Long-distance high-fidelity continuous-variable quantum key distribution with non-Gaussian operations: An exact closed form solution

Abstract

In this paper, we derive a closed form expression for the output state of a CV-QKD protocol in the presence of zero-photon catalysis (ZPC) and quantum scissor (QS). Then, based on this closed form solution, we use direct search algorithm to find the appropriate values of input state and QS parameters, which considerably enhance the range and the fidelity of a CV-QKD protocol. In the special case of pure loss channel, the largest range of the protocol is only 6.5% less than the fundamental limit of repeaterless quantum communication. In addition, examination of the protocol for different values of excess noise, reveals that their is a trade-off between range and fidelity, and high value of fidelity can be obtained at the cost of a slight reduction in protocol range.