Pinpointing Super-Quadratic Quantum Enumeration Speedups: Exact and Certified Evaluation of the Guessing-Moment Exponent under Product-Distribution Advice
Measuring quantum computers' real advantage when cracking codes with leaked information
Quantum computers can break certain types of encryption far faster than classical computers when given hints about the answer—but nobody had a reliable way to measure exactly how much faster. This paper provides the first practical method to calculate the quantum speedup precisely, showing it can reach nearly 4 times faster in realistic cryptographic scenarios, compared to the theoretical maximum of 2 times previously thought possible.
As quantum computers improve, cryptanalysts and security experts need to know which encryption methods are truly at risk and by how much. This work lets them plug in real leaked information (like power consumption patterns from executing code) and calculate the exact vulnerability window—critical for deciding when to retire current encryption standards and which systems need updating first.