Brad Lackey

We derive a device-independent quantum key distribution protocol based on synchronous correlations and their Bell inequalities. This protocol offers several advantages over other device-independent schemes including symmetry between the two users and no need for preshared randomness. We close a "synchronicity" loophole by showing an almost synchronous correlation inherits the self-testing property of the associated synchronous correlation. We also pose a new security assumption that closes the "locality" (or "causality") loophole: an unbounded adversary with even a small uncertainty about the users' choice of measurement bases cannot produce any almost synchronous correlation that approximately maximally violates a synchronous Bell inequality.

Nonlocal games with synchronous correlations are a natural generalization of functions between two finite sets. In this work we examine analogues of Bell's inequalities for such correlations, and derive a synchronous device-independent quantum key distribution protocol. This protocol has the advantage of symmetry between the two users and self-testing while generating shared secret key without requiring a preshared secret. We show that, unlike general correlations and the CHSH inequality, there can be no quantum Bell violation among synchronous correlations with two measurement settings. However we exhibit explicit analogues of Bell's inequalities for synchronous correlations with three measurement settings and two outputs, provide an analogue of Tsirl'son's bound in this setting, and prove existence and rigidity of quantum correlations that saturate this bound. We conclude by posing a security assumption that bypasses the locality, or causality, loophole and examine the protocol's robustness against measurement error and depolarization noise.