Crypto Reading Group on quantum computing | Aodhan Corrigan, How to realize a QKD protocol? Imperfections and considerations in security proofs.

Abstract: Quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols rely on the laws of physics for provably secure secret sharing, but the laws of physics are notoriously tricky to harness. If the laser being used for encoding is fluctuating in time, how does this affect the security guarantees? In this talk, I will cover the kinds of problems that can arise in physical realizations of QKD protocols and the problems that these might cause. After this, I will give a (far from exhaustive) overview of techniques that come up in dealing with such imperfections in the implementation. This will be open-ended, in the sense that questions that arise/different interests during the talk can dictate what we cover.