Quantum secure direct communication with quantum encryption based on pure entangled states

This paper presents a scheme for quantum secure direct communication with quantum encryption. The two authorized users use repeatedly a sequence of the pure entangled pairs （quantum key） shared for encrypting and decrypting the secret message carried by the travelling photons directly. For checking eavesdropping, the two parties perform the single-photon measurements on some decoy particles before each round. This scheme has the advantage that the pure entangled quantum signal source is feasible at present and any eavesdropper cannot steal the message.

A two-step quantum secure direct communication protocol with hyperentanglement

We propose a two-step quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） protocol with hyperentanglement in both the spatial-mode and the polarization degrees of freedom of photon pairs which can in principle be produced with a beta barium borate crystal. The secret message can be encoded on the photon pairs with unitary operations in these two degrees of freedom independently. This QSDC protocol has a higher capacity than the original two-step QSDC protocol as each photon pair can carry 4 bits of information. Compared with the QSDC protocol based on hyperdense coding, this QSDC protocol has the immunity to Trojan horse attack strategies with the process for determining the number of the photons in each quantum signal as it is a one-way quantum communication protocol.

Fault tolerant quantum secure direct communication with quantum encryption against collective noise

We present two novel quantum secure direct communication（QSDC） protocols over different collective-noise channels.Different from the previous QSDC schemes over collective-noise channels,which are all source-encrypting protocols,our two protocols are based on channel-encryption.In both schemes,two authorized users first share a sequence of EPR pairs as their reusable quantum key.Then they use their quantum key to encrypt and decrypt the secret message carried by the decoherence-free states over the collective-noise channel.In theory,the intrinsic efficiencies of both protocols are high since there is no need to consume any entangled states including both the quantum key and the information carriers except the ones used for eavesdropping checks.For checking eavesdropping,the two parties only need to perform two-particle measurements on the decoy states during each round.Finally,we make a security analysis of our two protocols and demonstrate that they are secure.

Economical quantum secure direct communication network with single photons

In this paper a scheme for quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） network is proposed with a sequence of polarized single photons. The single photons are prepared originally in the same state （0） by the servers on the network, which will reduce the difficulty for the legitimate users to check eavesdropping largely. The users code the information on the single photons with two unitary operations which do not change their measuring bases. Some decoy photons, which are produced by operating the sample photons with a Hadamard, are used for preventing a potentially dishonest server from eavesdropping the quantum lines freely. This scheme is an economical one as it is the easiest way for QSDC network communication securely.

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.

Quantum Secure Direct Communication by Using Three-Dimensional Hyperentanglement

We propose two schemes for realizing quantum secure direct communication (QSDC)by using a set ofordered two-photon three-dimensional hyperentangled states entangled in two degrees of freedom (DOFs)as quantuminformation channels.In the first scheme,the photons from Bob to Alice are transmitted only once.After insuring thesecurity of the quantum channels,Bob encodes the secret message on his photons.Then Alice performs single-photontwo-DOF Bell bases measurements on her photons.This scheme has better security than former QSDC protocols.In thesecond scheme,Bob transmits photons to Alice twice.After insuring the security of the quantum channels,Bob encodesthe secret message on his photons.Then Alice performs two-photon Bell bases measurements on each DOF.The schemehas more information capacity than former QSDC protocols.

Bidirectional Quantum Secure Direct Communication Network Protocol with Hyperentanglement

We propose a bidirectional quantum secure direct communication(QSDC) network protocol with the hyperentanglment in both the spatial-mode ad the polarization degrees of freedom of photon pairs which can in principle be produced with a beta barium borate crystal.The secret message can be encoded on the photon pairs with unitary operations in these two degrees of freedom independently.Compared with other QSDC network protocols,our QSDC network protocol has a higher capacity as each photon pair can carry 4 bits of information.Also,we discuss the security of our QSDC network protocol and its feasibility with current techniques.

Improvement on Quantum Secure Direct Communication with W State in Noisy Channel

An improvement （Y-protocol） [Commun. Theor. Phys. 49 （2008） 103] on the quantum secure direct communication with W state （C-protocol） [Chin. Phys. Lett. 23 （2006） 290] is proposed by Yuan et al. The quantum bit error rate induced by eavesdropper is 4.17% in C-protocol and 6.25% in Y-protocoL In this paper, another improvement on C-protocol is given. The quantum bit error rate of the eavesdropping will increase to 8.75%, which is 1.1 times larger than that in C-protocol and 0.4 times larger than that in Y-protocol.

Quantum Secure Direct Communication and Quantum Sealed-Bid Auction with EPR Pairs

I present a new protocol for three-party quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） with a set of ordered M Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen （EPR） pairs. In the scheme, by performing two unitary operations and Bell state measurements, it is shown that the three legitimate parties can exchange their respective secret message simultaneously. Then I modify it for an experimentally feasible and secure quantum sealed-bid auction （QSBD） protocol. Furthermore, I also analyze th^ecurity of the protocol, and the scheme is proven to be secure against the intercept-and-resend attack, the disturbancb attack and the entangled-and-measure attack.

Eavesdropping on Quantum Secure Direct Communication with W State in Noisy Channel

Security of the quantum secure direct communication protocol （i.e., the C-S QSDC protocol） recently proposed by Cao and Song [Chin. Phys. Lett. 23 （2006） 290] is analyzed in the case of considerable quantum channel noise. The eavesdropping scheme is presented, which reveals that the C-S QSDC protocol is not secure if the quantum bit error rate （QBER） caused by quantum channel noise is higher than 4.17%. Our eavesdropping scheme induces about 4.17% QBER for those check qubits. However, such QBER can be hidden in the counterpart induced by the noisy quantum channel if the eavesdropper Eve replaces the original noisy channel by an ideal one. Furthermore, if the QBER induced by quantum channel noise is lower than 4.17%, then in the eavesdropping scheme Eve still can eavesdrop part of the secret messages by safely attacking a fraction of the transmitted qubits. Finally, an improvement on the C-S QSDC protocol is put forward.

Analysis and Improvement of an Efficient Controlled Quantum Secure Direct Communication and Authentication Protocol

The controlled quantum secure direct communication(CQSDC)with authentication protocol based on four particle cluster states via quantum one-time pad and local unitary operations is cryptanalyzed.It is found that there are some serious security issues in this protocol.An eavesdropper(Eve)can eavesdrop on some information of the identity strings of the receiver and the controller without being detected by the selective-CNOT-operation(SCNO)attack.By the same attack,Eve can also steal some information of the secret message that the sender transmits.In addition,the receiver can take the same kind of attack to eavesdrop on some information of the secret message out of the control of the controller.This means that the requirements of CQSDC are not satisfied.At last,we improve the original CQSDC protocol to a secure one.

Robust Quantum Secure Direct Communication and Deterministic Secure Quantum Communication over Collective Dephasing Noisy Channel

We propose two schemes for quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) and deterministic securequantum communication (DSQC) over collective dephasing noisy channel.In our schemes,four special two-qubit statesare used as the quantum channel.Since these states are unchanged through the collective dephasing noisy channel,the effect of the channel noise can be perfectly overcome.Simultaneously,the security against some usual attacks canbe ensured by utilizing the various checking procedures.Furthermore,these two schemes are feasible with present-daytechnique.

Measurement-device-independent one-step quantum secure direct communication

The one-step quantum secure direct communication(QSDC)(Sci.Bull.67,367(2022))can effectively simplify QSDC’s operation and reduce message loss.For enhancing its security under practical experimental condition,we propose two measurement-device-independent(MDI)one-step QSDC protocols,which can resist all possible attacks from imperfect measurement devices.In both protocols,the communication parties prepare identical polarization-spatial-mode two-photon hyperentangled states and construct the hyperentanglement channel by hyperentanglement swapping.The first MDI one-step QSDC protocol adopts the nonlinear-optical complete hyperentanglement Bell state measurement(HBSM)to construct the hyperentanglement channel,while the second protocol adopts the linear-optical partial HBSM.Then,the parties encode the photons in the polarization degree of freedom and send them to the third party for the hyperentanglementassisted complete polarization Bell state measurement.Both protocols are unconditionally secure in theory.The simulation results show the MDI one-step QSDC protocol with complete HBSM attains the maximal communication distance of about354 km.Our MDI one-step QSDC protocols may have potential applications in the future quantum secure communication field.

Quantum Secure Direct Communication Using Entangled Photon Pairs and Local Measurement

We present a scheme for quantum secure direct communication,in which the message is encoded bylocal unitary operations,transmitted through entangled photons,and deduced from both the sender and receiver's localmeasurement results.In such a scheme,only one pair of entangled photons is consumed,and there is no need to transmitthe sender's qubit carrying the secret message in a public channel,in order to transmit two-bit classical information.

Faithful quantum secure direct communication protocol against collective noise

An improved quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） protocol is proposed in this paper. Blocks of entangled photon pairs are transmitted in two steps in which secret messages are transmitted directly. The single logical qubits and unitary operations under decoherence free subspaces are presented and the generalized Bell states are constructed which are immune to the collective noise. Two steps of qubit transmission are used in this protocol to guarantee the security of communication. The security of the protocol against various attacks are discussed.

Quantum Secure Direct Communication with Authentication Expansion Using Single Photons

In this paper we propose two quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocols with authentication.The authentication key expansion method is introduced to improve the life of the keys with security.In the first scheme,the third party, called Trent is introduced to authenticate the users that participate in the communication.He sends thepolarized photons in blocks to authenticate communication parties Alice and Bob using the authentication keys.In thecommunication process, polarized single photons are used to serve as the carriers, which transmit the secret messagesdirectly.The second QSDC process with authentication between two parties is also discussed.

Two-step quantum secure direct communication scheme with frequency coding

Quantum secure direct communication （QSDC） is an important branch of quantum cryptography. It can transmit secret information directly without establishing a key first, unlike quantum key distribution which requires this precursory event. Here we propose a QSDC scheme by applying the frequency coding technique to the two-step QSDC protocol, which enables the two-step QSDC protocol to work in a noisy environment. We have numerically simulated the performance of the protocol in a noisy channel, and the results show that the scheme is indeed robust against channel noise and loss. We also give an estimate of the channel noise upper bound.

Robust quantum secure direct communication and authentication protocol against decoherence noise based on six-qubit DF state

By using six-qubit decoherence-free （DF） states as quantum carriers and decoy states, a robust quantum secure direct communication and authentication （QSDCA） protocol against decoherence noise is proposed. Four six-qubit DF states are used in the process of secret transmission, however only the ｜0＇〉 state is prepared. The other three six-qubit DF states can be obtained by permuting the outputs of the setup for ｜0＇〉. By using the ｜0＇〉 state as the decoy state, the detection rate and the qubit error rate reach 81.3%, and they will not change with the noise level. The stability and security are much higher than those of the ping-pong protocol both in an ideal scenario and a decoherence noise scenario. Even if the eavesdropper measures several qubits, exploiting the coherent relationship between these qubits, she can gain one bit of secret information with probability 0.042.

Revisiting Controlled Quantum Secure Direct Communication Using a Non-symmetric Quantum Channel with Quantum Superdense Coding

Recently Xia and Song [Phys. Lett. A 364 （2007） 117] have proposed a controlled quantum secure direct communication （CQSDC） protocol. They claimed that in their protocol only with the help of the controller Charlie, the receiver Alice can successfully extract the secret message from the sender Bob. In this letter, first we will show that within their protocol the controller Charlie＇s role could have been excluded if it were not for their unreasonable design. We then revise the Xia-Song CQSDC protocol such that its original advantages are reta/ned and the CQSDC can be really realized.

Quantum secure direct communication protocol with blind polarization bases and particles＇ transmitting order

This paper presents a modified secure direct communication protocol by using the blind polarization bases and particles＇ random transmitting order. In our protocol, a sender （Alice） encodes secret messages by rotating a random polarization angle of particle and then the receiver （Bob） sends back these particles as a random sequence. This ensures the security of communication.