Resource state structure for controlled quantum key distribution

Abstract

Quantum entanglement plays a pivotal role in many communication protocols, like secret sharing and quantum cryptography. We consider a scenario where more than two parties are involved in a protocol and share a multipartite entangled state. In particular, we considered the protocol of Controlled Quantum Key Distribution (CoQKD), introduced in the Ref. Chin. Phys. Lett. 20, 183-185 (2003), where, two parties, Alice and Bob establish a key with the cooperation of other parties. Other parties control/supervise whether Alice and Bob can establish the key, its security and key rate. We discuss the case of three parties in detail and find suitable resource states. We discuss the controlling power of the third party, Charlie. We also examine the usefulness of the new resource states for generating conference key and for cooperative teleportation. We find that recently introduced Bell inequalities can be useful to establish the security of the conference key. We also generalize the scenario to more than three parties.