1. Paper title: ------------------------- 2. Author contact details: Walter Krawec, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268, USA, walter.krawec@uconn.edu, 18604865523 Stjepan Picek, Cyber Security Research Group, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, Delft, The Netherlands, s.picek@tudelft.nl, 0038598226407 Domagoj Jakobovic, Dept. of Electronics, Microelectronics, Computer and Intelligent Systems Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Unska 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, domagoj.jakobovic@fer.hr, 0038516129967 ------------------------- 3. Corresponding author: Stjepan Picek ------------------------- 4. Paper abstract: In this paper, we use evolutionary algorithm to evolve customized quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols designed to counter attacks against the system in order to optimize the speed of the secure communication. This is in contrast to most work in QKD protocols, where a fixed protocol is designed and then its security is analyzed to determine how strong an attack it can withstand. We show that our system is able to find protocols that can operate securely against attacks where ordinary QKD protocols would fail. Our algorithm evolves protocols as quantum circuits, thus making the end result potentially easier to implement in practice. ------------------------- 5. Relevant criteria: B, D, E, F, G ------------------------- 6. Statement: In our paper, we have shown that evolutionary algorithm is able to evolve quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols. More precisely, we found a protocol matching the optimal BB84 key-rate for symmetric channels (B, F criteria). What is more, our approach resulted in some previously unknown protocol configurations for asymmetric channels (i.e., attacks) where, due to the simplicity of gates used, they would allow much easier implementation (criteria E, F). We published our results in EVOSTAR 2019 conference where our paper won the best paper award at the EVOApplications track (criterion D). Since we were able to find either optimal protocols or previously unknown protocols with desired properties, we are able to contribute to solving difficult problems of using QKD protocols in real-world applications (criterion G); note that QKD is, indeed, a practical technology today, both experimentally and commercially. We note that our results also either match or outperform all previous results obtained with heuristics. ------------------------- 7. Citation: Krawec, Walter, Picek, Stjepan, and Jakobovic, Domagoj. Evolutionary Algorithms for the Design of Quantum Protocols. Applications of Evolutionary Computation, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2019, pp. 220--236. @InProceedings{citation, author="Krawec, Walter and Picek, Stjepan and Jakobovic, Domagoj", editor="Kaufmann, Paul and Castillo, Pedro A.", title="Evolutionary Algorithms for the Design of Quantum Protocols", booktitle="Applications of Evolutionary Computation", year="2019", publisher="Springer International Publishing", address="Cham", pages="220--236", isbn="978-3-030-16692-2" } ------------------------- 8. Any prize money, if any, is to be divided equally among the co-authors. ------------------------- 9. "Best" statement: Quantum protocols offer security that for certain important communication tasks would be impossible through classical communication only. In particular, it allows for quantum key distribution (QKD) which permits the establishment of a secret key between two users A and B, which is secure against an all-powerful adversary; this task is impossible to achieve through classical communication only. Generally, QKD protocols are constructed and then analyzed mathematically to determine what channels (i.e., attacks) they can operate over and what their efficiency is for particular channels. In this work, we use evolution strategies and genetic algorithms to find new QKD protocols. With our approach, we are able to produce protocols with a higher communication rate than standard state-of-the-art protocols are capable of producing over certain channels. In fact, our system can even find protocols where standard protocols would fail. More precisely, we were able to find a protocol matching the optimal BB84 key-rate for symmetric channels (BB84 is optimal for symmetric channels, but not asymmetric ones). For asymmetric channels, we are able to find new protocols that are easy to implement as they rely on simple gates only; furthermore, we were able to find protocols that successfully operate against these channels even though BB84, a protocol commonly used in practice, would fail. Our contribution was published at EVOSTAR 2019, where it won the best paper award at the EVOApplications track. ------------------------- 10. Method used: ES (evolution strategies), GA (genetic algorithms) ------------------------- 11. The date of publication of each paper. 30 March 2019 (first online)