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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV XX

PV XX: Plenary Talk

Saturday, March 5, 2005, 17:00–18:00, TU P270

Ciphers, quanta and computers — •Artur Ekert — DAMTP, University of Cambridge

In early 1935, Albert Einstein, together with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, published a classic paper which questioned the completeness of quantum mechanical description of reality and, in a tacit way, introduced quantum entanglement. After playing a significant role in the development of the foundations of quantum mechanics, entanglement has been recently rediscovered as a new physical resource with potential commercial applications. In particular it can be used to construct new methods of secure communication and new methods of breaking ciphers. I will outline the evolution of the concept from its origin till today and describe some of its current applications in quantum cryptography and quantum computation.