Eavesdropping on practical quantum cryptography

DOI10.1080/0950034031000077542MaRDI QIDQ4817801zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Mark S. Williamson, Vlatko Vedral

Publication date 21 September 2004

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0211155

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum cryptography (quantum-theoretic aspects) (81P94)

Abstract: Practical implementations of quantum cryptography use attenuated laser pulses as the signal source rather than single photons. The channels used to transmit are also lossy. Here we give a simple derivation of two beam-splitting attacks on quantum cryptographic systems using laser pulses, either coherent or mixed states with any mean photon number. We also give a simple derivation of a photon-number splitting attack, the most advanced, both in terms of performance and technology required. We find bounds on the maximum disturbance for a given mean photon number and observed channel transmission efficiency for which a secret key can be distilled. We start by reviewing two incoherent attacks that can be used on single photon quantum cryptographic systems. These results are then adapted to systems that use laser pulses and lossy channels.

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(9)

• Secrecy, computational loads and rates in practical quantum cryptography
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