Peter Hines: "Diagrams and Coherence Theorems in Cryptography and Cryptanalysis"

Talk given as part of Categories Logic and Physics Scotland: http://conferences.inf.ed.ac.uk/clapscotland/ This talk intends to demonstrate that categorical diagrams are a simple and convenient way of visualising and reasoning about cryptographic protocols. We illustrate this with various examples of both popular and obscure protocols, to demonstrate how the flow of information among the participants may be modelled. We also provide evidence for the claim that there are deeper connections between category theory, complexity, and cryptography than simply modelling information flow. The talk is very much aimed at category theorists who are interested in how their field may be applied to cryptography, rather than vice versa. No prior knowledge of cryptography is required, but some category-theoretic background will be assumed!