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Quantum Key Distribution

1984; Bennett, Brassard 1991; Ekert

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Encyclopedia of Algorithms

Keywords and Synonyms

Quantum key exchange, Quantum key growing        

Problem Definition

Secret keys, i. e., random bitstrings not known to an adversary, are a vital resource in cryptography (they can be used, e. g., for message encryption or authentication). The distribution of secret keys among distant parties, possibly only connected by insecure communication channels, is thus a fundamental cryptographic problem. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method to solve this problem using quantum communication. It relies on the fact that any attempt of an adversary to wiretap the communication would, by the laws of quantum mechanics, inevitably introduce disturbances which can be detected.

For the technical definition, consider a setting consisting of two honest parties, called Alice and Bob, as well as an adversary, Eve. Alice and Bob are connected by a quantum channel \( { \mathcal{Q} } \) which might be coupled to a (quantum) system E controlled by Eve (see Fig. 1). In addition, it is...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Ben-Or, M., Horodecki, M., Leung, D.W., Mayers, D., Oppenheim, J.: The universal composable security of quantum key distribution. In: Second Theory of Cryptography Conference TCC. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3378, pp. 386–406. Springer, Berlin (2005). Also available at http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0409078

  2. Bennett, C.H., Brassard, G.: Quantum cryptography: Public-key distribution and coin tossing. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computers, Systems and Signal Processing, pp. 175–179. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (1984)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETH, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Zurich, Switzerland

    Renato Renner

Authors
  1. Renato Renner
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Ming-Yang Kao Professor of Computer Science

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Renner, R. (2008). Quantum Key Distribution. In: Kao, MY. (eds) Encyclopedia of Algorithms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30162-4_316

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