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Signals and Communication Technology

Pramode K. Verma · Mayssaa El Rifai

Kam Wai Clifford Chan

Multi-photon
Quantum Secure
Communication
Signals and Communication Technology
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/4748
Pramode K. Verma Mayssaa El Rifai
•

Kam Wai Clifford Chan

Multi-photon Quantum
Secure Communication

123
Pramode K. Verma Kam Wai Clifford Chan
School of Electrical School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering and Computer Engineering
University of Oklahoma University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK, USA Norman, OK, USA

Mayssaa El Rifai
School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK, USA

ISSN 1860-4862 ISSN 1860-4870 (electronic)

Signals and Communication Technology
ISBN 978-981-10-8617-5 ISBN 978-981-10-8618-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8618-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018949888

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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Preface

Information is the currency of the modern age. Security of information will

continue to be of paramount importance in the foreseeable future. A practical way
of transferring unconditionally secure information does not exist today. Quantum
key distribution (QKD) technologies come close, but they too are unconditionally
secure only to the extent key (in other words, random information) transfers are
involved. In order, then, for unconditionally secure information to be transferred,
one must resort to using the securely transferred keys as a one-time pad, and X-or
them with the payload information.
This book explores alternative ways that can accomplish secure information
transfer without the need for a quantum channel as in the case of QKD-based
techniques. We do not claim that the techniques presented here lead to theoretical or
unconditional security, although we believe it can come close to those based on
QKD techniques. Except for an interesting technology presented in Chaps. 11 and
12, the techniques presented in this book do not need conventional encryption.
Most of the work presented in this book has been practically realized, albeit in a
laboratory environment. Our objective has been to offer a proof of concept rather
than build a rugged instrument that can withstand the rigors of a commercial
environment.
A word about contemporary encryption techniques: First, no encryption tech-
nology other than those based on a one-time pad has been shown to be provably
secure. From a practical standpoint, however, techniques based on a one-way
mathematical function do meet the security requirements of most applications if the
computing power available to the intruder is within the currently anticipated limits
of computing power. The mathematical function itself behind an encryption algo-
rithm is considered acceptable if the computing effort associated with a proposed
cryptanalytic attack is not less than the computing effort necessary for a brute force
attack.
The encryption techniques presented in this book (except in Chap. 4 and the last
two chapters) have the following things in common: Encryption is carried out in a
streaming manner as data is generated. No prior exchange of keys is involved. To
avoid man-in-the-middle attack, the communicating parties are, however, expected

v
vi Preface

to have a common initialization vector which can be updated as frequently as

desired. In the multistage protocol, Alice and Bob choose their respective keys
themselves, separately and independently of each other, with no need to inter-
communicate their keys. We can reduce the transmission penalty by reducing the
multistage transmission to single-stage transmission. In this case, however, keys
must be exchanged, but they can be updated frequently as a nonlinear function
of the actual data exchanged and the initialization vector. Of course, the single-stage
mechanics can revert to the multistage configuration obviating the need for key
exchange, or for generating a fresh seed key, as often as desired.
It is the authors’ hope that the work presented here will lead to the exploration of
additional techniques that can deepen our understanding and help develop a wider
arsenal of secure information transfer instruments that can be applied to a variety of
emerging scenarios in a practically realizable manner. A brief synopsis of the
chapters in this book is as follows.
Chapter 1 of the book presents a general introduction to cryptography including
its historical evolution over the past couple of thousand years. The chapter con-
cludes by addressing the shortcomings of cryptography as practiced today and
points to the need for introducing additional techniques that can withstand the
conflicting demands of simplicity of realization and increasing cryptographic
strength. In particular, it points to the need for the use of quantum mechanics based
techniques in cryptography.
Chapter 2 gives the mathematical background of quantum mechanics used in the
rest of the book. The abstract concept of a qubit as the quantum extension of a
classical bit is first introduced. Characteristics of photons are then covered to lay the
foundation for multi-photon communication. An exposition of the polarization
degree of freedom of photons in the multi-photon regime is made.
Chapter 3 of the book offers a discussion of quantum key distribution techniques
as practiced today along with their strengths and limitations. Protocols like BB84
and the related techniques, such as E91, B92, SARG04, and decoy states, are
covered in this chapter.
Chapter 4 discusses a class of quantum communication protocols called KCQ
that exploits the inherent quantum noise in measurement to protect information in
transit. The KCQ protocol generally permits multiple photons in a signal pulse.
A particular realization of KCQ, the widely reported Y-00 protocol, is discussed. It
offers a convenient introduction to the rest of the book because the additional
techniques presented in the book are also based on multi-photon technology.
Chapter 5 introduces the multi-photon three-stage protocol for realizing security
without the need for conventional cryptography as necessary accompaniment for
implementing QKD-based encryption techniques. The chapter describes the real-
ization of the three-stage multi-photon protocol in free-space optics.
Chapter 6 generalizes the three-stage protocol into a family of multistage pro-
tocols. It compares the multistage protocol with single-photon protocols and illus-
trates how a multi-photon protocol can be made secure against man-in-the-middle
attack. Since a multi-photon protocol is, in general, subject to photon-siphoning
attacks, the protocol introduces another variable to thwart such attacks.
Preface vii

Chapter 7 presents a security analysis of the multistage protocol assessing its

vulnerability to known security attacks. It shows that the multistage protocol can
offer quantum level security under certain conditions.
Chapter 8 analyzes intercept-and-resend and photon number splitting attacks in
the multistage multi-photon protocol. It lays down the conditions under which the
multistage multi-photon protocol can approach the strength of a quantum-secure
protocol.
Chapter 9 extends the application space of the multistage multi-photon protocol
to wireless communication. It examines the viability of using the multistage
multi-photon protocol for secure key distribution in the IEEE 802.11i protocol.
Chapter 10 presents a unique way of using the polarization channel of a fiber
optic cable to detect the presence of an intruder. This layer-1 based intrusion
detection system prohibits an adversary from capturing any information flowing on
the cable.
In Chap. 11, we use the polarization channel to transfer keys to encrypt any
channel on the fiber optic cable using conventional symmetric cryptography. The
novelty lies in using the polarization channel as a convenient way to securely
transfer symmetric encryption keys among the communicating parties.
Chapter 12 extends conventional cryptographic techniques to offer an
ultra-secure router-to-router key exchange system based on the multistage protocol.
The routers can be connected through a range of diverse transmission media.

Norman, USA Pramode K. Verma

May 2018 Mayssaa El Rifai
Kam Wai Clifford Chan
Acknowledgements

This book is the outcome of collaborative effort among many individuals associated
with the Quantum Optics Laboratory of the University of Oklahoma—Tulsa, and
from those associated with other universities and institutions.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Subhash Kak from Oklahoma State
University for his seminal work on the three-stage protocol that inspired them to
explore this territory. Dr. Kak and Dr. Yuhua Chen from the University of Houston
have participated in several discussions over the past 10 years during our investi-
gation. Dr. Gregory MacDonald’s doctoral work and his continuing collaboration
on the use of the polarization channel as a communication medium has helped us
refine our approach to make its best use for cryptography. Dr. Robert Huck has
offered deep insight into all experimental work carried out in the laboratory.
Without Dr. Huck’s guidance and support, much of our work would have remained
unexplored. The support of Dr. James J. Sluss, Jr., throughout these investigations
and especially in equipping the Quantum Optics Lab is gratefully acknowledged.
Several students received their Master’s and doctoral degrees based on their
research in the Quantum Optics Laboratory. Much of this book is based on their
published works—they form the backbone of this book. The authors are grateful to
Shweta Bhosale, Bhagyashri Darunkar, Nilambari Gawand, Rasha El Hajj,
Sayonnha Mandal, Rupesh Nomula, Nishaal Parmar, Nikhil Punekar, Mitun
Talukder, Farnaz Zamani, and Lu Zhang, who led many investigations related to
their research. The outcome of their research reflects throughout this book.
Pramode Verma would like to thank his wife Gita for her support during the
preparation of the book, and especially for singlehandedly assuming the burden of
our physical relocation while this book was work-in-progress. Mayssaa El Rifai
would like to thank her beloved family: her dad Jihad, mom Maha, sisters Rihab
and Riham, husband Samer, and daughter Rita for their encouragement and support
during the writing phase of this book. Kam Wai Chan would like to thank his wife
Chung Ki for her support during the preparation of this book as well as throughout
the years.

ix
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Short History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Classical Cryptography Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.3 Quantum Cryptography as a Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2 Quantum Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 Quantum World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.1 Polarization Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3.2 Quantum Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4 Post-quantum Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.1 Lattice-Based Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.2 Multivariate Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.4.3 Hash-Based Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.4.4 Code-Based Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5 Scope and Contributions of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.6 Organization of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2 Mathematical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1 Basic Concepts in Quantum Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1.1 Quantum State and Qubit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1.2 Multiple Qubits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1.3 Qubit Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.1.4 Mixed States and Density Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.1.5 No-Cloning Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.1.6 Quantum Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.2 Quantum Theory of Photons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2.1 Quantization of Electromagnetic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2.2 Photon States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

xi
xii Contents

2.2.3 Representing Qubit Using Polarization States

of a Photon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 51
2.2.4 Multi-photon Polarization States and Stokes
Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 52
2.2.5 Polarization Rotation and Mueller Matrices
for Multi-photon States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 55
2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 57
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 57
3 Quantum Key Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.2 Single Photon-Based QKD Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.2.1 The BB84 Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2.2 The B92 Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.3 Use of Weak Coherent States in QKD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3.1 Photon-Number-Splitting Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.3.2 The SARG04 Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.3.3 The Decoy-State Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.3.4 The COW Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.4 Entangled Photon-Based QKD Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.4.1 Quantum Entanglement and Bell’s Inequality . . . . . . . . 76
3.4.2 The E91 Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.5 Challenges of Current Approaches of QKD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Secure Communication Based on Quantum Noise . . . . . . . . . .... 85
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 85
4.2 Keyed Communication in Quantum Noise (KCQ) . . . . . . . .... 86
4.2.1 KCQ Coherent-State Key Generation with Binary
Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.2.2 Current Experimental Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.2.3 Comparison Between QKD and KCQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.3 Security Analysis of KCQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.3.1 Information-Theoretic (IT) Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.3.2 Complexity-Theoretic (CT) Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5 The Three-Stage Protocol: Its Operation and Implementation .... 97
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 97
5.2 Principle of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 97
5.3 Implementation of the Three-Stage Protocol Over
Free Space Optics (FSO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 99
Contents xiii

5.3.1 Rotation Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

5.3.2 Half Wave Plate Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6 The Multi-stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.2 The Multi-stage Protocol Polarization Hopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.2.1 Comparison with Single-Photon Protocols . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.3 Man-in-the-Middle Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.4 Key/Message Expansion Multi-stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4.1 Multi-stage Protocol Using an Initialization
Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4.2 Operation of the Four-Variables Three-Stage
Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4.3 Implementation of the Four-Variables Three-Stage
Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7 Preliminary Security Analysis of the Multi-stage Protocol . . . . . . . 119
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2 Background Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.2.1 Helstrom Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.3 Photon Number Splitting Attack (PNS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7.3.1 Helstrom Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.3.2 Fock States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.4 Trojan Horse Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.5 Hardware Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8 Security Analysis of the Multi-stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8.2 Intercept-Resend (IR) and Photon Number Splitting
(PNS) Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
8.3 Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
8.4 Amplification Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
8.5 Security and Key Rate Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
9 Application of the Multi-stage Protocol in IEEE 802.11i . . . . . . . . . 143
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
9.2 IEEE 802.11i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
xiv Contents

9.2.1 The Four-Way Handshake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

9.3 Integration of QKD for Key Distribution in IEEE 802.11i . . . . . 146
9.3.1 Disadvantages of the Approach Described to Integrate
QKD into IEEE 802.11i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.4 Hybrid Three-Stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.4.1 Quantum Handshake Using the Three-Stage
Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
9.4.2 Quantum Handshake Using the Four-Variable
Three-Stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
9.4.3 Quantum Handshake Using the Single-Stage
Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
9.4.4 Hardware Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
9.5 Software Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.5.1 Multi-agent Approach in BB84 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.5.2 Multi-agent Approach in Multi-photon Tolerant
Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
9.5.3 Analysis of the Quantum Handshake Using
Three-Stage Protocol and Its Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
10 Intrusion Detection on Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
10.1 Intrusion Detection and Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
10.2 Tapping of Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.3 Polarization Properties of Light [1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.4 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
10.5 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
10.6 Real-Life Applications of the Intrusion Detection System . . . . . 169
10.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
11 Secure Key Transfer Over the Polarization Channel . . . . . . . . . . . 173
11.1 Symmetric Key Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
11.2 The Advanced Encryption System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
11.3 A Review of the Polarization Properties of Light . . . . . . . . . . . 176
11.4 Polarization Transfer Function and Fiber Characterization . . . . . 178
11.5 The System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
11.5.1 Method of Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
11.6 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
11.7 Data Rate and Calibration Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
11.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Contents xv

12 An Ultra-Secure Router-to-Router Key Exchange System . . . . . . . 193

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
12.2 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
12.2.1 Discrete Logarithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
12.2.2 Contemporary Key Distribution Protocols . . . . . . . . . . 196
12.3 The Proposed Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
12.3.1 Multi-stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
12.3.2 Man in the Middle Attack on Multi-stage
Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
12.4 Proposed Protocol Using an Initialization Vector and Its
Cryptographic Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
12.4.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
12.4.2 Mode of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
12.4.3 A Two-Stage Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
12.4.4 Braiding Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
12.4.5 Man in the Middle Attack on a Multi-stage Protocol
Using an Initialization Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
12.4.6 Characteristics of the Proposed Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . 207
12.5 Alternatives to the Proposed Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
12.5.1 Alternative I—RSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
12.5.2 Alternative II—AES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
12.5.3 Alternative III—ECC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
12.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Encoded and decoded Zimmerman telegram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Fig. 1.2 Example of one-time pad operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Fig. 1.3 General depiction of DES encryption algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Fig. 1.4 AES. a Encryption and b decryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Fig. 1.5 The RSA algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Fig. 1.6 El Gamal public key scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Fig. 1.7 ECC Diffie-Hellman key exchange same comments
as before . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Fig. 1.8 a Linear, b circular and c elliptical polarizations of light . . . . . 16
Fig. 1.9 A two-dimensional lattice and two possible bases. . . . . . . . . . . 21
Fig. 2.1 Bloch sphere representation of a qubit jwi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Fig. 2.2 Poincaré sphere representation of the expectation value of the
normalized Stokes vector with respect to the coherent state.
The coordinates (h, u) corresponds to the polarization of the
coherent state defined by Eq. (2.93) whereas the coordinates
(v, w) corresponds to Eq. (2.106) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 54
Fig. 3.1 Schematic of the COW protocol. Arrows over the pulses
denote coherence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 74
Fig. 3.2 Illustration of the vectors corresponding to the four quantum
measurements in the violation of the CHSH inequality.
The sets of vectors f~ q;~ r g and f~ s;~tg can be viewed as two sets
of orthogonal vectors that are rotated by an angle of p/4. It is
remarked that the vector ~ s is equivalent to ~ s, only that
Eqs. (3.54) and (3.61) need to be changed to
ðhQSi  hRT i þ hRSi þ hQT iÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 79
Fig. 4.1 a Schematic of the aη cryptosystem. ENC denotes the PRNG
with a mapper that drives the modulator (Mod) for the
qumodes. b Phase-space representation of qumodes
(M = 15). A large M is usually used so that quantum noise in

xvii
xviii List of Figures

Eve’s measurement conceals th the actual qumode used. In

the figure, the number of qumodes under the masking effect is
5. The two states for Bob to distinguish (the two ends of the
qumode basis in red) are well separated even with
measurement noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88
Fig. 5.1 Three-stage protocol operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 98
Fig. 5.2 Implementation of the three-stage protocol [5] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Fig. 6.1 Representation of the choices of encoding angles and the
angles used over the channel for 2M = 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Fig. 6.2 Man-in-the-middle attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Fig. 6.3 Channel characterization angle iteration outcome . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Fig. 6.4 Different locations on the optical fiber, where Eve tries to
carry out man-in-the-middle attacks and impersonate Alice
and Bob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Fig. 6.5 Operation of the three-stage protocol using four variables . . . . 114
Fig. 6.6 Implementation of the four variables three-stage protocol . . . . . 115
Fig. 7.1 Photon number splitting attack on the three-stage protocol . . . . 123
Fig. 7.2 Interplay between the number of photons and PC . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Fig. 7.3 Diagram of a Trojan horse attack on the three-stage
protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Fig. 8.1 IR versus PNS attack on a three-stage protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Fig. 8.2 Plots of the a IR and b PNS error probabilities of Eve as
functions of the mean number of photons N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Fig. 8.3 Schematic diagram of the three-stage protocol under the
man-in-the-middle (MIM) attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Fig. 8.4 Bob’s error probabilities in the estimation of X for the normal
three-stage operation (blue lines) and under the MIM attack
(red lines) at different values of the channel transmittance t.
The green lines denote the differences between the two error
probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Fig. 8.5 a Diagram of an amplification attack on the three-stage
protocol b diagram of Eve’s amplifying medium . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Fig. 9.1 Four-way handshake message exchange between an access
point AP and a station STA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Fig. 9.2 Pairwise key hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Fig. 9.3 Quantum handshake procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Fig. 9.4 The three-stage protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Fig. 9.5 Quantum handshake using the three-stage protocol . . . . . . . . . . 151
Fig. 9.6 Quantum handshake using the four variable three-stage
protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Fig. 9.7 The quantum handshake of the IEEE 802.11i using the
single-stage protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Fig. 9.8 Implementation setup of the IEEE 802.11i integrated
with QKD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
List of Figures xix

Fig. 9.9 Multi-agent approach to BB84 in IEEE 802.11i.

Source [8] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Fig. 9.10 Operation of a multi-agent approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Fig. 9.11 Agents used for the three-stage (and its variants) . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Fig. 10.1 a Material theft, b Information theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Fig. 10.2 Cross-section of an optical fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Fig. 10.3 Schematic diagram of polarization-based intrusion detection
system consists of: the measured data, and optical fiber with
FC connectors on both ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Fig. 10.4 Sample text file of collected measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Fig. 10.5 Results of single-mode fiber with occasional alterations . . . . . . 167
Fig. 10.6 Results of perturbed single-mode fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Fig. 10.7 Results of perturbed multimode fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Fig. 10.8 Real-life application of intrusion detection system: a switches
and IP camera layout; b intrusion detection system; c optical
fiber link layout; and d real-time video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Fig. 10.9 Schematic diagram of real-life application of intrusion
detection system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Fig. 11.1 Secure AES key transfer using a wavelength channel . . . . . . . . 175
Fig. 11.2 Secure AES key transfer using the polarization channel . . . . . . 176
Fig. 11.3 Poincaré sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Fig. 11.4 Mueller matrix for SMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Fig. 11.5 256-POLSK [zone center values S_(3)] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Fig. 11.6 Schematic of the implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Fig. 11.7 Implementation system hardware and software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Fig. 11.8 Changes in SoPs a over unperturbed fiber b over
perturbed fiber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Fig. 11.9 Lab set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Fig. 11.10 Unperturbed fiber front panel LabVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Fig. 11.11 Transmitted and received SoPs for unperturbed fiber . . . . . . . . 189
Fig. 11.12 Perturbed fiber front panel LabVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Fig. 11.13 SoPs plotted for perturbed fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Fig. 11.14 Calibration time and data rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Fig. 12.1 Diffie-Hellman key exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Fig. 12.2 Man in the middle attack in case of a Diffie-Hellman key
exchange system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Fig. 12.3 Key exchange scheme using discrete logarithms . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Fig. 12.4 Man in the middle attack on the proposed system . . . . . . . . . . 200
Fig. 12.5 The operation of the multi-stage protocol using four
variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Fig. 12.6 Key exchange scheme using the two-stage protocol (iteration
zero cycle n) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
xx List of Figures

Fig. 12.7 The operation of the multi-stage protocol using three

variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Fig. 12.8 The operation of the braided multi-stage protocol . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Fig. 12.9 Man in the middle attack on the multi-stage using an
initialization vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Chapter 1
Introduction

This chapter offers a brief history of cryptography and reviews the classical and
contemporary methods of securing information.

1.1 Cryptography

The multiple human needs and desires that demand privacy among two or more people in
the midst of social life must inevitably lead to cryptography wherever men thrive and
wherever they write.
—David Kahn

Cryptography is the art of secret writing. It encompasses the field of applications

that provide authentication, privacy, integrity and confidentiality to users.
Cryptography has performed an important role in the history of any society that
depends on information [1]. An important subfield of cryptography is that of secure
communication. This field aims at protecting any message during the process of its
transfer between communicating parties such that no unauthorized party can
meaningfully access the content of a message in transit. This book is about pro-
tecting the confidentiality and integrity of information in transit.
Contemporary cryptography is the process of transforming digital information
into a sequence of bits which is incomprehensible to anyone other than the intended
user. The process of transformation is referred to as encryption; the reverse process
is referred to as decryption. The information or message to be encrypted is referred
to as plaintext; after encryption, this information is called a ciphertext. Over an
extended period of time covering several centuries, many methods to encode (or
encrypt) messages have emerged, always to be broken at a later point in time.
Cryptology, which covers both encryption and decryption, can still be consid-
ered a young science. Even though cryptography has been used for about two
thousand years as a way to protect messages, its systematic study as a science did

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 1

P. K. Verma et al., Multi-photon Quantum Secure Communication,
Signals and Communication Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8618-2_1
2 1 Introduction

not begin until around a hundred years ago. In the next section, a brief history of
cryptography is offered starting from the first known evidence of its usage in Egypt
up until now.
The concept of securing messages through cryptography has a long history that
may be divided to four main phases:
– From ancient civilization till the beginning of the twentieth century with simple
algorithms designed and implemented by hand.
– Around the second world war with the extensive use of electro-mechanical
machines.
– In the last fifty years with the widespread use of the computers supported by a
mathematical framework.
– The new era of cryptography based on quantum mechanics instead of the use
mathematical techniques.

1.1.1 Short History

Ancient Cryptography
The art of cryptography began around 1900 B.C when an Egyptian scribe used a
non-hieroglyph for inscription. The earliest known text containing components of
cryptography originated in the Egyptian town Menet Khufu on the tomb of
Khnumhotep II. The scribe used uncommon hieroglyphic symbols here and there
instead of the more commonly used ones. The inscription was not meant to be
secret, the transformation was made to dignify it. Only those privileged with an
extensive education were able to read and write hieroglyphs. This is the oldest
known text to incorporate transformations in the original text though these trans-
formations did not protect the privacy of the text but merely glorified it [2].
In 1500 B.C ancient Assyrian merchants used intaglio, a flat stone with a collage
of images and some writing to identify themselves in trading transactions. This
mechanism is nowadays known as “digital signature”. A particular engraving
belonged to a certain trader who was the sole owner of the intaglio that can produce
the signature.
During 500–600 B.C., Hebrew transcribers writing down the book of Jeremiah
made use of a reversed-alphabet substitution cipher known as ATBASH. The name
derives from the first, last, second, and second to last Hebrew letters
(Aleph-Tav-Beth-Shin). It works by substituting the first letter of an alphabet for the
last letter, the second letter for the second to last, and so on, effectively reversing the
alphabet. The ATBASH cipher of the Latin alphabet is given in the Table 1.1 [3]:

Table 1.1 ATBASH cipher Plaintext ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

of the Latin alphabet
Ciphertext ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
1.1 Cryptography 3

In 487 B.C., the Greeks used a device named “skytale” to hide messages.
A skytale is a tool used in order to perform a transposition cipher constituting of a
cylinder with a thin strip of leather wrapped around it and written on. Once the
encryption process is done the leather is taken off and worn as a belt. At the
destination, the receiver is assumed to have a matching cylinder. The receiver
deciphers the message by wrapping the strip of leather around the cylinder [4].
Around 100–44 B.C., Julius Caesar used a simple substitution method to
transform communication with his generals. It was based on three position shift,
that is, mathematically, [5]:

Y ¼ ðX þ 3Þmod 26 ð1:1Þ

In Eq. (1.1), X is the alphabet number X (e.g., X = 1 for A, X = 2 for B, etc.,) and
Y is the transformed alphabet. The letter A in the plaintext will thus map into D, and
Z into C. This cipher is considered less strong than ATBASH, but it was introduced
in a day when few people knew how to read in the first place, so it was strong
enough to hide the content of the message.
Around 725–790 A.D, Abu Abu `Abd al-Rahman al-Khalil ibn Ahmad ibn `Amr
ibn Tammam al Farahidi al-Zadi al Yahmadi authored a currently lost book on
cryptology. His book was inspired by his solution of a cryptogram (i.e., an
encrypted message) in Greek for the Byzantine emperor. His solution used what is
currently known as the known plaintext attack; this same cryptanalytic method was
used in World War II against Enigma messages [6].
In 1379, Gabriel di Lavinde compiled a combination of substitution alphabet and
small code at the request of Clement VII. Di Lavinde’s collection of Vatican ciphers
were, at heart, monoalphabetic ciphers, many also included “nulls”, which are
special cipher shapes that code for nothing at all, and were added into cipher texts
specifically to try to misdirect cryptanalysts [7].
In addition, many of the ciphers in Gabrieli de Lavinde’s cipher register also
contained a nomenclator; this was typically a list of a dozen-or-so shapes enci-
phering entire words, like a cross between a cipher and a code. However, it is not
clear whether nomenclators were added in the 14th century for security, speed or
brevity [8].
In 1466, Leon Battusta Alberti invented the first polyalphabetic cipher. The
Alberti cipher was described in Alerti’s treatise De Cifris. It uses a device called
Formula (known to us as the Captain Midnight Decoder Badge) made up of two
concentric disks, attached by a common pin, which can rotate one with respect to
the other. The larger disc is called Stabilis and the smaller one is called Mobilis.
This class of cipher was not broken until the 1800s [9].
In 1553, Giovan Batista Bellaso La Cifra De Sig, in his publication, described a
text autokey cipher that was considered unbreakable for four centuries. He created a
new technique of using the Tabula Recta in combination with a passphrase distinct
from the encoded message. At the time, it proved to be nearly uncrackable, so he
published the method to share it with the world [10].
4 1 Introduction

However, Bellaso’s book was not that popular until just a little over thirty years
later when Blaise de Vigenère presented Bellaso’s method to the court of King
Henry the 3rd of France as the Autokey Cipher. Due to its immunity to cryptan-
alytic attacks, the code became an overnight success, and was named after
Vigenère. In some circles, the Tabula Recta is still known as the Vigenère Square.
In 1563 Giovanni Battista Porta published a text on ciphers where he introduced
the digraphic cipher. In addition, Giovanno classified ciphers into three main parts:
transposition, substitution, and symbol substitution. He also suggested to mislead a
cryptanalyst by using synonyms as well as intentionally misspell the plaintext
message [7].
In 1586, the French diplomat Blaise de Vigenère published his description of a
polyalphabetic cipher similar to the Caesar cipher. In the Vigenère cipher, each
letter of the alphabet is shifted along some number of places [11]. This consists of
several Caesar ciphers in sequence with different shift values where a table of
alphabets was used to encipher. Another more modern substitution cipher was
introduced in 1926 by Lester S. Hill and called Hill Cipher. The Hill Cipher was the
first polygraphic substitution cipher that was practical to operate on more than one
symbols at once [5]. This has a major advantage in making the frequency attack
much more difficult by masking the frequency distribution of the letters.
In 1623, Sir Francis Bacon introduced the Baconian cipher [12]. The Baconian
cipher uses techniques of steganography and substitution. It is a bilateral cipher
known today as the 5-bit binary encoding. To encode a message, each letter of the
plaintext is replaced by a group of five of the letters ‘A’ or ‘B’. This replacement is a
binary encoding and is done according to the alphabet of the Baconian cipher,
shown in Table 1.2.
In 1790, Thomas Jefferson devised an ingenious and secure method to encode
and decode messages using the wheel cipher [13]. Jefferson’s wheel cipher con-
sisted of twenty-six cylindrical wooden pieces, each threaded onto an iron spindle.
The letters of the alphabet were inscribed on the edge of each wheel in a random
order. Turning these wheels, words could be scrambled and unscrambled. The
wheel cipher was later reinvented and used By the US Army in World War II under
the name of Strip Cipher.

Table 1.2 Baconian cipher 5-bit encoding

a AAAAA g AABBA m ABBAA s BAABA y BBAAA
b AAAAB h AABBB n ABBAB t BAABB z BBAAB
c AAABA i ABAAA o ABBBA u BABAA
d AAABB j ABAAB p ABBBB v BABAB
e AABAA k ABABA q BAAAA w BABBA
f AABAB l ABABB r BAAAB x BABBB
1.1 Cryptography 5

War Driven Cryptography—WWI

British cryptographers came across a German encoded telegram for the first time in
1917. The telegram is referred to as Zimmerman Telegram [14]. British cryptan-
alysts were able to decipher this telegram and change the history of cryptanalysis by
doing so. It is believed that with the use of the deciphered message they were able
to convince the United States to join the first word war.
The Zimmerman telegram, shown in Fig. 1.1, was a diplomatic communication
between the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmerman, and the
German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. The telegram offered
Mexico the chance to reclaim its territory of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona in
case they join the Germans in WWI. Up until that point during WWI, the United
States of America had remained neutral despite requests from the British and their
allies. After receiving the deciphered telegram on February 24, 1917, the United
Stated joined WWI on April 6, 1917.
As the First World War went by, the United States had the continuous problem
of lack of security. The Germans could intercept almost every phone call, leaving
the allies moves discreetly known to the Germans. Captain Lewis, the army
commander, devised a plan to overcome this problem by the use of the American
Indian languages. He used eight Choctaw men he found earlier in the battalion to
talk to each other over the radio and phone lines. Within 24 h of the use of Choctaw
language as encryption, the advantage fell in favor of the United States.

Fig. 1.1 Encoded and decoded Zimmerman telegram

6 1 Introduction

War Driven Cryptography—WWII

Arhtur Scherbius invented the Enigma around the end of WWI. The Enigma is an
electro-mechanical machine that was used for encryption and decryption of secret
messages. The Enigma allowed up to 10114 possible configurations. It had several
rotors and gears and was virtually unbreakable using brute force methods.
Around 1933–1945, the Enigma was taken and improved by the Nazi Germany.
It became their cryptographic workhorse even though it was not considered a
commercial success. Later, the Enigma was broken by the polish mathematician
Marian Rejewski.
In the meantime, when the allied forces were focused on breaking the enigma
machine, the Japanese developed an encryption machine called Purple in 1937. The
chief designer of Purple was Kazuo Tanabe and his engineers were Masaji
Yamamoto and Eikichi Suzuki. They used stepping switches in contrast to the
Enigma machine which used rotors. William Firedman and his team built a replica
of Purple based on encrypted messages they recovered. But since no one ever saw a
purple machine and no one had an idea how it worked, using it proved to be very
difficult. Later on, the team was able to figure out the encryption method used by
Purple, and decrypt the encrypted message using a different machine they built.
This advancement allowed successful interception of Japanese diplomatic secrets
by the United States in WWII.
Modern Encryption
The era of modern cryptography can be divided into two main parts. Part one is the
era of symmetric key encryption, where a sender and a receiver use a secretly
pre-shared key to establish secure message exchanges. In case of symmetric key
encryption, both the sender and receiver use the same key to encrypt and decrypt
data. Part two is the era of asymmetric key encryption, where a publicly known key
along with a private key are used to establish secure communication transfer.
Asymmetric key cryptography can also be used as a way to perform digital sig-
natures as will be explained later in this section.
In 1900, the one-time pad encryption algorithm was invented. The one-time pad
encryption is unbreakable. It is derived from a previous cipher called the Vernam
cipher, named after its inventor Gilbert Vernam. The unbreakable aspect of the
one-time pad comes from two main assumptions: the key used is completely ran-
dom and the key can only be used once. The security of the one-time pad relies on
keeping the key totally secret. The one-time pad uses the XOR modular addition
operation. At the sending end, the message is first combined with the key elements.
Then, at the receiving end, decryption is done using the same key as shown in
Fig. 1.2.
It is important to note that any non-randomness that might occur in the key used
in a one-time pad cipher decreases the security and thus the cipher will no longer be
considered unbreakable.
The area of modern cryptography really begins with Claude Shannon, with the
publication of his paper in 1949. The paper titled “Communication Theory of
1.1 Cryptography 7

Fig. 1.2 Example of

one-time pad operation

Secrecy Systems” was later followed by the book Mathematical Theory of

Communication, with Warren Weaver [15]. Claude Shannon established a solid
theoretical basis for cryptography and cryptanalysis. Confusion and Diffusion are
the two important principles governing his theory [5]. The goal of confusion is to
complicate the relation between the key and the cipher text as much as possible,
whereas diffusion spreads the influence of one single plaintext bit over multiple
cipher text bits [16].
In March 1975, the first draft of DES (Digital Encryption Standard), which is a
form of symmetric cryptography, was published in the U.S. Federal Register. DES
was proposed by IBM to develop secure electronic communication facilities for
businesses. In DES, data are encrypted in 64-bit blocks (shown in Fig. 1.3) using a
56-bit key. The DES algorithm transforms a 64-bit input binary sequence into a
64-bit output sequence. In order to decrypt the message, the same key is used with
the same steps in reverse order.
In 2001, the AES (Advanced Encryption System) was published by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It is a symmetric block cipher
intended to replace DES. All AES operations are performed on 8-bit bytes. The
arithmetic operations of addition, multiplication, and division are performed on the
finite field GF (28). The cipher takes a plaintext block size of 128 bits. The key used
can be 128, 192, or 256 bits long. The algorithm used is referred to as AES-128,
AES-192, or AES-256. AES encryption and decryption are shown in Fig. 1.4.
In the mid-1970s, a major advance in cryptography occurred with the invention
of public-key cryptography. In 1976, the paper titled New Directions in
Cryptography by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman introduced a radically new
scheme for distributing cryptographic keys, and became known as Diffie-Hellman
key exchange [17]. In addition, the authors also put forward the idea of authenti-
cation by means of a one-way function.
Based on the work of Diffie and Hellman, a new public key encryption algorithm
was introduced. This algorithm is known as RSA (shown in Fig. 1.5). It was named
8 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.3 General depiction of DES encryption algorithm

after the three inventors, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adelman. The
security of RSA is based on the mathematical difficulty of factoring large numbers
into their prime components, a major computational task way beyond the capacity
of the then existing computers and algorithms [5, 18].
The RSA is a practical public key cipher for both confidentiality and digital
signatures, based on the difficulty of factoring large numbers. The steps of operation
of RSA are shown in Fig. 1.5.
In 1984, T. El Gamal introduced a public key scheme based on the
Diffie-Hellman technique. This cryptosystem can also be used for digital signatures.
The operation of the El Gamal algorithm is depicted in Fig. 1.6.
In 1990, Xuejia Lai and James Massey Published “A Proposal for a New Block
Encryption Standard”, where they proposed the International Data Encryption
Algorithm (IDEA) as a replacement for DES [19]. IDEA functions on 64-bit blocks
using a 128-bit key, and comprises of a sequences of eight similar transformations
and an output transformation. The processes for encryption and decryption are
similar. IDEA bases the majority of its security on interleaving operations from
1.1 Cryptography 9

Fig. 1.4 AES. a Encryption and b decryption

dissimilar groups—modular addition and multiplication, and bitwise eXclusive OR

(XOR)—which are algebraically “incompatible” [19].
In 1991, Phil Zimmermann released his first version of Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP) [20]. PGP is an encryption protocol that offers cryptographic privacy and
authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encryption
and decryption of texts, files, directories, etc., as well as to increase the security of
e-mail communication. PGP encryption uses a sequential combination of hashing,
data compression, symmetric-key cryptography, and finally public-key cryptogra-
phy; each step using one of several supported algorithms. Each public key is bound
to a user name and/or an e-mail address. The first version of this protocol was
released as a response to the threat by the FBI to demand access to communications
of the public. PGP was released as a freeware and became a worldwide standard.
10 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.5 The RSA algorithm

Elliptic curve cryptography algorithms entered wide use in 2004–2005. The use
of elliptic curves in cryptography was suggested independently by Neal Koblitz and
Victor S. Miller in 1985 [21]. An elliptic curve is a plane curve over a finite field
(rather than the real numbers) which consists of the points satisfying Eq. (1.2),

y2 þ axy þ by ¼ x3 þ cx2 þ dx þ e ð1:2Þ

Several discrete logarithm-based protocols have been adapted to elliptic curves

[22] such as the elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) key agreement scheme
based on the Diffie–Hellman scheme, the Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption
Scheme (ECIES), also known as Elliptic Curve Augmented Encryption Scheme or
simply the Elliptic Curve Encryption Scheme, the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature
Algorithm (ECDSA) based on the Digital Signature Algorithm, the deformation
scheme using Harrison’s p-adic Manhattan metric, the Edwards-curve Digital
Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) based on Schnorr signature which uses twisted
Edwards curves, the ECMQV key agreement scheme based on the MQV key
agreement scheme, and the ECQV implicit certificate scheme. Figure 1.7 depicts
the ECDH key exchange algorithm.
1.1 Cryptography 11

Fig. 1.6 El Gamal public key scheme

For more information about the protocols depicted in Figs. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6
and 1.7, interested readers are referred to [5].

1.1.2 Classical Cryptography Limitations

Symmetric Key Encryption Limitations

Throughout history there has been one central problem limiting the widespread use
of cryptography. That problem is key management [23]. In cryptographic systems,
the term key refers to a numerical value used by an algorithm to alter the plaintext,
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 CHAPTER II.
THE ARCTIC HEAVENS: ATMOSPHERIC AND METEORIC PHENOMENA.

et the reader fancy himself—should he be reading these pages

on a warm summer’s day, the fancy will not be unpleasant!—
let the reader fancy himself on board a well-found, stoutly-built
whaling-vessel, and rapidly approaching the coast of Greenland. But
the heavy mist hangs over the legend-haunted shores, and we can
but catch the sound of the clanging surf as it rolls upon them. All
around us spreads the mist,—dense, impenetrable. What is that
before us? The dead white mass of an iceberg, slowly drifting with
the current, and almost upon us before the look-out man discovered
it. But the helm has been sharply handled; our good ship has put
about; and we sail clear of the mighty pyramid. Fully one hundred
and fifty feet high, we can assure you, and twice as broad at its
base. A sudden break in the mist reveals its radiant spire, with white
cloud-wreaths circling and dancing round it in the sunlight.
And now, as we steadily move forward, the fog is lifted up like a
curtain, and before us, like a scene in a panorama, looms the
Greenland coast in all its austere magnificence: yonder are its broad
ice-filled valleys, its snow-clad ravines, its noble mountains, its iron-
bound range of cliffs, its general aspect of solemn desolation.
Away over the westward sea fly the scattered vapours, disclosing
iceberg after iceberg, like the magical towers in some of Turner’s
pictures. We seem to have been drawn by some irresistible spell into
a world of enchantment, and all the old Norse romance comes back
upon the memory, with its picturesque associations. Yonder lies the
Valhalla of the ancient ocean-rovers; yonder the dazzling city of the
sun-god Freya, one of the most popular of the Scandinavian
divinities, as well he might be; yonder the elfin caves of Alfheim; and
Glitner, with its walls of gold and roofs of silver; and the radiant
Gimele, the home of the blessed; and there, too, towering above the
clouds, the bridge Bifrost, by which the heroes ascended from earth
to heaven. Heimdall, who can see for fully a hundred leagues, as
well by night as by day, stands sentinel upon it, prepared to sound
his horn Gjallar, if intruders should attempt to cross it!
The sea is smooth as glass; not a ripple breaks the wonderful
calmness of its surface. It is midnight, but in this strange Arctic world
the sun still hangs close upon the northern horizon; the icebergs rear
their dazzling crests around, like floating spires, and turrets, and
many-towered minsters; the dark headlands are boldly outlined
against the sky; and sea, and sky, and mountains, and icebergs are
suffused in a wildly beautiful atmosphere of crimson, gold, and
purple. The picture is like a poet’s vision; and so startlingly unreal,
that it is difficult for the unaccustomed spectator to believe it other
than an illusion.

THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

We adopt the following description from the vivid language of Dr.
Hayes, who displays a keen feeling for the beauties of the Polar
world.
 The air was warm, he says, almost as a summer’s night at home,
and yet there were the icebergs and the bleak mountains, with which
the fancy, in our own land of green hills and waving woods, can
associate nothing but what is cold and repellent. Bright was the sky,
and soft and strangely inspiring as the skies of Italy. The bergs had
wholly lost their chilly aspect, and, glittering in the blaze of the
brilliant heavens, seemed, in the distance, like masses of burnished
metal or solid flame. Nearer at hand they were huge blocks of Parian
marble, encrusted with colossal gems of pearl and opal. One in
particular exhibited the perfection of grandeur. Its form was not
unlike that of the Coliseum, and it lay so far away that half its height
was buried beneath the line of blood-red waters. The sun, slow
moving along its path of glory, passed behind it, and the old Roman
ruin seemed suddenly to break into flame.

OFF THE COAST OF GREENLAND.

 Nothing, indeed, but the pencil of the artist could depict the
wonderful richness of this combined landscape and seascape.
Church, in his great picture of “The Icebergs,” has grandly exhibited
a scene not unlike that we have attempted to describe.
In the shadows of the bergs the water was a rich green, and
nothing could be more soft and tender than the gradations of colour
made by the sea shoaling on the sloping tongues of some of these
floating masses. The tint increased in intensity where the ice
overhung the waters, and a deep cavern in one of them exhibited the
solid colour of the malachite mingled with the transparency of the
emerald, while, in strange contrast, a broad belt of cobalt blue shot
diagonally through its body.
The enchantment of the scene was heightened by a thousand
little cascades which flashed into the sea from the icebergs, the
water being discharged from basins of melted snow and ice which
tranquilly reposed far up in the hollows of their topmost surface.
From other bergs large boulders were occasionally detached, and
these plunged into the water with a deafening din, while the roll and
rush of the ocean resounded like the music of a solemn dirge
through their broken archways.

The contrasts and combinations of colour in the Polar world are,

indeed, among its particular attractions, and of their kind they cannot
be surpassed or imitated even in the gorgeous realms of the Tropics.
The pale azure gleam of the ice, the dazzling whiteness of the snow,
the vivid verdure of the sunlit plains, the deep emerald tints, crossed
with sapphire and ultramarine, of the waters, would in themselves
afford a multiplicity of rich and beautiful effects; but to these we must
add the magical influences of the coruscations of the Arctic heavens,
with the glories of the midnight sun and the wonders of the Aurora.
 MOONLIGHT IN THE POLAR WORLD.
Even moonlight in the Polar world is unlike moonlight anywhere
else; it has a character all its own,—strange, weird, supernatural.
Night after night the sky will be free from cloud or shadow, and the
radiant stars shine out with a singular intensity, seeming to cut the air
like keen swords. The moonbeams are thrown back with a pale
lustre by ice-floe and glacier and snow-drift, and the only relief to the
brightness is where the dark cliffs throw a shadow over the
landscape. Gloriously beautiful look the snow-clad mountains, as the
moonlight pours upon them its serene splendour, interrupted only by
the occasional passage of a wreath of mist, which is soon
transformed into sparkling silver. The whole scene produces an
impression of awe on the mind of the thoughtful spectator, and he
feels as if brought face to face with the visible presence of another
world.
The prolonged winter night is in itself well calculated to affect the
imagination of the European. He reads of it in travels and books of
astronomy; but to know what it is, and what it means, he must submit
himself to its influence,—he must “winter” in the Polar Regions. Not
to see sunrise and sunset, and the changes they bring with them,
day after day, enlivening, inspiriting, strengthening, is felt at first as
an intolerable burden. The stars shining at all hours with equal
brilliancy, and the lasting darkness which reigns for twenty days of
each winter month when the moon is below the horizon, become a
weariness and a discomfort. The traveller longs for the reappearance
of the moon; and yet before she has run her ten days’ course, he
feels fatigued by the uniform illumination.
But sometimes a relief is supplied by the phenomenon of the
Aurora Borealis. We inhabitants of the United Kingdom know
something of the rare beauty of the “northern lights,” when the
heavens kindle with a mysterious play of colours which reminds us of
the strange weird radiance that occasionally kindles in our dreams;
yet these are poor and trivial when compared with the auroral
display. Let us endeavour to realize it from the glowing description
painted by one of the most eloquent and observant of Arctic
explorers.
He was groping his way among the ice-hummocks, in the deep
obscurity of the mid-winter, when suddenly a bright ray darted up
from behind the black cloud which lay low down on the horizon
before him. It lasted but an instant, and, having filled the air with a
strange illumination, it died away, leaving the darkness even greater
darkness than before. Presently an arc of coloured light sprang
across the sky, and the aurora became gradually more fixed. The
space enclosed by the arc was very dark, and was filled with the
cloud. The play of the rays which rose from its gradually brightening
border was for some time very capricious, modifying the burst of
flame from what seemed a conflagration of the heavens to the soft
glow of early morn.
Gradually the light grew more and more intense, and from
irregular bursts it settled into an almost steady sheet of splendour.
This sheet, however, was far from uniform, and may best be
described as “a flood of mingling and variously-tinted streaks.”
 The exhibition, at first tame and quiet, developed by degrees into
startling brilliancy. The broad dome of night seemed all ablaze. Lurid
fires, fiercer than those which reddened the heavens from burning
Troy, flashed angrily across the zenith. The stars waned before the
marvellous outburst, and seemed to recede further and further from
the Earth; “as when the chariot of the sun, driven by Phaeton, and
carried from its beaten track by the ungovernable steeds, rushed
madly through the skies, parching the world and withering the
constellations. The gentle Andromeda flies trembling from the flame;
Perseus, with his flashing sword and Gorgon shield, retreats in fear;
the Pole-Star is chased from the night; and the Great Bear, faithful
sentinel of the North, quits his guardian watch, following the feeble
trail.”
The colour of the light was chiefly red, but this was not
permanent, and every hue mingled in the wonderful display.
Blue and yellow streamers shot athwart the lurid fire; and,
sometimes starting side by side from the wide expanse of the
illumined arc, they melted into each other, and flung a weird glare of
green over the landscape.
 THE AURORA BOREALIS.

Again this green overcame the red; blue and yellow blended with
each other in their swift flight; violet-tinted arrows flashed through a
broad glow of orange, and countless tongues of white flame, formed
of these uniting streams, rushed aloft and clasped the skies. The
effect of the many-coloured lustre upon the surrounding objects was
singularly wonderful. The weird forms of innumerable icebergs,
singly and in clusters, loomed above the sea, and around their
summits hovered the strange gleam, like the fires of Vesuvius over
the villas and temples of Pompeii. All along the white surface of the
frozen sea, upon the mountain-peaks and the lofty cliffs, the light
glowed and dimmed and glowed again, as if the air were filled with
graveyard meteors, flitting wildly above some vast illimitable city of
the dead. The scene was noiseless, yet the senses were deceived,
for sounds not of earth or sea seemed to follow the swift
coruscations, and to fall upon the ear like
 “The tread
Of phantoms dread,
With banner, and spear, and flame.”

Though the details, so to speak, are not always the same, the
general character of the aurora changes very slightly, and, from a
comparison of numerous accounts, the gradation of the
phenomenon would seem to be as follows:—
The sky slowly assumes a tint of brown, on which, as on a
background, is soon developed a nebulous segment, bordered by a
spacious arc of dazzling whiteness, which seems incessantly
agitated by a tremulous motion. From this arc an incredible number
of shafts and rays of light leap upwards to the zenith. These
luminous columns pass through all the hues of the rainbow,—from
softest violet and intensest sapphire to green and purple-red.
Sometimes the rays issue from the resplendent arc mingled with
darker flashes; sometimes they rise simultaneously at different
points of the horizon, and unite in one broad sea of flame pervaded
by rapid undulations. On other occasions it would seem as if invisible
hands were unfurling fiery dazzling banners, to stream, like meteors,
in the troubled air. A kind of canopy, of soft and tranquil light, which
is known as the corona, indicates the close of the marvellous
exhibition; and shortly after its appearance the luminous rays begin
to decrease in splendour, the richly-coloured arcs dissolve and die
out, and soon of all the gorgeous spectacle nothing remains but a
whitish cloudy haze in those parts of the firmament which, but a few
minutes before, blazed with the mysterious fires of the aurora
borealis.
 THE AURORA BOREALIS—THE CORONA.
The arc of the aurora is only part of a broad circle of light, which
is elevated considerably above the surface of our globe, and the
centre of which is situated in the vicinity of the Pole. It is not difficult,
therefore, to account for the different aspects under which it is
presented to observers placed at different angles to the focus of the
display. A person some degrees south of the ring necessarily sees
but a very small arc of it towards the north, owing to the interposition
of the earth between him and it; if he stood nearer the north, the arc
would appear larger and higher; if immediately below it, he would
see it apparently traversing the zenith; or if within the ring, and still
further north, he would see it culminating in the south. It has been
supposed that the centre of the ring corresponds with the magnetic
north pole in the island of Boothia Felix.
Generally the phenomenon lasts for several hours, and at times it
will be varied by peculiar features. Now it will seem to present the
hemispherical segment of a colossal wheel; now it will wave and
droop like a rich tapestry of many-coloured light, in a thousand
prismatic folds; and now it exhibits the array of innumerable dazzling
streamers, waving in the dark and intense sky.
The arc varies in elevation, but is seldom more than ninety miles
above the terrestrial surface. Its diameter, however, must be
enormous, for it has been known to extend southward to Italy, and
has been simultaneously visible in Sardinia, Connecticut, and at New
Orleans.
According to some authorities, the phenomenon is accompanied
by noises resembling the discharge of fireworks, or the crackling of
silk when one piece is folded over another; but this statement is
discredited by the most trustworthy observers.
Mrs. Somerville’s description is worth quoting, as taking up more
emphatically some points to which we have already alluded:—
The aurora, she says, is decidedly an electrical (or, more strictly
speaking, a magneto-electrical) phenomenon. It generally appears
soon after sunset in the form of a luminous arc stretching more or
less from east to west, the most elevated point being always in the
magnetic meridian of the place of the observer; across the arc the
coruscations are rapid, vivid, and of various colours, darting like
lightning to the zenith, and at the same time flitting laterally with
incessant velocity. The brightness of the rays varies in an instant;
they sometimes surpass the splendour of stars of the first
magnitude, and often exhibit colours of admirable transparency,—
blood-red at the base, emerald-green in the middle, and clear yellow
towards their extremity. Sometimes one, and sometimes a quick
succession of luminous currents run from one end of the arc or bow
to the other, so that the rays rapidly increase in brightness; but it is
impossible to say whether the coruscations themselves are actually
affected by a horizontal motion of translation, or whether the more
vivid light is conveyed from ray to ray. The rays occasionally dart far
past the zenith, vanish, suddenly reappear, and, being joined by
others from the arc, form a magnificent corona or immense dome of
light. The segment of the sky below the arc is quite black, as if
formed by dense clouds; yet M. Struve is said to have seen stars in
it, and so it would appear that the blackness of which several
observers speak must be the effect of contrast. The lower edge of
the arc is evenly defined; its upper margin is fringed by the
coruscations, their convergence towards the north, and that of the
arc itself, being probably an effect of perspective.
The aurora exercises a remarkable influence on the magnetic
needle, even in places where the display is not visible. Its vibrations
seem to be slower or quicker according as the auroral light is
quiescent or in motion, and the variations of the compass during the
day show that the aurora is not peculiar to night. It has been
ascertained by careful observations that the disturbances of the
magnetic needle and the auroral displays were simultaneous at
Toronto, in Canada, on thirteen days out of twenty-four, the
remaining days having been clouded; and contemporaneous
observations show that in these thirteen days there were also
magnetic disturbances at Prague and Tasmania; so that the
occurrence of auroral phenomena at Toronto on these occasions
may be viewed as a local manifestation connected with magnetic
effects, which, whatever may have been their origin, probably
prevailed on the same day over the whole surface of the globe.
Among the atmospheric phenomena of the outer world we are
justified in reckoning the Winds, which are remarkable for their
variability. Their force is considerably diminished when they pass
over a wide surface of ice; sometimes the ice seems even to beat
back the breeze, and turn it in a contrary direction. The warm airs
from the south grow cool as they sweep across the frozen expanse,
and give up their moisture in the form of snow. In a region so bleak
and chill it is not often that clouds are created, the atmospheric
vapours being condensed into snow or hail without passing through
any intermediate condition.
Whirlwinds of frozen snow are formidable enemies to the seaman
forced to traverse the ice on foot, or in a sledge drawn by Eskimo
dogs. Dense showers lash and sting the unfortunate traveller’s face,
penetrate his mouth and nostrils, freeze together his very eyelids,
and almost blind him. His skin assumes a bluish tint, and burns as if
scarred by the keen thongs of a knout.
An optical illusion of frequent occurrence in the Polar Regions
makes objects appear of dimensions much larger than they really
possess. A fox assumes the proportions of a bear; low banks of ice
are elevated into lofty mountains. The eye is fatigued by dwelling
upon the horizon of lands which are never approached. Just as in
the sandy deserts of the Sahara the distances of real objects are
apparently diminished, so the Arctic explorer, misled by the aërial
illusion, advances towards a goal which seems always near at hand,
but is never attained.
Another source of error, common both to the Arctic and the
Tropical deserts, is the mirage, a phenomenon of refraction, which
represents as suspended in air the images of remote objects, and
thus gives rise to the most curious illusions and fantastic scenes. Dr.
Scoresby one day perceived in the air the reversed representation of
a ship which he recognized as the Fame, commanded by his father.
He afterwards discovered that it had been lying moored in a creek
about ten leagues from the point where the mirage had played with
his imagination.
Again, in approaching a field of ice or snow, the traveller
invariably descries a belt of resplendent white immediately above the
horizon. This is known as the “ice-blink,” and it reveals to the Arctic
navigator beforehand the character of the ice he is approaching. At
times, too, a range of icebergs, or of broken masses of ice, will be
reflected in colossal shadows on the sky, with a strange and even
weird effect.
But, after all, the special distinction between the Arctic lands and
the other regions of the globe is their long day and longer night.
Describing an immense spiral curve upon the horizon, the sun
gradually mounts to 30°, the highest point of its course; then, in the
same manner, it returns towards the horizon, and bids farewell to the
wildernesses of the North, slowly passing away behind the veil of a
gloomy and ghastly twilight.
 When the navigator, says Captain Parry, finds himself for the first
time buried in the silent shadows of the Arctic night, he cannot
conquer an involuntary emotion of dread; he feels transported out of
the sphere of ordinary, commonplace existence. The deadly and
sombre deserts of the Pole seem like those uncreated voids which
Milton has placed between the realms of life and death. The very
animals are affected by the profound melancholy which saddens the
face of Nature.

ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENON IN THE ARCTIC

REGIONS:—REFLECTION OF ICEBERGS.
 Who can read without emotion the following passages from Dr.
Kane’s Journal?—
“October 28, Friday.—The moon has reached her greatest
northern declination of about 25° 35’. She is a glorious object;
sweeping around the heavens, at the lowest part of her curve she is
still 14° above the horizon. For eight days she has been making her
circuit with nearly unvarying brightness. It is one of those sparkling
nights that bring back the memory of sleigh-bells and songs and glad
communings of hearts in lands that are far away.
“The weather outside is at 25° below zero.”
A few days later, and the heroic explorer writes:—
“November 7, Monday.—The darkness is coming on with
insidious steadiness, and its advances can be perceived only by
comparing one day with its fellow of some time back. We still read
the thermometer at noonday without a light, and the black masses of
the hills are plain for about five hours with their glaring patches of
snow; but all the rest is darkness. Lanterns are always on the spar-
deck, and the lard-lamps never extinguished below. The stars of the
sixth magnitude shine out at noonday.
“Our darkness has ninety days to run before we shall get back
again even to the contested twilight of to-day. Altogether, our winter
will have been sunless for one hundred and forty days.”
Here is another significant passage; yet all its significance can
scarcely be appreciated by the dwellers in temperate climes:—
“November 27, Sunday.—The thermometer was in the
neighbourhood of 40° below zero, and the day was too dark to read
at noon.”
“December 15, Thursday.—We have lost the last vestige of our
mid-day twilight. We cannot see print, and hardly paper: the fingers
cannot be counted a foot from the eyes. Noonday and midnight are
alike; and, except a vague glimmer on the sky that seems to define
the hill outlines to the south, we have nothing to tell us that this Arctic
world of ours has a sun.”
 On the 11th of January (1854), Dr. Kane’s thermometer stood at
49° below zero; and on the 20th the range of those at the
observatory was at -64° to -67°. On the 5th of February they began
to show an unexampled temperature. They ranged from 60° to 75°
below zero, and one very admirable instrument on the taffrail of the
brig stood at -65°. The reduced mean of the best spirit-standards
gave -67°, or 97° below the freezing-point of water.
At these temperatures chloric ether became solid, and carefully
prepared chloroform exhibited a granular film or pellicle on its
surface. Spirit of naphtha froze at -54°, and oil of sassafras at -49°.
The oil of winter-green assumes a flocculent appearance at -56°,
and solid at -63° and -65°.
Some further details, borrowed from Dr. Kane’s experiences, will
illustrate still more powerfully the singular atmospheric conditions of
the Arctic winter.
The exhalations from the surface of the body invested any
exposed or partially-clad part with a wreath of vapour. The air had a
perceptible pungency when inspired, but Dr. Kane did not undergo
the painful sensation described by some Siberian travellers. When
breathed for any length of time it imparted a sensation of dryness to
the air-passages; and Dr. Kane observed that all his party, as it were
involuntarily, breathed gradually, and with compressed lips.
It was at noon on the 21st of January that the first glimmer of
returning light became visible, the southern horizon being touched
for a short time with a distinct orange hue. The sun had, perhaps,
afforded them a kind of illumination before, but if so, it was not to be
distinguished from the “cold light of stars.” They had been nearing
the sunshine for thirty-two days, and had just reached that degree of
mitigated darkness which made the extreme midnight of Sir Edward
Parry in lat. 74° 47’.
We have already alluded to the depressing influence exercised
by the prolonged and intense darkness of the Arctic night, and we
have referred to the singular effect it has upon animals. Dr. Kane’s
dogs, though most of them were natives of the Arctic Circle, proved
unable to bear up against it. Most of them died from an anomalous
form of disease, to which the absence of light would seem to have
contributed as much as the extreme cold. This circumstance seems
worthy of fuller notice, and we quote, therefore, Dr. Kane’s
observation upon it:—
“January 20.—This morning at five o’clock—for I am so afflicted
with the insomnium of this eternal night, that I rise at any time
between midnight and noon—I went upon deck. It was absolutely
dark, the cold not permitting a swinging lamp. There was not a
glimmer came to me through the ice-crusted window-panes of the
cabin. While I was feeling my way, half puzzled as to the best
method of steering clear of whatever might be before me, two of my
Newfoundland dogs put their cold noses against my hand, and
instantly commenced the most exuberant antics of satisfaction. It
then occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn must these poor
animals be, at atmospheres +10° in-doors and -50° without,—living
in darkness, howling at an accidental light, as if it reminded them of
the moon,—and with nothing, either of instinct or sensation, to tell
them of the passing hours, or to explain the long-lost daylight.”
The effect of the prolonged darkness upon these animals was
most extraordinary. Every attention was paid to their wants; they
were kept below, tended, fed, cleansed, caressed, and doctored; still
they grew worse and worse. Strange to say, their disease was as
clearly mental as in the case of any human being. There was no
physical disorganization; they ate voraciously; they slept soundly,
they retained their strength. But first they were stricken by epilepsy,
and this was followed by true lunacy. They barked frenziedly at
nothing; they walked in straight and curved lines with anxious and
unwearying perseverance. They fawned on the seamen, but without
seeming to appreciate any caresses bestowed upon them; pushing
their head against the friend who noticed them, or oscillating with a
strange pantomime of fear. Their most intelligent actions seemed of
an automatic character; sometimes they clawed at their masters, as
if seeking to burrow into their seal-skins; sometimes they preserved
for hours a moody silence, and then started off howling, as if
pursued, and ran to and fro for a considerable period.
 When spring returned Dr. Kane had to mourn the loss of nine
splendid Newfoundland and thirty-five Eskimo dogs; of the whole
pack only six survived, and one of these was unfit for draught.
Having dwelt at some length on the characteristics of the Arctic
winter, we now turn to consider those of the Arctic spring. This
begins in April, but does not exhibit itself in all the freshness of its
beauty until May. The temperature rises daily in the interval; the
winter fall of snow, which has so long shrouded the gaunt hills and
lain upon the valleys, rolls up before the rays of the rising sun; and
the melted snow pours in noisy torrents and flashing cascades
through the rugged ravines and over the dark sides of the lofty cliffs:
everywhere the air resounds with the din of falling waters. Early in
June the traveller sees with delight the signs of returning vegetation.
The willow-stems grow green with the fresh and living sap; mosses,
and poppies, and saxifrages, and the cochlearia, with other hardy
plants, begin to sprout; the welcome whirr of wings is brought upon
the breeze; the cliffs are alive with the little auks; flocks of stately
eider-ducks sail into the creeks and sounds; the graceful terns
scream and dart over the sea; the burgomasters and the gyrfalcons
move to and fro with greater dignity; the long-tailed duck fills the
echoes with its shrill voice; the snipes hover about the fresh-water
pools; the sparrows chirp from rock to rock; long lines of cackling
geese sail in the blue clearness overhead on their way to a remoter
north; the walrus and the seal bask on the ice-floes which have
broken up into small rafts, and drift lazily with the currents; and a
fleet of icebergs move southwards in solemn and stately procession,
their spires and towers flashing and coruscating in the sunlight.
 ADVENT OF SPRING IN THE POLAR REGIONS.
We transcribe a sketch of a spring landscape in the Polar world
from the pages of Dr. Hayes:—
We arrived at the lake, he says, in the midst of a very enlivening
scene. The snow had mainly disappeared from the valley, and,
although no flowers had yet appeared, the early vegetation was
covering the banks with green, and the feeble growths opened their
little leaves almost under the very snow, and stood alive and fresh in
the frozen turf, looking as glad of the spring as their more ambitious
cousins of the warm South. Numerous small herds of reindeer had
come down from the mountains to fatten on this newly budding life.
Gushing rivulets and fantastic waterfalls mingled their pleasant
music with the ceaseless hum of birds, myriads of which sat upon
the rocks of the hill-side, or were perched upon the cliffs, or sailed
through the air in swarms so thick that they seemed like a dark cloud
passing before the sun. These birds were the little auk, a water-fowl
not larger than a quail. The swift flutter of their wings and their
constant cry filled the air with a roar like that of a storm advancing
among the forest trees. The valley was glowing with the sunlight of
the early morning, which streamed in over the glacier, and robed hill,
mountain, and plain in brightness.
Spring passes into summer, and all nature seems endowed with
a new life. The death-like silence, the oppressive darkness, the
sense of fear and despondency, all have passed away; and earth
and water echo with cheerful voices, the landscape is bathed in a
glorious radiance, the human soul is conscious of a sentiment of
hope and expectation. The winter is past and gone; the flowers
appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. The
snow has melted from the hills, and the streams run with a merry
music, and the scanty flora of the far northern world attains its full
development. By day and night the sun pours forth its invigorating
rays, and even the butterfly is encouraged to sport among the
blossoms. The Aurora no longer exhibits its many-coloured fires, and
the sky is as clear and cloudless as in genial Italy. But this season of
life and warmth is of short duration, and when July has passed the
sun begins to sink lower and lower, as if to visit another world; a
shadow gradually steals over the sky; winds blow fiercely, and bring
with them blinding showers of sleet and icicles; the fountains and the
streams cease their pleasant flow; the broad crust of ice spreads
over the imprisoned sea; the snow-mantle rests on the hill-sides and
the valleys; the birds wing their way to the warmer South; and the
Polar world is once more given over to the silence, the loneliness,
and the gloom of the long Arctic night.
Turning our attention now to the “starry heavens,” we observe
that conspicuous among the glorious host is the North Star, which,
from earliest times, has been the friend and guide of the navigator.
The Pole-Star, or Polaris, is the star α in the constellation of Ursa
Minor, and is the nearest large star to the north pole of the celestial