Circular semi-quantum secret sharing using single particles

TL;DR

This paper introduces two novel semi-quantum secret sharing protocols using single particles in a circular transmission pattern, improving practicality by reducing quantum requirements for classical parties.

Contribution

The paper proposes new circular semi-quantum secret sharing protocols with single particles, one requiring classical parties to measure and the other not, enhancing feasibility and security.

Findings

Protocols are robust against common eavesdropping attacks.

They are feasible with current quantum technologies.

Use of single particles simplifies the quantum resource requirements.

Abstract

Semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) is an important branch of semi-quantum cryptography, and differs from quantum secret sharing (QSS) in that not all parties are required to possess quantum capabilities. All previous SQSS protocols have three common features: (1) they adopt product states or entangled states as initial quantum resource; (2) the particles prepared by quantum party are transmitted in a tree-type way; and (3) they require the classical parties to possess the measurement capability. In this paper, two circular SQSS protocols with single particles are suggested, where the first one requires the classical parties to possess the measurement capability while the second one does not have this requirement. Compared with the previous SQSS protocols, the proposed SQSS protocols have some distinct features: (1) they adopt single particles rather than product states or entangled states as initial quantum resource; (2) the particles prepared by quantum party are transmitted in a circular way; and (3) the second protocol releases the classical parties from the measurement capability. The proposed SQSS protocols are robust against some famous attacks from an eavesdropper, such as the measure-resend attack, the intercept-resend attack and the entangle-measure attack, and are feasible with present quantum technologies in reality.