Counterfactual quantum key distribution without polarization encoding
Shenoy H Akshata, R. Srikanth, Srinivas Talabattula · NOT FOUND REPOSITORY (Indian Institute of Science Bangalore) · 2013
In counterfactual quantum key distribution (QKD), two remote parties can share a secure secret random key even without transmission of a physical particle (a non-vacuum pulse) through the channel. A QKD scheme is proposed which is counterfactual in one of the bits, and in which the secret bits are not encoded in the polarization, but in the joint action of Alice and Bob. On the conceptual level, our scheme throws new light on the origin of security in counterfactual cryptography. On the practical side, non-polarization encoding makes it robust against certain trojan horse attacks. We study the the general photon-number preserving incoherent attack in detail.