu and Zhenyu LiView PDF view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)