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An Instrument-Free Demonstration of Quantum Key Distribution for High-School Students

Physics Education 2019-08-30 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

It has become increasingly common for high-school students to see media reports on the importance of quantum mechanics in the development of next-generation industries such as drug development and secure communication, but few of them have been exposed to fundamental quantum mechanical concepts in a meaningful classroom activity. In order to bridge this gap, we design and test a low-cost 20-minute demonstration of the Bell test, which is used in several entanglement-based quantum key distribution protocols. The demonstration introduces ideas such as the quantum state, quantum measurement, spin quantization, cryptography, and entanglement; all without using concepts beyond the 9th grade of the Chilean high-school curriculum. The demonstration can serve to promote early exposure of the future adopters and developers of quantum technology with its conceptual building blocks, and also to educate the general public about the importance of quantum mechanics in modern industry

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1904.10537,
  title  = {An Instrument-Free Demonstration of Quantum Key Distribution for High-School Students},
  author = {Maria Jose Carreño and Jonathan Sepúlveda and Silvia Tecpan and Carla Hernández and Felipe Herrera},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.10537},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

10 pages, 3 figures. Comments welcome