Cracking quantum encryption

 More quantum computers mean quantum PKI ( public key infrastructure )

Presently advertized as " guuaranteed by the laws of physics ".

Information finds its way. But so does Eve. And Sheveks theory. So there's many a slip twixt cup and the lip. What can science tell us?

As background for those not much aware of the underlying problem, here’s a brief summary. In order to make the Standard Model mathematically well-defined non-perturbatively, one needs to do some sort of regularization, then study the limit as the regulator is removed. The most successful version of this is lattice gauge theory, which provides a beautiful and simple gauge invariant regularization of the gauge field degrees of freedom. This does a great job in allowing non-perturbative calculations for the strong interaction sector of the Standard Model

Introducing fermionic spinor degrees of freedom is much trickier, with the nature of the Dirac equation causing difficult problems with regularizing the theory. These can be handled in various ways when the gauge field interactions are non-chiral (as in the EM and strong sectors), but chiral interactions such as those of the electroweak sector introduce new problems of principle. We’ve been for fifty years now in a situation where in principle (and often in practice), the lattice provides a way to consistently do non-perturbative calculations in the EM and strong sectors, but not in the electroweak sector.

Woit sez that our lack of understanding of the mysteries of non-perturbative chiral spinor gauge theories is at the heart of the decades-long stagnation of the field.

Machines are just starting to work on this.  And a possible approach has appeared already. Stand by for the reconciliation of Shevek theory with quantum gravity.