Two-party Quantum Key Agreement Protocols Research Articles

Authenticated quantum key agreement based on cluster states against collective noise

Quantum key agreement (QKA) is an important branch of quantum cryptography. Particles are easily affected by noise in quantum channel transmission, which provides a cover for eavesdropper Eve to attack maliciously and eventually leads to the protocol failure. In this paper, based on the properties of four-particle cluster states and their entanglement swapping, two authenticated two-party QKA protocols that can resist collective noise (collective-dephasing noise and collective-rotation noise) by using CZ, CNOT, and Pauli operations are designed, respectively. Besides, both parties can authenticate each other’s identities, which makes our protocol more secure. In addition, security analysis shows that these two protocols can resist various attacks from inside and outside, such as participant attacks and entangle-measure attacks.

Quantum Key Agreement Protocol Based on Quantum Search Algorithm

Quantum key agreement (QKA) and quantum search algorithm (QSA) are two important branches in quantum topic. The former asks all participants to negotiate the agreement key equally, and none of them can fully determine the agreement key. The latter is used to provide an acceleration in searching the marked item in an unsorted database. To date, several QKA schemes based on either BB84 or entangled states have been proposed, the QKA protocol based on QSA is rare, only exists one multi-party QKA (MQKA) protocol based on QSA. In this paper, on the basis of the properties of Grover’s QSA, the first two-party quantum key agreement protocol based on quantum search algorithm known as Grover’s algorithm is proposed. The participants transmit a two-particle quantum state sequence directly by inserting decoy photons randomly. The initial-prepared two-particle quantum states are easy to be prepared with current technology. Moreover, there is no swapping entanglement technology used in this protocol, it only needs unitary operations and single-particle measurements. Compared with the existing two-party QKA protocol, the proposed QKA protocol is more efficient. In addition, the security analysis shows that the proposed protocol is secure against both external attacks and internal ones. Finally, the proposed protocol is generated to MQKA protocol based on quantum search algorithm.

Two-party quantum key agreement against collective noisy channel

Quantum key agreement (QKA) permits participants to constitute a shared key on a quantum channel, and no participants are able to independently determine the shared key. In fact, particles are frequently affected by channel noise in the transmission process of quantum channel. Under the cover of noise, attackers can launch malicious attacks. In this thesis, on account of the usage of entanglement swapping of GHZ state and logical Bell states, we design two two-party QKA protocols which are immune to collective-dephasing noise and collective-rotation noise, respectively. In comparison with the existing QKA protocols of two parties, the proposed protocols have better quantum resource cost and the qubit efficiency in the global scope. Security analysis reveals that they can resist not only attacks by participants but also external attacks.

Quantum key agreement with Bell states and Cluster states under collective noise channels

The collective noises, which include the collective-dephasing noise and the collective-rotation noise, are the topical noises in quantum key agreement (QKA). How to eliminate the influence of the collective noises on quantum communication is a problem to be solved urgently. In this paper, based on logical quantum states, by using controlled-Z, controlled-NOT and unitary operations, two QKA protocols which can be immune to the collective-dephasing noise and the collective-rotation noise are proposed, respectively. The security analysis indicates that these two protocols can resist participant attack and outsider attacks which include Trojan-horse attacks, intercept-resend attack, measure-resend attack and entangle-measure attack. By comparing with the proposed two-party QKA protocols against the collective noises, it is clear that our protocols are more efficient.

Two-party quantum key agreement over a collective noisy channel

Quantum key agreement (QKA) allows participants to establish a shared key over a quantum channel, and no one of the participants can determine the shared key alone. Actually, particles are usually affected by noise during transmission in the quantum channel, and an aggressor can launch a baleful attack under the cover of noise. In this paper, based on logical Bell states, we propose two robust two-party QKA protocols immune to collective-dephasing noise and collective-rotation noise, respectively. The measurement correlation of quantum entanglement is utilized to establish a shared key. The proposed protocols are globally better in terms of quantum resource cost and qubit efficiency than existing two-party QKA protocols against collective noise. The security analysis demonstrates that they can resist common insider and outsider attacks.

Two-party quantum key agreement protocols under collective noise channel

Recently, quantum communication has become a very popular research field. The quantum key agreement (QKA) plays an important role in the field of quantum communication, based on its unconditional security in terms of theory. Among all kinds of QKA protocols, QKA protocols resisting collective noise are widely being studied. In this paper, we propose improved two-party QKA protocols resisting collective noise and present a feasible plan for information reconciliation. Our protocols’ qubit efficiency has achieved 26.67%, which is the best among all the two-party QKA protocols against collective noise, thus showing that our protocol can improve the transmission efficiency of quantum key agreement.

Two-party quantum key agreement with five-particle entangled states

A two-party quantum key agreement protocol is proposed with five-particle entangled states and the delayed measurement technique. According to the measurement correlation property of five-particle entangled states, two participants can deduce the measurement results of each other’s initial quantum states. As a result, two parties can extract the secret keys of each other by using the publicly announced value or by performing the delayed measurement, respectively. Thus, a shared key is fairly established. Since each particle is transmitted only once in quantum channel, the protocol is congenitally free from the Trojan horse attacks. It is shown that the protocol not only is secure against both participant and outsider attacks but also has no information leakage problem. Moreover, it has high qubit efficiency.

Two-party quantum key agreement protocol with four-particle entangled states

Based on four-particle entangled states and the delayed measurement technique, a two-party quantum key agreement protocol is proposed in this paper. In the protocol, two participants can deduce the measurement results of each other’s initial quantum states in terms of the measurement correlation property of four-particle entangled states. According to the corresponding initial quantum states deduced by themselves, two parties can extract the secret keys of each other by using the publicly announced value or by performing the delayed measurement, respectively. This guarantees the fair establishment of a shared key. Since each particle in quantum channel is transmitted only once, the protocol is congenitally free from the Trojan horse attacks. The security analysis shows that the protocol not only can resist against both participant and outsider attacks but also has no information leakage problem. Moreover, it has high qubit efficiency.

Two-party quantum key agreement against collective noise

In this paper, two two-party quantum key agreement protocols are proposed with logical $$\chi $$ź-states and logical Bell states. These two protocols can be immune to the collective-dephasing noise and the collective-rotation noise, respectively. They make full use of the measurement correlation property of multi-particle entangled states and the delayed measurement technique. This ensures that two participants can exchange the secret keys of each other and fairly establishes a shared key. There is no information leakage problem when establishing a shared key. The use of the delayed measurement technique and the decoy state technology makes the two protocols resist against both participant and outsider attacks. Furthermore, the two protocols are congenitally free from the Trojan horse attacks and have high qubit efficiency.

Efficient multi-party quantum key agreement by cluster states

A quantum key agreement (QKA) protocol by utilizing a four-photon cluster state is proposed in this paper. The proposed QKA protocol extends the two-party QKA protocol with four-qubit cluster state (Shen et al. in Quantum Inf Process 13:2313---2324, 2014) into a multi-party case. The block transmission technique and decoy photons method are used in the presented protocol. Meanwhile, the qubit efficiency of the presented protocol is also improved by using the dense coding method. Security analysis shows that the proposed protocol is secure against both participant and outside attacks.

Two-party quantum key agreement with four-qubit cluster states

Based on four-qubit cluster states, we present a two-party quantum key agreement (QKA) scheme using unitary operations. In this scheme, two participants perform the unitary operation on the different photon of the same cluster state, which guarantees that each party contributes equally to the agreement key. By measuring each cluster state and decoding, these two participants can generate a four-bit classical key without the exchange of classical bits between them. Compared with other existed two-party QKA protocols, our scheme is efficient. Security analysis shows that our protocol is secure against both participant and outsider attack.