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Physics World

Ask me anything: Artur Ekert

Hamish Johnston

Published Apr 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Artur Ekert is a professor of quantum physics and cryptography at the University of Oxford, UK, whose work on information processing in quantum mechanical systems has wide-ranging applications in cryptography and quantum computing. In 2024 he received the Royal Society’s Milner Award for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher.

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/38/04/24

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Artur Ekert is a professor of quantum physics and cryptography at the University of Oxford, UK, whose work on information processing in quantum mechanical systems has wide-ranging applications in cryptography and quantum computing. In 2024 he received the Royal Society’s Milner Award for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher.
Quantum physics is well known for being counter-intuitive, or even bizarre. Quantum correlations have no equivalence in classical physics. This was all well known for years. But several discoveries in the 1990's changed the world. First, in 1991 Artur Ekert, from Oxford University, discovered that quantum correlations could be used to distribute cryptographic keys. Suddenly physicists realized that quantum correlations and its associated bizarre non-locality, could be exploited to achieve a useful task that would be impossible without quantum physics. What a revolution! And this was not the end. Three years later, Peter Shor, from the AT&T Laboratories, discovered an algorithm that breaks the most used public key crypto-systems. Shor's algorithm requires a quantum computer, yet another bizarre quantum device, a kind of computer that heavily exploits the quantum superposition principle. The following year, in 1995, a collaboration between six physicists and computer scientists from three continents led to the discovery of quantum teleportation, a process with a science-fiction flavour. These discoveries and others led to the emergence of a new science, marrying quantum physics and theoretical computer science, called quantum information science. Today, a steadily growing community of physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists develop the tools of this new science. This leads to new experiments and new insights into physics and information theory. It is a fascinating time. Quantum information is still a very young science. In particular, the technology required to build a quantum computer is still unknown. Only quantum key distribution has reached a certain level of maturity, with a few start-ups already offering complete systems. Nevertheless, quantum information has been widely recognised as a source for truly innovative ideas and disruptive technologies.
During the Cold War, a revolutionary cryptographic method, quantum cryptography, emerged. Grounded in the laws of quantum physics, quantum cryptography ensures absolute security using quantum principles. Stephen Wiesner introduced the concept in 1983, but initially received little attention, as technology at the time did not allow the encryption method to be put into practice. The field of quantum cryptography began to take shape with the arrival of two more researchers, Giles Brassard and Charles Bennett. The development of quantum cryptography accelerated dramatically after Artur Ekert proposed the application of Bell’s theorem in this field. Afterwards, more researchers got involved and new theorems and applications were developed, leading the field to become a major subject at the forefront of physics research. This paper explores why quantum cryptography is exceptionally secure and the steps that brought this idea to practice. The paper looks into the intriguing concept of quantum cryptography and the stimulating stories surrounding its progress. From Stephen Wiesner’s original proposal through Brassard and Bennett’s persistent efforts to the exciting debates between Ekert and Brassard and Bennett. This paper highlights the significant milestones and achievements that have positioned quantum cryptography at the forefront of physics research.
The application of quantum mechanics to information related fields such as communication, computation and cryptography is a fast growing line of research that has been witnessing an outburst of theoretical and experimental results, with possible practical applications. On the one hand, quantum cryptography with its impact on secrecy of transmission is having its first important actual implementations; on the other hand, the recent advances in quantum optics, ion trapping, BEC manipulation, spin and quantum dot technologies allow us to put to direct test a great deal of theoretical ideas and results. These achievements have stimulated a reborn interest in various aspects of quantum mechanics, creating a unique interplay between physics, both theoretical and experimental, mathematics, information theory and computer science. In view of all these developments, it appeared timely to organize a meeting where graduate students and young researchers could be exposed to the fundamentals of the theory, while senior experts could exchange their latest results. The activity was structured as a school followed by a workshop, and took place at The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, from 12–23 June 2006. The meeting was part of the activity of the Joint European Master Curriculum Development Programme in Quantum Information, Communication, Cryptography and Computation, involving the Universities of Cergy–Pontoise (France), Chania (Greece), Leuven (Belgium), Rennes1 (France) and Trieste (Italy). This special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical collects 22 contributions from well known experts who took part in the workshop. They summarize the present day status of the research in the manifold aspects of quantum information. The issue is opened by two review articles, the first by G Adesso and F Illuminati discussing entanglement in continuous variable systems, the second by T Prosen, discussing chaos and complexity in quantum systems. Both topics have theoretical as well as experimental relevance and are likely to witness a fast growing development in the near future. The remaining contributions present more specific and very recent results. They involve the study of the structure of quantum states and their estimation (B Baumgartner et al , C King et al , S Olivares et al , D Petz et al and W van Dam et al ), of entanglement generation and its quantification (G Brida et al , F Ciccarello et al , G Costantini et al , O Romero-Isart et al , D Rossini et al , A Serafini et al and D Vitali et al ), of randomness related effects on entanglement behaviour (I Akhalwaya et al , O Dahlsten et al and L Viola et al ), and of abstract and applied aspects of quantum computation and communication (K Audenart, G M D'Ariano et al , N Datta et al , L C Kwek et al and M Nathanson et al ). We would like to express our gratitude to the European Commission, the Abdus Salam ICTP, SISSA and Eurotech SpA (Amaro, Udine, Italy) for financial and/or logistic support. Special thanks also go to the workshop secretary Marina De Comelli, and the secretaries of the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Trieste, Sabrina Gaspardis and Rosita Glavina for their precious help and assistance.
The development of quantum technologies will open up new perspectives in the use of quantum algorithms, the creation and modeling of complex physical and biological systems, new physical methods of transmitting, receiving and processing information. In turn, this will give impetus to the development of a large number of applications in the scientific, technical, economic and social spheres of society. Quantum cryptography is a communication protection method based on certain phenomena of quantum physics. Unlike traditional cryptography, which uses mathematical methods to ensure the secrecy of information, quantum cryptography focuses on physics, where information is carried using objects of quantum mechanics. The process of sending and receiving is always carried out by physical means, for example using electrons in an electric current, or photons in fiber-optic communication lines. In this process, the current situation was determined and the problems encountered and the solution suggestions for these problems were tried to be addressed.