Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2021/191

PT-Symmetric Quantum State Discrimination for Attack on BB84 Quantum Key Distribution

Yaroslav Balytskyi and Manohar Raavi and Anatoliy Pinchuk and Sang-Yoon Chang

Abstract: Quantum Key Distribution or QKD provides symmetric key distribution using the quantum mechanics/channels with new security properties. The security of QKD relies on the difficulty of the quantum state discrimination problem. We discover that the recent developments in PT symmetry can be used to expedite the quantum state discrimination problem and therefore to attack the BB84 QKD scheme. We analyze the security of the BB84 scheme and show that the attack significantly increases the eavesdropping success rate over the previous Hermitian quantum state discrimination approach. We design and analyze the approaches to attack BB84 QKD protocol exploiting an extra degree of freedom provided by the PT-symmetric quantum mechanics.

Category / Keywords: public-key cryptography / Quantum Key Distribution, BB84, Quantum State Discrimination, PT symmetry.

Date: received 21 Feb 2021

Contact author: ybalytsk at uccs edu, mraavi at uccs edu, apinchuk at uccs edu, schang2 at uccs edu

Available format(s): PDF | BibTeX Citation

Version: 20210224:145048 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2021/191