Which outcome results when an entangled photon pair used in quantum key distribution experiences decoherence?

💡 Explanation

When an entangled photon pair undergoes decoherence, the entanglement degrades due to interaction with the environment which introduces noise, meaning the correlation between photons weakens, increasing bit error rate. Therefore key distribution becomes unreliable because errors cannot be distinguished from eavesdropping, rather than perfect copies, swapping, or unusual superpositions which relate to different physical processes.

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