A new cryptographic method by means of molecular graphs

Abstract

Encryption and decryption, the two steps of cryptography, mostly emerge from mathematics. Both operations are done by means of several mathematical methods making use of number theory, elliptic curves, affine transformations, modular arithmetic, matrices, functions, etc. Graph theory has been in interaction w i t h Chemistry since 1947 when Wiener used a mathematical formula, later called as Wiener index, to compare the boiling points of some alkane isomers. Since than, many mathematical methods have been used to determine the chemical and physical properties of molecular structures. In this work, a new technique has been proposed to encrypt and decrypt a secret message using a topological index of a selected molecular graph to avoid the interference of adversaries.