Quantum cryptography | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Quantum cryptography is the science of exploiting quantum mechanical properties to perform cryptographic tasks. The best known example of quantum cryptography is quantum key distribution which offers an information-theoretically secure solution to the key exchange problem. The advantage of quantum cryptography lies in the fact that it allows the completion of various cryptographic tasks that are proven or conjectured to be impossible using only classical (i.e. non-quantum) communication. For example, it is impossible to copy data encoded in a quantum state. If one attempts to read the encoded data, the quantum state will be changed due to wave function collapse (no-cloning theorem). This could be used to detect eavesdropping in quantum key distribution (QKD). In the early 1970s, Stephen Wiesner, then at Columbia University in New York, introduced the concept of quantum conjugate coding. His seminal paper titled "Conjugate Coding" was rejected by the IEEE Information Theory Society, but was eventually published in 1983 in SIGACT News. In this paper he showed how to store or transmit two messages by encoding them in two "conjugate observables", such as linear and circular polarization of photons, so that either, but not both, of which may be received and decoded. It was not until Charles H. Bennett, of the IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Gilles Brassard met in 1979 at the 20th IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, held in Puerto Rico, that they discovered how to incorporate Wiesner's findings. "The main breakthrough came when we realized that photons were never meant to store information, but rather to transmit it" In 1984, building upon this work, Bennett and Brassard proposed a method for secure communication, which is now called BB84. Independently, in 1991 Artur Ekert proposed to use Bell's inequalities to achieve secure key distribution. Ekert's protocol for the key distribution, as it was subsequently shown by Dominic Mayers and Andrew Yao, offers device-independent quantum key distribution.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (3)

Related concepts (32)

Related courses (39)

Related lectures (385)

Related MOOCs (1)

PHYS-758: Advanced Course on Quantum Communication

The aim of this doctoral course by Nicolas Sangouard is to lay the theoretical groundwork that is needed for students to understand how to take advantage of quantum effects for communication technolog

COM-309: Quantum information processing

Information is processed in physical devices. In the quantum regime the concept of classical bit is replaced by the quantum bit. We introduce quantum principles, and then quantum communications, key d

PHYS-454: Quantum optics and quantum information

This lecture describes advanced concepts and applications of quantum optics. It emphasizes the connection with ongoing research, and with the fast growing field of quantum technologies. The topics cov

Quantum channel

In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel which can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the state of a qubit. An example of classical information is a text document transmitted over the Internet. More formally, quantum channels are completely positive (CP) trace-preserving maps between spaces of operators. In other words, a quantum channel is just a quantum operation viewed not merely as the reduced dynamics of a system but as a pipeline intended to carry quantum information.

Quantum state

In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that embodies the knowledge of a quantum system. Quantum mechanics specifies the construction, evolution, and measurement of a quantum state. The result is a quantum mechanical prediction for the system represented by the state. Knowledge of the quantum state together with the quantum mechanical rules for the system's evolution in time exhausts all that can be known about a quantum system. Quantum states may be defined in different ways for different kinds of systems or problems.

Controlled NOT gate

In computer science, the controlled NOT gate (also C-NOT or CNOT), controlled-X gate, controlled-bit-flip gate, Feynman gate or controlled Pauli-X is a quantum logic gate that is an essential component in the construction of a gate-based quantum computer. It can be used to entangle and disentangle Bell states. Any quantum circuit can be simulated to an arbitrary degree of accuracy using a combination of CNOT gates and single qubit rotations. The gate is sometimes named after Richard Feynman who developed an early notation for quantum gate diagrams in 1986.

Attacks on some post-quantum cryptographic protocols: The case of the Legendre PRF and SIKE

Novak Kaluderovic

Post-quantum cryptography is a branch of cryptography which deals with cryptographic algorithms whose hardness assumptions are not based on problems known to be solvable by a quantum computer, such as

EPFL2022

Using the new VPMADD instructions for the new post quantum key encapsulation mechanism SIKE

Dusan Kostic

This paper demonstrates the use of new processor instructions VPMADD, intended to appear in the coming generation of Intel processors (codename "Cannon Lake"), in order to accelerate the newly propose

IEEE COMPUTER SOC2019

Optimal Computational Split-state Non-malleable Codes

Divesh Aggarwal, Divya Gupta

Non-malleable codes are a generalization of classical error-correcting codes where the act of "corrupting" a codeword is replaced by a "tampering" adversary. Non-malleable codes guarantee that the mes

Springer Int Publishing Ag2016

Advanced Timber Plate Structural Design

A trans-disciplinary approach in structural design and digital architecture of timber structures with advanced manufacturing workflow.

Covers Quantum Key Distribution protocols for generating a common secret using quantum channels and one-time pads.

Covers the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution protocol for secure key establishment.

Explores investigating quantum matter with ultracold gases and the quest for supersolidity.