Quantum key distribution

Can secret messages be intercepted without anyone noticing?

Imagine Alice wants to send Bob a secret message, but she's worried someone might intercept it and read it.

Alice and Bob can use a special method that makes eavesdropping obvious, so if someone tries to spy on their secret message, Alice and Bob will know.

Example

Alice sends Bob a message encoded in a quantum state. If Eve tries to read it, the quantum state changes, alerting Alice and Bob.

Remember this

Quantum entanglement ensures that any eavesdropping attempt will disturb the quantum state, making interception detectable.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

quantum entanglement means: measuring one qubit instantly determines the other's state

What if measuring one particle instantly tells you about another?

Introduction to quantum mechanics

How can two particles instantly affect each other across vast distances?

Shor's algorithm

Shor's algorithm factors integers in polynomial time on a quantum computer

Quantum computing

Quantum computers can solve certain problems exponentially faster than classical computers

History of general-purpose CPUs

Why can't computers talk to each other as fast as we want?

Quantum logic gate

Hadamard gate puts a qubit into equal superposition of |0⟩ and |1⟩

Swipe through 100 ML concepts daily