Questions on the meaning, history, and usage of symbols and notation in cryptography. Please remember to mention where (book, paper, webpage, etc.) you encountered any notation you are asking about.

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Why does key generation take an input $1^k$, and how do I represent it in practice?

In my lecture, the lecturer said: Let $K$ be the key generation algorithm. Given a security parameter represented in unary, $1^k$, $K(1^k)$ will output a keypair $(pk; sk)$, known as the public ...
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Why is a non fixed-length encryption scheme worse than a fixed-length one?

I have the following definition (highlights by me): An (efficient secret-key) encryption scheme $(Gen,Enc,Dec)$, where $Gen$ and $Enc$ are PPT algorithms and $Dec$ is a Deterministic Polytime ...
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1answer
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What does the expression $1^n$ mean as a function argument?

In a paper about predicate encryption or attribute based encryption, the setup function is mentioned with the $setup(1^n)$ or $setup(1^l)$. I want to know what is meant here. Is it multiples of ones ...