Overview
- The peer-reviewed paper, titled 'Encrypted Qubits Can Be Cloned,' appears in Physical Review Letters from a University of Waterloo team led by Achim Kempf with co-discoverer Koji Yamaguchi, now at Kyushu University.
- The protocol allows unlimited copying of encrypted quantum information, with each copy decryptable a single time because the key self-expires after use.
- The researchers say the approach could support encrypted, redundant quantum cloud storage similar to a quantum Dropbox or Google Drive.
- The work offers a practical workaround to the no-cloning theorem by ensuring only encrypted states are duplicated rather than the underlying quantum information.
- The result is presented as a theoretical advance with potential infrastructure impact, and no experimental implementation or performance data are reported.