Multiparty controlled quantum secure direct communication using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state

Based on the idea of dense coding of three-photon entangled state and qubit transmission in blocks, we present a multiparty controlled quantum secret direct communication scheme by using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. In the present scheme, the sender transmits three bits of secret message to the receiver directly and the secret message can only be recovered by the receiver under the permission of all the controllers. All three-photon entangled states are used to transmit the secret message except those chosen for eavesdropping check and the present scheme has a high source capacity because Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state forms a large Hilbert space.     

Quantum Secret Sharing Protocol between Multiparty and Multiparty with Single Photons and Unitary Transformations

We propose a scheme of quantum secret sharing between Alice＇s group and Bob＇s group with single photons and unitary transformations. In the protocol, one member in Alice＇s group prepares a sequence of single photons in one of four different states, while other members directly encode their information on the sequence of single photons via unitary operations; after that, the last member sends the sequence of single photons to Bob＇s group. Then Bob＇s, except for the last one, do work similarly. Finally the last member in Bob＇s group measures the qubits. If the security of the quantum channel is guaranteed by some tests, then the qubit states sent by the last member of Alice＇s group can be used as key bits for secret sharing. It is shown that this scheme is safe.     

Multiparty Quantum Secret Sharing of Quantum States with Quantum Registers

A quantum secret sharing scheme is proposed by making use of quantum registers. In the proposed scheme, secret message state is encoded into multipartite entangled states. Several identical multi-particle entanglement states are generated and each particle of the entanglement state is filled in different quantum registers which act as shares of the secret message. Two modes, i.e. the detecting mode and the message mode, are employed so that the eavesdropping can be detected easily and the secret message may be recovered. The security analysis shows that the proposed scheme is secure against eavesdropping of eavesdropper and cheating of participants.     

Efficient Three-Party Quantum Secret Sharing with Single Photons

A scheme for three-party quantum secret sharing of a private key is presented with single photons. The agent Bob first prepares a sequence of single photons with two biased bases and then sends them to the boss Alice who checks the security of the transmission with measurements and produces some decoy photons by rearranging the orders of some sample photons. Alice encodes her bits with two unitary operations on the photons and then sends them to the other agent. The security of this scheme is equivalent to that in the modified Bennett Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution protocol. Moreover, each photon can carry one bit of the private key and the intrinsic efficiency for qubits and the total efficiency both approach the maximal value 100% when the number of the bits in the key is very large.     

Secure quantum dialogue based on single-photon

In this paper a quantum dialogue scheme is proposed by using N batches of single photons. The same secret message is encoded on each batch of single photons by the sender with two different unitary operations, and then the N batches of single photons are sent to the receiver. After eavesdropping check, the message is encoded on the one remaining batch by the receiver. It is shown that the intercept-and-resend attack and coupling auxiliary modes attack can be resisted more efficiently, because the photons are sent only once in our quantum dialogue scheme.     

Improving the multiparty quantum secret sharing over two collective-noise channels against insider attack

The security of the multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol presented by Zhang [Z.J. Zhang, Physica A, 361 (2006) 233] is analyzed. It is shown that this protocol is vulnerable to the insider attack since eavesdropping detection is performed only when all states arrive at the last agent. We propose an attack strategy and give an improved version of the original protocol. The improved protocol is robust and has the same traits with the original one.     

Multiparty quantum secret sharing based on Bell measurement

A multiparty quantum secret sharing scheme based on Bell measurement is proposed and analyzed. In this scheme, all agents are not required to prepare entangled states or perform any local unitary operation. The security of the protocol is also analyzed. It is shown that any eavesdropper will introduce errors invariably and be detected if he tries to steal information about Trent’s secret. Moreover, because no classical bit needs to be transmitted except those for detection, the total efficiency of the scheme approaches to 100%.     

Multiparty Quantum Secret Sharing of Classical Message using Cavity Quantum Electrodynamic System

An experimental feasible scheme of multiparty secret sharing of classical messages is proposed, based on a cavity quantum electrodynamic system. The secret messages are imposed on atomic Bell states initially in the sender＇s possession by local unitary operations. By swapping quantum entanglement of atomic Bell states, the secret messages are split into several parts and each part is distributed to a separate party. In this case, any subset of the entire party group can not read out the secret message but the entirety via mutual cooperations. In this scheme, to discriminate atomic Bell states, additional classical fields are employed besides the same highlydetuned single-mode cavities used to prepare atomic Bell states. This scheme is insensitive to the cavity decay and the thermal field, and usual joint Bell-state measurements are unnecessary.     

Multiparty quantum secret sharing based on the improved Boström-Felbinger protocol

Based on the famous quantum secure direct communication protocol (i.e., the Boström-Felbinger protocol) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 187902] and its improvements, we propose a scheme of multiparty quantum secret sharing of classical messages (QSSCM), in which no subset of all the classical message receivers is sufficient to extract the sender’s secret classical messages but all the parties cooperate together. Then we take advantage of this multiparty QSSCM scheme to establish a scheme of multiparty secret sharing of quantum information (SSQI), in which the unknown quantum state in the sender’s qubit can be reconstructed in one receiver’s qubit if and only if all the quantum information receivers collaborate together.     

Postponement of dark-count effects in practical quantum key-distribution by two-way post-processing

The influence of imperfections on achievable secret-key generation rates of quantum key distribution protocols is investigated. As examples of relevant imperfections, we consider tagging of Alice's qubits and dark counts at Bob's detectors, while we focus on a powerful eavesdropping strategy which takes full advantage of tagged signals. It is demonstrated that error correction and privacy amplification based on a combination of a two-way classical communication protocol and asymmetric Calderbank-Shor-Steane codes may significantly postpone the disastrous influence of dark counts. As a result, the distances are increased considerably over which a secret key can be distributed in optical fibres reliably. Results are presented for the four-state, the six-state, and the decoy-state protocols.     

Efficient high-capacity quantum secret sharing with two-photon entanglement

An efficient high-capacity quantum secret sharing scheme is proposed following some ideas in quantum dense coding with two-photon entanglement. The message sender, Alice prepares and measures the two-photon entangled states, and the two agents, Bob and Charlie code their information on their photons with four local unitary operations, which makes this scheme more convenient for the agents than others. This scheme has a high intrinsic efficiency for qubits and a high capacity.     

Quantum secret sharing between <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis>-party and <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-party with six states

A quantum secret sharing scheme between an m-party group and an n-party group is proposed using three conjugate bases. A sequence of single photons, each of which is prepared in one of the six states, is used directly to encode classical information in the quantum secret sharing process. In this scheme, each of all m members in group 1 chooses randomly his/her own secret key individually and independently, and directly encodes his/her respective secret information on the states of single photons via unitary operations, then the last one sends 1/n of the resulting qubits to each member of group 2. By measuring their respective qubits, all members in group 2 share the secret information shared by all members in group 1. It renders impossible a Trojan horse attack with a multi-photon signal, a fake-signal attack with EPR pairs, an attack with single photons, and an attack with invisible photons. We give the upper bounds on the average success probabilities for dishonest agent eavesdropping encryption using the fake-signal attack with any two-particle entangled states. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10671054), the Key Project of Science and Technology Research of Education Ministry of China (Grant No. 207011) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant Nos. 07M006 and F2009000311)     

An efficient quantum secure direct communication scheme with authentication

In this paper an efficient quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) scheme with authentication is presented, which is based on quantum entanglement and polarized single photons. The present protocol uses Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen (EPR) pairs and polarized single photons in batches. A particle of the EPR pairs is retained in the sender's station, and the other is transmitted forth and back between the sender and the receiver, similar to the `ping--pong' QSDC protocol. According to the shared information beforehand, these two kinds of quantum states are mixed and then transmitted via a quantum channel. The EPR pairs are used to transmit secret messages and the polarized single photons used for authentication and eavesdropping check. Consequently, because of the dual contributions of the polarized single photons, no classical information is needed. The intrinsic efficiency and total efficiency are both 1 in this scheme as almost all of the instances are useful and each EPR pair can be used to carry two bits of information.     

Controlled Deterministic Secure Quantum Communication Protocol Based on Three-Particle GHZ States in X-Basis

A controlled deterministic secure quantum communication(CDSQC) protocol is proposed based on threeparticle GHZ state in X-basis.Only X-basis and Z_1Z_2X_3-basis(composed of Z-basis and X-basis) measurement are required,which makes the scheme more convenient than others in practical applications.By distributing a random key between both sides of the communication and performing classical XOR operation,we realize a one-time-pad scheme,therefore our protocol achieves unconditional secure.Because only user with legitimate identity string can decrypt the secret,our protocol can resist man-in-the middle attack.The three-particle GHZ state in X-basis is used as decoy photons to detect eavesdropping.The detection rate reaches 75% per qubit.     

Multiparty quantum secret sharing of secure direct communication using single photons

We propose a protocol for multiparty quantum secret sharing of secure direct communication using single photons. In this protocol, random phase shift operations instead of some special discrete unitary operations used usually are employed to realize the sharing controls. The security of this protocol with respect to various kinds of attacks is discussed. Due to the complete randomicity of the phase shift characterizing the unitary operations, the security of secret sharing is therefore enhanced.     

Quantum Overloading Cryptography Using Single-Photon Nonlocality

Using the single-photon nonlocality, we propose a quantum novel overloading cryptography scheme, in which a single photon carries two bits information in one-way quantum channel. Two commutative modes of the single photon, the polarization mode and the spatial mode, are used to encode secret information. Strict time windows are set to detect the impersonation attack. The spatial mode which denotes the existence of photons is noncommutative with the phase of the photon, so that our scheme is secure against photon-number-splitting attack. Our protocol may be secure against individual attack.     

Deterministic secure quantum communication using four-particle genuine entangled state and entanglement swapping

A deterministic secure quantum communication scheme using entanglement swapping is proposed. The sender prepares four-particle genuine entangled states and sends two particles in each state to the receiver and remains the rest particles. If the quantum channel is secure, they begin to communicate. After their four-particle projective measurements, the receiver can obtain the secret information according to his measurement outcomes and classical information from the sender. Using entanglement swapping, there are no particles carrying secret information to be transmitted.     

Cryptanalysis and improvement of multiparty quantum secret sharing schemes

A scheme of multiparty quantum secret sharing of classical messages (QSSCM) [Z.J. Zhang et al., Opt. Commun. 269 (2007) 418] was proposed. Lin et al. [S. Lin et al., Opt. Commun. 281 (2008) 4553] showed the last agent can obtain half of the secret in Z.J. Zhang's et al. three-party QSSCM scheme and gave an improved version. We further show the first agent and the last agent can obtain all the secret without introducing any error in Zhang's et al. multiparty QSSCM scheme by a special attack with quantum teleportation. We also present an improved version.     

An improved quantum key distribution protocol based on second-order coherence

We improve the quantum key distribution protocol proposed by Pereira et al. [S.F. Pereira, Z.Y. Ou, H.J. Kimble, Phys. Rev. A 62 (2000) 042311], by employing the second-order coherence of optical fields, which can be easy experimentally measured with a Hanbury-Brown and Twiss intensity interferometer. It is shown that eavesdropping can be directly detected without sacrificing extra secret bits as test key. The efficiency of the improved system is enhanced greatly, since no secret bit needs to be discarded.     

Secret Key Distillation for Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution against Gaussian Classical Eve

The continuous variable quantum key distribution is expected to provide high secret key rate without single photon source and detector, while the lack of the effective key distillation method makes it unpractical under the high loss condition. Here we present a single-bit-reverse-reconciliation protocol against Oaussian classical Eve, which can distill the secret key through practical imperfect error correction with high efficiency. The simulation results show that this protocol can distill secret keys even when the transmission fibre is longer than 150 km, which may make the continuous variable scheme to outvie the single photon one.