Category Archives: Quantum Computing
Quantum computing at the nanoscale – News – The University of Sydney
Sometimes youd be the only person in the world with this new piece of knowledge. Its a pretty wild feeling
Professor David Reilly
Its been said that quantum computing will be like going from candlelight to electric light in the way it will transform how we live. Quite a picture, but what exactly is quantum computing?
For the answer to that question, well have to visit a scale of existence so small that the usual rules of physics are warped, stretched and broken, and there are few layperson terms to lean on. Strap yourself in.
Luckily, we have a world-leading researcher in quantum computing, Professor David Reilly, to guide us. Most modern technologies are largely based on electromagnetism and Newtonian mechanics, says Reilly in a meeting room at the Universitys Nano Hub. Quantum computing taps into an enormous new area of nano physics that we havent harnessed yet.
With his youthful looks and laid-back demeanour, Reilly isnt how you might picture a quantum physicist. He has five Fender guitars (with not much time to play them), and a weakness for single malt Scotches. That said, science has never been far below the surface. As a child, he would pull apart flashlights to see how they worked. During his PhD years, knowledge was more important than sleep; he often worked past 3am to finish experiments.
Sometimes youd be the only person in the world with this new piece of knowledge. Its a pretty wild feeling. A good place to start the quantum computing story is with the humble transistor, which is simply a switch that allows, blocks or varies the flow of electricity, or more correctly, electrons. Invented in 1947, it replaced the large, energy-hungry vacuum tubes in radios and amplifiers, also finding its way into computers.
This off/on gate effect of transistors is the origin of the zeroes and ones idea in traditional (aka classical) computers. Ever-shrinking transistors are also how computers have gone from room-filing monsters to tiny devices in our pockets currently, just one square millimetre of computer chip can hold 100 million transistors.
Incredible, yes, but also unsustainable. With transistors now operating at the size of atoms, they literally cant get much smaller, and theyre now at a scale where the different, nanoscale laws of physics are warping and compromising their usefulness. At that scale, an electron stops behaving like a ball being stopped by the transistor gate, Reilly says. Its more like a wave. It can actually tunnel through or teleport to the other side, so the on/off effect is lost.
Quantum computing seeks to solve this problem, but it also promises a great leap forward. Its based on the idea that transistors can be replaced by actual atomic particles where the zeros and ones arent predicated on the flow or non-flow of electrons, but on the property or energy state of the atomic particle itself.
These particles can come from various sources (and are usually engineered in nanoscale devices) but theyre called collectively, qubits. Now things get trickier. Yes, tricker. Where a transistor can be either one or zero, its a weird fact of quantum physics, that a qubit can be one or zero at the same time, like a spinning coin that holds the possibility of both heads and tails.
For a single qubit, this doubles the one-andzero mechanism. And for every qubit added, the one/zero combinations increase exponentially.
View post:
Quantum computing at the nanoscale - News - The University of Sydney
Securing IoT in the Quantum Age – Eetasia.com
Article By : Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio
Quantum computers will make security mechanisms vulnerable to new types of cyberattacks a problem for both chip cards and complex technological systems...
Quantum computers will make current security mechanisms vulnerable to new types of cyberattacks a real problem for both chip cards and complex technological systems such as networked vehicles or industrial control systems. They have the potential to break the cryptographic patterns widely used in internet of things data communication systems.
With the advent of quantum computers, modern encryption algorithms are undergoing an evolution that will significantly change their current use. In order to support the security of the internet and other cryptographic-based technologies, it is necessary to increase mathematical research to build the cryptography of tomorrow, which is resistant to quantum attacks and will become known as post-quantum or quantum-resistant cryptography.
A quantum computer that could break cryptography would be a powerful tool for attackers, said Dr. Thomas Poeppelmann, senior staff engineer, Infineon Technologies.
According to the latest Thales Data Threat Report, 72 percent of the security experts surveyed worldwide believe that quantum computing power will affect data security technologies within the next five years. Robust and future-proof security solutions are therefore necessary. The potential threats are widespread, everything from the cars of the future to industrial robots.
IoT security
The modern use of cryptography aims to help ensure the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of the multiple data traveling in the IoT ecosystem, both the consumer and industrial one.
Security requirements of IoT devices can be very complex, said Poeppelmann. As a result, security cannot be achieved by a single technology or method. For example, a vendor has to consider aspects like secured software development, protected patch management, supply chain security, protection against physical attacks, trust and identity management, and secured communication.
Many companies, such as Infineon, are developing chip-based quantum security mechanisms. In particular, the applicability and practical implementation of quantum security cryptographic methods for embedded systems will be highlighted.
An IoT device has to check that a software update is really from the vendor and that it was not created by an attacker, said Poeppelmann. If the cryptographic methods used in an IoT device can be broken by an attacker, this would expose it to a lot of vulnerabilities. With quantum-safe cryptography, we want to provide our customers with cryptographic methods that are even protected against attacks using quantum computers. With our post-quantum technology, we aim to provide security in the long term and against very powerful attackers.
A classic computer attacker can use all the necessary means, such as artificial intelligence and increasingly powerful computers, to defeat security barriers.
Depending on the results and tasks, an attacker may be willing to spend several months of work to break a cryptographic pattern. Developers must provide maximum security that is accessible and easy-to-integrate solutions.
The security industry is developing cryptography that can be executed on cost-efficient classical computers or even tiny smart card chips while being guarded against even the most powerful attackers, said Poeppelmann.
He added, This situation is also applicable to the development of post-quantum cryptography that should withstand quantum computing power. The defender could still be implementing cryptography on classical computers and machines, while the attacker may use a quantum computer in the near future. Current approaches for so-called quantum-key distribution [QKD], where quantum technology is used to achieve confidentiality, are currently too expensive or too constraining, whereas current assessments of post-quantum cryptography prove that it could be quantum-safe as well as affordable. This is why we at Infineon focus on the development of post-quantum cryptography [PQC].
Security for IoT(Image: Infineon Technologies)
Large-scale QKD technology has already been tested in several countries to provide secure quantum protection to critical infrastructures.
Today, cryptography is used in many applications in automobiles and industrial control equipment. This aims to prevent the transfer of malware that could disrupt security systems and seriously endanger independent driving and production equipment.
Conventional encryption tools such as elliptical curve encryption are indestructible for todays computers. However, with constant progress in the development of quantum computers, many encryption algorithms may become ineffective in the near future.
Projects
The project Aquorypt will investigate the applicability and practical implementation of quantum-safe cryptographic methods for embedded systems. The project team evaluates procedures that have an adequate security level and implements them efficiently in hardware and software. The results could be used to protect industrial control systems with a long service life.
In the Aquorypt research project, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) will collaborate with researchers and industrial partners to develop new protection measures for the quantum computing era.
The project will first assess several new protocols and check if the new protocols are suitable for the use cases; i.e. industrial control and chip cards, said Poeppelmann. The best way to build a secured system is always a combination of appropriate software and hardware methods. However, some security goals cannot be achieved if the underlying hardware is not secured. Some bugs cannot be fixed by software alone.
Another project, PQC4MED, is focused on embedded systems in medical products. The associated hardware and software must allow the exchange of cryptographic procedures to counteract external threats. The solution will be tested in a use case in the field of medical technology.
In health-care applications, data privacy and data security are of particular importance, said Poeppelmann. Moreover, these devices have been in the field for a very long time so that software needs to be updated to comply with the latest regulations. As a consequence, it is important to first understand how suppliers of health-care devices could handle the threats caused by attacks using quantum computers. And secondly, [it is important] to research how they can implement software updates and software management mechanisms that allow [protection of] a device over its life cycle of more than 20 years. If the security of the update mechanism is low, an attacker will always take the path of least resistance and attack this component.
Infineon is working in this field for the development and standardization of New Hope and SPHINCS+ quantum security cryptographic schemes. New Hope is a key exchange protocol based on the Ring-Learning-with-Errors (Ring-LWE, or RLWE) problem.
Ring-LWE has been designed to protect against cryptoanalysis of quantum computers and also to provide the basis for homomorphic encryption. A key advantage of RLWE-based cryptography is in the size of the public and private keys.
SPHINCS+ is a stateless hash-based signature scheme based on conservative security assumptions.
Googles quantum computer
Conclusion
Cyberattacks on industrial plants could lead to the theft of knowledge about production processes or to tampering plants with a loss of production efficiency. Over time, electronic systems will become increasingly more networked and information security will play a key role.
As for security, post-quantum cryptography now mainly needs standards and awareness, said Poeppelmann. The standards are required to grant interoperability of different systems; e.g., an IoT device communicating with a cloud system. Device manufacturers, on the other hand, should be aware that quantum computers can become a real threat to their solutions security. They should assess future risks as properly [as possible] and implement appropriate security as early as possible.
In addition to security, a second factor in determining whether a cryptographic algorithm can be used in a given application environment is its efficiency. The performance takes into account not only processing speed but also memory requirements: key size, data expansion speed, signature size, etc. For example, schemes based on more structured mathematical problems tend to have reduced keys.
Quantum technology such as quantum computers or quantum sensors have different requirements for market adoption, said Poeppelmann. For the adoption of quantum computers, we need a computer that is really able to prove a benefit for real-world tasks (e.g., chemical analysis, AI, etc.) over currently used cloud methods. In general, it is important to raise awareness to foster market adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography. The threat is real, but with PQC, we have a migration path available.
Improving the strength of encryption remains a goal for many IT security experts. As computers become smarter and faster and codes become easier to decode, a more advanced encryption mechanism is more urgently needed.
Related Posts:
Excerpt from:
Securing IoT in the Quantum Age - Eetasia.com
Inside the Global Race to Fight COVID-19 Using the World’s Fastest Supercomputers – Scientific American
As the director of a global research organization, I feel obligated to use all the resources of cutting-edge science and technology at our disposal to fight this scourge. As a father, I want a lasting solution, one that serves not just in this crisis, but the next. And, as an American and a Spaniard, with family in two hot spots, I want to help. Its as simple as that.
It started with a phone call to the White House on Tuesday, March 17, one that proved to be a catalytic moment for industry, academia and government to act together. This was the same week I received news from my mother that my cousin in Spain had tested positive for coronavirus. Shes a doctor and, just like all medical staff around the world right now, is on the front lines of the fight against this disease. This fight is personal for so many of us.
COVID-19 is deadly serious. This respiratory disease is triggered by a virus from the family of coronaviruses, which was identified in the 1960s but had never made such an assault on humanity. The virus prevents its victims from breathing normally, making them gasp for air. Fever, cough, a sore throat and a feeling of overwhelming fatigue and helplessness follow. Lucky ones recover within a few days; some show only mild or moderately severe symptoms. But some patients are not that lucky. Bulldozing its way through the body, the virus makes the lungs fill up with fluid, and may lead to a rapid death. No one is immune. While the elderly and those with underlying health conditions are more at risk, COVID-19 has taken the lives of people of all ages, some in seemingly good health. The disease is bringing our world to its knees.
But we are resilient, and we are fighting back with all the tools we have, including some of the most sophisticated supercomputers we have ever built. These machinesmore than 25 U.S.-based supercomputers with more than 400 petaflops of computing powerare now available for free to scientists searching for a vaccine or treatment against the virus, through the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.
It was created with government, academia and industryincluding competitors, working side by side. IBM is co-leading the effort with the U.S. Department of Energy, which operates the National Laboratories of the United States. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have joined, as well as NASA, the National Science Foundation, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and six National LabsLawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Sandia, and others. And then there are academic institutions, including MIT; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; the University of Texas, Austin; and the University of California, San Diego.
The supercomputers will run a myriad of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular modeling, in a bid to drastically cut the time of discovery of new molecules that could lead to a vaccine. Having received proposals from all over the world, we have already reviewed, approved and matched 15 projects to the right supercomputers. More will follow.
But just a few days ago none of this existed.
On March 17, I called Michael Kratsios, the U.S. governments chief technology officer. Embracing the potential of a supercomputing consortium, he immediately started mobilizing his team, including Jake Taylor, assistant director for quantum information science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Jake called major U.S. players that have high-performance computers and invited them on board. From the IBM side, Mike Rosenfield, whose team has designed and built multiple generations of world-leading supercomputers, partnered with RPI, MIT and the key computing leaders of the U.S. National Laboratories. The U.S. Department of Energy has been a partner from the very beginning, at the heart of it all.
Within 24 hours of that first call, collaborators outlined what it meant to be involved. We brainstormed how we would communicate to research labs worldwide what we could offer in terms of hardware, software and human experts, and how we would get them to submit proposals, and get those matched with just the right supercomputer.
Forty-eight hours passed. On Thursday, March 19, we set up the scientific review committee and the computing matching committee to manage proposals. At least one person from each of the members of the consortium had to be part of the process, all acting fairly and equally. From IBM, Ajay Royyuru joined the merit review committee; he is the leader of our Healthcare and Life Sciences research and together with his team has long been developing novel technologies to fight cancer and infectious diseases.
Ajay, too, has a personal stake in fighting back against COVID-19. In January, his elderly father passed away following a pulmonary illness. Ajay shares his house with his 82-year-old mother, and he worries about keeping her safe from this risk, just like so many of us worry about our parents. His extended family in India is now also confronting the unfolding of the pandemic.
On March 22, less than a week after the first discussion with Kratsios, the White House announced the consortium. Everyone knew that the clock was ticking.
It is still very early days, but Ajay and other reviewers can clearly see from the first wave of proposals that scientists are trying to attack the virus on all frontsfrom drug discovery and development with AI-led simulations to genomics, epidemiology and health systems response. We need to understand the whole life cycle of this virus, all the gearboxes that drive ithow it encounters and infects the host cell and replicates inside it, preventing it from producing vital particles. We need to know the molecular components, the proteins involved in the virus biochemistrythen to use computational modeling to see how we can interrupt the cycle. That's the standard scientific methodology of drug discovery, but we want to amplify it.
The virus has been exploding in humans for months now, providing an abundance of samples for computer modeling and analysis. Scientists are already depositing them into public data sources such as GenBank and Protein Data Bank. There are many unknowns and assumptionsbut, Ajay tells me, a lot of proposals involve using the available protein structures to try and come up with potential molecular compounds that could lead to a therapeutic or a vaccine.
Thats already happening. Even before we formed the consortium, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee simulated 8,000 compounds and found 77 molecules that could potentially disarm the virus. But 77 is still a big number and running tests to find the correct molecule may take months. Here, my colleague Alessandro Curioni, an Italian chemist who heads IBM Research Europe and who had to self-isolate due to possible exposure to COVID-19, had an idea on how to speed things up.
In a conversation with European Commission executives in early March, Alessandro learned about an Italian pharmaceutical company, Domp Farmaceutici and the E.U.-financed project they were working on. Last week, he orchestrated a meeting between its scientists and Oak Ridge, suggesting to both parties that they submit a joint proposal to the consortium. Perhaps together, with the help of supercomputers, they can reduce the number of the promising compounds from 77 to 10, five and, finally, one.
Humanity has more tools at its disposal in this pandemic than ever before. With data, supercomputers and artificial intelligence, and in the future, quantum computing, we will create an era of accelerated discovery. The consortium is an example of a unique partnership approach, and it shows that the bigger the challenge, the more we need each other.
Read more about the coronavirus outbreakhere.
Read more here:
Inside the Global Race to Fight COVID-19 Using the World's Fastest Supercomputers - Scientific American
Global Quantum Computing Market 2025 company profile of each organization are entailed in the study : D-Wave Systems, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft,…
This detailed research report on the Global Quantum Computing Market offers a concrete and thorough assorted compilation of systematic analysis, synthesis, and interpretation of data gathered about the Quantum Computing Market from a range of diverse arrangement of reliable sources and data gathering points. The report provides a broad segmentation of the market by categorizing the market into application, type, and geographical regions.
In addition, the information has analysed with the help of primary as well as secondary research methodologies to offer a holistic view of the target market. Likewise, the Quantum Computing Market report offers an in-house analysis of global economic conditions and related economic factors and indicators to evaluate their impact on the Quantum Computing Market historically.
This study covers following key players:
D-Wave SystemsGoogleIBMIntelMicrosoft1QB Information TechnologiesAnyon SystemsCambridge Quantum ComputingID QuantiqueIonQQbitLogicQC WareQuantum CircuitsQubitekkQxBranchRigetti Computing
Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbismarketreports.com/sample-request/67848?utm_source=Puja
The report is a mindful assortment of vital factors that lend versatile cues on market size and growth traits, besides also offering an in-depth section on opportunity mapping as well as barrier analysis, thus encouraging report readers to incur growth in global Quantum Computing Market. This detailed report on Quantum Computing Market largely focuses on prominent facets such as product portfolio, payment channels, service offerings, applications, in addition to technological sophistication. All the notable Quantum Computing Market specific dimensions are studied and analysed at length in the report to arrive at conclusive insights. Apart from highlighting these vital realms, the report also includes critical understanding on notable developments and growth estimation across regions at a global context in this report on Quantum Computing Market.
Besides these aforementioned factors and attributes of the Quantum Computing Market, this report specifically decodes notable findings and concludes on innumerable factors and growth stimulating decisions that make this Quantum Computing Market a highly profitable. A thorough take on essential elements such as drivers, threats, challenges, opportunities are thoroughly assessed and analysed to arrive at logical conclusions. Additionally, a dedicated section on regional overview of the Quantum Computing Market is also included in the report to identify lucrative growth hubs. These leading players are analysed at length, complete with their product portfolio and company profiles to decipher crucial market findings.
Access Complete Report @ https://www.orbismarketreports.com/global-quantum-computing-market-size-status-and-forecast-2019-2025-2?utm_source=Puja
Market segment by Type, the product can be split into
HardwareSoftwareServices
Market segment by Application, split into
DefenseHealthcare & pharmaceuticalsChemicalsBanking & financeEnergy & power
The report also lists ample correspondence about significant analytical practices and industry specific documentation such as SWOT and PESTEL analysis to guide optimum profits in Quantum Computing Market. In addition to all of these detailed Quantum Computing Market specific developments, the report sheds light on dynamic segmentation based on which Quantum Computing Market has been systematically split into prominent segments encompassing type, application, technology, as well as region specific segmentation of the Quantum Computing Market.
Some Major TOC Points:
1 Report Overview
2 Global Growth Trends
3 Market Share by Key Players
4 Breakdown Data by Type and ApplicationContinued
For Enquiry before buying report @ https://www.orbismarketreports.com/enquiry-before-buying/67848?utm_source=Puja
About Us :
With unfailing market gauging skills, has been excelling in curating tailored business intelligence data across industry verticals. Constantly thriving to expand our skill development, our strength lies in dedicated intellectuals with dynamic problem solving intent, ever willing to mold boundaries to scale heights in market interpretation.
Contact Us :
Hector Costello
Senior Manager Client Engagements
4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas 75204, U.S.A.
Phone No.: USA: +1 (972)-362-8199 | IND: +91 895 659 5155
D-Wave makes its quantum computers free to anyone working on the coronavirus crisis – VentureBeat
D-Wave today made its quantum computers available for free to researchers and developers working on responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. D-Wave partners and customers Cineca, Denso, Forschungszentrum Jlich, Kyocera, MDR, Menten AI, NEC, OTI Lumionics, QAR Lab at LMU Munich, Sigma-i, Tohoku University, and Volkswagen are also offering to help. They will provide access to their engineering teams with expertise on how to use quantum computers, formulate problems, and develop solutions.
Quantum computing leverages qubits to perform computations that would be much more difficult, or simply not feasible, for a classical computer. Based in Burnaby, Canada, D-Wave was the first company to sell commercial quantum computers, which are built to use quantum annealing. D-Wave says the move to make access free is a response to a cross-industry request from the Canadian government for solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Free and unlimited commercial contract-level access to D-Waves quantum computers is available in 35 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia via Leap, the companys quantum cloud service. Just last month, D-Wave debuted Leap 2, which includes a hybrid solver service and solves problems of up to 10,000 variables.
D-Wave and its partners are hoping the free access to quantum processing resources and quantum expertise will help uncover solutions to the COVID-19 crisis. We asked the company if there were any specific use cases it is expecting to bear fruit. D-Wave listed analyzing new methods of diagnosis, modeling the spread of the virus, supply distribution, and pharmaceutical combinations. D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz added a few more to the list.
The D-Wave system, by design, is particularly well-suited to solve a broad range of optimization problems, some of which could be relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Baratz told VentureBeat. Potential applications that could benefit from hybrid quantum/classical computing include drug discovery and interactions, epidemiological modeling, hospital logistics optimization, medical device and supply manufacturing optimization, and beyond.
Earlier this month, Murray Thom, D-Waves VP of software and cloud services, told us quantum computing and machine learning are extremely well matched. In todays press release, Prof. Dr. Kristel Michielsen from the Jlich Supercomputing Centre seemed to suggest a similar notion: To make efficient use of D-Waves optimization and AI capabilities, we are integrating the system into our modular HPC environment.
More:
D-Wave makes its quantum computers free to anyone working on the coronavirus crisis - VentureBeat
Can Quantum Computing Be the New Buzzword – Analytics Insight
Quantum Mechanics created their chapter in the history of the early 20th Century. With its regular binary computing twin going out of style, quantum mechanics led quantum computing to be the new belle of the ball! While the memory used in a classical computer encodes binary bits one and zero, quantum computers use qubits (quantum bits). And Qubit is not confined to a two-state solution, but can also exist in superposition i.e., qubits can be employed at 0, 1 and both 1 and 0 at the same time.
Hence it can perform many calculations in parallel owing to the ability to pursue simultaneous probabilities through superposition along with manipulating them with magnetic fields. Its coefficients allow predicting how much zero-ness and one-ness it has, are complex numbers, which indicates the real and imaginary part. This provides a huge technical edge over other conventional computing. The beauty of this is if you have n qubits, you can have a superposition of 2n states or bits of information simultaneously.
Another magic up its sleeve is that Qubits are capable of pairing which is referred to as entanglement. Here, the state of one qubit cannot be described independently of the state of the others which allows instantaneous communication.
To quote American theoretical physicist, John Wheeler, If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it. So, without a doubt it is safe to say that even quantum computing has few pitfalls. First, the qubits tend to loss the information they contain, and also lose their entanglement in other words, decoherence. Second, imperfections of quantum rotations. These led to a loss of information within a few microsecond.
Ultimately, quantum computing is the Trump Card as promises to be a disruptive technology with such dramatic speed improvements. This will enable systems to solve complex higher-order mathematical problems that earlier took months to be computed, investigate material properties, design new ones, study superconductivity, aid in drug discovery via simulation and understanding new chemical reactions.
This quantum shift in the history of computer sciences can also pave way for encrypted communication (as keys cannot be copied nor hacked), much better than Blockchain technology, provide improved designs for solar panels, predict financial markets, big data mining, develop Artificial Intelligence to new heights, enhanced meteorological updates and a much-anticipated age of quantum internet. According to scientists, Future advancements can also lead to help find a cure for Alzheimers.
The ownership and effective employment of a quantum computer could change the political and technological dynamics of the world. Computing power, in the end, is power whether it is personal, national or globally strategic. In short, a quantum computer could be an existential threat to a nation that hasnt got one. At the moment Google, IBM, Intel, and D-Wave are pursuing this technology. While there are scientific minds who dont believe in the potential of quantum computing yet unless you are a time-traveler like Marty McFly in Back to the Future series or any one of the Doctor Who, one cannot say what future beholds.
View post:
Can Quantum Computing Be the New Buzzword - Analytics Insight
We’re Getting Closer to the Quantum Internet, But What Is It? – HowStuffWorks
Advertisement
Back in February 2020, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago revealed that they had achieved a quantum entanglement in which the behavior of a pair two tiny particles becomes linked, so that their states are identical over a 52-mile (83.7 kilometer) quantum-loop network in the Chicago suburbs.
You may be wondering what all the fuss is about, if you're not a scientist familiar with quantum mechanics that is, the behavior of matter and energy at the smallest scale of reality, which is peculiarly different from the world we can see around us.
But the researchers' feat could be an important step in the development of a new, vastly more powerful version of the internet in the next few decades. Instead of the bits that today's network uses, which can only express a value of either 0 or 1, the future quantum internet would utilize qubits of quantum information, which can take on an infinite number of values. (A quibit is the unit of information for a quantum computer; it's like a bit in an ordinary computer).
That would give the quantum internet way more bandwidth, which would make it possible to connect super-powerful quantum computers and other devices and run massive applications that simply aren't possible with the internet we have now.
"A quantum internet will be the platform of a quantum ecosystem, where computers, networks, and sensors exchange information in a fundamentally new manner where sensing, communication, and computing literally work together as one entity, " explains David Awschalom via email. He's a spintronics and quantum information professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a senior scientist at Argonne, who led the quantum-loop project.
So why do we need this and what does it do? For starters, the quantum internet is not a replacement of the regular internet we now have. Rather it would be a complement to it or a branch of it. It would be able to take care of some of the problems that plague the current internet. For instance, a quantum internet would offer much greater protection from hackers and cybercriminals. Right now, if Alice in New York sends a message to Bob in California over the internet, that message travels in more or less a straight line from one coast to the other. Along the way, the signals that transmit the message degrade; repeaters read the signals, amplify and correct the errors. But this process allows hackers to "break in" and intercept the message.
However, a quantum message wouldn't have that problem. Quantum networks use particles of light photons to send messages which are not vulnerable to cyberattacks. Instead of encrypting a message using mathematical complexity, says Ray Newell, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we would rely upon the peculiar rules of quantum physics. With quantum information, "you can't copy it or cut it in half, and you can't even look at it without changing it." In fact, just trying to intercept a message destroys the message, as Wired magazine noted. That would enable encryption that would be vastly more secure than anything available today.
"The easiest way to understand the concept of the quantum internet is through the concept of quantum teleportation," Sumeet Khatri, a researcher at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, says in an email. He and colleagues have written a paper about the feasibility of a space-based quantum internet, in which satellites would continually broadcast entangled photons down to Earth's surface, as this Technology Review article describes.
"Quantum teleportation is unlike what a non-scientist's mind might conjure up in terms of what they see in sci-fi movies, " Khatri says. "In quantum teleportation, two people who want to communicate share a pair of quantum particles that are entangled. Then, through a sequence of operations, the sender can send any quantum information to the receiver (although it can't be done faster than light speed, a common misconception). This collection of shared entanglement between pairs of people all over the world essentially constitutes the quantum internet. The central research question is how best to distribute these entangled pairs to people distributed all over the world. "
Once it's possible to do that on a large scale, the quantum internet would be so astonishingly fast that far-flung clocks could be synchronized about a thousand times more precisely than the best atomic clocks available today, as Cosmos magazine details. That would make GPS navigation vastly more precise than it is today, and map Earth's gravitational field in such detail that scientists could spot the ripple of gravitational waves. It also could make it possible to teleport photons from distant visible-light telescopes all over Earth and link them into a giant virtual observatory.
"You could potentially see planets around other stars, " says Nicholas Peters, group leader of the Quantum Information Science Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It also would be possible for networks of super-powerful quantum computers across the globe to work together and create incredibly complex simulations. That might enable researchers to better understand the behavior of molecules and proteins, for example, and to develop and test new medications.
It also might help physicists to solve some of the longstanding mysteries of reality. "We don't have a complete picture of how the universe works," says Newell. "We have a very good understanding of how quantum mechanics works, but not a very clear picture of the implications. The picture is blurry where quantum mechanics intersects with our lived experience."
But before any of that can happen, researchers have to figure out how to build a quantum internet, and given the weirdness of quantum mechanics, that's not going to be easy. "In the classical world you can encode information and save it and it doesn't decay, " Peters says. "In the quantum world, you encode information and it starts to decay almost immediately. "
Another problem is that because the amount of energy that corresponds to quantum information is really low, it's difficult to keep it from interacting with the outside world. Today, "in many cases, quantum systems only work at very low temperatures," Newell says. "Another alternative is to work in a vacuum and pump all the air out. "
In order to make a quantum internet function, Newell says, we'll need all sorts of hardware that hasn't been developed yet. So it's hard to say at this point exactly when a quantum internet would be up and running, though one Chinese scientist has envisioned that it could happen as soon as 2030.
Read more from the original source:
We're Getting Closer to the Quantum Internet, But What Is It? - HowStuffWorks
Q-CTRL to Host Live Demos of ‘Quantum Control’ Tools – Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source
Q-CTRL, a startup that applies the principles of control engineering to accelerate the development of the first useful quantum computers, will host a series of online demonstrations of new quantum control tools designed to enhance the efficiency and stability of quantum computing hardware.
Dr. Michael Hush, Head of Quantum Science and Engineering at Q-CTRL, will provide an overview of the companys cloud-based quantum control engineering software called BOULDER OPAL. This software uses custom machine learning algorithms to create error-robust logical operations in quantum computers. The team will demonstrate - using real quantum computing hardware in real time - how they reduce susceptibility to error by 100X and improve hardware stability in time by 10X, while reducing time-to-solution by 10X against existing software.
Scheduled to accommodate the global quantum computing research base, the demonstrations will take place:
April 16 from 4-4:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (ET) April 21 from 10-10:30 a.m. Singapore Time (SGT) April 23 from 10-10:30 a.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) To register, visit https://go.q-ctrl.com/l/791783/2020-03-19/dk83
Released in Beta by Q-CTRL in March, BOULDER OPAL is an advanced Python-based toolkit for developers and R&D teams using quantum control in their hardware or theoretical research. Technology agnostic and with major computational grunt delivered seamlessly via the cloud, BOULDER OPAL enables a range of essential tasks which improve the performance of quantum computing and quantum sensing hardware. This includes the efficient identification of sources of noise and error, calculating detailed error budgets in real lab environments, creating new error-robust logic operations for even the most complex quantum circuits, and integrating outputs directly into real hardware.
The result for users is greater performance from todays quantum computing hardware, without the need to become an expert in quantum control engineering.
Experimental validations and an overview of the software architecture, developed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, were recently released in an online technical manuscript titled Software Tools for Quantum Control: Improving Quantum Computer Performance through Noise and Error Suppression.
More here:
Q-CTRL to Host Live Demos of 'Quantum Control' Tools - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source
Who Will Mine Cryptocurrency in the Future – Quantum Computers or the Human Body? – Coin Idol
Apr 01, 2020 at 09:31 // News
Companies including Microsoft, IBM and Google, race to come up with cheap and effective mining solutions to improve its cost and energy efficiency. Lots of fuss has been made around quantum computing and its potential for mining. Now, the time has come for a new solution - mining with the help of human body activity.
While quantum computers are said to be able to hack bitcoin mining algorithms, using physical activity for the process is quite a new and extraordinary thing. The question is, which technology turns out to be more efficient?
Currently, with the traditional cryptocurrency mining methods, the reward for mining a bitcoin block is around 12.5 bitcoins, at $4k per BTC and this should quickly be paid off after mining a few blocks.
Consequently, the best mining method as per now is to keep trying random numbers and wait to observe which one hashes to a number that isnt more than the target difficulty. And this is one of the reasons as to why mining pools have arisen where multiple PCs are functioning in parallel to look for the proper solution to the problem and if one of the PCs gets the solution, then the pool is given an appropriate reward which is then shared among all the miners.
Quantum computers possess more capacity and might potentially be able to significantly speed up mining while eliminating the need for numerous machines. Thus, it can improve both energy efficiency and the speed of mining.
In late 2019, Google released a quantum processor called Sycamore, many times faster than the existing supercomputer. There was even a post in the medium claiming that this new processor is able to mine all remaining bitcoins like in two seconds. Sometime later the post was deleted due to an error in calculations, according to the Bitcoinist news outlet.
Despite quantum computing having the potential to increase the efficiency of mining, its cost is close to stratospheric. It would probably take time before someone is able to afford it.
Meanwhile, another global tech giant, Microsoft, offers a completely new and extraordinary solution - to mine cryptos using a persons brain waves or body temperature. As coinidol.com, a world blockchain news outlet has reported, they have filed a patent for a groundbreaking system which can mine digital currencies using the data collected from human beings when they view ads or do exercises.
The IT giant disclosed that sensors could identify and diagnose any activity connected with the particular piece(s) of work like the time taken to read advertisements, and modify it into digital information that is readable by a computing device to do computation works, the same manner as a conventional proof-of-work (PoW) system works. Some tasks would either decrease or soar computational energy in an appropriate manner, basing on the produced amount of info from the users activity.
So far, there is no signal showing when Microsoft will start developing the system and it is still uncertain whether or not this system will be developed on its own blockchain network. Quantum computing also needs time to be fully developed and deployed.
However, both solutions bear a significant potential for transforming the entire mining industry. While quantum computing is able to boost the existing mining mechanism, having eliminated high energy-consuming mining firms, Microsofts new initiative can disrupt the industry making it even look different.
Which of these two solutions turns out to be more viable? We will see over time. What do you think about these mining solutions? Let us know in the comments below!
Read the original post:
Who Will Mine Cryptocurrency in the Future - Quantum Computers or the Human Body? - Coin Idol
Universities Space Research Association to Lead a DARPA Project on Quantum Computing – Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source
The collaboration will focus on developing a superconducting quantum processor, hardware -aware software and custom algorithms that take direct advantage of the hardware advances to solve scheduling and asset allocation problems. In addition, the team will design methods for benchmarking the hardware against classical computers to determine quantum advantage.
USRA Senior Vice President Bernie Seery noted, This is a very exciting public-private partnership for the development of forefront quantum computing technology and the algorithms that will be used to address pressing, strategically significant challenges. We are delighted to receive this award and look forward to working with our partner institutions to deliver value to DARPA.
In particular, the work will target scheduling problems whose complexity goes beyond what has been done so far with the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). USRAs Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) has been working on quantum algorithms for planning and scheduling for NASA QuAIL since 2012. The innovations on quantum gates performed by Rigetti coupled perfectly with the recent research ideas at QuAIL, enabling an unprecedented hardware-theory co-design opportunity explains Dr. Venturelli, USRA Associate Director for Quantum Computing and project PI for USRA. Understanding how to use quantum computers for scheduling applications could have important implications for national security such as real time strategic asset deployment, as well as commercial applications including global supply chain management, network optimizations or vehicle routing.
The grant is a part of the DARPA Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum program (ONISQ). The goal of this program is to establish that quantum information processing using NISQ devices has a quantitative advantage for solving real-world-combinatorial optimization problems using the QAOA method.
Continue reading here:
Universities Space Research Association to Lead a DARPA Project on Quantum Computing - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source