Quantum News

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working on standardizing post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms since 2012.

Out of 82 submitted algorithms, NIST has shortlisted four, with a final decision expected in 2024 after a public consultation period.

Albrecht anticipates nation-state adversaries having quantum computers before criminal gangs, making the practical implementation of quantum computers for encryption cracking a distant possibility.

The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is investing €100 million in a project to establish the first European quantum computers at six sites within the EU. With equal funding from the EU and 17 participating countries, the initiative aims to address real-world challenges in materials development, drug discovery, weather forecasting, transportation, and more. Notable companies like Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) and Qilimanjaro are playing significant roles, showcasing advancements in quantum computing technology. The European commitment to quantum milestones positions the region as a key player in the evolving quantum era, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and international cooperation in the face of global security concerns.

Ryan Babbush and his colleagues at Google have developed an algorithm to translate a large range of classical problems so that they can be run on quantum computers. “There’s an important class of classical systems in which we can get an exponential speed-up in simulating the dynamics of those systems on a quantum computer,” says Babbush.

Babbush and his team realised that the mathematics of these classical spring systems, however complex, could always be expressed as a version of the Schrödinger equation, which describes how any quantum system changes through time.

Babbush and his team haven’t calculated how many qubits would be needed to run their algorithm, but it is likely to be beyond today’s machines. However, it could be one of the first applications that a “relatively modest” error-corrected quantum computer is used for, says Babbush.

The DARPA program ONISQ has achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing by creating the world’s first quantum circuit with logical quantum bits (qubits).

Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize various fields by exploiting quantum effects and complex mathematics to significantly speed up information processing. However, the high error rate in quantum computing has been a challenge. DARPA’s approach involves using Rydberg qubits, which have the advantage of being homogeneous, allowing for rapid scaling and easy manipulation using lasers. This enables dynamic reconfiguration and transportability of logical qubits on a quantum chip, overcoming previous error-prone methods. DARPA has connected 48 logical qubits so far, paving the way for scalable quantum computing processors with less complexity than originally anticipated.

IBM has announced Condor, its first quantum computer with over 1,000 qubits. However, rather than just focusing on increasing the the number of qubits, IBM intends to make them more error-resistant, shown in simultaneous release of Heron, with 133 qubits and a record-low error rate.

Amazon Web Services has unveiled a groundbreaking quantum chip, a custom-designed device fabricated in-house by its quantum team. The chip marks a significant milestone in error-corrected quantum computing, with a passive error correction approach able to suppress errors by 100x by using a passive error correction approach.

Quantum computing in finance will be a game-changer. However, businesses need to be aware of quantum safety as well. The IBM Quantum Network has been helping partners to develop and test quantum computing use cases.

Applications include portfolio optimization, risk management, fraud detection, and encryption.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia has recently introduced a novel academic programme: a quantum engineering undergraduate degree.

Students are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the burgeoning quantum-technology sector, which has initiated the development of devices employing quantum-property-exhibiting components such as individual atoms, electrons, photons, and others. Numerous industries are placing bets on the potential advantages that the forthcoming quantum computing revolution will bring.

Researchers in Japan have developed an ytterbium-doped optical fibre that works at room temperature for cost-effective photonic quantum applications.

The developed optical fibre with ytterbium atoms can be manufactured without the need for expensive cooling systems. This overcomes a significant hurdle and opens doors to various next-generation quantum information technologies.

In so-called “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks, experts have theorised that rogue nation-states and cybercriminals could hoover up masses of encrypted data with the express intention of waiting until the moment when it can be decoded with great ceremony by a quantum computer.

But is this a reality? Andersen Cheng, the person who coined the term ‘harvest now, decrypt later’, says the hedas of multiple Western intelligence agencies have warned that HNDL attacks are happening “right in front of our eyes”, so much that it’s evolved into an initialism.