Optimal eavesdropping strategies in quantum cryptography using photonic quantum control
Stephen D. Bartlett · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2007
When eavesdropping on a quantum channel, two distinct properties of quantum physics arise. First, if the quantum system is prepared in one of several non-orthogonal states, then no measurement can discriminate these states with certainty. Second, any measurement that acquires information about a system must necessarily disturb it. We investigate a simple and optimal eavesdropping scheme that minimizes the disturbance caused by a given amount of information gain, and show that an in principle demonstration of such a scheme could be performed using existing experimental techniques in single-photon quantum technologies.