HellasQCI
Published September 15, 2025 | Version v1
Journal Open

Quantum Diffie–Hellman key exchange

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas

Description

The Diffie–Hellman key exchange plays a crucial role in conventional cryptography, as it allows two legitimate users to establish a common,
usually ephemeral, secret key. Its security relies on the discrete-logarithm problem, which is considered to be a mathematical one-way
function, while the final key is formed by random independent actions of the two users. In the present work we investigate the extension of
Diffie–Hellman key exchange to the quantum setting, where the two legitimate users exchange independent random quantum states. The proposed
protocol relies on the bijective mapping of integers onto a set of symmetric coherent states, and we investigate the regime of parameters
for which the map behaves as a quantum one-way function. Its security is analyzed in the framework of minimum-error-discrimination and
photon-number-splitting attacks, while its performance and the challenges in a possible realization are also discussed.

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Additional details

Funding

European Commission
HellasQCI 101091504

Dates

Submitted
2024-10-02
Accepted
2025-01-02

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