Quantum key-distribution protocols allow two honest distant parties to establish a common truly random secret key in the presence of powerful adversaries, provided that the two users share beforehand a short secret key. This pre-shared secret key is used mainly for authentication purposes in the post-processing of classical data that have been obtained during the quantum communication stage, and it prevents a man-in-the-middle attack. The necessity of a pre-shared key is usually considered as the main drawback of quantum key-distribution protocols, which becomes even stronger for large networks involving more that two users. Here we discuss the conditions under which physical unclonable function can be integrated in currently available quantum key-distribution systems, in order to facilitate the generation and the distribution of the necessary pre-shared key, with the smallest possible cost in the security of the systems. Moreover, the integration of physical unclonable functions in quantum key-distribution networks allows for real-time authentication of the devices that are connected to the network.

翻译：量子密钥分发协议允许两个诚实的远程方在存在强大对手的情况下建立共同的真随机密钥，前提是双方事先共享一个短密钥。该预共享密钥主要用于量子通信阶段获取的经典数据后处理中的认证，以防止中间人攻击。预共享密钥的必要性通常被视为量子密钥分发协议的主要缺陷，对于包含两个以上用户的大型网络而言，这一限制更为突出。本文探讨了在现有量子密钥分发系统中集成物理不可克隆函数的条件，以便以尽可能小的系统安全代价促进必要预共享密钥的生成与分发。此外，在量子密钥分发网络中集成物理不可克隆函数能够实现网络连接设备的实时认证。