Through introducing controlled alternate quantum walks, we present controlled alternate quantum walks (CAQW) based quantum hash function. CAQW based quantum hash function have excellent security, outstanding statistical performance and splendid expansibility. Furthermore, due to the structure of alternate quantum walks, implementing CAQW based quantum hash function significantly reduces the resources necessary for its feasible experimental realization than implementing other quantum hash functions.
We present a novel lackadaisical alternating quantum walk (LAQW) algorithm whose circuit depth scales as
O(n2+nt) for a
n×n lattice over
t time steps. We show that this is a significant depth reduction compared to the existing controlled alternating quantum walk (CAQW) model, which has a circuit depth that scales as
O(n2t) (Li et al., 2017, arXiv:1707.07389). This makes the implementation of the LAQW viable for Noisy Intermediate-scale Quantum (NISQ) devices. We then showcase the applicability of the LAQW algorithm by proposing a chaos-based symmetric-key generation scheme. Our approach uses the LAQW as a quantum entropy source from which reproducible random bitstring sequences are generated using the underlying probability distribution and subsequent post-processing methods. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of the LAQW algorithm and demonstrate the reproducibility of 128-bit keys under simulated quantum noise provided by IBM's FakeTorino backend. A direct comparison with the CAQW model, which has been used in image encryption and hash function schemes (Li et al., 2017, arXiv:1707.07389; Abd EL-Latif et al., 2020, ScienceDirect; Abd El-Latif, Abd El-Atty, and Venegas-Andraca, 2020, ScienceDirect), highlights the potential and usefulness of the LAQW model in cryptographic applications.
Recent findings of Markov violations challenge Markov random walk processes for decision making. On the other hand, quantum walk processes explain these Markov violations in a natural way, but they have only been applied to binary alternative decision making. In this work, we propose a general framework for extending quantum walk processes to multi-alternative decision making. The multi-alternative quantum walk model operates in a direct sum space of the alternatives, with Hamiltonian built for each pair of alternatives to model context effects. Order effects come naturally from the matrix non-commutativity of the Hamiltonians. Future works built on this framework can connect parameters of the models with the expected utilities.