Robust Semi-Quantum Summation over a Collective-Dephasing Noise Channel

<jats:p>Quantum summation is one of the various applications in secure multi-party computation. However, most of the existing quantum summation protocols assume that the participants possess all the quantum devices. Considering future applications, the capability of the participants must be adjusted before it can be put into practical use. Although Boyer et al. proposed that the semi-quantum environment could be used to solve this problem; another practical problem is the interference by noise. In 2022, Ye et al. proposed a two-party semi-quantum summation (SQS) protocol resistant to the interference of collective noise, in which two classical participants can accomplish the summation of their private binary sequences with the assistance of a quantum semi-honest third party. They proved that their SQS protocol is resistant to various eavesdropping attacks. This paper unveils two risks of information leakage in Ye et al.’s SQS protocol. If the aforementioned security issues are not resolved, Ye et al.’s SQS protocol may not be able to perform private quantum computations securely. Fortunately, the SQS protocol against the collective-dephasing noise proposed in this study is free from the issue of information leakage as well as resistant to various quantum attacks. In addition, the quantum efficiency of the SQS protocol proposed in this study is four times higher than that of Ye et al.’s SQS protocol, which can effectively improve the quantum utilization rate.</jats:p>