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Phys. Rev. A 68, 010302(R) (2003) [4 pages]

Relativistic Bennett-Brassard cryptographic scheme, relativistic errors, and how to correct them

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Marek Czachor* and Marcin Wilczewski
Katedra Fizyki Teoretycznej i Metod Matematycznych, Politechnika Gdańska, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland

Received 12 March 2003; published 17 July 2003

The Bennett-Brassard cryptographic scheme needs two bases, at least one of them linearly polarized. The problem is that linear polarization, formulated in terms of helicities, is not a relativistically covariant notion: State which is linearly polarized in one reference frame becomes depolarized in another one. We show that a relativistically moving receiver of information should define linear polarization with respect to projection of Pauli-Lubanski’s vector in a principal null direction of the Lorentz transformation which defines the motion, and not with respect to the helicity basis. Such qubits do not depolarize.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.010302
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.68.010302
PACS:
03.67.Dd, 03.30.+p

*Email address: mczachor@sunrise.pg.gda.pl