Three Party Quantum Authenticated Key Distribution Protocol Using Superposition States

This paper presents a Quantum authenticated key distribution protocol that can perform key distribution and also ensure that the participants of the communication are authentic, both implicitly and explicitly. This protocol provides new directions in Classical cryptography and Quantum cryptography.The Participants of the protocol trust the third party regarding the authentication part only. Thus the proposed protocol will be preferable for network systems which deal with highly sensitive information, such as military, hospitals, research facilities. Our protocol utilizes polarized photons in superposition states for authentication and key distribution which provides high security against many attacks.