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@uccs edu,apinchuk@uccs edu,schang2@uccs edu
Available format(s): PDF | BibTeX Citation
Version: 20210224:145048 (All versions of this report)
Short URL: ia.cr/2021/191
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