Multi-Photon Quantum Key Distribution Based on Double-Lock Encryption

摘要

This paper presents a multi-stage, multi-photon quantum key distributionprotocol based on the double-lock cryptography. It exploits the asymmetry inthe detection strategies between the legitimate users and the eavesdropper. Thesecurity analysis of the protocol is presented with coherent states under theintercept-resend attack, the photon number splitting attack, and theman-in-the-middle attack. It is found that the mean photon number can be muchlarger than one. This complements the recent interest in multi-photon quantumcommunication protocols that require a pre-shared key between the legitimateusers.