On Assisted Quantum Key Authentication Protocol

Abstract

This paper has developed a quantum authentication protocol along with the encryption encapsulation by entangled photon states that are forwarded from a trusted server to two users. It is shown to provide second tier security against impersonation and eavesdropping but with the ease of decryption limited only for two legitimate users. In this process, qutrit photon states are used to identity encryption and a one-way-function containing the phase information of the trits is used for basis selection. The protocol is analyzed to test different eavesdropping strategies and is found to provide unconditional security.