English

Generating Boolean lattices by few elements and exchanging session keys

Rings and Algebras 2023-10-31 v3

Abstract

Let Sp(kk) denote the number of the k/2\lfloor k/2\rfloor-element subsets of a finite kk-element set. We prove that the least size of a generating subset of the Boolean lattice with nn atoms (or, equivalently, the powerset lattice of an nn-element set) is the least number kk such that nn\leq Sp(kk). Based on this fact and our 2021 protocol based on equivalence lattices, we outline a cryptographic protocol for exchanging session keys, that is, frequently changing secondary keys. In the present paper, which belongs mainly to lattice theory, we do not elaborate and prove those details of this protocol that modern cryptology would require to guarantee security; the security of the protocol relies on heuristic considerations. However, as a first step, we prove that if an eavesdropper could break every instance of an easier protocol in polynomial time, then P would equal NP. As a byproduct, it turns out that in each nontrivial finite lattice that has a prime filter, in particular, in each nontrivial finite Boolean lattice, the solvability of systems of equations with constant-free left sides but constant right sides is an NP-complete problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.10790,
  title  = {Generating Boolean lattices by few elements and exchanging session keys},
  author = {Gábor Czédli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.10790},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

As the new title shows, the cryptology part has changed a lot; in particular, (4.3), Remark 4.1, and (in the lattice theoretic part) Remark 5.3 are new. Some details (like a Pascal program) in the earlier version are still relevant but they are not repeated in this shorter (14 page long) version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:23:14.258Z