Speaker: Artur Ekert
Monday, March 25
4:30 p.m. (coffee and tea will be served from 4:00 p.m.)
Level 0 auditorium between Ibn Al-Haytham and Ibn Sina (buildings 2 and 3)
Abstract
Human desire to communicate secretly is at least as old as writing itself and goes back to the beginnings of our civilization. Over the centuries many ingenious methods of secret communication have been developed, only to be matched by the ingenuity of code-breakers. As a result, the quest for a perfect, unbreakable cipher had been declared a futile pursuit. That is, until recently!
Recent research shows that the security of communication can be guaranteed using peculiar “non-local correlations.” Such correlations are typically found in the behavior of quantum particles, and the work builds on schemes that Dr. Ekert and others invented decades ago to do quantum cryptography – adding a powerful twist that hadn’t been anticipated. By including a mathematical measure known as a “Bell inequality” that detects non-local correlations, these newer cryptography schemes make a seemingly insane scenario possible – devices of unknown or dubious provenance, even those that are manufactured by our enemies, can be safely used for secure communication, including key distribution. This is a truly remarkable feat, also referred to as “device independent cryptography.”
All that is needed to implement this bizarre and powerful form of cryptography is a loophole-free test of a Bell’s inequality. It is on the edge of being technologically feasible. Dr. Ekert will provide a brief overview of the intriguing connections between Bell’s inequality and cryptography and will describe how studies of quantum entanglement and the foundations of quantum theory influence the way we may soon protect information.
About the President’s Distinguished Visiting Speaker Series
The President’s Distinguished Visiting Speaker Series features lectures by internationally eminent researchers renowned for their leading-edge interdisciplinary research.
About Artur Ekert
Artur Ekert is a Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford; a Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford; a Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor, National University of Singapore; and the Director of the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore. Click here for his full biography.
