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Quantum Copying: Encryption Beats the Ban ⚡ экспресс

Original: "Experimental demonstration that qubits can be cloned at will, if encrypted with a single-use decryption key"
arXiv:2602.10695 · 2026-02-11 · CC BY · ⏱ 1 min · Quantum Physics General Relativity
Quantum copies are possible if encrypted — even a noisy processor is no obstacle.
Abstract

The no-cloning theorem has long been a traffic cop for quantum tech, but encrypted cloning punched a hole in it: perfect copies are back on the table if you use a one-time decryption key. The lingering doubt was whether real hardware noise would spoil the party. Experiments on IBM's superconducting Heron-R2 chips, wrangling up to 154 qubits, proved that encrypted cloning stands up to noise—even when you stack cloning steps in parallel, series, or a mix—and entanglement survives intact. This cements the method as a universal quantum building block and sharpens the cloning theorem: quantum information can be broadcast far and wide without fading or fraying, as long as it's masked by encryption—and the unscrambling key is strictly one-off.

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A bread recipe written in disappearing ink: while you read, the original fades. That's how qubits behave — any measurement changes them irrevocably. Copying them is forbidden by the 1982 theorem (Вуттерс, Зурек): a qubit contains энтропия — unknown information that can't simply be doubled. But you can create two encrypted copies with a single key. Once you open one, you can no longer read the other. The information is intact, but locked away, like тёмная материя — we know it's there, but don't see it. IBM tested the method on a processor with 154 кубитами. Noisy copies remained accurate; entanglement was preserved. Noise — the bane of quantum computing — is powerless here. A fascinating twist: without encryption, such copying would allow sending signals into the past, breaking causality. Encryption restores order, offering a key to noise-tolerant quantum memory. The bottom line: the ban is not on copying, but on reading the extra copy.

🎯 Until 1982, physicists only suspected the no-cloning theorem. If unencrypted copying were possible, signals would travel [tag:speed_of_light]быстрее света[/tag] — directly violating relativity.

Scientists
Christian DopplerD. B. McLaughlinDidier QuelozMichel MayorR. A. RossiterAlbert Einstein
Tags
Standard Model entropy speed of light dark matter
Laws
second law of thermodynamicsDoppler effectgravitational lensingprinciple of constancy of the speed of lightNoether's theoremBekenstein-Hawking entropy
Original: arXiv:2602.10695 · CC BY · bridge42worlds