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This article is about the mathematics concept. For other uses, see pair.

The concept of pairing treated here occurs in mathematics.

[edit] Definition

Let R be a commutative ring with unity, and let M, N and L be three R-modules.

A pairing is any R-bilinear map $e:M \times N \to L$ . That is, it satisfies

e (r m, n) = e (m, r n) = r e (m, n)

for any $r \in R$ . Or equivalently, a pairing is an R-linear map

$M \otimes_R N \to L$

where $M \otimes_R N$ denotes the tensor product of M and N.

A pairing can also be considered as an R-linear map $\Phi : M \to \operatorname{Hom}_{R} (N, L)$ , which matches the first definition by setting $Φ(m)(n): = e (m, n)$ .

A pairing is called perfect if the above map $Φ$ is an isomorphism of R-modules.

A pairing is called alternating if for the above map we have $e (m, m) = 1$ .

A pairing is called non-degenerate if for the above map we have that $e (m, n) = 0$ for all $m$ implies $n = 0$ .

[edit] Examples

Any scalar product on a real vector space V is a pairing (set M = N = V, R = R in the above definitions).

The determinant map (2 × 2 matrices over k) → k can be seen as a pairing $k^2 \times k^2 \to k$ .

The Hopf map $S^3 \to S^2$ written as $h:S^2 \times S^2 \to S^2$ is an example of a pairing. In ^[1] for instance, Hardie et al. present an explicit construction of the map using poset models.

[edit] Pairings in Cryptography

In cryptography, often the following specialized definition is used ^[2]:

Let $\textstyle G_1$ be an additive and $\textstyle G_2$ a multiplicative group both of prime order $\textstyle p$ . Let $\textstyle P, Q$ be generators $\textstyle \in G_1$ .

A pairing is a map: $e: G_1 \times G_1 \rightarrow G_2$

for which the following holds:

Bilinearity: $\textstyle \forall P,Q \in G_1,\, a,b \in \mathbb{Z}_p^*:\ e\left(aP, bQ\right) = e\left(P, Q\right)^{ab}$
Non-degeneracy: $\textstyle \forall P \in G_1,\,P \neq \infty:\ e\left(P, P\right) \neq 1$
For practical purposes, $\textstyle e$ has to be computable in an efficient manner

Note that is also common in cryptographic literature for both groups to be written in multiplicative notation.

The Weil pairing is a pairing important in elliptic curve cryptography, e.g. it may be used to attack certain elliptic curves (see MOV attack). It and other pairings have been used to develop identity-based encryption schemes.

[edit] Slightly different usages of the notion of pairing

Scalar products on complex vector spaces are sometimes called pairings, although they are not bilinear. For example, in representation theory, one has a scalar product on the characters of complex representations of a finite group which is frequently called character pairing.

[edit] References

^ A nontrivial pairing of finite T0 spaces Authors: Hardie K.A.1; Vermeulen J.J.C.; Witbooi P.J. Source: Topology and its Applications, Volume 125, Number 3, 20 November 2002 , pp. 533-542(10)
^ Dan Boneh, Matthew K. Franklin, Identity-Based Encryption from the Weil Pairing Advances in Cryptology - Proceedings of CRYPTO 2001 (2001)

[edit] External links

The Pairing-Based Crypto Lounge

[0] A nontrivial pairing of finite T0 spaces Authors: Hardie K.A.1; Vermeulen J.J.C.; Witbooi P.J. Source: Topology and its Applications, Volume 125, Number 3, 20 November 2002 , pp. 533-542(10)

[1] Dan Boneh, Matthew K. Franklin, Identity-Based Encryption from the Weil Pairing Advances in Cryptology - Proceedings of CRYPTO 2001 (2001)

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[2]