Quantum physicists are on a mission to build quantum networks that can provide a level of security impossible to achieve with today’s internet. It appears they are closer to achieving their goal than ever before too. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) presented a report at a press conference at the University of Chicago that lays out a blueprint strategy for the development of a national quantum internet. The breakthrough ushering in a new era of communications and brings America to the forefront of the global quantum race.
According to the DOE statement:
One of the hallmarks of quantum transmissions is that they are exceedingly difficult to eavesdrop on as information passes between locations. Scientists plan to use that trait to make virtually unhackable networks. Early adopters could include industries such as banking and health services, with applications for national security and aircraft communications. Eventually, the use of quantum networking technology in mobile phones could have broad impacts on the lives of individuals around the world.
The national quantum internet will be made using laws of quantum mechanics to transmit information. The document lays out a pathway with five milestones to ensure the development of this super-fast and virtually unhackable network. It describes four priority research areas that need to be addressed to develop the technology. It is a long-term plan, but one that’s on the move nonetheless.
The five milestones include:
- Verification that the technology works over fiber networks. Physicists have already accomplished this in a test network set up by Los Alamos National Laboratories and Oak Ridge.
- Distribution of entangled photons between locations within a city.
- Setting up quantum memory networks between two cities.
- Extending that interstate between cities using quantum repeaters to amplify signals.
- Developing an operational infrastructure between universities, laboratories, and industry. This milestone has also already begun. The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have set up a “quantum loop” that’s 52-mi (84-km) big – and it has been used to entangled photons. A third node is set to join the testbed at Fermilab, which will increase the distance of the loop to 80 mi (129 km).
But how does it work? The system works through quantum entanglement and quantum superposition. The first phenomenon involves two particles becoming so inextricably linked that no matter how far apart they are, changing the properties of one will alter those of the other. The communication is instant, which is why the quantum internet would be so much faster than our current networks. The second phenomenon involves a particle existing in two different states at once, which is why the quantum internet would be so secure.
The agency’s 17 national laboratories are working with industry and university researchers on the engineering for the initiative to create a prototype within a decade. The worldwide consensus is that a communications system using quantum mechanics is one of the most critical technological frontiers of the 21st century.
On the subject of quantum entanglement, a team of New York physicists may have found a way to make information leap – virtually teleport – between particles of matter (electrons). The discovery could help connect the traditional electronic kind of computing with quantum computing.
