Part I. Fundamental Concepts: 1. Introduction and overview 2. Introduction to quantum mechanics 3. Introduction to computer science Part II. Quantum Computation: 4. Quantum circuits 5. The quantum Fourier transform and its application 6. Quantum search algorithms 7. Quantum computers: physical realization Part III. Quantum Information: 8. Quantum noise and quantum operations 9. Distance measures for quantum information 10. Quantum error-correction 11. Entropy and information 12. Quantum information theory Appendices References Index.

Quantum Computation and Quantum Information

Quantum cryptography could well be the first application of quantum mechanics at the individual quanta level. The very fast progress in both theory and experiments over the recent years are reviewed, with emphasis on open questions and technological issues.

Quantum Cryptography

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is the first quantum information task to reach the level of mature technology, already fit for commercialization. It aims at the creation of a secret key between authorized partners connected by a quantum channel and a classical authenticated channel. The security of the key can in principle be guaranteed without putting any restriction on an eavesdropper's power. This article provides a concise up-to-date review of QKD, biased toward the practical side. Essential theoretical tools that have been developed to assess the security of the main experimental platforms are presented (discrete-variable, continuous-variable, and distributed-phase-reference protocols).

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The security of practical quantum key distribution

(1998). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies. Gifted and Talented International: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 97-98.

Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies

In the Hamadryas baboon, males are substantially larger than females. A troop of baboons is subdivided into a number of ‘one-male groups’, consisting of one adult male and one or more females with their young. The male prevents any of ‘his’ females from moving too far from him. Kummer (1971) performed the following experiment. Two males, A and B, previously unknown to each other, were placed in a large enclosure. Male A was free to move about the enclosure, but male B was shut in a small cage, from which he could observe A but not interfere. A female, unknown to both males, was then placed in the enclosure. Within 20 minutes male A had persuaded the female to accept his ownership. Male B was then released into the open enclosure. Instead of challenging male A , B avoided any contact, accepting A’s ownership.

Evolution and the Theory of Games

In this paper, we investigate how the use of a channel with perfect authenticity but no privacy can be used to repair the defects of a channel with imperfect privacy but no authenticity. More preci...

Privacy amplification by public discussion

Alice disposes of some number of secrets. She is willing to disclose one of them to Bob. Although she agrees to let him choose wich secret he wants, she is not willing to allow him to gain any information on more than one secret. On the other hand, Bob does not want Alice to know which secret he wishes. This is a useful building block in crypto-protocols. For instance, it can be used to easily implement a multi-party mental Poker protocol similar to that of [Cr1], i.e. : safe against player coalitions. An all-or-nothing disclosure is one by which, as soon as Bob has gained any information whatsoever on one of Alice’s secrets, he has wasted his chances to learn anything about the other secrets. In particular, it must be impossible for Bob to gain joint information on several secrets, such as their exclusive-or. Notice that this is crucial, because it is well-known in classical cryptography that the exclusive-or of two plaintext English messages allows easy recovery of them both, just as a running stream Vigenère would [D].

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All-or-nothing disclosure of secrets

How do people work when they are collaborating to write a document? What kind of tools do they use and, in particular, do they resort to groupware for this task? Forty-one people filled out a questionnaire placed on the World Wide Web. In spite of the existence of specialized collaborative writing tools, most respondents reported using individual word processors and email as their main tools for writing joint documents. Respondents noted the importance of functions such as change tracking, version control, and synchronous work for collaborative writing tools. This study also confirmed the great variability that exists between collaborative writing projects, whether it be group membership, management, writing strategy, or scheduling issues.

Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What Do Co-authors Do, Use, and Like?

Alice disposes of some number of secrets. She is willing to disclose one of them to Bob. Although she agrees to let him choose which secret he wants, she is not willing to allow him to gain any information on more than one secret. On the other hand, Bob does not want Alice to know which secret he wishes. An all-or-nothing disclosure is one by which, as soon as Bob has gained any information whatsoever on one of Alice's secrets, he has wasted his chances to learn anything about the other secrets. We assume that Alice is honest when she claims to be willing to disclose one secret to Bob (i.e. she is not about to send junk). The only cheating Alice is susceptible of trying is to figure out which secret is of interest to Bob. We address the following question from an information theoretic point of view: what is the most elementary disclosure problem? The main result is that the general all-or-nothing disclosure of secrets is equivalent to a much simpler problem, which we call the two-bit problem.

Information theoretic reductions among disclosure problems

The usability of security systems has become a major issue in research on the efficiency and user acceptance of security systems. The authentication process is essential for controlling the access to various resources and facilities. The design of usable yet secure user authentication methods raises crucial questions concerning how to solve conflicts between security and usability goals.

Jean-Marc Robert

Papers

Privacy amplification by public discussion

All-or-nothing disclosure of secrets

Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What Do Co-authors Do, Use, and Like?

Information theoretic reductions among disclosure problems

Security and usability: the case of the user authentication methods