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    Tighter asymptotic key rates for intensity-correlated decoy-state quantum key distribution via nonlinear programming

    Matej Pivoluska1,* and Mateus Araújo2

    • 1qtlabs GmbH - Quantum Technology Laboratories GmbH, Clemens-Holzmeister-Straße 6/6 Etage 6, 1100 Vienna, Austria
    • 2Departamento de Física Teórica, Atómica y Óptica, Laboratory for Disruptive Interdisciplinary Science (LaDIS), Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain

    • *Contact author: mp@qtl.at

    Phys. Rev. A 113, 062441 – Published 16 June, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m9sj-srsc

    Abstract

    Decoy-state QKD with phase-randomized weak coherent pulses is typically analyzed assuming independent, precisely prepared intensities. Real sources, however, can exhibit correlated intensity drift across rounds, potentially leaking intensity information and breaking the standard decoy-state reduction to linear programs. Cauchy-Schwarz (CS) constraints can restore security by coupling n-photon yields across intensities, but they introduce nonlinear square-root constraints that are commonly handled via outer linearization around channel-model-based reference points. We propose a reproducible alternative: first solve the full CS-constrained parameter-estimation problems using the interior-point nonlinear solver IPOPT, then use the resulting candidate solution as the linearization point for the outer optimization that certifies a valid lower bound on the asymptotic key rate. Simulations for both coarse-grained model-independent correlations and fine-grained truncated-Gaussian models show consistently tighter key-rate bounds than canonical reference points, and in some cases allow certifying optimality when both optimization stages coincide.

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