Paper ID: 6537
Formal Verification of Quantum Protocols
Nagarajan,R.
Gay,S.J.
Publication Type:
Other
Appeared in:
Quantum Physics Archive
Page Numbers :
Publisher: Quantum Physics Archive
Year: 2002
ISBN/ISSN:
URL: This publication is available at this URL.
Abstract:
We propose to analyse quantum protocols by applying formal verification
techniques developed in classical computing for the analysis of
communicating concurrent systems. One
area of successful application of these techniques is that of classical
security protocols, exemplified by Lowe's discovery and fix of a flaw in the
well-known Needham-Schroeder
authentication protocol. Secure quantum cryptographic protocols are also
notoriously difficult to design. Quantum cryptography is therefore an
interesting target for formal
verification, and provides our first example; we expect the approach to be
transferable to more general quantum information processing scenarios. The
example we use is the
quantum key distribution protocol proposed by Bennett and Brassard,
commonly referred to as BB84. We present a model of the protocol in the
process calculus CCS and the results
of some initial analyses using the Concurrency Workbench of the New
Century (CWB-NC).
Keywords: quantum key distribution, quantum protocol, formal verification
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