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Theoretical Breakthrough For Quantum Cryptography
KentuckyFC writes "Quantum cryptography uses the quantum properties of photons to guarantee perfect secrecy. But one of its lesser known limitations is that it only works if Alice and Bob are perfectly aligned so that they can carry out well-defined polarization measurements on the photons as they arrive. Physicists say that Alice and Bob must share the same reference frame. That's OK if Alice and Bob are in their own ground-based labs, but it's a problem in many other applications, such as ground-to-satellite communications or even in chip-to-chip communications, because it's hard to keep chips still over distances of the order of the wavelength of light. Now a group of UK physicists have developed a way of doing quantum cryptography without sharing a reference frame. The trick is to use entangled triplets of photons, so-called qutrits, rather than entangled pairs. This solves the problem by embedding it in an extra abstract dimension, which is independent of space. So, as long as both Alice and Bob know the way in which all these abstract dimensions are related, the third provides a reference against which measurements of the other two can be made. That allows Alice and Bob to make any measurements they need without having to agree ahead of time on a frame of reference. That could be an important advance enabling the widespread use of quantum cryptography."
Applying the standard naming conventions would result in qutits. I much prefer qutits.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, and I haven't had time to read the entire article, but wouldn't this also bypass the conventional data transmission necessity for quantum communications?
Does this not seem like the most wasteful project ever? Can I get my tax money spent a little more cogently?
If PETA is against it, that more or less guarantees my support of it.
I was all set to sell crypto supplies and repair services in the alternate dimension. Do you have any idea what this is going to do to housing prices there?
Will CPUs be measured by the Bob:Alice ratio from now on?
Something tells me that Alice and Bob are going to great lengths to keep their affair a secret...
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PETA == "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"
Its not about hate, its about recognising that animals have feelings too. If you ever had a pet you would know this of course.. Also, I just saw this comment about copyright law and the UK Pirate Party which applies to PETA just as much. You can be sure that they won't get anywhere near what they are asking for but they know that and want you to consider that already you are sitting in an unethical position. They want to and need to rub your face in it because otherwise you just ignore what is going on in your name..
Ethical treatment of animals is great. Breaking news: PETA doesn't stand for it. They're a pile of attention whores who would rather euthanize an animal than let it stay in a loving household where it will be subjected to "slavery and indignity"