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Proposing a Quantum simulator for integer factorization

Abstract

Many cryptographic algorithms depend on computational complexity assumptions. Notorious cases are the RSA algorithm for public key criptography or the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol, to publicly agree on a common secret key. Both algorithms are known to be broken by quantum computing as well as those that can be reduced to a discrete logarithm problem. These are key algorithms in our digital society and are at the basis of everyday tasks, specially those that rely on digital signatures. The RSA algorithm, in particular, is probably the most used algorithm and is its assumed security the one that guards most of the e-commerce nowadays. In this case, it is the time complexity of finding the prime factors of a large number, that grows worse than polinomially with the size of the number, the main guardian of our cyberinfrastructure. The fact that a quantum computer can solve this problem in polynomial time using Shor's algorithm is seen as a potentially major disruption and has prompted security agencies to advice the progressive deprecation of these algorithms

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